Wo is he?

[X111]

In my club we have a carving pictured here

http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=op20cw

but nobody knows who he is !! Does anyone have an idea, please?

[robertson]

Looks like old Bill The Quill - Mr.Shakespeare himself

[wellsy73]

in all pics of Shakespeare i've seen he has a pointier, sharper nose. Richard the Lionheart perhaps?

[Peter Pedant]

I think the style is mid seventeenth cent

your founder?

[sddsddean]

I would have siad the ruff round his collar makes him look Elizabethan (late 16th century). What sort of club is it?

[X111]

Thank you all for your kind replies. I don't think it is Shakespeare, we tried that but his portraits are quite different when close comparison is made and particularly Shakespeare seems to have had a shaved forehead. All of the portraits of Richard the Lionheart show him bearded and not really similar. Our founder was a Colonel in the days of cavalry. We are a club of the survivors of an ancient and illustrious Yeomanry regiment killed off by merger years ago (all ex armoured - "old tankmen"). The carving may have been with the regiment for a couple of hundred years or more but may be older than that as our regiment sprang from an earlier unit - it came with the regimental silver when that was handed to us for safe keeping. It is known to us as "Sir Francis Drake" as it was identified as such by a very persistent and screechy one woman Antiques Roadshow some years ago, but of course it is not. All further suggestions will be most welcome.

[X111]

PS. His collar is lace, do you think? They used to wear a laced collar which incorporated wire and was called a "rebato". If it is a rebato does that give a clue?

[dot.hawkes]

Is it not that actor fron the 19th century that played alot of shakespeare roles, SIR somebody,

[dot.hawkes]

Henry Irving rings a bell

[X111]

Interesting, thank you. Here is a picture of Sir Henry Irving, What do you think ?

[dot.hawkes]

If the club you refer to was once a theatre it would make sense, depicting him in Elizabethan garb would too, I think it would have been familiar to alot of people to see him depicted so. It is perhaps the Hamlet costume

[dot.hawkes]

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp02373&role=sit&rNo=60

[X111]

Thank you. I will press on with this as opportunity permits and let you know how it transpires.