Elizabethan and Jacobean portraiture was not appreciated in the 17th century, and has only been deemed worthy of conservation in the last two decades or so. The ongoing conservation of a group of large full-length portraits attributed to William Larkin, and painted 1610-1619, is mentioned, with more emphasis being placed on the original appearance of the works, and its modification by several lining processes, and crude, unsympathetic retouching, lacking the texture of the original. Most had flaking surfaces and damage to the background, and considerable loss of blue and green from the background. Some overpaint was difficult to remove, and corrective retouching was applied over it. In one portrait, a dominant area of drapery was repainted after technical examination had shown the extent of color loss: the arguments which led to this decision are presented, and the treatment options for such a group of portraits, intended to be hung together, are discussed.