Eye Miniatures

“When full dressed she wore around her neck the barrenest of lockets, representing a fishy old eye, with no approach to speculation in it” – Charles Dickens, 1848

Eye miniatures are perhaps the most intriguing yet misunderstood form of portraiture. It has taken me two years to sort through the confused and contradictory literature on eye miniatures, so you will excuse me for not providing too many details while my article goes through the peer review process. I will update this post with many more details upon the publication of my research. Suffice it to say, most of what you’ve read on eye miniatures is bunk. For example, I have documented that Richard Cosway DID NOT paint the first eye miniature, but more on that later.

Eye miniature painted in watercolor on ivory wreathed with garnet and turquoise pansies, pearls, and hair on the reverse. The social role of this eye miniature in sentimental reverie may be seen in the contemplative symbolism of the stones and flowers. From the French word pensée, the pansy is a pun meaning “think of me.” The turquoise, owing to its color, was symbolic of the flower, “forget-me-not,” and the pearls symbolized tears. This miniature was featured in Warman's Jewelry: Third Edition by Christie Romero.

Reverse of the above eye miniature showing the hairwork.

Eye miniature painted in watercolor on ivory and surrounded by pearls and garnets.

There are in fact some links between eye miniatures and the eye of God as a popular devotional symbol. The allegory of love in the pendent below features a hairwork altar with two hearts aflame pierced by Cupid’s arrow beneath the eye of Providence on ivory and surrounded by beautiful cannetille work.


WARNING: Because eye miniatures are so expensive, the market has been recently flooded with fakes. Eyes painted on paper are the easiest to fake, so my general rule is to keep with eyes painted on ivory. However, this is no guarantee of authenticity. Sadly, portrait miniatures are sometimes cut into for the eyes, which, in turn, are reframed in period jewelry. These should be reasonably obvious to experienced collectors. My advice is 1) do not buy any eye miniatures about which you have any doubts or 2) only buy from dealers you trust.

Eye Miniatures

“When full dressed she wore around her neck the barrenest of lockets, representing a fishy old eye, with no approach to speculation in it” – Charles Dickens, 1848

Eye miniatures are perhaps the most intriguing yet misunderstood form of portraiture. It has taken me two years to sort through the confused and contradictory literature on eye miniatures, so you will excuse me for not providing too many details while my article goes through the peer review process. I will update this post with many more details upon the publication of my research. Suffice it to say, most of what you’ve read on eye miniatures is bunk. For example, I have documented that Richard Cosway DID NOT paint the first eye miniature, but more on that later.

Eye miniature painted in watercolor on ivory wreathed with garnet and turquoise pansies, pearls, and hair on the reverse. The social role of this eye miniature in sentimental reverie may be seen in the contemplative symbolism of the stones and flowers. From the French word pensée, the pansy is a pun meaning “think of me.” The turquoise, owing to its color, was symbolic of the flower, “forget-me-not,” and the pearls symbolized tears. This miniature was featured in Warman's Jewelry: Third Edition by Christie Romero.

Reverse of the above eye miniature showing the hairwork.

Eye miniature painted in watercolor on ivory and surrounded by pearls and garnets.

There are in fact some links between eye miniatures and the eye of God as a popular devotional symbol. The allegory of love in the pendent below features a hairwork altar with two hearts aflame pierced by Cupid’s arrow beneath the eye of Providence on ivory and surrounded by beautiful cannetille work.


WARNING: Because eye miniatures are so expensive, the market has been recently flooded with fakes. Eyes painted on paper are the easiest to fake, so my general rule is to keep with eyes painted on ivory. However, this is no guarantee of authenticity. Sadly, portrait miniatures are sometimes cut into for the eyes, which, in turn, are reframed in period jewelry. These should be reasonably obvious to experienced collectors. My advice is 1) do not buy any eye miniatures about which you have any doubts or 2) only buy from dealers you trust.

