A Pearl Clip

Writing in the Manchester Mercury in April 1796, the miniaturist David Gibson flattered himself that ‘his abilities … as an Artist sufficiently justifies a claim … that his merit is of that kind that seldom requires the medium of a public newspaper to usher it into notice’.

And indeed he has in this miniature created an expressive and neatly painted portrait of a young lady named Patricia Beecham, possibly on the threshold of marriage. Wearing a white empire-line dress, she has added a gold clasp at her waist and gold earrings and has secured her hair with a pearl clip. The portrait is signed bottom left – Gibson / 1801 – and is set in a gilt metal frame that is enclosed on the reverse.

David Gibson was most likely of Scottish descent. He worked in Edinburgh, London and Manchester from the 1790s onwards.