Two portrait plaques depicting Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild (1788-1855), and his wife, Adelheid, (née Hertz) (1800-1853).
Carl was the fourth of Mayer Amschel Rothschild's sons. In the early 1820s, he was dispatched to Naples to handle the family's business there and formed the fifth Rothschild banking house under the name C M von Rothschild & figli. Dividing his time between Naples and Frankfurt, he and Adelheid played host to important political and society figures.
These two exquisitely carved circular marble portrait plaques in heavy gilded frames depict likenesses of Carl and Adelheid in profile relief. The artist is unknown and the pieces undated, but from the appearance of the sitters they are believed to date from 1840. Displayed at old New Court for many years, it is likely that these pieces were in the collection of Carl and Adelheid’s daughter Charlotte (1819-1884), who married her English cousin, Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879) in 1836. They would have been a comforting reminder of her parents living across The Channel.
