You know how much I love silhouettes and dogs….so what better to offer than a silhouette by a collected gallery of artists with dogs! A modern inscription written on the back of the frame in which I acquired this silhouette identifies the gentleman as James Trevelyan Raynes and says that the profile was taken about 1846. Raynes was born in Hamburg in about 1804 as a British Subject. By at least 1840, he had moved back to Cheshire England. He married Mary Strand in 1845, with whom he had two sones, George Trevelyan and James William, and a daughter Mary E.H. Raynes listed himself in censuses as a merchant but he is most known as the owner of at least two quarries—the first in partnership with Abel Foulkes, William Lupton and Richard Kneeshaw (which later became Raynes & Lupton) and later as Raynes & Co Ltd. He died in 1886.

Raynes is depicted at about 42 years old with two of his obviously beloved dogs—whippets or some similar sight hound. He sports a short beard, which he grew longer and wore as an older man. I’ve included a photo found at llanddulasquarries.co.uk/quarries.htm, a website discussing the quarries of Llanddulas. He wears a top hat and coat that is cut at the waist and sports tails. His two pups fawn around him, one jumping up to him and the other seated behind him, ears back in a loving, submissive gesture. The bottom left corner bears Trade Label No. 8 (as named by McKechnie) which says “TAKEN AT THE HUBARD GALLERY”.

The silhouette resides in a beautifully figured, canted profile bird’s-eye maple frame with gilt liner. The framed size is 11” x 14 7/8”, with a sight size of 6 5/8” x 10 ¼”. The frame is in excellent condition but for a small brown stain at 3 o’clock and a dark smudge at about 4 o’clock. In the first photo, I’ve placed my watermark right next to the smudge to guide your eye to it. These are very minor apologies for a very nice mid-19th century silhouette with hard to find dogs!

#5743     Sold

Please see the Silhouettist Bios page for more information about Hubard Gallery.