Blank greetings card with envelope featuring:

Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke NPG 5994

© National Portrait Gallery, London

by Nicholas Hilliard

This miniature dates from the 1590s, when Mary's literary activity was at its height. She wears a fashionable cartwheel ruff and the roses and honeysuckle in her hair and on her bodice are suggestive of summer (see detail). The beads of her necklace are burnished silver highlights which have oxidised over time and turned black. The portrait is executed in watercolour on vellum stuck onto a playing card from the suit of clubs.

Card size: 125mm x 175mm

Images are printed in their original proportions, within a white border.