Rare watercolor portrait of Mary H. Huntington Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, circa 1814

Rendered in watercolor and gouache on paper, in embossed wallpaper-covered pasteboard box with silk lining and cotton padding

Inscribed underside of box, ink (barely legible): Mary H Huntington/oldest daughter of/Rev. Daniel Huntington/Born on June 20th 1813 /Died Feb. 20, 1820 H.S. Chappell.

Descended in family to Isabel Chappell Lufler 
Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little, Brookline, Massachusetts
Sotheby’s New York, "The Bertram K. Little and Nina Fletcher Little Collection, Part I," January 29, 1994, lot 442

"Neat and Tidy," Philadelphia Antiques Show, 1985

Little, Nina Fletcher. Neat and Tidy: Boxes and Their Contents Used in Early American Households, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1980, p.186
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 28, fig. 4

Some minor wear.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

By the time this miniature was painted, portraits "in lyttle" had a well-established foothold in America. Drawing upon European limning traditions that had evolved from illuminated manuscripts, portrait miniatures were most frequently painted in a water-based medium on vellum, card, or ivory and housed in a small box or locket.¹Sometimes, miniature portraits were painted from full-scale ones and, conversely, served as prototypes for large portraits. The private act of viewing a miniature, nestled in the palm of a hand or in a locket worn around the neck, was in direct opposition to the public sense of full-size portraiture.

This enchanting miniature depicts Mary Hallam Huntington (1813- 1820) at the age of about one year. The tiny handmade pasteboard box, covered with a single motif from an embossed wallpaper, protects the precious miniature from harm and provides an element of surprise when it is opened to reveal the delicate child. Little Mary stands in profile, one foot forward, wearing a cream-colored gown with a sheer overdress and bonnet of fine white netting. A smudge of green provides a horizontal floor plane, and a shadow delineates her pale dress and profile against the light-colored background. She wears a blue slipper on one foot and holds the other slipper in her hand-a pose that has been used as an effective compositional device in depictions of young children by artists including John Brewster.² It has been conjectured that in some cases, the "one shoe off" motif indicates a postmortem portrait.³ Mary Huntington, however, died in 1820, before her seventh birthday but well after the date this portrait was painted. -S.C.H.

¹ Carol Aiken, "The Emergence of the Portrait Miniature in New England," in Peter Benes, ed., Painting and Portrait Making in the American Northeast: Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, vol. 19 (Boston, Boston Univ., 1995), pp. 30-45.
² Paul S. D’Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association (Cooperstown, N.Y.: NYSHA, 1987), p. 49.
³ Barbara Rothermel, "Mourning the Children: An Interpretation of the Symbols in Two Posthumous Portraits," Folk Art 22, no. 4 (winter 1997/98): 62.