THE DISCREPANCY // 047
The reported image gives Henry VIII a turkey leg. No authenticated version of that remembered portrait is supplied in this file. The National Portrait Gallery holds several identifiable portraits, offering actual paintings to compare rather than one generic picture of the king.
⌁
A faded note reads VIII / SIX. The numeral is counting a different kind of history.
NAME THE PAINTING
Record the clothes, pose, background and which hand held the remembered object. Was it a textbook picture, a painting, a caricature or a performer dressed as the king? Those can all be real images while belonging to different sources. The full composition matters as much as the disputed item.
THE OBJECT OUTSIDE THE FRAME
The portrait catalogue gives a place to begin checking named works. It does not establish that every image ever made of Henry lacks the object. The intriguing lead would identify the remembered painting itself, with its provenance. Which other details could help someone recognize the same image without first hearing the turkey-leg claim?
Keep your first version
Record the detail before opening a reference. Keep the exact object, release or edition with your comparison. A first recollection and a later discovery can be followed as separate traces.
FOLLOW THE SOURCES
Reference material for this particular object, wording or version.
Independent report or context; compare its role with the source reference above.