Silhouettes

“Shades are the truest representation that can be given of man” – Johann Lavater, 1804

Shades, the old name given to silhouettes, became popular after about 1760 and were an outgrowth of the neoclassical revival. Silhouette artists were extremely influenced by both Johann Lavater and classical Greek art. Lavater, the father of the pseudo-science of physiognomy, believed that one’s internal qualities, emotions, intellect, capacity for achievement, and so forth, could be read from a profile of the face especially as a shade. Essentially physiognomy was the “science” of judging a book by its cover, but it was very popular with the producers and consumers of silhouettes. Ancient Greek black figure vases and red figure vases provided additional sources of inspiration and study for artists. For example, both Charles Rosenberg and Jacob Spornberg produced silhouettes in imitation of these silhouette-like vases. Silhouettes were produced on a variety of media including paper, plaster, and ivory.

Silhouette from Lavater’s treatise on physiognomy illustrating, “A man of business, with more than common abilities. Undoubtedly possessed of talents, punctual honesty, love of order, and deliberation. An acute inspector of men; a calm, dry, determined judge.”

Silhouette painted on plaster and signed “Miers” under the truncation with braided hair surround and hairwork reverse. Unfortunately, cracked vertically. John Miers was the master of delineating the finely detailed diaphanous features of clothing.

Silhouettes

“Shades are the truest representation that can be given of man” – Johann Lavater, 1804

Shades, the old name given to silhouettes, became popular after about 1760 and were an outgrowth of the neoclassical revival. Silhouette artists were extremely influenced by both Johann Lavater and classical Greek art. Lavater, the father of the pseudo-science of physiognomy, believed that one’s internal qualities, emotions, intellect, capacity for achievement, and so forth, could be read from a profile of the face especially as a shade. Essentially physiognomy was the “science” of judging a book by its cover, but it was very popular with the producers and consumers of silhouettes. Ancient Greek black figure vases and red figure vases provided additional sources of inspiration and study for artists. For example, both Charles Rosenberg and Jacob Spornberg produced silhouettes in imitation of these silhouette-like vases. Silhouettes were produced on a variety of media including paper, plaster, and ivory.

Silhouette from Lavater’s treatise on physiognomy illustrating, “A man of business, with more than common abilities. Undoubtedly possessed of talents, punctual honesty, love of order, and deliberation. An acute inspector of men; a calm, dry, determined judge.”

Silhouette painted on plaster and signed “Miers” under the truncation with braided hair surround and hairwork reverse. Unfortunately, cracked vertically. John Miers was the master of delineating the finely detailed diaphanous features of clothing.

Acrostic Jewelry

Acrostic jewelry (a.k.a. regard jewelry or language of stones jewelry) appears to have begun in the earliest nineteenth or perhaps the latest eighteenth century. Popular in England, France, and America, acrostic jewelry spell out sentimental mottos with the first letter of the name of each stone. For example, “regard” may be formed by this particular combination of stones:

Ruby
Emerald
Garnet
Amethyst
Ruby
Diamond.

Brooch with “regard” spelled in paste. Scale in centimeters.

Regard ring with natural stones.

The most common acrostic mottos are “regard” and “dearest,” and less common are “adore” and “love,” which is spelled:

Lapis
Opal
Vermeil (an archaic name for garnet)
Emerald.

Napoleon commissioned at least four acrostic bracelets to commemorate important sentimental events, births, marriages, and so forth, with names and dates spelled out in stones:

Natrolite
Amethyst
Peridot
Opal
Lapis
Emerald
Onyx
Natrolite.

Other rare acrostics include names, “souvenir,” “pet,” and “darling.” This ring is the only piece of jewelry that I’ve ever seen with the acrostic “darling” spelled:

Diamond
Amethyst
Ruby
Lapis
Iolite
Nephrite
Garnet.

