© Grosvenor Museum
Portrait of William Aldersey (15431616), Mayor of Chester
Unknown Artist
- Art Funded
- 2012
- Dimensions
- 72.5 x 52 cm
- Vendor
- Weiss Gallery
He was a merchant ironmonger and so successful in overseas trade that he became a founding member of the East India Company in 1600. He served as mayor of Chester in 15956 and 16134 and was particularly interested in the troops and horses which sailed from Chester to support the standing army in Ireland. Between his work and his civic duties, Aldersey studied Chesters Roman archaeology and the documentation of its medieval re-emergence. This is the earliest surviving portrait of a mayor of Chester. It will now hang in the Grosvenor Museums Stuart Dining Room as a pendant to the portrait of Thomas Cowper, mayor in 16412, joining portraits of two men William Aldersey knew his distant cousin Thomas Aldersey and George Lloyd, bishop of Chester from 160415 and significantly strengthening the museums ability to tell the story of Chester in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Provenance
Private collection, 1985; Weiss Gallery, 2011. An Art Loss Register search has been carried out.