Three new acquisitions, bought at Sotheby's European Sculpture and Continental Furniture sale last week will join Compton Verney's Naples and British Portraits Collection, when the gallery opens again to the public on March 31.
Bust of Charles I (17th century), after the portrait by Gianlorenzo Bernini, was previously the property of Warwick Castle, and is one of only three versions known to exist.
It is a lead sculpture, taken from a surviving plaster cast from the celebrated marble bust destroyed in the Whitehall
Palace fire of 1698. This version will join Compton Verney's collection of British portraits, which also includes depictions of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, and Edward VI.
Compton Verney's Naples collection contains paintings and objects dating from 1600-1800 by some of the most eminent artists of the time.
This collection will be joined by two enamelled gold immaculata pendants entitled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (c. 1700), and a Sicilian gilt-copper mounted coral and mother-of-pearl frame mirror (c.1680).
The Naples and British Portraits collection form part of six permanent displays at Compton Verney, which also includes the most significant display of Chinese bronzes outside London; the largest collection of British Folk Art in the country and German medieval paintings.
