August 2006 - Addtions

During August a portrait of a French officer has been added to the European Gallery. Although purchased as unsigned, on opening the case to clean the glass it was found to be signed "H Michel 1824". However, this is thought to be the name of the sitter, as the miniature has more recently been attributed to Pierre Charles Cior.

An attractive addition to the American Gallery is a portrait of a young lady painted around 1830. Unfortunately, neither the artist nor sitter are known. A further American addition is a miniature portrait case containing woven hair in both the front and rear window.
Both these two American cases are different in size and/or design to all other American cases in the collection.

To date, it has not been possible to locate a 19C manufacturer of American miniature cases, nor any literature on the subject. Many American chased work cases in the collection look to be superficially identical, but when compared in detail the size or the chasing work seem to be different in almost every case.

Accordingly, the possibility arises that each case was made and decorated individually, rather than being manufactured as machine made duplicates. Any informed comments on miniature cases would be welcomed.