Lord Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton Hope (1866-1941), later 8th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, Deepdene, Dorking;
His sale, London, Christie's, 20 July 1917, lot 90, as 'Germiniani', for £6.6s to Holzapfel.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas is lined. The paint surface is raised and unstable with minor paint losses visible, particularly to the background upper left and right. Some of these have been retouched out and the restoration has now discoloured . The rest of the painting is in a good untouched condition with the paint well preserved. The varnish is discoloured and degraded and a tonal improvement would result from its removal. Offered in a carved and gilt wood frame."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The composition relates to Gimignani's signed and dated fresco of 1678 adorning the former refectory of the monastery of San Carlo ai Catinari, in Rome (208 by 147 cm.; see U. Fischer, Giacinto Gimignani, PhD thesis, Freiburg 1973, p. 182, cat. 112). The canvas was probably painted as a ricordo for a private patron. We are grateful to Dr. Ursula Fischer Pace for endorsing the attributionꦦ on the basis of photog൲raphs.

This painting once belonged to Lord Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton Hope. After taking on the additional surname and arms of Hope by royal licence in 1887, and before inheriting the dukedom from his elder brother in 1928, he was generally known as Lord Francis Hope. This reflected the ♛significant property that had descended to him via the will of his grandmother, Anne A𒊎dele Hope. Lord Francis enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle and in 1902 he was forced to settle his debts by selling the family heirloom, the Hope Diamond (the world's largest blue diamond, today in the collection of The Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.). Following litigation in the Court of Chancery because of the trusts imposed by his grandmother's will, Lord Francis disposed of most of the Hope properties - notably Deepdene in Surrey, from which this painting once came, and Castleblayney in County Monaghan, Ireland.