Portrait of an English lady

She is small, the original panel just 19 by 15 centimetres, and she has no name. Nothing on the picture says who she was. Her clothes say a good deal about when, though. The gold on her French hood, the jewelled medallion pinned to her gown and even the tiny pin fastening her black sleeve belong to the fashions of the English court around 1540, the last years of Holbein's life, and they have led scholars to place the picture in that period. Her hands are clasped in front of her. Strips were added round the edges later, which is why the panel now measures 22 by 18 centimetres, and by 1685 it was in the imperial collection in Prague.