The philosophy of collecting and collections is something that always interests me, and I thought that a quote from Orlando Rock, Christie’s head of Private Collections, illustrated a facet of this.

“What makes the perfect collection?  The key is not to be too old-fashioned and to have a few masterpieces which stand out, around which groups can be coherently formed. But above all, a collection needs to have charm and be full of character; it very rarely works if it is bland or unimaginative. and in an ideal world, added into this mix would be a touch of glamour:  The allure of the cult of the personality….for me, every work of art tells a story–and it is the romance of the object, where it comes from, who commissioned it and who owned it subsequently–that is at the heart of what we do. “

I recently sold a signed miniature of a baby by Elsie Dodge Pattee (Augur) to her grand-daughter, who shared some information on her grandmother. The grand-daughter has Pattee’s autobiography, a large oil that was a Beaux Arts entry, and some late paintings. She says about Pattee:

“I can’t wait to show your miniature to my older sister Alison, who might be the baby in question, but the photo doesn’t look like another miniature we have of her. Alison, b. 1936, is five years older than I am, and is probably one of the last subjects Nana painted. Her retina detached before I was born and she didn’t pick up a brush again for at least twenty years, when another cousin, himself an artist, bought her oils and canvases, saying “Here, paint big!” In the interim, she taught history of art to all the kids in the neighborhood, in Old Lyme where she lived and we summered, and in Ossining NY, where we lived and she wintered. I’ve been through Egyptian, Greek and Roman art several times and have a lifelong love of art in general and those periods in particular. Nana also started to teach me drawing – as she had learned it, starting with charcoal and properly shading an egg – and my greatest regret is that I didn’t do more with her using more vivid colors later in her career. I spent a lot of time with her in the last decade of her life – late ‘60’s, early 70’s – just as I was getting involved in the Women’s Movement. We talked a lot about her life as, essentially, a single, independent, professional woman, which is what I was and am. “Nana, were you involved with the suffragists?” “No, I was too busy working for a living.”

This is a pastel portrait of Elsie done by husband Elmer (E. E. Pattee). He, too was an artist. In fact, I think they met in art school. However, because he ‘wanted to paint the way he wanted to paint,’ and because he had a family to support, he started the Paris American Art Store. It still exists, within walking distance of the Louvre. Attached is the companion self-portrait by Elmer. i’m not sure of the date, but the both look very young, so they were probably done around 1902ish. [see images below]. “

Upon querying if Elsie Pattee was related to John Wood and Edward Dodge, the grand-daughter replied:

“If the families were related there is no genetic connection because my grandmother was adopted; family lore has it from a Chelsea MA housepainter. His wife died, Nana was an infant and he couldn’t care for her, so she was adopted by Emma Harper Dodge and her husband, Mr. Dodge (whose given name I can’t remember. I do remember that he was an alcoholic and he never worked.) Emma was an offshoot of the Harper publishing company, and the family moved to Paris when Elsie was very young because a modest income went much farther in France than in America.”

A biography of Elsie Dodge Pattee is as follows:

Elsie S. Dodge Pattee (1876- c. 1975 ) was one of the leading miniature artists of her era. Born Elsie Stuart Dodge in Chelsea, Massachusetts, she studied at the Academie Julian in Paris, where she most likely met her husband Elmer Ellsworth Pattee, a painter and sculptor, She gave birth to their son, John Robert Pattee, and then apparently the family moved to New York, where she established her career painting landscapes and marine paintings, and specializing in portrait miniatures. Pattee exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Society of Artists, the Lyme Art Association, the Mystic Art Association, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Panama Pacific Exhibition of 1915, and the Paris Salon. Along with Lucia Fairchild Fuller and Mabel R. Welch, she was one of the three regular instructors at the American School of Miniature Painters for the years 1913 to 1916, and was a member of the American Society of Miniature Painters. She died in Old Lyme, Connecticut in 1975. Her works may be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the  Smithsonian Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among others.

An exhibition entitled  Dearly Departed: Women and Mourning 1680 – 1918 will be presented August 15th – October 31st at the Tioga County Historical Society in historic Owego, New York. The exhibition outlines the history of mourning,  told through over 600 pieces of jewelry and other commemorative artifacts.

Many of the pieces on display can be found in the book Mourning Art & Jewelry and in the book Georgian Jewelery 1714-1830. A very rare ring for Napoleon, possibly one of a kind, will be on display. In addition, a Charles the first miniature and two commemorative rings will be displayed. Other highlights include the following items of the popular Princess Charlotte: a ring, medals, cups and saucers, and a teapot.

Over a dozen original lithographs depicting death bed scenes of George Washington, Andrew Jackson and the New York funeral of O’ Connell are a part of the exhibit. Currier and Ives and other lithographers contributed to making it possible for the common person to have a colored memorial for their family depicting a commemorative stone which could be personalized. Examples will be on display.

A locally made Cruciform Casket patented design 1884 will be displayed along with stereo cards of the historic Evergreen Cemetery now on the national register.

