Hollow Cut Silhouette.
Young Lady
with Puffy Sleeves
....Lithograph Body  

New England, ca. 1830’s.
Hollow cut head, backed with black silk, with lithographic body, the dress in blue-green watercolor. The young lady dressed in puffy sleeves and a comb in her hair, both often seen in the 1830’s. Her profile finely cut.
Blume Rifken describes a similar pair, perhaps by the same hand, in Silhouettes in America, 1790-1840: “Lithographic bodies were printed in black and white. The silhouette artist then cut them off of the original paper that they were printed on and pasted them to his or her profiles, painting the clothing in various shades for extra interest”. Another example is figure 266 of American Folk Portraits at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center at Colonial Williamsburg.
In a very nice red painted period frame, frame size about 5 ¼ inches x 4. Has toning and residue from old scotch tape, yet without tears.