Portrait of a boy, traditionally known as John Wolffe, half-length, in a satin waistcoat and fur-lined blue coat, at a writing table

John Wolffe was probably one of the three grandsons of William Wolffe, whose wife, Frances Weston of Sutton Place, was a descendant of the agriculturalist Sir Richard Weston (1591-1652). The present lot might well be the missing portrait which Giles Hussey painted of John aged 11, which he signed and dated ‘1754’ on the reverse (see Frederic Harrison, Annals of an Old Manor House, Sutton Place, Guildford, 1893, p. 162). It is shown hanging at Sutton Place in 1914 (see 'Sutton Place - I: Surrey, a residence of Lord Northcliffe', Country Life, no. 892, 7 February 1914, p. 204).