Roger and Carmela Arturi Phillips have published a hardcover catalogue of their portrait miniature collection, THE ARTURI PHILLIPS COLLECTION: A Catalogue of Portrait Miniatures. Some of the primarily British and Continental pieces may be seen on their blog, http://portraitminiature.blogspot.com/ , and they also have a page for their portrait miniature club on Facebook.

“Featuring the work of over 130 artists dating from 1588 to 2004. 447 pages all in colour, hardcover, printed on art paper, with a double page devoted to each miniature, including full page enlargements showing brushstrokes and signatures. In this book, which we have written for collectors, we discuss our collecting criteria, our experiences in buying miniatures both from auctions and dealers, our techniques for photographing them and our storage solutions. There is also new information on later artists.”

Their book is available for sale in the US from me, and the cost is $105, which includes shipping. Contact me for further detail, at CAPMiniatures@aol.com. It may also be purchased directly from the Phillips if you’re in the UK or Europe, at portraitminiatureclub@googlemail.com , from Thomas Heneage Art Books in London at artbooks@heneage.com , or in Australia from Armadale Antique Centre, at www.armadaleantiquecentre.com.au . ISBN 978-2-9536625-0-4.

The collector in the previous post who is a direct descendant of the British artist Thomas Heaphy has shared images of a signed portrait miniature by Heaphy’s wife Mary Stevenson. Mary Stevenson’s work is extremely rare, and a signed miniature by her will help with future attributions. It’s interesting to note how similar Stevenson’s style was to her husband’s.

A fascinating history blog named Georgian London provides an intimate view of daily life 18th century London.

“History News Network” says: “From London’s 18th century rookeries, to being a dwarf in 18th century England, to Jeremy Bentham and the birth of a surveillance society, to what it was like to have gout, to bizarre birth stories from Gentleman’s Magazine, Georgian London informs, instructs, and entertains us on ordinary life in 18th century London, emphasizing especially the artisan and immigrant populations of the city. This is fascinating socal history presented in blog formk and is a terrific younger entrant into the burgeoning history blog scene.”

The blog has been voted “History Website of 2009″ by the online readers of History Today magazine, and contains links to other online history blogs, such as Victorian London.  Georgian London may be found at http://www.georgianlondon.com/ .

Don Shelton, a miniatures collector who maintains the blog “Artists and Ancestors” (www.portrait-miniature.blogspot.com), is featured in an article in today’s Sunday Observer in London.  The article, entitled “Founders of British Obstetrics Were ‘Callous Murderers,’” recounts some of the subversive information Shelton uncovered when researching the sitter Anthony Carlisle in a miniature he owns, painted by Henry Bone.  The link to the article is below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/07/british-obstetrics-founders-murders-claim

As an addendum, the article has provoked a flurry of interest:  New Zealand national radio interviewed him this morning, BBC UK and BBC Scotland are interviewing him live tonight, and a UK producer wants to talk to him about a TV documentary.

The collectors who publish the “A Private Portrait Miniature Collection” blog http://portraitminiature.blogspot.com/   have decided to form a portrait miniature club.

“It is hoped that people will exchange information and opinions through the Portrait Miniature Club that we are in the process of forming, which will be free to any interested party. Anyone wishing to receive further updates on  the formation of the club please register your interest by email to: portraitminiatureclub@googlemail.com . Please note your email address will not be given to any third party.The club is a non-profit organisation and any advice or information given by the club is free of charge and is without any liability or guarantee.

We shall be publishing the book of our collection early next year, which will include even better photographs, showing all the brushstrokes and signatures etc. as well as some new information about certain artists.”

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a specialist dealer  in portrait miniatures is placing pieces with descendants of the artists or sitters. Recently I had the pleasure of selling a signed miniature of an actress by the rare British artist Thomas Heaphy to a direct descendant of Heaphy.  Heaphy’s works come onto the market very, very infrequently. One other signed portrait miniature by him, very similar to the one I sold, can be seen on the blog http://portraitminiature.blogspot.com , which showcases an outstanding private collection. The link to the page is: http://bit.ly/5aAMp5  (#1801).

