Unidentified sitters

[The portrait does not appear in any of the twelve volumes of the Silvy daybooks in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery in London, so the sitters remain unidentified. The sitting probably took place between July 1863 and June 1864, the period covered by the missing volume of the daybooks.]

An inked inscription verso in a period hand reads: ‘Painted by E. Bond / 13 Castle Street / Southsea.’

Elizabeth Sarah Bond was born in or about 1820 at Alresford in Hampshire; her father was a ‘merchant (wholesale cotton),’ and her husband was a ‘commercial traveller,’ according to the 1851 census.

She appears on the 1861 census, a widowed ‘Teacher of Music’ living with her elderly mother Emily Ann Stevenson, a ‘Fundholder,’ and her 15-year-old daughter, also called Elizabeth, at 5 Park Place, Southsea.

Ten years later, the two Elizabeths, mother and daughter, were living together at 106 Wish Street, Southsea. Both women gave ‘Artist’ as their profession.

The younger Elizabeth died, aged 36, on 11 March 1878 at Park Lodge, Southsea.

When the census was taken in 1881 the older Elizabeth, now boarding at 38 Brougham Road in Southsea, gave ‘Artist (Photo painter)’ as her profession. The head of the household, Lavinia Jenkins, was also an ‘Artist (Photo painter).’

By 1891 Lavinia was ‘Living on [her] own means’ at Compton Gifford near Plymouth in Devon. Visiting her at the time of the census was Elizabeth S. Bond, aged 71, now also ‘Living on [her] own means.’

She is possibly the Elizabeth Sarah Bond who died, aged 77, on 19 March 1897 at 172 Devonshire Road, Forest Hill, Lewisham, Kent. She left an estate valued at £2921.