This new area is intended as an informal forum for sharing information primarily on British silhouettes, portrait miniatures and provincial art. Sometimes a previously unrecorded trade label on a silhouette or other new information on a listed portrait artist comes to light and these pages will allow me to share that information with other collectors and enthusiasts. This may also stimulate discussion so comments, corrections and additional information will always be welcome.                                                                                                                                                         Email: enquiries@wigsonthegreen.co.uk

LIST OF TOPICS

James H. Gillespie, miniature & profile artist
Shoe pincushions

SHOES FOR LUCK

The fashion-conscious young lady of the early 19th century would always wish to dress in the latest fashion if invited to a ball or a dance at the Assembly Room (were her town lucky enough to have one!). If a new gown was required she would peruse the latest ‘Pocket Book’, a combination diary, memorandum and almanack, with illustrations of the latest fashions and fabrics often the main part of the contents. Most evening dresses would be made up in silk, and silks, especially patterned silks, were relatively expensive.

It may have been for this reason alone that some young ladies took home any leftover off-cuts of their chosen dress fabric. Alternatively they may have wanted to have a memento of a favourite gown or even a wedding gown. These scraps were sometimes made up into small pin cushions in the form of shoes - shoes having long been seen as a symbol of luck connected with weddings. They were labours of love in an era of elegance, when young ladies had the time and patience for needlework. Sadly not many examples have survived.

A rare pair of pin cushion shoes that originated from a Scottish castle

PROLIFIC ANGLO-AMERICAN PROFILE MINIATURE ARTIST

A recent discovery of an incomplete handbill folded into the back of a watercolour profile has prompted this piece on the work of the Anglo-American profile artist James H. Gillespie. Born in 1793, Gillespie began painting silhouettes and portraits around 1815. About ten years later he left the British Isles for a new life in Nova Scotia from where he worked his way down the east coast of America.

The handbill, printed in 1820* to advertise his arrival in the county town of Warwick, demonstrates how prolific an artist Gillespie was as he had already clocked up 17,000 likenesses. He toured the market towns from Northampton through the Midlands into Northern England and into the Scottish Borders. At each location he painted on average 500 profiles in a variety of styles. He was particularly busy in the fast-growing town of Preston where he painted nearly 1,100 likenesses but was less popular in Daventry where he only received 160 commissions.

We don't know how many weeks Gillespie stopped in each town but we can imagine it would have been around two to four weeks in which case he would have needed to complete thirty to forty portraits each day in order to keep up with the demand. This was certainly possible according to his trade label that boasted that a likeness could be captured in just one minute (though this was probably just an outline profile that would have been finished later in the chosen style).

In their article Six Choices for the Sitter, Suzanne and Michael Payne detail six distinctive styles of profile offered by Gillespie whilst working in the United States: a simple silhouette with gum arabic highlights; a silhouette without gum arabic but with more watercolour detailing such as strands of hair and eyelashes; a monochrome profile with detailed facial features set against a dark backdrop; a traditional painted silhouette with gilding; a watercolour profile in full colour, the backdrop with brown and blue hatching to the sides; a less detailed full colour profile without any background shading. Most, if not all of these, can also be found in the earlier British examples of his work but, with the discovery of this handbill, a variant on the fully coloured profile has come to light in which the profile appears unfinished and is set against a backdrop of orange-brown and sometimes blue hatching as illustrated by the following examples (the profile on the left contained the handbill). The third example differs in that the dress is fully coloured, it has a bust-line, and the backdrop, whilst in the same colours, is patterned differently. At the same time there are enough similarities to make a convincing attribution to Gillespie.

* The handbill is undated but has a partial watermark date of [18]20.
Credits: British Silhouette Artists and their Work 1760-1860 / Sue McKechnie. 1978
Six Choices for the Sitter: James H. Gillespie (1793-after 1949) / Suzanne and Michael Payne. AntiquesandFineArt.com
5 September 2010