All Dressed Up . . .

This unusual profile has been cut from card and then dressed in fabric with a painted face. Her dress is created from grey and mauve brocade with a fringed edge that sits over her cream fichu. Her hair is decorated with a patterned brocade and lace headdress. The silhouette has been laid on hand-made marbled paper and edged with a delicate painted border in black, orange and gold. This then has been laid on a lithograph background patterned with geometric shapes.

Although this example has no inscription, similar profiles by the same hand are recorded as originating from Germany and date from the 1740s.

The silhouette resides in a later ebonised frame and is in good original condition.