Best Friends

This precious little picture has been created using watercolour and silk thread on a silk base. This combination of techniques was favoured by young ladies during the eighteenth century and into the first quarter of the nineteenth century though, due to the fragility of silk, few examples have survived without deterioration. Sarah Harrington, best known for her cut silhouettes, advertised painting on silk but no surviving examples of her work in this medium have been seen.

Dating to the early nineteenth century, this piece shows a child in a white dress and matching cap cuddling her pooch in an autumnal garden landscape. The child’s face, arms and leg, the dog’s nose and some of the background have been painted in watercolour whilst the costume and foliage have been embroidered.

The picture is set in the original ornate giltwood frame. Whilst the needlework is in fine condition, the frame has suffered some knocks with cracking and old losses that have been gilded over. It remains perfectly stable and is ready to hang. The picture has not been removed from the frame so it comes with a certain amount of antique dust for which there is no additional charge!