The Paston Treasure

Commissioned by either Robert or William in the early 1660s,[1] it serves as a historically rare record of a cabinet of treasures in British collecting.

The painting was unknown for centuries, and before it was donated to the Norwich Castle Museum in 1947, its last owner warned that it was "very faded, of no artistic value, only curious from an archaeological point of view.

The people shown in the painting include a girl, possibly Margaret, daughter of Robert Paston,[5] and a young Black man, who may represent a real enslaved individual or a fictional person included to symbolise reference to William Paston’s travels.

[6] It was the subject of an exhibition in 2018 in which Norwich Castle Museum in partnership with the Yale Center for British Art in the USA.

[6][7] The Paston Treasure is the subject of a book by senior research scientist, conservator and art-historian Spike Bucklow.