16Th Century Relic Oil Portrait Painting On Oak Panel Depicting Shakespeare

A late 16th possibly early 17th Century Relic of an oil on Panel Depicting 'The Bard' and signed Verso in Ink 'Shakespear' mounted on later Edwardian Frame.

There is No Contemporary painting of Shakespeare that has been found to date , all the famous paintings are posthumous and done after his death....could this be the true face of Shakespeare?

We have had the paint scientifically dated by a professor Howell Edwards who specialises in Ramen spectrography, the most sophisticated way of dating paint. 

This painting is shown in his published book showing the results of the paintwork which we have photographed for you.

His conclusion is that the paint is indeed from the time Shakespeare was alive and dated it to c1690.

The Oak Panel is in two parts , the largest part to the left consisting of two thirds of the painting and the small part to the right , held together verso with linen supports.

We have also had the Oak Panel examined and dated using Dendrochronology - The scientific way of dating wood.

The panel is constructed using South German and or northern French Oak.

The main part of the panel came back with a date of c1598 again this confirms the panel was being painted on during the life of Shakespeare

However the small slither to the right came back with a date of c1668. 

We feel that this part of the painting is a later repair , there is clearly fire damage to the paint , this would be consistent with the possibility that the painting was caught in the globe theatre fire or the great fire of London in 1666.

Also Shakespeare's best friend whom he lived with for 13 years was a French Eugano, who's to say his friend did not commission this as a gift for his friend William using wood from his Country

We feel we have taken this journey as far as we can , this relic really should be in a museum or a prestigious collection

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Next steps? 

The Ink on the back where it is signed could be dated and the painting could be X rayed for signs of overpainting. 

It is an intriguing journey of which someone with more resources determination and experience could get this important painting finally noticed as the True face of Shakespeare.

We will provide the new owner with the Ramen Spectrography book and both sets of scientific studies we have completed. 

This item will be Hand delivered to the new owner by ourselves.

Local Collection possible

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