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#1957

A Portrait of Six Members of the Patten Family of Portland, Maine, Circa 1813.

The painting includes portraits of Stephen Patten and his wife Celia Lowell, drawn within painted images of miniature locket frames which are connected by a wedding ring, and the similarly presented intertwined portraits of their four children, Susan Hopkins, Celia Merrill, George and Edward.
The joining of the individual images in this manner adds an element of familial connectedness and affection seldom as clearly expressed in American folk portraiture.

In what appears to be its original gilded frame labeled by its maker, F. Lloyd. Sight dimensions are 8 1/2 by 6 3/4 inches and framed dimensions are 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.

The image, in its original untouched condition, is now conservation mounted.

#1853

The Unfinished Masterpiece of Richard Waterman
Moffitt Da Lee (1809-1868)

A Portrait of the artist's wife
Hannah Maria Minton Da Lee (1813-1890)

This small profile portrait, drawn in pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper, shows the sitter in a three-quarter length pose and seated, her skirt billowing out from her body. Our eyes are drawn up from it to focus on her face, highly detailed and with a pale blush of color. She has quiet beauty and a sense of peace and dignity. The area around her hands is unfinished as is the chair in which she sits. The pencil lines indicating the folds of her dress are drawn in unglazed pencil and shine like silver when tilted to catch the light.

Descended in the family and inscribed on the back in ink, "Hannah Maria Minton Da Lee Born May 29th 1813 Died December 28th 1890 Wife of R M W Da Lee".

Western New York State. Circa 1855. 3 3/8 x 2 3/4 inches sight and in modern frame 6 3/8 x 5 3/4 inches.

Reference: "The Magazine Antiques", July /August 2011, Brownstein and Shushan, pgs 154-161. Illustrated pg 159.

#1882

A portrait of Van Buren Da Lee (1837-1905), son of Richard Waterman Moffitt Da Lee and Hannah Maria Minton Da Lee, circa 1841.

This small portrait of the artist's son, inscribed "Van Buren Da Lee Aged 4 years Son of R W M Da Lee" on the back in ink, is a small jewell of children's portraiture. Drawn in pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper by his father Richard W. M. Da Lee (1809-1868), it has a sense of great intimacy and charm. It is drawn with great delicacy and intense observation. A very similar portrait of Van Buren is in the collection of the Colonial Williamsberg Foundation.

Reference: "The Magazine Antiques", July /August 2011. Brownstein and Shushan, pgs 154-161. Illustrated pg. 158.

Conservation mounted and in a modern frame. The image is 3 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches and is in a modern frame of 7 x 5 1/2 inches.

#1868

SOLD

Double portrait of Eunice E. C. Marden and Lurana G. Marden (1835-1845), daughters of Sewell (1794-1856) and Sarah Avery Marden (1794-1862).

Painted by J. H. Davis in 1837 in Deerfield, New Hampshire.

Portraits by Davis of figures in outdoor settings are rare. The parents of Eunice and Lurana were also painted by Davis in the same year, and they are shown in his more typical double figure mode, seated facing each other at a table. This rare example has all the 'bells and whistles': bouquets and basket of flowers as well as potted plants, a cat, a doll, and the birds and butterflies used in other examples of this rare type of Davis composition.

In pencil, watercolor and ink on paper and in a period frame. 8 3/4 x 6 5/8 inches sight and 12 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches framed.

Exhibited: "American Folk Art on Paper", Baltimore Museum of Art, 1984.

Related examples are in the MFA, Boston, Karolik Collection and Sotheby's catalogue of the Daphne Farago Collection, February 1991, lot 1218.

#1846

SOLD

An unusually large-scale composition of two children in water color on paper by Mrs. Moses B. Russell (nee Clarissa Peters, 1809-1854). Portrayed full length in an outdoor setting flanked with a red drape to one side and floral vine to the other, the children play with alphabet blocks. Smaller images by the artist on ivory of the mother and a younger child are framed beneath the larger work within a gilded frame with mat.

A note on the back indicates that the images were found in the Boston area. Circa 1845-1850.

Framed dimensions 15 x 17 inches, water color on paper 5 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches sight, and ivories each 1 1/4 inches in diameter.

#1927

Rufus Porter/ Rufus Porter Who Died Dec 21 1834 Ag 20.

This hand-written label in period script is pasted to the upper front surface of this small oil portrait, given as a Chistmas gift by Bertram Little to his wife Nina Little along with a painted box inscribed "P. Porter". The portrait later sold in "The Bertram K. Little and Nina Fletcher Little Collection, Part II" at Sotheby's in October 1994.

A typed jelly label affixed to the back and probably placed there by Mrs. Little reads, "Believed to be Rufus Porter, Jr son of Rufus, born in Scituate in 1758. Rufus Jr. born April 25, 1810. Married Mary Fowler of No. Yarmouth, Me. Feb. 20, 1831. Died Dec.21, 1834. Rufus Porter Painter B. 1792 Bofford, son Tyler and Abigail Johnson Porter came to Salem, early 17th c."

