A Loiner

John Miers’ career as a silhouette artist began in his home town of Leeds in 1781 when he advertised ‘profile shades in miniature’ at a cost of 2s 6d apiece as well as ‘elegant oval picture-frames’. This was secondary to his main business of preparing and selling paints but such was the success of his profile painting, that he soon auctioned off his stock of paints and utensils to become a full-time profilist.

Dating to early 1786, this silhouette painted on plaster is amongst Miers’ earliest work and shows a Leeds gentleman (known as a loiner) in a bound pigtail wig and frilled chenise. It resides behind old rippled glass in the original brass faced frame backed with the artist’s complete trade label no. 6 (‘Small Leeds). Apart from a couple of specks of plaster dust and a couple of (barely visible against the black) tiny insects trapped under the glass, the profile is in fine condition.