Sweet very tiny American hollow cut silhouette of either of a young girl
that I really bought for the frame. The frame is tooled leather over
wood (at least I think it is leather). The leather was colored (probably
died but possibly painted) with tooled sawtooth borders to both inside
and outside edges. The leather is applied over wood that has been
moulded with a slight curve in the center. I’ve never seen a frame like
this and I think it is a real find. The silhouette figure is a tiny 2 ½”
on paper that measures about 4” x 3”. The small size is scarce as there
do not seem to have been a lot of American silhouettists that worked in
such a small format. Everett Howard and J. Brown come to mind, but this
silhouette cannot be attributed to either of them according to the
characteristics that we know. The silhouette has a great bust
termination with a sharp double curve. The young lady wears a small
ruffed collar which dates the silhouette to circa 1820. The facial
features are sensitively cut with a small double chin, small nose and
tiny cut eyelash. She might have benefitted from a little painted
embellishment for hair—the lack of any makes me think this may have been
the duplicate of a double cutting that the sitter’s family framed at
home. As you can see, there is wear to the leather frame (which I think
adds to the charm), some spotting throughout the silhouette paper, small
tears around the figure (at least 3 small tears radiating from the head)
at the front of the bustline and around the edges of the paper. There
are two areas of paper loss at the bottom and right edges of the paper
which I’ve camouflaged with somewhat by placing period wove paper behind
the silhouette. The silhouette sits over black fabric that has been spot
glued to the period paperboard backing. I cannot get mylar behind the
fabric. There is a nice bubble in the early glass. It hangs from a bent
copper wire hanger which is modern wire strung through an early wire
clip. Framed size 4 ¾” x 4”, not including the hanger. This is just a
fun early 19th century piece of American folk art.
(#5599) Sold