Miniature Portraits + Silhouettes

Over the centuries families have always treasured representations of their loved ones, and people have been intrigued and collected portraits of the famous and infamous. Before cameras allowed the mechanical and digital representation of people it was the artist job to provide these likenesses. The artists could portray peoples faces using silhouette profiles, which represented an outline of the person, watercolours or oils, to provide a more representational effect, or even the three dimensionality provided by the use of wax, terracotta, porcelain or base metals. 


Hobart, Henry Bonem
Henry Bone, ARA (1755-1834)
Portrait miniature of Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire (1760-1816) 
Signed, inscribed and dated verso 'The Rt. Honble. The Earl of Buckinghamshire. Painted by Henry Bone ARA. Enamel Painter to HRH the Prince of Wales. Jany 1806' 
Enamel on copper in original frame.
Image: 7.5cm, Frame: 13 x 11cm 
$8,800 incl GST
* An exceedingly rare portrait with direct Australian relationship by one of the foremost enamel artist of the time.


​Provenance: 
Probably the portrait in enamel exhibited by Bone at the Royal Academy in 1808,
catalogue number 357.
Ellison Fine Art, from whom acquired in 2018 by the late Barry Lock (1934-2021)

The sitter was the eldest son of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire and Albinia, daughter of Lord Vere Bertie, younger son of Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. From 1784, he served as aide-de-camp to successive Lord Lieutenants of Ireland and held the position of chief secretary from 1789 to 1793. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1793 and served as the Governor of Madras between 1793-98. He sat in both Irish and English Houses of Commons, but in 1798, he was summoned to the House of Lords in his father's barony of Hobart. From 1801 to 1804, Hobart served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. He inherited his father's earldom in 1804, but as he died without issue aged 55 in 1816, he was then succeeded in his earldom by his nephew, George. Australia’s second-oldest city, the present-day capital of Tasmania, was named after him in 1804.
miniature portrait
A portrait miniature on ivory of Brigadier Colonel Wilbraham Tollmache Edwards of H.M. 17th Regiment, English, c. 1825
Size approx 9 x 7.5cm.
Provenance: Janet Niven Antiques, Woollahra,
purchased 01.07.1997.
$480 incl GST
Thomas Carlyle
Watercolour portrait of Thoams Carlyle
Framed size 26 x 23 cm
$685 incl GST
Portrait miniature
Portrait miniature by Thomas Marshall of William Burton, Esq., 1833.
Signed and dated to back paper 
In original black rectangular frame with rectangular gilt
edged miniature. 
​Size approx 9.5 x 7.2cm, frame 17.5 by 15cm
​Provenance: Janet Niven, Woollahra, purchased 27.07.1996.
$445 incl GST
Australian portrait
James Warren Childe (1778 - 1862)
​A pair of high quality portrait miniatures with Australian significance of Mr William Knox Child & Mrs Child in original frames
Signed and with additional notations verso.
Images: 7x 5.5cm Frames: 15.5 x 12.5cm

William Child (1793 - 1874) formed a partnership with Francis Kemble in 1839 and commenced construction of a sugar refinery in Sydney and formed the Australasia Sugar Company in 1841. He sold his interest in 1843 and turned to farming at the Mount Vincent Estate near Kurri Kurri in New South Wales.

Provenance: Janet Niven Antiques, Woollahra, purchased 11.12.2001
$1,850 the pair incl GST

Moghul Persian miniature pakistan
A pair of Moghul 19th Century miniatures depicting Mirza Moghul (1817-1855) and Prince Jewan Basket.
These finely painted artworks were exhibited at the Pakistani Embassy, Canberra in 1969 and are Illustrated in A Perspective in History and Art from Ancient Times. 1969, p.50.
$750 the pair
Picture
A Nineteenth Century silhouette of a man with gilt highlights and in original frame.
$235 incl GST
James Tassie
James Tassie, 1735 - 1799
Alexander Waugh, AM, 1794
Wax, inscribed to base and in original frame.
​Frame 13 x 9.5 cm
*Cat No. 401 in John Miller Gary: James and William Tassie: A Biographical and Critical Sketch, with a Catalogue of Their Portraits, 1894        
SOLD

Silhouette
Frederick Frith
(British, active circa 1825-circa 1854)
​A cut silhouette of two boys, circa 1840.
Signed Frith lower left
In original frame and inscribed with sitters details to the reverse.
34.5 x 27 cm framed.
SOLD

Portrait miniature
French portrait miniature of a gentleman, circa 1800.
Set in original wooden frame with brass surround.
Size approx 5 x 4.2cm. Frame 10.5cm by 9.5cm
Provenance: Janet Niven, Woollahra, purchased 1.09.2005
$225

Portrait miniature
Nineteenth Century English portrait miniature on ivory of a lady, in a hinged case.
Prov.: Purchased Janet Niven Antiques
​$185
Picture
20 – A silhouette of a Scottish gentleman
Silhouette in a fine elm or huon wooden frame with sitters name inscribed on the reverse.
Frame 21 x 18 cm                         
​21 -John Downman
​(English 1750 - 1824)
Dr and Mrs Beatty
Watercolours
Signed lower right 
38 x 31cm  
Price: $650 (the Pair) ​Incl. GST
Picture
23 - Frederick Frith (British 1819 - 1871)
George Adams Esq, 1841
Signed to reverse "Frith Fecit 1841", and inscribed with name.
A silhouette with fine gilt highlights
Some discolouring to silk mount
Frame size 14 x 11 cm
SOLD
Portrait miniature
Portrait miniature of a lady in blue low cut dress and piled hair. A lock of coiled hair to reverse. In a gilt metal circular surround in a modern frame.
​Size approx 6.5cm diameter
Provenance: Janet Niven Antiques, Woollahra,
purchased 28.10.1993.
$230 incl GST