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BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)<br />
Pic: PhilYeomans/BNPS<br />
<br />
Ian Tyers carrying out the study to date the portrait.<br />
<br />
A painting of Henry VIII that has hung in a stately home for over 300 years has soared in value overnight after it was found to be the last portrait created during the King's lifetime.<br />
<br />
Most works of art of the Tudor King were produced after his death and only a handful of contemporary portraits of him exist.<br />
<br />
Up until now the painting owned by Longleat House in Wiltshire was thought to have been a good 'later' copy of the monarch.<br />
<br />
But a painstaking tree-ring dating study of the oak panels the picture is painted on has shown the wood dates to 1529 - when the King was alive and in rude health.

BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)
Pic: PhilYeomans/BNPS

Ian Tyers carrying out the study to date the portrait.

A painting of Henry VIII that has hung in a stately home for over 300 years has soared in value overnight after it was found to be the last portrait created during the King's lifetime.

Most works of art of the Tudor King were produced after his death and only a handful of contemporary portraits of him exist.

Up until now the painting owned by Longleat House in Wiltshire was thought to have been a good 'later' copy of the monarch.

But a painstaking tree-ring dating study of the oak panels the picture is painted on has shown the wood dates to 1529 - when the King was alive and in rude health.