English: George Engelheart (1750-1829)

Portrait of George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston (1771-1839), in the uniform of the 50th Regiment of Foot, scarlet coat with blue facings, silver frogging, epaulettes and buttons engraved '50', black stock, frilled white cravat, powdered hair

on ivory

oval, 2½ in. (64 mm.) high, gilt-metal bezel with split-pearl and gold filigree surround, the glazed reverse centred with gold initial K on plaited hair ground

George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston, was the son of Sir Robert King and his wife Caroline, née Fitzgerald. He married, in 1794, Lady Helena Moore and they had five children. For a portrait of Lady Helena by George Engleheart, see the following lot. For another portrait of the present sitter by George Engleheart, in profile to the left, see lot 122.

A 'Capt King' is listed in George Engleheart's fee book for 1794, the year of the sitter's marriage (see G. C. Williamson H. L. D. Engleheart, George Engleheart 1750-1829. Miniature Painter to George III, London, 1902, p. 102). An identical portrait of George King in uniform by George Engleheart was sold Christie's, London, 7 May 1974, lot 86.