A full color 48 page catalog is available for this exhibit from Tioga County Historical Society for $18.00 plus postage $3.25. (NY state must add tax $1.44 ). To order a copy:

Send a check or money order to:
TIOGA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
110 Front Street, Owego , New York 13827

Or visit the website and order via PayPal:  http://www.tiogahistory.org/dearly%20departed.html .

The show was covered on Fox News: http://www.wicz.com/news/video.asp?video=09+10+09+wom%2Ewmv%2Eflv&zone=News

A collector recently told me that my Christine Archibald Portrait Miniatures website was a “lighthouse in the night” for him–which tickled me so much that I wanted to post it here.

The Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia has  acquired a new portrait miniature, c. 1790, attributed to Ebenezer Mack (1765-1833).  One miniature by Ebenezer Mack is held in the Smithsonian collection, one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one in the New York Historical Society, and one in the Cheekwood Museum of Art.  Portrait miniatures by Mack are extremely rare, and little is known about him. 

Curator Kristen Zohn says: “A portrait at the New York Historical Society (NYHS) is used to make attributions to Mack. The NYHS piece came into that collection with an attribution to Mack, and it corresponds to a group of miniatures painted by a very distinctive hand. None of the miniatures that have been attributed to him have been signed, and so experts rely on easily recognizable “stylistic fingerprints.” Portrait miniature expert Edward Sheppard has stated that these include: the use of an unusually heavy stipple, both in the features and the background; the “woolly” look to the hair; the lack of strong modeling in the facial features; and a rather distinctive palette including the use of a brown and slightly grey stipple in the facial highlights.”  The initial attribution to Ebenezer Mack was made by long-time collector Don Shelton, when shown an image of the piece by the curator, and that attribution was then confirmed by several other experts.

Mack’s newspaper advertisements placed him in Philadelphia in 1785 and 1788, and in New York 1791 through 1808. 1  Brief mention of him is made in John Smibert: Colonial America’s First Portrait Painter:  “Trumbull rented [Smibert's Boston] studio in 1779 and made use of whatever remained of Smibert’s library…[and]…over the course of the next sixteen years at least six more artists–Mather Brown (1780), Ebenezer Mack (1780), Joseph Dunkerly [sic] (1780), Samuel King (c 1780-1785), John Mason Furnass (1785) and John Johnston (1795) held sway in the studio.” 2  This would also place Mack in Boston in 1780.

It is interesting to note that Joseph Dunkerley and Ebenezer Mack were recorded as using Smibert’s studio in the same year, as the slight similarities in their style could lead one to conjecture that Mack may have studied informally with Dunkerley.

Additionally, another prominent miniaturist of the time, William Verstille, was active in Philadelphia and New York in the 1780s, and his work at times bears a resemblance to Mack’s work .  Mack could have well crossed paths with Verstille during this time, and studied with him. The Ebenezer Mack miniature of  Jasper Ely Cropsey, c. 1794, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art [below], looks very like miniatures by Verstille [see example below.]  It is also interesting to note that the gold frame for the Cropsey miniature by Mack looks very similar to several frames on Verstille’s miniatures. Verstille was a goldsmith as well as a miniaturist, and may well have made some frames for Mack’s miniatures, much as Paul Revere did for Dunkerley’s miniatures.

A further detail of interest is that the yellow vest embroidered with red and blue worn by the sitter in this newly acquired museum piece is virtually a twin to the embroidered yellow vest of a male sitter in a miniature by Ebenezer Mack sold by dealer Elle Shushan several years ago.  Ed Sheppard has conjectured that perhaps Mack kept this vest in his studio for male sitters to wear, and I conjectured that perhaps the two sitters were from the same family (wearing vests embroidered by the same sister or mother). It appears that in general yellow vests with embroidery were in vogue at this time, since another appears on a Verstille sitter (below), and the  Mack of Cropsey (below).

Portrait of a Gentleman, attributed to Ebenezer Mack, c. 1790.

Watercolor on ivory. 2 ¾ x 2 ¼ inches. Active in New York and Philadelphia 1785-1808.
Collection of the Columbus Museum, Georgia. Museum purchase made possible by
the Art Acquisitions and Restoration Fund.

Jasper Ely Cropsey, by Ebenezer Mack, c. 1794, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gentleman, by William Verstille, c. 1790. Note similarity of this frame to the Mack miniature of Cropsey.

1. Dates for newspaper advertisements via a previous website listing for an Ebenezer Mack portrait miniature, catalogued by Elle Shushan.

2.  John Smibert: Colonial America’s First Portrait Painter, by Richard H. Saunders, Yale University Press, p. 125.

I received the following information from the curator of Liberty Hall Historic Site in Kentucky about two stolen miniatures, and am posting it here. Please contact the curator if you feel you’ve seen these miniatures:

Our site consists of two historic homes: Liberty Hall (1796) built by John Brown, one of Kentucky’s first United States Senators, and the Orlando Brown House (1835), owned by Senator Brown’s second son.

