Small Portraits

Probably New England. Circa 1835-1840.

#1976

Drama, intensity, directness, confrontation. Not terms of endearment but words of description of one of the most unusual small portraitr I have ever seen. They stand facing each other, are portrayed 1/2 length, are almost monochrome in palette but filled with small details of costume.

I want to say it is a contest: who will blink first, who will step back, speak? They arre so still, so silent. Their eyes meet and hold. She holds a book in her hand, level, facing him. He tucks his hand inside his jacket, in refusal to accept it? There is not background but the small embellishment that seem to indicate age. She is 28. He is 31, each a number painted beneath the figure.

This is one of the most unusual and memorable small portraits I have ever encountered.

Sight 7 x 4 3/4 inches, in what is probably their original frame. Probably New England or New York State. Circa 1835. Watercolor, graphite and ink on paper. Has been washed and de-acidified by Paper Conservation Studio, New York City. No damage.

#2266

SOLD

This work, a portrait of a woman, is mounted in a book made especially for the purpose of holding and preserving it. The covers are 8 3/4 x 9 7/8. Ink drawing of a cobweb with a spider in the corner, a bee and Swiss script text decorate it. Inside a label identifies it as made in Innsbruck of cobweb. Behind an pale blue mat and with a cover sheet to protect it further, a beautiful woman is made of colored threads of cobweb attached to an oval of glass, 5 x 3 1/2 inches.

#2244

By an unidentified artist, shown in profile, and holding a colorful bouquet of flowers. New England circa 1830.

#1491

SOLD

drawn in graphite on paper and in their original gilded rope-twist- decorated and corner embellished frames and behind their original reverse-painted black and gold glass mats.

They are the work of Demarest (previously thought to be Abraham Demarest) and are probably from the New Jersey or Maryland area and made circa 1820-1825.

The figures are drawn in profile and are half-length in pose. Features are well-outlined and form is shown through moderate shading of facial contours.The younger sitter is in a bamboo-turned windsor chair.

Framed dimensions are 7 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches and the site height of the drawn image itself is 3 1/4 inches.

#2196

A pair of portraits, probably father and son

A column covered with leaves occupies the space to her right. This is an example of the work of Samuel Broadbent of Philadelphia and is stamped "Broadbent" in the lower left corner of the mat. Broadbent's work is considered comparable Southworth and Hawes of Boston. It can be dated circa 1854. It is comparable in quality to the finest Philadelphia academic portraiture of that period. Archivally sealed and conservation framed.

#2217

A beautiful sixth plate daguerreotype image of a seated, frontally placed girl, on a silvered plate that glows with an almost white light behind her. Her pose is peaceful, composed, her hands touching each other. The bow atop her head is red and a faint pink tints her cheeks. It's hard to describe the purity of the image. It has to do with the girl herself, the perfect tonality of the unblemished plate, and the pose given her. A quiet masterpiece.

With scalloped mat circa 1850 - 1852, New England. Archivally sealed and conservationed framed.

#2173

New England 1850 - 1852. Archivally sealed and conservation framed.

#2146

The subject of this dageurreotype, a charming and pensive child, was photographed steading herself for the long exposure of the camera by resting a hand on the seat of a chair with a leaf-carved crest, which compliments the dangling red-tinted bouquet that she holds in her other hand in a seemingly casual gesture that belies the intensity of her gaze on the photographer.
She wears beautiful lace pantaloons and high-topped shoes, features which in themselves date the making of the image, probaly between 1845 and 1850, and ribbons hold her dangling curls back from her face. The lighting of the picture is subtle but finely chosen by an artist/photographer of great skill.
In her original brass mat and pressed paper case which is mounted on brown suede and in a modern carved and gilded frame fitted with museum glass. Plate tarnished to sides and resealed. Framed dimensions are 8 x 12 3/4 inches.

#2170

A photographic image of a large painting on an easel, the subject, two woman who appear to be lovers, or their pose could be described as romantic in feeling. The image, a daguerreotype, is a very early photographic process made on a silvered copper plate. The octagonal shape on the surface of the plate is tarnish on its silvered surface. This would have occurred where an early octagonal brass mat covered the area beyond the edges of the central part of the painting- the easel and draped background- leaving only the two figures in the center of the composition visible. Multiple brass mats are stacked around it, creating a shadowbox-like effect.

The daguerreotype is approximately 2 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches, and the picture is in a period and possibly original mahogany veneered frame that is 9 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches. The octagonal mat, now removed to allow the viewer to see the entire image made by the photographer, dates circa 1847-1848.

This work is clearly a highly sophisticated urban work made within the first decade of photography in America. Subjects and artist/photographer are unidentified.

#2169

American, circa 1870, in its original pressed paper case, mounted on brown suede, and in a black-painted contemporary frame fitted with museum glass.

Framed dimensions are 6 3/8 inches by 3 5/8 inches.

#2157

SOLD

Norris Richardson is shown in 1868 in a slat back chair with his dog on a table at his shoulder. New England history.

#1913

SOLD

This small photographic image cannot be viewed without an awareness of its cultural roots. The 'nanny' leans backward, as if to remove herself as subject of the picture, as she holds the child forward toward the photographer. Yet she, more than the child, looks towards the camera, aware of the significance of fixing in time the moment they share.
In fine condition and encased in a brown floral-decorated thermaplastic case with an inner brass mat. Presumably from the American south, circa 1860.

#1912

The boy is seated on a hobby horse and horizontally mounted in pose reminiscent of Deacon Robert Peckhem's famous boy on hobby horse painting. The girl is posed within a scalloped mat standing full-length beside a vase of flowers on the ground beside her in a pose reminiscent of a Susan Water's childs' portraits. Because this pair is so reminiscent of painted portraiture of the same period it was undoubtedly produced by an artist whose first career was as a painter before turning to photography. New England or New York state circa 1850. Archivally sealed and conservation framed

#2205

A double-cased pair of sixth plate daguerrotype portraits of a young brother and sister.

This sixth plate dageurreotype, made around 1857, shows its young subject, arm upon the ubiquitous patterned cloth- draped table. He is posed full-length, holding a wooden hoop,a large straw hat on, as well as a cloak which drapes his dress, highlighted with pale blue tinting. The costume, pose, and facial expression give him an expression of uncertaintly at the process being undertaken, which adds an element of pathos to the portrait.
His scalloped-edged brass mat holds his resealed image, which is housed in a rare and wonderful horizontal thermoplpastic case, known as 'Home in the Country' (#120 in Krainik). A soft brown wash covers the silver plate.

#2196

A Portrait of Lloyd Mifflin Earle ((March 20, 1853-May 18, 1853)

American, circa 1860, in its original pressed paper case, mounted on brown suede, and in a black-painted contemporary frame fitted with museum glass.

Framed dimensions are 6 3/8 inches by 3 5/8 inches.

#2169