ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN BREWSTER JR. | MINIATURE PORTRAIT OF THOMAS PORTER
Auction Closed
January 25, 06:44 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 8,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN BREWSTER JR.
(1766-1854)
MINIATURE PORTRAIT OF THOMAS PORTER
oil on ivory
likely Boston, Massachusetts
circa 1795
2 ¾ by 2 ⅛ in.
the interior of gold case with printed paper label Royal […] for the Benefit of the Philanthropic Society, St. George Fields/ Saturday next, the 19th September, 1795- PIT-TICKET, 21; accompanied with fragment of handwritten note.
Mary and Joshua Steenburgh Antique Furniture and Folk Art, Pike, New Hampshire;
Jewett-Berdan, Newcastle, Maine.
Advertised by Mary and Joshua Steenburgh in Antiques and The Arts Weekly, New Hampshire Antiques Show Special Show Section, August 2014, NH-13.
Thomas Porter (d. ca. 1800), was a prominent Boston Merchant and participant in the Boston Tea Party. Later a resident of Alexandria, Virginia, he and his wife, Sarah Porter, were friends and guests of George and Martha Washington at their home in Mount Vernon. A letter dated May 18, 1788 in the Martha Washington Manuscripts and Books Collection collated by The Mount Vernon Ladies Association, states that George Washington, on behalf of he and Martha, invited the Porters to dinner on the following day. Another small handwritten note included in this lot is inscribed with the memories of a Thomas H. Perkins, an acquaintance of the President, who claimed that Thomas Porter “was a great favorite at Mount Vernon” and even states that Porter secured a residency there.