A pair of glass paste portrait medallions, signed and dated: 1801 Henning Paisley M on the truncation

Estimate

1,500 - 2,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

signed and dated: 1801 Henning Paisley M on the truncation
height of each 5.5cm, 2 1/4 in

depicting a lady, in profile to sinister, wearing robes and a turban with patterned trim, in contemporary turned wood oval frames, one of which inscribed on the reverse: Mrs Alston of Westerton

Catalogue Note

A competitor and contemporary of the Tassies, John Henning was born in Paisley in 1771 and died in London in 1851. His portrait medallions, modelled in wax most often from life but occasionally from his pencil drawings, were usually cast in biscuit porcelain and tend to be in much higher relief than those of the Tassies. He is best known for having copied Raphael's cartoons of biblical scenes, carved in miniature in slate and reproduced in plaster. The present lot is a discovery not included in the definitive catalogue of Henning's work, J. Malden, John Henning: A Very Ingenious Modeller, 1977.