Rufus Porter (1792-1884) is best known for his small profile watercolor on paper portraits. This small oil painting resembles the frontal inages painted by the artist.

Oil on canvas mounted to paperboard, 8 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches. Period frame as in the Little Collection built out to hold the image, 11 x 12 inches.

#1937

An outstanding pair of small watercolor on paper portraits.

Attributed to Rufus Porter

These profile images of a young couple are from a very small group of portraits framed within these unusual grain-painted frames probably painted by the artist himself, who was well-known for his decorative painting as well as his portraiture.

The images display Porter's characteristic pale skin tones, and eye, ear, a hair details typical of his work. The woman wears a blue dress with a double-tiered white lace collar, and the husband has an orange striped waist coat beneath his blue jacket. They were probably done as marriage portraits.

Image sizes are 5 x 3 1/2 inches and framed dimensions are 7 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches.

Similarly framed examples are illustrated in "Folk Art Murals of the Rufus Porter School: New England Landscapes 1825-1845" by L.C. Lefko and J.E. Radcliffe, pg 21.

New Hampshire or Maine. Circa 1825.

#1960

SOLD

An unusual and beautiful example of an American portrait miniature on ivory, painted with the subject in a profile view. This work, which features a white-dressed young woman with a white cap seated before a red drape, is in its original gold locket frame with a beaded bevel.

Circa 1805. 2 3/4 inches high.

#1955

A pair of miniature portraits on ivory of a woman painted in the same pose by two artists. Profile portraits on ivory are unusual, and the similar pose used by two artists to paint the same sitter probably indicates that a second portrait was desired and was based on the other image.

One portrait is stylistically more academic than the other, its features more subtly modeled and the expression more individualized. In both the sitter has white lace covering her hair, and she wears a white dress in one and black in the other. The less academic image is unusual for the intensity of its blue background, which serves to set off the figure and gives it a sense of greater definition.

American or English, circa 1840. One in what appears to be its original black lacquered frame with brass fittings, the other in a period style gilded frame with inner gold matting.

#1947

Watercolor and pencil portrait of a girl in a black dress holding a rose, her basket of flowers beside her. This small
image is carefully observed and drawn, a very specific and individualized portrait drawing.
The work is signed across the bottom of the dress, "J. Marden, Exeter" (New Hampshire). Circa 1840.

#1912

A tintype portrait of a young black woman holding a white child.

This small photographic image cannot be viewed without an awareness of its cultural roots. The 'nanny' leans backward, as if to remove herself as subject of the picture, as she holds the child forward toward the photographer. Yet she, more than the child, looks towards the camera, aware of the significance of fixing in time the moment they share.

In fine condition and encased in a brown floral-decorated thermaplastic case with an inner brass mat. Presumably from the American south, circa 1860.

#1919

Articles in THE MAGAZINE ANTIQUES in August 2007 and February 2008 (by Arthur and Sybil Kern and Peter and Leslie Warwick) examined the drawings of five Ohio artists. Clearly they were related stylisically to one another: they were fully or predominently monochrome, of similar scale, and sitters were portrayed to include the head and shoulders in profile.
This drawing, from an Ohio collection, can be considered as the work of another hand from the same time frame and geographic area that shares many features but also adds elements to the genre not previously seen. Slightly larger in scale, 11 1/4 x 18 3/4 inches sight (not approximately 8 x 10 inches), drawn in graphite, charcoal and white chalk, and with a profile that is set against a background striking for its division into black and white sides, it differs in the strength of the graphic statement it makes.
Sitter and artist unknown, circa 1830-1835.

Portrait of a gentleman.

Some portraits show likeness, some achieve character portrayal. There is setting to give information or one to set a stage for something more. English portraiture covers a spectrum from vacuous to intense, the society portrait to the inner soul revealed. Our gentleman is at the end of a scale tipped toward drama and insight, mood creation and thought provocation.
This is English folk portraiture rich in detail and stylish in execution: swagged drapery, fluted column, rich costume. But it is the man who commands our attention.
Circa 1810-1820.

A stylish portrait of Emelene Keeney (born 1804), painted on ivory and set in a foliate carved locket frame. Emelene wears a two-tiered lace fischu, a large tortoise shell hair comb, a yellow ribbon at her neck and a gold chain which would have held a locket or watch tucked into her sash.

Probably New England circa 1840.

#1913

A charming ambrotype portrait of a boy and his dog. Norris Richardson is shown in 1868 in a slat back chair with his dog on a table at his shoulder. New England history.

#1860

A rare intact family group of five profile portrait drawings of the family of John Martin and Mary Footman Martin of Plainfield, New Hampshire, circa 1835, by J.M. Crowley.

