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Huge prices for tiny cosway portraits ; Two tiny portraits by the acclaimed Devon miniaturist Richard Cosway fetched nearly pounds60,000 between them at auction - far exceeding expectations.

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From: Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK)
Date: 20080418
Author:

Two tiny portraits by the acclaimed Devon miniaturist Richard Cosway fetched nearly pounds60,000 between them at auction - far exceeding expectations.

Tiverton-born Cosway's 3in-high, late 18th-century portrait of Susan, Marchioness of Blandford, later Duchess of Marlborough, went for pounds36,500 at Sotheby's in London, three times more than its upper estimate.

The sitter was one of 16 children of John, 7th Earl of Galloway. Horace Walpole, writing about Susan's marriage to the Marquess of Blandford in 1791, commented that it came about so instantly "that her Grace, his mother, will scarce ...

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