Poem about a Miniature Painted by Samuel Cotes
The following poem was written by Reverend Charles Symmons about a portrait miniature of his wife, Elizabeth Foley, painted by Samuel Cotes.
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Archive for September 2009 Remembering the Miniaturist Elsie Dodge PatteeI 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.
Unusual Mary Tudor Memorial Ring at AuctionA late 18th century memorial ring coming up at auction at Bonhams purportedly contains a lock of Mary Tudor’s hair. Mary Tudor was the younger sister of Henry VIII, and grandmother to Lady Jane Grey. The auction catalogue copy reads as follows: “The navette-shaped plaque with glazed locket compartment encasing a ‘wheat-sheaf’ of hair, the underside engraved ‘Mary Tudor Queen of France Died 1533′, on a tapered hoop with engraved shoulders, ring size L, fitted case with interior hand-painted inscription: ‘This ring was given by me to the Lady Katherine Manners, eld’t dau’t to John, 7th Duke of Rutland, on Xmas Day 1897. It contains a lock of the hair of her ancestress the Lady Mary Tudor, dau’t of King Henry VII, who mar’d 1stly Louis XII, King of France and 2dly Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Her descen’t by the latter marriage the Lady Frances Brandon, dau’t of Charles Brandon, 6th Duke of Suffolk became the wife of John Manners, Marquess of Granby, eld’t son of John 3rd Duke of Rutland. Mary Tudor died on 25 June 1533 and was bur’d 22nd July at the monastery of St Edmondsbury. On the dissolution of that house, her coffin was removed to the Parish Church. On 6th Sept 1784 her tomb and its leaden coffin were opened. Her hair, nearly 2 feet long, was found in perfect condition, & this lock was then cut off. The inscription inside the ring is a copy of that on the coffin. Another lock, enclos’d in a locket was exhib’d at the Tudor Exhibition, New Gallery, London, 1890. See Cat, 186′, the inscription signed ‘Frances Pierrepont Barnard, St Mary’s Abbey, Windermere.’ Provenance: Francis Pierrepont Barnard, the author of the inscription, was an archaeologist, historian and numismatist and how the ring came to be in his possession is not known. However, the current owner of the ring confirms it was passed down from his grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Montagu Douglas Scott, youngest daughter of the 7th Duke of Rutland who had inherited it from her unmarried sister, Lady Katherine Manners. Barnard cites the Tudor Exhibition of 1890, held at the New Gallery, London where another lock of Mary Tudor’s hair was displayed. This lock, number 899 in the catalogue, is listed under “relics” and the catalogue entry describes how in September 1784 Mary Tudor’s tomb, in the Church of Bury St Edmond’s, was opened and “an act of sacrilegious spoliation was committed”. The lead coffin, inscribed “Mary Quene of Ffraunc, 1533” was opened and portions of Mary’s hair, purported to be two feet in length and in perfect condition, were ghoulishly cut off by those present at the disinterment, thus entering various 18th century collections, including that of Charles Blomfield, Alderman of Bury. A lock of hair was also presented to the Dowager Duchess of Portland from whom it passed to the Marquess of Chandos and then sold with the Duke of Buckingham’s effects in 1848 to a Mr Owen of New Bond Street. See Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Royal House of Tudor, The New Gallery, London, 1890, number 899 and Samuel Tymms, An Architectural and Historical Account of the Church of St Mary, Bury St Edmund’s, London, 1854, for further information about the opening of Mary Tudor’s coffin.” Sale 16841 – Fine Jewellery, 23 Sep 2009
Dearly Departed: Women and Mourning 1680 – 1918 Exhibition
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: 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 Lighthouse in the NightA 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.
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