Included in the group are the parents and an older child shown in half-length poses and full-length standing portraits of the youngest children, William and Irene.

Crowley is known for his graphite drawings, and examples with standing children are particularly rare and prized. The artist is known to have worked both in New Hampshire and New York State from the mid-1820's through the 1830's.

#1892

A pair of spandrel-enclosed, profile, half length, small watercolor, pencil and ink portraits of a Judge Leman Gibbs and his son Manson. Attributed to Amon Da Lee. New York State circa 1845.

Exhibited and listed in "American Folk Art from Western New York Collections", Patricia Anderson, 1986, numbers 22 and 23.

#1834

SOLD

Susan Elizabeth Wentworth by Joseph H. Davis

This small folk art masterpiece has all that we look for in Davis' work, especially his portraits of children: a charming subject, vibrant color, a patterned floor cloth, doll, basket of flowers, two cats, and wonderful costume details.

Davis was an elusive artist whose works were made over a five year period spanning from 1832 to 1837. Inscriptions on his works leave records of his sitters, and Susan Elizabeth can be traced from her’s to her birth to Joseph C. Wentworth and Tryphena Burnham Roberts on June 18, 1832 in Milton, Strafford, New Hampshire. She lived in Rochester, New Hampshire when she married Charles Henry Goodwin in 1849. The 1910 census finds her a widow, still living in New Hampshire with members of her extended family.

Watercolor, pencil and ink on paper. Excellent condition and in its original mahogany veneered frame. 5 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches sight. Descended in the family with a davis work of her parents.

#1864

An unusual double watercolor portrait, the figures portrayed almost full length, the standing husband with his hand on the shoulder of his seated wife whose hand rests on the rim of a potted tree with small flowering plants at its base.
Compositionally, this work is almost certainly from "Upstate" or West Central New York State- the frontal full length figures and the potted tree being regionally typical and a feature often seen in the work of Henry Walton and Susan Waters, also from the mid 1840's. The visible pencil drawing combined with the painted surface is also similar.
However the scale is not something I have seen before nor the manner of presentation. The portrait itself measures 16 x 18 inches, and its original green leather frame with an
inner octagonal embossed metal liner it is 18 1/2 x 24 1 /2 inches.
In a private collection since the 1970's.
Minor paper restoration on reverse.

#1848

Two Rare period volumes by Rufus Porter, the1826 and 1832 editions of ''Choice Selection of Valuable and Curious Arts and Interesting Experiments Fully Explained".
They are described as 'warranred and genuine and may be performed easily, safely, and at little expense'. Included in the text is the design of the device Porter employed to draw profile portraits.

#1788

Jacob Maentel

A beautifully conceived image of a child seated in a green-painted bamboo-turned rocker, weaving a garland of roses from a basket of flowers at her feet. The setting is a fully developed landscape with rolling hills, a tree that is used to frame her within the composition, and a stone house and barn to the left and towards which she faces.

The image is framed within a black-line border and its outer margins. The back bears a later inscription identifying the sitter as the mother of Charles Hughes and as having been painted in Harrisburg in 1810. Sight dimensions are 9 7/8 x 11 1/8 inches and framed dimensions are 13 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches.

#1807

Justus Da Lee

A beautiful pair of small watercolor and pencil on paper portraits of the Brownell sisters (Sally and Penaina?). The older of the two has the married name Burington added. The frontal body drawing with side profile of the head of one sister can be identified as the work of Justus circa 1837. The details here are finely drawn and very specific within the faces, hair, jewelry and costumes, for those who think small portraits were quickly 'dashed off' and not highly personalized.
Probably western New York State. Original black painted frames.

#1810

A group of eight small watercolor and ink drawings of fashionably dressed women made in 1860. Each is distinctive for its costume details as well as the personality each figure projects. Facial features, elaborate hair and hats, details of dress tailoring and fabrics, as well as carefully articulated pose, all add up to create beautiful and stylish images. They were, possibly, made as illustrations for a woman's magazine.
Each drawing is 3 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches, and they are mounted and framed in simple black modern frames which are each 6 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches.

#1802

An unusual and highly stylized graphite on paper drawing of a young man in striped trousers seated stradling a bamboo-turned windsor side chair, the drawing and shading of his pants mirroring the patterned surface treatment of the chair turnings.
Circa 1835, probably new England and in what appears to be its original stenciled frame. 8 x 9 inches framed, sight dimensions 6 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches.
Ex. Jean Lipman Collection, Sotheby's, November 1981, lot 131; Don Walters; Betty and Bill Turnley Collection.

#1744

SOLD

Watercolor, ink and hollowcut silhouette profile portrait of a woman in a gray dress who holds a decorated fan. This image is in its original gilded rope twist frame.
Attributed to the Puffy Sleeve Artist.
Probably from New Hampshire or MA circa 1830.

