American Fabric and Paper Figure of a Gentleman, First Half of the 19th Century

Details

Description

American Fabric and Paper Figure of a Gentleman, First Half of the 19th Century

This dressed figure of a gentleman … Read more American Fabric and Paper Figure of a Gentleman, First Half of the 19th Century

This dressed figure of a gentleman is built entirely from cut and pieced fabric and paper rather than paint or print. He is shown full-length in profile: a gray silk tailcoat and matching breeches, a gray top hat tipped at an angle over a tuft of dark fuzzed material for hair, and a white bobbin-lace cravat gathered with a turquoise silk ribbon rosette, its lace echoed at the cuff. A paper hand holds a small spray of white silk flowers; his boots and feet, also paper, are painted brown with small blue accents, and his face is drawn in ink on the paper ground with light watercolor shading. He stands on a ground of brown velvet in a giltwood American frame of the period.

This is a rare survival of a small, little-documented American tradition: a fully dressed portrait figure built up from actual clothing textiles — silk, lace, and ribbon — rather than paint or embroidery thread, in the same family as silk-work and needlework portraiture. A search across pen-wipe and needlework references, sailor’s valentines, toy-theatre figures, and the folk-art archives of several American auction houses turned up no closely comparable example, so it is offered without an attributed maker. The costume itself, with its tailcoat, knee breeches, hose, and lace jabot, is consistent with a fashionable silhouette of the first half of the nineteenth century. Displayed on its own, it reads as a piece of American folk portraiture, equally at home on a gallery wall or grouped with other small framed curiosities.

Dimensions
Height: 13 inches (33 cm)
Width: 12½ inches (31.8 cm)
Depth: 1⅛ inches (2.9 cm)
Figure Height: 9 inches (22.9 cm)
Figure Width: 3 inches (7.6 cm)

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Age-appropriate wear; condition to be confirmed in hand.

(Ref: NY11224-cmrx) See less