Triumphant Grace: Important Americana from the Collection of Barbara and Arun Singh
Triumphant Grace: Important Americana from the Collection of Barbara and Arun Singh
ATTRIBUTED TO MRS. MOSES B. RUSSELL (CLARISSA PETERS) | MINIATURE PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM HENRY BALDREY, SON OF CAPTAIN SAMUEL BALDREY
Auction Closed
January 25, 06:44 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 10,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
ATTRIBUTED TO MRS. MOSES B. RUSSELL (CLARISSA PETERS) (1809-1854)
MINIATURE PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM HENRY BALDREY, SON OF CAPTAIN SAMUEL BALDREY
watercolor on ivory in the original daguerreotype case
Boston, Massachusetts
circa 1850
2 ⅞ by 2 ¼ in.
together with a note inscribed William Henry son of Capt. and Mrs. Samuel Baldrey died age 10 mos. 15 days, set in a leather carrying case.
Marguerite Riordan, Stonington, Connecticut.
Randall Holton and Charles Gilday, "Mrs. Moses B. Russell, Boston Miniaturist," The Magazine Antiques (December 1999), p. 821, plate XV.
Son of the British Ship captain, Samuel Baldrey, William Henry Baldrey was born in Havana before his parents settled in South Boston. This portrait miniature tenderly memorializes the infant, who died before the first year of his birth. The young boy points to the yellow bird perched in his opposite hand, symbolizing his departed soul, while the exaggerated sweep of his dress and halo of blue sky and clouds around his head suggest weightlessness and movement, as if his body was similarly heaven-bound.