A Mid 19thC Naïve Scottish School Portrait Miniature on Card; Martha Howard 1848

Object Description

The rather unusual mid nineteenth century naïve Scottish portrait miniature crafted in watercolours and pen and ink on card; showing a lady in profile inscribed beneath in contemporary hand “Martha Howard – Taken Dec 1848”, the sitter shown in crisp profile, her hair arranged in side ringlets and a back knot, and wearing a vividly rendered red tartan Highland-revival dress with a coral-beaded necklace and brooch, the whole presented in its original and wonderfully eccentric frame, applied all over with mid-19th-century cigar labels, with oval aperture, the reverse of the portrait with pencil inscriptions and surviving from the very early Victorian period.

Object History

Unknown.

Object Literature

It is possible that the sitter is a certain Martha Howard who married Richard Lacey and had 7 children. She passed away on 19 Jun 1848 in Cookham, Berkshire, England.

A charming and evocative example of Scottish vernacular portraiture from the height of the Highland romantic revival, the named sitter and date giving it both immediacy and presence. Quietly extraordinary.

Object Condition

The picture has not been restored in any way with some expected surface toning and scattered marks to the card and age-related wear to the cigar-label collage with a pleasing time-worn texture. The reverse shows a Scottish postal address in Hyde and a later label for The Great Britian Art Co. numbered 29149 and style as bust as baby.

Object Details