The new owner of my Heaphy miniature commented: “Unfortunately I haven’t any pictures of Thomas Heaphy himself , but this picture entitled “The Poultry Seller,” which exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society, 1810, no. 235,  bears an uncanny resemblance to at least three members of my father’s family, and I wonder if it might be Thomas himself, or his father.

I have in my possession a miniature by Thomas Heaphy’s wife Mary Stevenson. It is inscribed as “a portrait of a gentleman by Miss Stevenson /83 Charlotte Street/Rathbone Place” and underlined, Mr Brown. To my untrained eye I would suggest that Mary Stevenson was a more accomplished artist than Thomas himself. It has been suggested to me by a knowledgeable art historian that her work may have been on occasion have been put up for sale as Thomas’s work. This begs the question as to how Mary managed to accumulate the vast sum of £1250 on her death, as very few,  if any, women artists were recognised at this time.”

The Poultry Seller

An Actress, Signed by Thomas Heaphy, Circa 1800

The artist’s biography is as follows:

Thomas Heaphy (1775-1835), born in London, was articled to an engraver, and then became a pupil of John Boyne, who ran a drawing school and was a friend of artist James Holmes. Heaphy exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institute, the Society of British Artists, the Old Water Colour Society and the New Water Colour Society. He executed oil portraits, watercolor portraits, miniatures, genre subjects, and colored prints. In 1803 he became the portrait painter to the Prince of Wales. In 1812 he went to the Penisula and followed the army, painting portraits of British officers, including a portrait of the Duke of Wellington with his General Staff, which was much admired. He became the first president of the Society of British Artists in 1824.

A copy of his will dated February 2, 1835, naming him as an artist in water colours, at 8 St. John’s Wood Road, St. Marylebone, included reference to 1250 pounds from his first wife, Mary (nee Stevenson, also an artist), which was to be left to his second wife, Harriet Jane, and included letters of administration to Harriet Jane Heaphy, widow. All four of his children: Charles Heaphy, Mary Ann Heaphy, Thomas Frank Heaphy and Elizabeth Murray (nee Heaphy) went on to become artists. Mary Ann specialized in miniatures. She married a portrait painter named W. Musgrave in 1832, and exhibited after that date as Mrs. Musgrave.

A miniature of a man signed “T. Heaphy, 1815,” and a miniature of a lady signed “T.H. 1803″ on the front and in full on the reverse, are in the Victoria Albert Museum. Examples of his work are also in the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Collection, London. A monography on Heaphy by W.T. Whitley was published in 1933 by the Royal Society of British Artist’s Art Club.

The January/February 2010 issue of Antiques and Fine Art magazine contains an article called: “Informed Collecting: Portrait Miniatures of Children,” by Elle Shushan.  The link is as follows: http://bit.ly/6acjxS .

The following anecdote about portrait miniatures recently appeared on the blog “Artists and Ancestors”  (http://portmin.blogspot.com/):

“I will leave you with a story that I was told just a few days ago. A man, very old today, remembers visiting in his grandfather’s jewellery store in Manhattan during the depression. The man remembers people bringing in scraps of metal to be sold for pennies.  And he remembers being just tall enough that he was eye to eye with a large jar his grandfather kept on a table. And the jar was full of little faces.  The faces of miniatures which were discarded for the small amount of the precious metal would bring.  All those tiny bits of art, lost to the world.”

The November 2009 issue of New England Antiques Journal has an article by Judith Dunn entitled “English Portrait Miniatures, 1525-1810.”  A miniature of a boy signed by Philadelphian expatriate artist Robert Hunt from Christine Archibald Portrait Miniatures is included in the article on page 26. The flipbook version of the magazine and the article may be viewed at www.antiquesjournal.com.

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. “