Rev. Dr Jones

Wearing a tail coat, breeches and shoes with buckles, Dr Jones is depicted with his top hat and umbrella in a wooded landscape with a church in the background. The church is indeed fitting as Dr Jones was a Reverend gentleman though not attached to this particular church.

Born in 1754, Thomas Snell Jones was reared by a Wesleyan Methodist upon the early death of his parents. He was encouraged to train as a Methodist preacher and was then appointed by Willielma Campbell, Viscountess Glanorchy to become the minister at her newly built chapel in Edinburgh. Glanorchy Chapel was built between 1772 and 1774; Jones was installed in 1779 and remained in charge there until his death in 1837 at the age of 82. He married three times and had several children.

Cut and laid on a lithograph background, the silhouette is signed – Augt Edouart fecit 1830. It has the artist’s circular trade label reverse and is set in the original bird’s eye maple veneer frame with a gilt slip (small losses to the veneer along the edges). The sitter’s name is inscribed reverse alongside the date July 10 1830. This tallies with the index entry in Jackson’s Ancestors in Silhouette by August Edouart as this lists Rev. Dr Jones, Glanorchy Chapel Edinburgh, July 10 1830. The silhouette has a couple of brown spots towards the top edge but is otherwise fine.

Records show that Augustin Edouart spent the whole of 1830 working in central Edinburgh from addresses on Princes Street. He held an exhibition of his work including his hairwork pictures of dogs from the 1820s alongside ‘upwards of 30,000 silhouette likenesses of the first characters in England’. He charged 5s for a full-length cutting with frames supplied at an additional cost. Many prominent Scottish figures had their profiles cut by him including Walter Scott and the exiled King Charles X of France.