page_title: Esther Inglis
section_title: Prince Henry's patronage: 1607–1614
hierarchical_section_title: Esther Inglis / Prince Henry's patronage: 1607–1614
caption_attribution_description: English: The dedication to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, in Esther Inglis' Argumenta psalmorum Davidis
context_page_description: Esther Inglis was a skilled member of the artisan class, as well as a miniaturist, who possessed several skills in areas such as calligraphy, writing, and embroidering. She was born in 1571 in either London or in Dieppe and was later relocated to Scotland, where she was later raised and married. Sharing similarities with Jane Segar, Inglis always signed her work and frequently included self-portraits of herself in the act of writing. However, unlike Jane Segar, Inglis successfully established a career based on manuscript books created for royal patrons. Over the course of her life, Inglis composed around sixty miniature books that display her calligraphic skill with paintings, portraits, and embroidered covers. She mostly dedicated her books to the monarchs, Elizabeth I and James VI and I, and people in power during their reign. She died around 1624, at the age of 53.
context_section_description: Inglis mainly produced her flower illustrated manuscripts in 1606 and 1607, with only a few exceptions, and began producing far less manuscripts in number after 1607. It is uncertain why, but some propose the idea that the illustrations were simply not as popular as they once were, or that they were too labour-intensive to keep producing continually. There's also the idea that Inglis could have possibly found patronage at Prince Henry's court. Combined with her husband's stipend, this may have offered them enough financial stability to not have to produce such illustrated manuscripts, or even many manuscripts at all. From 1607 to 1614, Inglis produced only eight manuscripts that are known of, with five of them being dedicated to either Prince Henry or to Sir David Murray. Also, Inglis rarely approached other patrons during this time period, thus providing further evidence to the idea that she had found some type of patronage in Henry's household, and therefore no longer needed to produce such works, or even display her artistic skills for advertisement.
caption: The dedicatory page of Argumenta psalmorum Davidis, to Prince Henry, 1608
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