WARNING: Don’t get ripped off. Acrostic jewelry is still made today. Be especially careful when buying “dearest” and “regard” jewelry. Familiarize yourself with what the new ones look like and beware of pieces labeled “vintage” as these may not be the antique (i.e. Victorian or Edwardian) examples sought after by collectors, but may nonetheless be priced as antiques. I have seen modern “love,” “regard,” and “dearest” jewelry being sold at exorbitant prices by online antiques dealers who should know better. Shame on them. On the other hand, if you’re any good at identifying stones, you can sometimes find rare or unusual acrostic jewelry offered at exceptionally low prices by dealers who are ignorant of what they have.

Acrostic Jewelry

Acrostic jewelry (a.k.a. regard jewelry or language of stones jewelry) appears to have begun in the earliest nineteenth or perhaps the latest eighteenth century. Popular in England, France, and America, acrostic jewelry spell out sentimental mottos with the first letter of the name of each stone. For example, “regard” may be formed by this particular combination of stones:

Ruby
Emerald
Garnet
Amethyst
Ruby
Diamond.

Brooch with “regard” spelled in paste. Scale in centimeters.

Regard ring with natural stones.

The most common acrostic mottos are “regard” and “dearest,” and less common are “adore” and “love,” which is spelled:

Lapis
Opal
Vermeil (an archaic name for garnet)
Emerald.

Napoleon commissioned at least four acrostic bracelets to commemorate important sentimental events, births, marriages, and so forth, with names and dates spelled out in stones:

Natrolite
Amethyst
Peridot
Opal
Lapis
Emerald
Onyx
Natrolite.

Other rare acrostics include names, “souvenir,” “pet,” and “darling.” This ring is the only piece of jewelry that I’ve ever seen with the acrostic “darling” spelled:

Diamond
Amethyst
Ruby
Lapis
Iolite
Nephrite
Garnet.

WARNING: Don’t get ripped off. Acrostic jewelry is still made today. Be especially careful when buying “dearest” and “regard” jewelry. Familiarize yourself with what the new ones look like and beware of pieces labeled “vintage” as these may not be the antique (i.e. Victorian or Edwardian) examples sought after by collectors, but may nonetheless be priced as antiques. I have seen modern “love,” “regard,” and “dearest” jewelry being sold at exorbitant prices by online antiques dealers who should know better. Shame on them. On the other hand, if you’re any good at identifying stones, you can sometimes find rare or unusual acrostic jewelry offered at exceptionally low prices by dealers who are ignorant of what they have.

Hairwork Jewelry

“Drawing from his bosom a locket, which was attached to a slight steel chain, he opened it and showed me a tress of golden hair. “In this curl is clasped the history of my life, friend,’ he said, with calm sorrow. “’Tis only a woman’s hair,’ as poor Swift wrote once; yet it is this which has made me what I am. God rules us all. He makes us very weak, that, in our weakness, He may make His own strength perfect. To one comes joy and laughter; to another tears. I accept my part, and bow to Him who is Lord of all” – Anonymous, 1859

Jewelry incorporating human hair have been in existence since at least the 1500s. They probably share a cultural lineage with Christian relics, which housed various body parts of saints or martyrs and were believed to possess spiritual power. Early hairwork jewelry from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were frequently love tokens or mourning jewelry incorporating the hair of a loved one rather than a saint, and they often included momento mori symbolism. Hairwork jewelry became popular in Europe and America after 1760 and extremely popular after the industrial revolution provided the middle classes with less expensive, mass produced jewelry findings. It is a common mistake to assume that all hairwork jewelry were mourning objects. In this latter period, hairwork jewelry provided a sentimental memorial to love, friendship, family, celebrity, and, of course, mourning.

PALETTE WORKED HAIR

Hairwork jewelry designed and executed on an artist’s palette is referred to as “palette worked.” The designs produced by palette work range from simple basket weaves to extremely intricate and symbolic or allegorical scenes (see the hairwork piece in the mourning jewelry post, for example).

