the elder Hoskins, and is considered the greatest English portrait miniaturist. He spent much of his time in Paris and Holland, and very little is known of his career. His work has a superb breadth and dignity, and has been well called life-size work in little. His portraits of the men of the Puritan epoch are remarkable for their truth to life and strength of handling. He painted upon card, chicken skin and vellum, and on two occasions upon thin pieces of mutton bone. The use of ivory was not introduced until long after his time. His work is frequently signed with his initials, generally in gold, and very often with the addition of the date. Other miniaturists of this period include Alexander Cooper (died 1660), who painted a series of portraits of the children of the king and queen of Bohemia; David des Granges (1611–1675); Richard Gibson (1615–1690); and Charles Beale the Elder and Mary Beale. They are followed by such artists as Gervase Spencer (died 1763), Bernard Lens III, Nathaniel Hone and Jeremiah Meyer, the latter two notable in connection with the foundation of the Royal Academy. The workers in black lead (plumbago, as it was called at that time) must not be overlooked, especially David Loggan, William Faithorne and John Faber the Elder. They drew with exquisite detail and great effect on paper or vellum. On 28 April 1733, there was a terrible destruction of portrait miniatures in a fire at White's Chocolate and Coffee House. Sir Andrew Fountaine rented two rooms at White's to temporarily hold his huge collection of portraits done by Hilliard, the Olivers, Samuel Cooper, and others. The entire house burned down; the number of paintings destroyed was so large that the ashes were carefully sifted to recover the gold from the incinerated mountings of the miniatures. Peak period, by country Denmark In Denmark, Cornelius Høyer specialized in miniature painting (often 40 mm × 30 mm or approximately 1-1.5 inches, or in many case, oval or round in shape) in the second half of the 18th century and was appointed Miniature Painter to the Danish Court in 1769. He also worked at several other European courts and won a considerable international reputation. He was succeeded by Christian Horneman as Denmark's premier proponent of the special trade of miniature portraits. Among his most known works are a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven from 1802