BRITISH SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY
Portrait of a Man, perhaps William Lord Compton (1568-1630), first Earl of Northampton
c.1600RCIN 420895
With his armour and ruff the sitter wears a fashionable single lovelock in his right ear, suspended from a jewel-encrusted earring. Such items were often symbolic love tokens, created from the hair of a loved one.