] ] I've got a huge book on Reynolds, and I was reading his biography yesterday, so I know when he died. In fact, he was completely blind by 1791, so if Austen actually had Reynolds in mind as the painter, P&P would have to be set in 1790 at the latest.

] We have a larger margin, since all the portraits seem to have been done 5 years before the main action of P&P takes place.

] There are two portraits of Darcy. One the miniature of which Mrs. Reynolds says:

] "And that... is my master—and very like him. It was drawn at the same time as the other [Wickham's] — about eight years ago ."

] And the large one in the gallery:
] " 'in the gallery up stairs you will see a finer, larger picture of him '... Mrs. Reynolds informed them that it had been taken in his father's life time .

] And from Darcy himself, we know that:

] "My excellent father died about five years ago ".

] Georgiana's portrait is not recent (a mistake from P&P2) since it's a portrait when she was a child:

] "Mrs. Reynolds then directed their attention to one of Miss Darcy, drawn when she was only eight years old ."

] Since she is sixteen:

] " Miss Darcy was tall, and on a larger scale than Elizabeth; and, though little more than sixteen "

] Then her portrait, as Darcy's and Wickham's miniatures, was taken 8 years ago.