Seeing Double

This double-sided locket from the 1790s offers a rare opportunity to acquire a jewellery piece by Thomason. The locket houses profiles of a husband and wife painted on a single piece of ivory. The gentleman wears a coat with large buttons and a frilled chemise, his natural hair curling over his coat collar whilst the lady has her hair arranged in a banging chignon loop secured with a spotted bandeau. The profiles are positioned within attractive swagged borders and are set in a hinged gold-plated locket frame, the original crystal to both sides with a facetted border.

Although unsigned, the artist is known to be J. Thomason who claimed in his advertisements to work in the same manner as John Miers matching his ‘strength of resemblance’ though ‘far superior in finish and stile’. And all achieved for a sitting that lasted only one minute! Thomason’s background remains obscure: his first known advertisement was placed in the Leicester Journal in 1787. Between 1790 and mid-1792 he was based in Dublin which is when the majority of his extant work dates from. He also visited Aberdeen in 1794, Newcastle in 1795, and lastly Hull in 1796.

Ivory Exemption Ref.: QGXSH6LH