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 .

“What antiques restorer Maryalice Huggins knew when she stumbled across the mirror at a country auction in Rhode Island was this: She was besotted. Rococo and huge (more than eight feet tall), the mirror was one of the most unusual objects she had ever seen. Huggins had to have it.

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.