This pendent brooch contains a palette worked forget-me-not and curl on translucent milk glass backed by embossed red foil. Scale in centimeters.

On the reverse, there are two hairwork curls each labeled with initials, “E.O.” and “H.C.O.,” spelled out in tiny seed pearls on translucent blue enamel plaques backed with embossed foil.

This brooch contains a beautiful palette worked feather sculpted from red hair with flower, branch, and the initials “B.P.” on opalescent glass.


TABLE WORKED HAIR

The revival of hairwork jewelry in the 1980-90s has revealed that the equipment and basic patterns for table work hair braiding are identical to kumihimo braiding in Japan. Kumihimo braiding was used to construct durable silk cords for clothing and samurai armor from at least 700 AD to the present. However, this method of working hair was probably independently invented in Europe and shares no lineage with Japanese kumihimo. It nevertheless uses the same technique of weighted hair strands joined by a counter weight and passed back and forth across different quadrants of the tabletop.

This brooch and earrings set was constructed with the table work method using a pattern for a hollow open work braid.

This watch chain was constructed from two different patterns for solid chains, which were then braided together. The hairwork beads encased in gold wire were crafted using a hollow open work pattern.

The hairwork beads suspend a double-sided locket with two different palette worked hair designs on each side.

This engraving of the same watch chain pictured above comes from the catalog pages of Mark Campbell’s 1875 how-to book for the amateur hairworker.


HAIRWORK BOXES

Hairwork was not limited to jewelry. In the nineteenth century, human hair was added to just about every object suited to receive it, and small boxes were no exception. This ivory box houses a palette worked basket weave design on the lid.

This tortoise shell box has exquisite engine-turned engraving over every part of the outer surface…

And houses hairwork on the underside of the lid with a gold heart and the initials, “H.F.,” “J.F.,” “E.F.,” and “F.F.,” indicating that the hair probably came from members of a single family.



HAIRWORK PLAQUES

Larger, upwards of fifteen centimeters, hairwork plaques were also produced in the nineteenth century as cabinet pieces. The plaque below houses three different colors of hair arranged into a spray of curls, feathers, and a pansy symbolic of “think-of-me” in the language of flowers.

Hairwork Jewelry

“Drawing from his bosom a locket, which was attached to a slight steel chain, he opened it and showed me a tress of golden hair. “In this curl is clasped the history of my life, friend,’ he said, with calm sorrow. “’Tis only a woman’s hair,’ as poor Swift wrote once; yet it is this which has made me what I am. God rules us all. He makes us very weak, that, in our weakness, He may make His own strength perfect. To one comes joy and laughter; to another tears. I accept my part, and bow to Him who is Lord of all” – Anonymous, 1859

Jewelry incorporating human hair have been in existence since at least the 1500s. They probably share a cultural lineage with Christian relics, which housed various body parts of saints or martyrs and were believed to possess spiritual power. Early hairwork jewelry from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were frequently love tokens or mourning jewelry incorporating the hair of a loved one rather than a saint, and they often included momento mori symbolism. Hairwork jewelry became popular in Europe and America after 1760 and extremely popular after the industrial revolution provided the middle classes with less expensive, mass produced jewelry findings. It is a common mistake to assume that all hairwork jewelry were mourning objects. In this latter period, hairwork jewelry provided a sentimental memorial to love, friendship, family, celebrity, and, of course, mourning.

PALETTE WORKED HAIR

Hairwork jewelry designed and executed on an artist’s palette is referred to as “palette worked.” The designs produced by palette work range from simple basket weaves to extremely intricate and symbolic or allegorical scenes (see the hairwork piece in the mourning jewelry post, for example).

This pendent brooch contains a palette worked forget-me-not and curl on translucent milk glass backed by embossed red foil. Scale in centimeters.

On the reverse, there are two hairwork curls each labeled with initials, “E.O.” and “H.C.O.,” spelled out in tiny seed pearls on translucent blue enamel plaques backed with embossed foil.

