Wigs on the Green - Portrait Miniatures, Silhouettes & Portraits

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Item Ref. 5005

STUDIO OF RICHARD COSWAY, circa 1780

This is a finely painted eighteenth century portrait of a lady with blue eyes and long powdered curls that lie on her shoulder. She is wearing a white décolleté dress with narrow sleeves and soft frills at the neck running into a bow at her corsage. The dress is offset by a single strand of pearl beads, all set against a blue sky backdrop.

The portrait was probably finished in the Cosway Studio and may have been a commissioned copy of a Cosway miniature.

Watercolour on ivory presented in a handsome gold frame ssurrounded with paste stones and inset with blue glass on the reverse. Fine condition (the slight image distortion is scanner reflection only).

Portrait size: 27/8 x 2¼" (74 x 58mm)

Price: £2,200

The son of a headmaster, Richard Cosway R.A. (1742-1821) was born in Devon. Having shown artistic flair, he was sent to study at Shipley's Academy at The Strand in London. He went on to enter the Royal Academy Schools in 1769 and exhibited at the RA between 1770 and 1806. Cosway was one of the most successful miniature painters of his day and he and his wife, Maria (also a miniaturist) were prominent amongst fashionable Regency society.

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Item Ref. 4148

ENGLISH SCHOOL, circa 1810

This is a finely painted portrait of a handsome young boy with light brown curls and blue eyes. He is wearing a blue coat over a cream waistcoat with brass buttons, a frilled chemise and a jauntily knotted stock.

Watercolour on ivory set in the original frame, the reverse with the monogram JL set on plaited hair within an aperture with a border of blue glass. Excellent condition.

Framed size: 27/8 x 2¼" (72 x 60mm)

Price: £1,200

Item Ref. 4185

ANGLO-INDIAN SCHOOL, circa 1796

Presented here is a profile portrait of an officer from the 2nd Bombay Native Infantry in a powdered wig worn en queue and tied with black ribbon. He is wearing a red coat with blue facings, silver braid and a silver epaulette. His buttons and the belt plate are both marked with the number 2.

The regiment was originally raised in 1768 as the 2nd Battalion, Bombay Sepoys becoming the 2nd Bombay Native Infantry in 1796. They were active during the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1789-92) and again in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798-99).

Watercolour on ivory housed in a rose metal frame. Fine condition.

Painting size: 23/8 x 17/8" (60 x 48mm)

Price: £1,100

Large portrait miniature of a named gentleman by Robertson

Item Ref. 4130

CHARLES JOHN ROBERTSON (1799- 1830)

This is an interesting half-length portrait of a gentleman named John Plomer Clarke seated on a red upholstered chair in his library. He is leafing through the Dictionary of Agriculture. Amongst the antiquarian volumes on the bookshelves behind are three volumes of Burns Justice, first published in 1755 and for many years the standard authority on the law relating to justices of the peace.

John Plomer Clarke was born on 10th August 1776 at Welton Place in Northamptonshire. He commanded the Western regiment of the Northants. local militia, was Verderer of Rockingham Forest and in 1814 was appointed High Sheriff. [A Verderer was a Chief Justice who travelled around on circuit recording and investigating offences as well as overseeing the administration of the Royal forests.] In April 1806 he married Anna-Maria Charlotte, eldest daughter of Sir John Nelthorpe of Scawby, Lincolnshire. They had no children and he died in 1826 at the age of fifty. Welton Place was demolished in 1972.

Watercolour on ivory, signed and dated on the reverse: Car. Joan. Robertson/ pinxit/ Nov. 1812. It is set in the original brass frame with gilt-metal slip. The ivory is in fine condition though, as often happens, it has shrunk slightly within the frame so that the edges of the ivory are visible on both sides.

Framed size: 7¾ x 6½" (188 x 164mm)

Price: £900

Charles John Robertson entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1797 at the age of eighteen. He went on to exhibit at the Royal Academy between 1798 and 1830, working mostly in London but during 1811-12 he spent time working in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. The National Portrait Gallery in London have a very fine miniature by him depicting a young musician.

Item Ref. 4179

ANDREW PLIMER (1763-1837)

This is a fine portrait of a gentleman with powdered hair wearing a mid-brown coat with large buttons and a deep collar over a white cravat. The style of his coat dates the portrait to around 1790.

Watercolour on ivory set in a gold frame bordered with seed pearls. The frame is also glazed on the reverse to reveal finely woven hair.

Framed size: 2¾ x 23/8" (79 x 60mm)

Price: £1,600

Andrew Plimer was the younger son of a Shropshire clockmaker, a trade to which he and his brother Nathaniel were expected to assume. But in about 1779 the two boys ran away with some gypsies. They eventually ended up in London where Andrew had a stroke of luck when he was employed as a valet to the miniature artist Richard Cosway who, recognising the young man’s artistic talent, arranged lessons for him. Plimer set up his own studio in 1785 and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1786 and 1830.

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.

Item Ref. 5006

WALTER ROBERTSON (circa 1750-1801)

This is a strong portrait of a red-haired gentleman wearing a navy blue jacket with brass buttons over a fringed white cravat.

Watercolour on ivory set in a gold frame with bright cut decoration and an inner blue glass border. The reverse is glazed to reveal the gold monogram J.B. laid on waxed hair. Fine condition.

Portrait size: 2 x 15/8" (50 x 42mm)
Literature: Miniatures Dictionary and Guide / Daphne Foskett, page 228, plate 54I

Price: £2,400

Irish artist Walter Robertson entered the Dublin Society Schools in 1765 and later established a studio in the city. He subsequently moved to London but did not attain great success in his new environment as some years later he returned home bankrupt. In 1793 he and fellow artist Gilbert Stuart sailed for the United States where, such was the demand, that he occupied himself by painting multiple copies of Stuart's portrait of George Washington. But Robertson clearly had itchy feet as within a few years he set off for India where he died in 1801.

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: £900

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. 4173

JOSEPH FRANZ FREIHERR VON GOEZ, 1807

This is a charming portrait of a young child wearing a simple wide-shouldered white dress with a pink ribbon sash and matching bows on the sleeves. The fine lace cap is also trimmed with pink bows. Surprisingly, the child is a little boy and is identified by a later inscritpion on the reverse of the ivory as the "infant son of the Duke & Duchess of Belaire" and dated 1807. The inscription also attributes the portrait to Goez.

Watercolour on ivory, set in a nine carat gold locket frame which is also glazed on the reverse to reveal the inscription.

Size: 2½ x 2" (63 x 51mm)

Price: £1,200

Austrian-born, Joseph Franz Freiherr Von Goez (1754-1815) first studied law and worked for the Austrian government until 1779 whilst studying and practising art. His contemporaries dubbed him the 'German Hogarth'.

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