19th century, oil on mahogany panel, English, presented in a period ebonized frame with gilded interior cove molding.

DOA 42.5 x 42.5 in

Private Collection, Greensboro, North Carolina

This piece is a funeral achievement or “hatchment”, painted for the funeral rites of Jane, wife of George Pemberton of Bainbridge Holme county Durham, in northern England, who died 22 Feb 1826. It would have been hung on their house, and perhaps in the church during and after the funeral. She was the daughter of Thomas Hunter of Beoley Hall Worcestershire, granddaughter of William Hornby, governor of Bombay, and great-granddaughter of John Hunter, all of them prominent in the East India Company. This hatchment was recorded in 1980 for the publication Hatchments in Britain, when it was in a small museum in Scarborough, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. A special thanks to the Heraldry Society in London for assistance in providing these details.

Separations at frame corners, rubbing to painted finish on frame; some old insect damage; rubbing and blistering to painted surface on plaque, yellowing varnish.