This weekend, two of our miniature portraits from Liberty Hall were stolen. Several museum professionals referenced you for your knowledge of portrait miniatures and suggested that I contact you with information regarding our missing miniatures. It is hard to guess where our miniatures have gone, but I would like to share details about our miniatures with you in case you are contacted about these pieces or happen to see them.

Miniature portrait of John Brown in a black coat and white ruffled shirt. Painted on ivory and framed in brass. Dimensions: 1.5” x 2.5”. Date: C.1800, attributed to Robert Field.

Miniature portrait of Margaretta Brown in an empire waist dress with a dark blue sash. Painted on ivory and framed in brass. Signed: PH 1800 in lower right. Dimensions: 2” x 3”. Date: C.1800, attributed to Pierre Henri.

Sincerely,

Beth Ann Caffery
Curator of Collections
Liberty Hall Historic Site
202 Wilkinson Street
Frankfort, KY 40601
502-227-2560
curator@libertyhall.org
www.libertyhall.org

The long-awaited volume on the Metropolitan Museum’s collection of American portrait miniatures will be released next January, and is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

American Portrait Miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This volume catalogues the world’s most comprehensive collection of American portrait miniatures, ranging in date from the early 18th to the 20th century and representing 155 artists. Jewel-like and intimate, the pieces portray spouses, children, and other loved ones and were usually created for personal use. The Museum’s collection is also significant for its self-portraits by artists and for portraits of notable public figures. Each of the nearly six hundred works is illustrated and described in detail, and a biography and bibliography are provided for each artist. An introductory essay conveys the history of the collection.

About the Author
Carrie Rebora Barratt is Curator, American Paintings and Sculpture, and Manager of The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art, and Lori Zabar is Research Associate, American Paintings and Sculpture, both at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
________________________________________

Product Details
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art (January 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030014895X
• ISBN-13: 978-0300148954

For those of you who may not have had a chance to view the April 2009 The Magazine Antiques article on American portrait miniatures, written by Elle Shushan, there is now an online link: http://www.themagazineantiques.com/articles/portrait-miniatures-in-the-new-republic/ .

 Additionally, there is now a The Magazine Antiques link to view a slideshow of 17 American miniatures by artists mentioned in the article.  http://www.themagazineantiques.com/media/slides/2221

Here is a good summary of the book An Orchid Thief  by Susan Orlean (@susanorlean on Twitter)–which was later made into a film starring Meryl Streep–including a quote that captures the frenzy of collectors:

Orchidelirium is the name the Victorians gave to the flower madness that is for botanical collectors the equivalent of gold fever. Wealthy orchid fanatics of that era sent explorers (heavily armed, more to protect themselves against other orchid seekers than against hostile natives or wild animals) to unmapped territories in search of new varieties of Cattleya and Paphiopedilum. As knowledge of the family Orchidaceae grew to encompass the currently more than 60,000 species and over 100,000 hybrids, orchidelirium might have been expected to go the way of Dutch tulip mania. Yet, as journalist Susan Orlean found out, there still exists a vein of orchid madness strong enough to inspire larceny among collectors.

The Orchid Thief centers on south Florida and John Laroche, a quixotic, charismatic schemer once convicted of attempting to take endangered orchids from the Fakahatchee swamp, a state preserve. Laroche, a horticultural consultant who once ran an extensive nursery for the Seminole tribe, dreams of making a fortune for the Seminoles and himself by cloning the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii. Laroche sums up the obsession that drives him and so many others:

“I really have to watch myself, especially around plants. Even now, just being here, I still get that collector feeling. You know what I mean. I’ll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It’s like I can’t just have something–I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it.”

Even Orlean–so leery of orchid fever that she immediately gives away any plant that’s pressed upon her by the growers in Laroche’s circle–develops a desire to see a ghost orchid blooming and makes several ultimately unsuccessful treks into the Fakahatchee. Filled with Palm Beach socialites, Native Americans, English peers, smugglers, and naturalists as improbably colorful as the tropical blossoms that inspire them, this is a lyrical, funny, addictively entertaining read. –Barrie Trinkle, from Amazon.

An excerpt from an interesting article in The Antiques Roadshow online site on eye miniatures:

“The images were painted by miniaturists, portrait painters who specialized in small, detailed images. In this case they focused on only the eye, often represented with eyebrow and lashes. A wisp of hair, the suggestion of sideburn or the bridge of a nose would hint at the owner’s identity but never reveal it. A border of clouds frequently encircled the image, further accentuating the mystery surrounding it.

Such portraits appeared between the 1790s and 1820s in the courts and affluent households of England, Russia, France and even, quite rarely, America. In all, Weber estimates that fewer than a thousand were produced.

Eventually, not just lovers but beloved family members were portrayed. One bracelet, for instance, is composed of four eyes, each belonging to a member of one family and bearing the initials of each individual. Mourning pieces contained the eye of a departed loved one, sometimes set in a frame of pearls which symbolized tears.”

 The full url link is:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/tips/loverseyes.html

An example from the Antiques Roadshow article

An example of a British eye miniature c. 1840 I recently sold.

A rare American eye miniature c. 1815 I recently sold.