This brooch contains a beautiful palette worked feather sculpted from red hair with flower, branch, and the initials “B.P.” on opalescent glass.


TABLE WORKED HAIR

The revival of hairwork jewelry in the 1980-90s has revealed that the equipment and basic patterns for table work hair braiding are identical to kumihimo braiding in Japan. Kumihimo braiding was used to construct durable silk cords for clothing and samurai armor from at least 700 AD to the present. However, this method of working hair was probably independently invented in Europe and shares no lineage with Japanese kumihimo. It nevertheless uses the same technique of weighted hair strands joined by a counter weight and passed back and forth across different quadrants of the tabletop.

This brooch and earrings set was constructed with the table work method using a pattern for a hollow open work braid.

This watch chain was constructed from two different patterns for solid chains, which were then braided together. The hairwork beads encased in gold wire were crafted using a hollow open work pattern.

The hairwork beads suspend a double-sided locket with two different palette worked hair designs on each side.

This engraving of the same watch chain pictured above comes from the catalog pages of Mark Campbell’s 1875 how-to book for the amateur hairworker.


HAIRWORK BOXES

Hairwork was not limited to jewelry. In the nineteenth century, human hair was added to just about every object suited to receive it, and small boxes were no exception. This ivory box houses a palette worked basket weave design on the lid.

This tortoise shell box has exquisite engine-turned engraving over every part of the outer surface…

And houses hairwork on the underside of the lid with a gold heart and the initials, “H.F.,” “J.F.,” “E.F.,” and “F.F.,” indicating that the hair probably came from members of a single family.



HAIRWORK PLAQUES

Larger, upwards of fifteen centimeters, hairwork plaques were also produced in the nineteenth century as cabinet pieces. The plaque below houses three different colors of hair arranged into a spray of curls, feathers, and a pansy symbolic of “think-of-me” in the language of flowers.

Cameos

“At this instant, the surplus-like napkin dropped from the clergyman’s bosom, showing a minute but exquisitely cut cameo brooch, representing the allegorical union of the serpent and dove. It had been the gift of an appreciative friend, and was sometimes worn on secular occasions like the present” – Herman Melville, 1852

Like silhouettes, cameos are an outgrowth of the neoclassical revival. Inspired by antiquity recovered from archaeological excavations, artists enthusiastically copied ancient examples from museum collections. Hence, cameos often represent Greek gods and goddesses, personifications of nature, and classical allegories. Additionally, many portrait miniaturists also offered likenesses in cameo. The simple profile lines of portrait cameos allowed for physiognomic readings of the sitter, and cameos were sometimes personalized with the addition of a loved one’s hair.

Richard Cockle Lucas (English 1800 - 1883) Profile Cameo of English Gentleman, c. 1820. Price: $1200


John Nicholson of Dorking, "Cameo engraver in Ordinary to Her Majesty Queen Victoria and H.R.H. The Duchess of Kent" Family cameo portrait c. 1845. Nicholson exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1848 and 1850 and likewise contributed to the Art Manufactures Exhibit of the Society of Arts organized by Henry Cole in 1848. Price: $1800


Constantin Roesler Franz (attributed), c. 1850, flower bouquet cameo with C-clasp and T-bar.


Mid nineteenth century revolving brooch with a cameo represents the personification of spring bearing blossoms. Revolving brooches allow for either side to be rotated to the forward facing position. Price: $850

Curls of human hair adorn the reverse of the cameo sculpted on translucent milk glass backed with embossed gold foil.


Mid nineteenth century revolving brooch with a cameo representing Hebe, the goddess of youth, and her father, Zeus, transfigured as an eagle. Hebe and Zeus was a popular subject for cameo artists. Price: $500

On the reverse of the cameo, there are two locks of hair on fabric.

Neoclassical inspired brooch, later converted to a pendent, with nine tiny lava cameos, tassel, and large basket weave hairwork on the reverse.