The dish features the bust of a woman with her head inclined to the left.
She is wearing a yellow head scarf and a brown dress with slashed bodice and a chain necklace. The scroll behind her is inscribed ‘Antonia Bella’.
The dish is mounted in a turned black painted wood frame; the reverse inscribed in the distinctive handwriting of Brownlow, 9th Earl of Exeter (1725-1793), with ‘Naples 1763’, diameter 23.5cm, depth 10cm.
The 1763 Burghley Inventory records: ‘the bed chamber, 2’d George Room…….2 Old painted Dishes in Black Frames.’
