Oval, on vellum, in a rectangular dark-stained fruitwood veneer frame, 6.2cm.
The exact identity of the young boy with short brown hair, shown playing castanets is unknown, but it has traditionally been thought that the miniature represents a member of the Cecil family.
It appears in the 1690 Devonshire Schedule or Deed of Gift, which recorded an immense bequest from Elizabeth, Countess of Devonshire (1619-1689) to her daughter Anne, Countess of Exeter (1649-1703) and which lists: ‘a picture of a Boy playing on Castinetts by Hoskins.’
The Countess of Devonshire was a Salisbury Cecil and it may be that the miniature represents a member of the Cecil family at Hatfield.
Hoskins also painted miniatures of the countess, her son, the future 4th Earl of Devonshire and other members of her family.
