Felicity Jean

Henry Bone’s copy in miniature of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s masterful portrait of Felicity Jean Trotter does not lose any of the original’s rich magnificence. The portrait shows a radiant Felicity set before a blood red drape. She wears a black silk dress with a starched white buffon fill-in and knotted neck-tie accessorised with gold jewellery. Her upswept curls are topped with a fashionable turban headdress with trailing lace falling over her shoulder.

Painted in enamel on copper signed within on the counter-enamel ‘HBone pinx.t/Feb.y 1799’, the portrait is set in a handsome gold frame that is glazed reverse to show foiled green glass with a border of braided hair set with gold lettering ‘9 Feb. 1797’ and ‘Felicity’. This inscription appears to confirm that the Lawrence portrait was painted in early 1797 when Felicity was just 23 years of age.

Born in 1774, Felicity was the daughter of Scottish-born Royal Navy captain Samuel Swinton and his French-born wife Felicité Jeanne le Febre. Aged 19, Felicity married Archibald Mitchelson-Hepburn of Midlothian and with him had a daughter, Isabella. Following the dissolution of that marriage, she then married John Trotter of Dyrham Park in two ceremonies, firstly in Edinburgh in July 1804 and then in London in September 1804. Trotter was a partner in his uncle’s cabinet-making and upholstery business but made his true fortune as a military contractor to the Government during the Napoleonic Wars. When his warehouses were no longer needed for military supplies, being ever inventive, Trotter converted them to establish the Soho Bazaar, an indoor market primarily intended for the widows and daughters of army personnel to sell handicrafts. This proved to be yet another lucrative venture ensuring that Felicity and their family could continue to lead a charmed life of comfort.

A preliminary drawing for this portrait is recorded in R. Walker, ‘Henry Bone’s Pencil Drawings’ The Walpole Society, vol. LXI, 1999, p.347. Henry Bone also completed two enamel portraits of John Trotter after Sir William Beechey, the preliminary drawings for which are in the V & A Museum.

Henry Bone was born in Cornwall, the son of a cabinet-maker. His artistic career began in Plymouth where he painted china before moving to London where he graduated to enamelling designs for watches. Bone first exhibited miniature portraits at the Royal Academy in 1781 and was appointed Enamel Painter in Ordinary to George III in 1809. He was in his 80th year when he died at his house in Clarendon Square in December 1834.

The Lawrence oil portrait of Felicity (illustrated below for comparison) remained in the family until 1985 whereupon it was sold by Phillips Auctions. It was subsequently sold by Christie’s in New York in 2026 for a mighty US$241,300.