Lot 400
A carved oak panel
Auction: 21 July 2007 at 12:00 BST
Description
possibly mid 17th century, derived from a rood screen or bed panel, on later adapted cheval-type stand, the arcaded top rail with a central mask of a moustachioed gentleman above two transoms inscribed 'Robert Greville Catherine/ 'Vix Ea Nostra Voco 1648' flanked by subsidiary wainscot panels depicting Greville family armorials, roundels and strap work, the verso similarly carved and inscribed (some carving possibly of a later date for the purposes of adaptation), the stiff leaf carved uprights on trestle bases with scroll carved angle brackets
Dimensions
108cm wide, 165cm high
Footnote
Note; Like his father the 2nd Baron, and his eldest brother, the 4th Baron, Francis Greville 3rd Baron Brooke served as Recorder of Warwick.Unlike them however he is noted in Burkes Peerage 1999 as having been unmarried. It is thought most likely therefore that this panel was commissioned in 1648 by Francis Greville, 3rd Baron Brooke of Beauchamps Court to honour his parents.
The central carved panel carries a Greville shield with crest and supporters. The supporters are indicative of a peerage.
The left hand cartouche carries the same Greville shield with the addition of a scalloped border - generally indicative of an illegitimate line. This is the shield as used by the present day head of the familyholding the Earldom of Warwick.
It is not unknown for an English title to be held by a person descended from the original peer by an illegitimate line, a fact marked by such a scalloped border round the sheild as in this example.
The right hand cartouche carries the shield of the Russell of Woburn, and is the Crest of the 2nd Baron's wife, Catherine Russell, daughter of the 4th Earl of Bedford.
The family motto "Vix Ea Nostra Voco" was originally taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses and approximately translates as "I scarcely call these things our own - the priciple of stewardship"