some
extent. Charm may lie in the exquisite fitness or the balance of parts
to the whole. In our own country, Edward Greene Malbone, not only
excelled his contemporaries at eighteen, but in his short life painted
many miniatures that are superior to almost all others, barring a few
masterpieces by English, German, and French miniaturists.
A
highly gifted modern American miniaturist was the late Miss Theodora
Thayer, of Cambridge, Massachusetts (died 1903) . Her portrait of "Miss
Gray" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, is distinctly
the work of a true artist. The absence of all useless detail would have
earned the applause of Holbein, who might have said of the work: "It is
complete, it is charming without sentimentality, it is true
expression."
One
of our great collectors had a number of miniatures by Malbone, Cosway,
and other great miniaturists, all of which had warped, rendering the
surface uneven in parts. They were handed to a skilful repairer, who
asked for a sufficient length of time in which to perform the
repairing. By a timely and skilful application of moisture at the
proper places he was able to restore the entire collection— some fifty
pieces in all—without breaking a single one. It is most important that
in mounting a miniature the glass that is to cover it should be placed
on the face of the ivory. First, a piece of thin blotter or paper must
be placed on the back of the miniature, the edges being concealed by
swanskin or some thin "onion-skin." This being done, all moisture is
removed, and the miniature is placed where it will be subjected to no
changes of temperature.
"Buckles"
or "spots," as they are termed, are apt to develop on imperfectly or
unevenly cut pieces of ivory. The ivory miniaturists find that by
placing a bit of damp blotter under the miniature, and laying a piece
of blotter on the upper side, and upon this successive plates of glass,
one half
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