Unregistered

Hello,

I was wondering the meaning of the phrase "painted according to an act of parliament in (such and such) year", as it is applied to personal portraits. Does it necessarily have to do with an important personage? I ask because my family has such an ancestral portrait, painted about the year 1745 or so (the final numeral of the year is rather hard to read, but it is definitely from the 1740s). I do not have a picture of the painting at this time that shows the writing itself, but to the best of my recollection, it says word for wor: "April Millard, painted according to an act of parliament in the year 1745". I have found precious little to go on that sounds reliable, and was wondering if anyone here could enlighten me?

On a related note, the painting itself is done on glass, which according to my grandmother is a very difficult and somewhat rare type of painting, particularly with portraitures. My question in regards to this is, how rare exacly is that type of painting, and where can one find experts in restoring such? The paiting itself has a few large bubbles where the paint is coming up from the glass, but nothing can be done currently. It's hung in a dark room, etc., but only so much can be done at the domestic level when the painting is so old, on glass, and due to that in it's original frame. Does anyone have any links that they would be able to share for restoration or reproduction of such a painting, or any care tips they would be able to share? I have again found presiouc little on this subject, and most of the links I can find to painting on glass is for embellishments on windown or mirrors, etc., and almost nothing on restoration except that it is difficult.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Regards,
Artea Sedai
artea_sedai (at) hotmail (dot) com