#1721

Justus Da Lee

A mystery in the DaLee family oeuvre solved. Stylistically these images are clearly the work of the father Justus and done very early in his "side portrait" painting career. In 1837 Justus introduced spandrels to his painting style. At the same time, he began a transition from combining frontal body orientation and profile head drawing in his female figures to painting them completely in profile. The painted black spandrels are not emplyed here, thus, dating the works earlier in the decade. They have an interesting contrast of highly detailed faces and hair or bonnets and a relatively simplified/stylized body treatment.
Upstate New York circa 1830-1835. Original frames on couple and period frame on older woman.

#1440

SOLD

An extremely rare watercolor, ink and pencil on paper portrait by Justus DaLee that includes an upper inscription, 'Andrew Huntington, aged 80 years' with two fish drawn beneath, as well as a lower inscription, 'Taken in Pittsford (NY) on the 10 Nov. 1841.'

#1626

Attributed to Amon Da Lee

A pair of watercolor, ink, and pencil portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Boyce, the attribution based on similarities to the signed pair of the Reverend Joe Byington and his wife Deliaby Amon, the son of Justus DaLee, who worked with his father and brother Richard painting small portraits and family records.
Western New York State circa 1840. Period frames.

#1789

A pair of miniatures on ivory in similar locket cases that present somewhat of a quandry: the work appears to be that of Mrs. Moses B. Russell who died in 1854, however the 'snood' or net that holds her hair regains popularity (it is first used in the Middle Ages) around 1860. The work of her husband is often remarkably similar. The wife's case is inscribed 'H.E.Davis'. Probably Boston area.

#1757 SOLD

Wonderful folky double-sided miniature composed of a portrait of J Hadley, framed together in its original gold case with beveled glasses with a cut hair memorial for her showing an urn-topped plinth and a willow tree. Dated 1801. New England.
Repair to hanger on locket.

#1751

Rufus Porter

Man in a striped waistcoat and blue jacket. A well-drawn and introspective portrait of a man. In typical Porter style, his hair is highly detailed, his profile strong and sensitive, and his costume well-observed and executed to best take advantage of its design potential. He is also typically shown in profile with well-defined facial tones against the untouched paper ground.
In its original rope twist gilded frame and eglomise. New England circa 1825.

#1687

A well-executed example of a male profile portrait attributed to Rufus Porter. The sitter is handsome and shown with a thoughtful expression on his young face. In its original gilded frame with rope twist decoration. Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper. New England circa 1830.

#1748

Amos Holbrook

Portraits of a young couple. These images, drawn primarily in black and white in pencil and ink, using color only sparingly and usually only for facial details, are typical of Holbrook's work. The male figure has a base color to the face, often seen, and the woman appears drawn with overly large cheek/jaw space, also a typical feature of his work. The drawn details within the wife's lace collar and her curls and the comb in her hair are simply done, but add to the appeal of the images. On cardstock.

New England circa 1825. Period frame.

#1586

Miniature on ivory of a young boy holding a toy locomotive. The figure in a blue dress is enclosed in a locket case with woven hair on its reverse side. English, circa 1840's.

#1575

An ambrotype of a portrait. The photographer's stamp says 'Bowdoin'. I believe this to be the only evidence of this now lost painting. Painting circa 1790's. Ambrotype circa 1850's.

#1491

An unusual watercolor and ink portrait on paper of a woman by an unidentified artist, shown in profile, and holding a colorful bouquet of flowers. New England circa 1830.

Both sides have inscription panels beneath the watercolor, ink, and pencil portraits. Both are sensitively drawn, and the blue-shadowed one is unusual in its intensity, and effect seldom achieved in portraiture.

#1391

Very folky portrait on ivory of a woman in its original locket case, which is on the back monogrammed M-R. The sitter is shown within a black rick-rack border to which there is a minor repair of one edge. She wears a black lace-trimmed dress with coral jewelry, an elaborate belt buckle, and combs in her red hair. NE circa 1830.

#1397

Watercolor, pencil, and ink portrait of "Ezra Parsons, May 14, 1831" by "T.R. Robie". A fine portrait drawn by a great calligrapher. Note the beauty of the details. This is a hand I have never before seen.

#1327

An example of an extremely small water color portrait that includes representations of a flag and flag jack, highly coveted by flag collectors, and referred to as “the Great Star.” This design was suggested after the War of 1812 by the naval hero Captain Samuel Reid. This sixteen star example represents the number of states in the Union in 1829 when our portrait of William Keith was painted. The work is signed, M.W. A ship and patriotic motto complete the design.

#1326

These representations of a young couple, the woman in a pink dress and with flowers in her hair, the faces painted white with pink highlights, are probably examples of the rarely found work of Amos Holbrook. Circa 1830.