Red Book Artist, ca. 1830, probably New England. The silhouette is hollow-cut, watercolor, gouache, and pen. It profiles a woman in ¾ length, wearing a puffy sleeved black dress adorned with a belt outlined in blue. A lovely and rare feature of this piece are the ribbons in her hair and around her neck. The sitter is facing right holding a red book. She has the elongated thumb that is associated with the Red Book Artist and is framed in likely the original molded gilt frame.
Unique to this particular silhouette is a signature on the bottom of the frame . . . H.P. Hammons. This signature was also discovered on the back of another silhouette by the Red Book Artist. There is also another example with the initials HH on the cover of the red book. The consistency of the signatures and initials may be a clue to the identity of the Red Book Artist.
For further examples of work by the Red Book Artist, see “A Loving Likeness: American Folk Portraits of the Nineteenth Century” The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, 1992, pages 48 - 49.
In excellent condition; minor lightening in the area on the black paper.
Dimensions: sight 2 7/8” x 3 5/8; frame 4” x 5”.