Wigs on the Green - Portrait Miniatures, Silhouettes & Portraits

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Item Ref. 3916

JOHN LAMB

This miniature portrait is of a young Regency lady, understood to be Mrs Randall Foot, with large brown eyes and a peaches and cream complexion. She is shown wearing a beautiful short-sleeved Empire-line dress in white muslin, the square neckline trimmed with delicate lace. She has a red and a pearl brooch pinned on her corsage and small pearl earrings. Her dark hair is short and worn in close curls, a style known at the time as 'à la Titus'. To complete her outfit and to add a touch of colour she has a deep red patterned stole over her shoulders.

Watercolour on ivory set in a rose-gold frame that is enclosed on the back. Fine condition.

Framed size: 27/8 x 2¼" (73 x 58mm)

Price: £800

John Lamb was a Scottish portrait artist and framer with a studio in Edinburgh. Although he was clearly an accomplished artist with talent, he does not appear to be listed in the main reference works on portrait miniatures.

Item Ref. 3332

AFTER SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

This is an early to mid 19th century miniature portrait depicting Mrs Jane Braddyll poised with her right hand raised to her face. She is wearing a purple dress over a deeply frilled fill-in. She has a pearl bracelet and drop earrings and her powdered hair is arranged in curls with a long tress over her shoulder.

Watercolour on ivory set in a gold frame, the reverse glazed to reveal a plaited lock of hair set on opalescent glass within a blue glass border. The portrait is in excellent condition but the opalescent glass on the reverse is slightly damaged and the blue glass is cracked at the 2 o'clock position.

Framed size: 27/8 x 2½" (73 x 60mm)

Price: £625

Jane Gale married Wilson Gale-Braddyll in 1776. Wilson was a Member of Parliament and a Groom to the Bedchamber of the Prince Regent, later George IV. They lived at Conishead Priory in Lancashire. Jane died in 1819.

The prototype for this miniature is the portrait of Jane painted in 1788 by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) for which she is understood to have sat for him eleven times. The portrait is now held in the Wallace Collection in London. The following year Reynolds painted Jane again as part of a family portrait alongside her husband and young son with a spaniel on her lap.

Item Ref. 3942

ENGLISH SCHOOL, circa 1820

This miniature portrait is of a young Regency gentleman with blue-grey eyes, a cheeky smile and a string of initials to his name! He is shown wearing a dark double-breasted coat with a velvet collar over a white waistcoat, dark red vest and white knotted stock. His hair has been brushed forwards over his forehead with close curls.

Watercolour on ivory set in a gold frame, the reverse glazed to reveal a lock of hair on opalescent glass decorated with split seed pearls and gold wire alongside the initials JMMcC in seed pearls set on a small blue glass oval. Fine condition.

Framed size: 27/8 x 23/8" (73 x 60mm)

Price: £825

Item Ref. 3943

ANNE MEE, (circa 1770-1851)

A fine portrait of a lady named Mrs Halliday posing with her right hand behind her neck. She is depicted wearing a black dress with a frilled white collar, her light brown hair drawn up in a classical style with curls framing her face.

Watercolour on ivory set in the original gilt-metal frame which is enclosed on the reverse and bears two old inventory stickers. Excellent condition.

Framed size: 31/8 x 23/8" (76 x 60mm)
Provenance: East Wing of Ickworth House, Suffolk the seat of the Marquesses of Bristol and subsequently sold by the 7th Marquess to the National Trust.

Price: £1,200

The daughter of a portrait artist, Anne Mee (née Foldsone) assisted her father in his studio from an early age and was a pupil of George Romney. Following her father's early death she began to paint professionally in order to support her mother and many siblings. She went on to have six children of her own following her marriage in 1793 to the Irish barrister Joseph Mee of Armagh. She continued to paint professionally even though her husband ‘consented to let her paint ladies only who were never to be attended [at the sittings] by gentlemen’. She exhibited miniatures at the Royal Academy between 1804 and 1837. Examples of her work can be found in the V&A Museum in London.

Item Ref. 3594

FREDERICK BUCK (1771-c1839)

This is a miniature portrait of a young lady believed to Charlotte Atkins. She is wearing a white muslin dress with a pleated bodice, short puffed sleeves, and a square neckline trimmed with Valenciennes lace, the waist tied with a blue satin sash. The tip of a gold pendant earring is just visible through the ringlets which frame her heart-shaped face. She is set against a sky background.

