John Eilertsen
P.O. Box 977, Bridgehampton
NY 11932
Phone: 631-537-1088
Email: bhhs@optonline.net

I came across an interesting illustrated article today from JSTOR online, about the 18th century minaturist David Boudon. The article is: “A Most Perfect Resemblance at Moderate Prices: The Miniatures of David Boudon,”  by Nancy E. Richards, The Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 9, pp 77-101, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1974.  An excerpt from the article (which can be downloaded as a PDF for a fee) reads:

“Overshadowed by such well-known miniature portraitists as Elouis, Saint-Memin, Edward Malbone, and the Peales, David Boudon’s contribution to American miniature painting deserves reappraisal. His career serves as a good barometer of artistic practice in the 1790s and 1800s. His periodic migrations from place to place in search of commissions provide insight into the difficulties encountered by many of his contemporaries. Working in a little-used technique, Boudon was able to capture an accurate likeness without using a physiognotrace or pantograph. An excellent draftsman, his portraits are uncompromising; he does not try to glamorize or idealize his sitters. Working in a highly competitive field, Boudon’s patrons were members of the gentry–a segment of society frequently overlooked by artists in search of more prestigious clients. Boudon is not a major figure in the history of American miniature painting, but by providing an accurate record of middle and upper middle-class Americans at a reasonable price, Boudon anticipated the need for true likenesses that photography would satisfy later in the nineteenth century.”

A New York collector went to visit the Nathaniel Roger’s house last weekend,  and emailed me a photo of the dignified Greek Revival dwelling.   It is in Long Island,  at the southeast corner of Montauk Highway and Ocean Road. Further information on the Nathaniel Roger’s House Preservation Project may be found at: http://www.bridgehamptonhistoricalsociety.org/rogers.html.  For those collectors not familiar with Roger’s work, he was one of the foremost 19th century American miniaturists.  Further information on him may be found on my website, where I have one miniature listed by him: http://www.archibaldminiatures.com/collection/american.php .

Contemporary artist Elizabeth Berdann, based in New York City, has a solo show entitled “Marvels, Curiosities & Conundrums” at the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu. It will include a survey of her work from the last 20 years, and also some new work, such as her current installation, “String of Pearls,” which was inspired by the Thomas Seir Cummings necklace of miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The show opened on February 11, 2010, and will run through mid-May. For further information on the artist, please see her website, www.elizabethberdann.com, and for further information on the show, please see the Contemporary Museum’s website: http://www.tcmhi.org/cal.htm .

“With the pacing of an ace detective, Giblin unveils the painstaking steps in artist and naturalist Charles Willson Peale’s 1801 discovery of mammoth bones. Through a third-person narration of Peale’s experience, Giblin establishes these fossils’ revolutionary importance to science, technology and social history, beginning with Peale’s exploratory digs, his assemblage of the first skeleton and its subsequent exhibition and controversy. Structuring the text in this way allows Giblin to deftly paint a turn-of-the-19th-century world and to demonstrate how this finding shook prevailing scientific and religious beliefs and contributed to current theories of evolution and extinction. Readers will devour the details that contrast Peale’s time to today, such as the harrowing journey from Philadelphia to upstate New York (it took a day and a half just to get from Philadelphia to New York City, before sailing up the Hudson River in the days before steam power), a trip that today takes three hours, and President Thomas Jefferson’s personal interest in and professional support of the excavation. Unfortunately, some details lack context, such as the original $200 pricetag of the bones without mention of what that sum could buy. After wrapping up this gripping mystery and its legacy, profusely illustrated with photographs of the mammoths and Peale’s own sketches, Giblin concludes with a brief biography of the Renaissance man Peale and a summary of theories on mammoths and mastodons. Fans of all things dinosaur will find much to explore here, and readers may well be infected with Peale’s pioneering spirit. Ages 8-12.”

The frame’s elaborate carvings were almost identical to a famous eighteenth-century design. Could this be eighteenth-century American? That would make it rare indeed. But in the rarefied world of American antiques, an object is not significant unless you can prove where it’s from. Huggins set out to trace the origins of her magnificent mirror.

Fueled with the delightfully obsessive spirit of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, Aesop’s Mirror follows Huggins on her quest as she goes up against the leading lights of the very male world of high-end antiques and dives into the historical archives. And oh, what she finds there! The mirror was likely passed down through generations of the illustrious Brown family of Providence, Rhode Island.” –From Amazon.com

Maryalice Huggins worked for Israel Sacks, Inc, as well as a few large auction houses, and was well-versed in the high-end world of antiques—that is, until her detective work takes her down hidden passages that lead to encounters with such luminaries as Leigh and Leslie Keno, who don’t come off too well, as well as various experts from Christies and Sothebys. Huggins has a frank and pragmatic approach to the often conflicting advice and information she is given by the so-called scholars and experts, and takes a keen-eyed “question everything” approach which results in several fresh nuggets of academic research.

The history of the American family that apparently owned the piece in the 19th century is a mesmerizing story in its own right, and readers who’ve researched the artists, sitters, and owners of their own antiques will identify with her journey into the past.

“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.”