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. 


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.
$445
Thomas Carlyle
Watercolour portrait of Thomas 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
edge. 
​Size approx 9.5 x 7.2cm, frame 17.5 by 15cm
​Provenance: Janet Niven, Woollahra, purchased 27.07.1996.
$395
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
Sold

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.
$335 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
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
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