Charlotte was born between 1800 and 1812 and was the daughter of Robert Atkins & his wife Charlotte (née Going) of Firville in Co. Cork.

Watercolour on ivory set in a gilt-metal frame within a plaited hair surround and backed with blue glass.

Framed size: 3½ x 3" (90 x 75mm)

Price: £1,350

The younger son of an Irish silversmith, Frederick Buck was a prolific and resourceful artist working mostly in his native Cork.

Item Ref. 2887

JOHN RUSSELL, RA (1745-1806)

A fine half-length portrait of a gentleman standing with his arms folded. He is wearing a blue double-breasted coat, a white waistcoat and a tied cravat. He has a powdered wig with a queue probably a pigtail. Powder from his wig has fallen on to his shoulder and the collar of his coat. Interestingly the portrait was taken just months before the introduction of the Hair Powder Tax which in effect killed off the fashion for wearing powdered wigs.

Watercolour on ivory, signed and dated on the obverse JR 1798. It is set in the original gold frame, the reverse with a plaited hair border and a gold RB monogram mounted on blue glass.

Framed size: 2¾ x 2¼" (72 x 57mm) + hanger

Price: £3,200

The son of a book- and printseller, John Russell was a pupil of the painter Francis Cotes and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1770. He was later appointed portrait painter to King George III. He was a passionate astronomer and a devout Methodist; indeed he apparently upset some of his sitters by trying to convert them. After 1790 Russell worked largely in Yorkshire where he is said to have produced his finest work. He died in 1806 of typhoid and is buried in Hull. Russell is widely known for his pastel portraits which are well represented in English galleries; he did not, however, paint many miniatures making this is a rare example.

Austrian School, family group of portrait miniatures

Item Ref. 3336

GERMAN-AUSTRIAN SCHOOL, 1807

Meet the Hoecker (Höcker) Family! This is a rare opportunity to acquire a charming family group of seven early 19th century portrait miniatures: father, mother, two sons and three daughters. They are all painted in profile to the left and set against wonderful interior or landscape backgrounds with tasselled drapes or trees and statuary. Each portrait is backed with a later paper label hand-painted with a laurel wreath encircling the sitter's initials in monogram and their age ranging from seven to thirty-nine years.

The mother wears a blue dress with a white lace fichu and pretty lace hat trimmed with blue ribbon. The three girls (aged ten to fifteen) are strikingly alike and wear similar empire-line dresses with a sprig of flowers tucked in at the waist, their hair swept up at the back and secured with a decorative comb. The eldest boy (sixteen years old) is dressed just like his father in a black tail-coat, patterned waistcoat and white stock whilst the youngest boy, just seven years old, has a green coat.

The portraits are all painted on ivory and are individually framed in (close matching) pressed brass frames. Excellent condition.

Framed sizes: from 2 x 15/8" (52 x 43mm) to 27/8 x 23/8" (73 x 60mm)

Price: £3,000

Louis-Theodore Herman portrait miniature of a lady

Item Ref. 3060

LOUIS-THÉODORE HERMAN (1803-1895)

Delicately painted half-length portrait miniature of a young lady in a short-sleeved black dress with a buttoned bodice and narrow waist-line. Her brown hair is dressed for the evening in rolled curls.

Watercolour on ivory signed and dated on the obverse 'Herman 1826' and set in a later oval gilt metal frame with a solid back. Excellent condition.

Provenance: Christie's Geneva, May 1993, lot 181

Size: 31/8 x 2½" (81 x 66mm)

Price: £950

Louis-Théodore Herman (sometimes written as Hermann) was born in Brussels in 1803 and died in the same city in 1895. He was the son and pupil of Ignance Louis Herman.

Item Ref. 3266 SCHOOL OF KNELLER, circa 1720 This is a finely-painted early 18th century portrait of a young lady wearing a blue over-dress with a white underslip. Her hair is worn long and falls over her shoulder. Oil on copper, set in the original turned wood frame. Framed size: 3¼ x 2½" (82 x 69mm) Price: £750