Pair of French Reverse Glass Paintings or Cartoons

These extraordinary ‘paintings’ were created using coloured grains of sand rather than paints. Each is after an original painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg. The first scene shows the Battle of Hastings with a central mounted figure, presumably William the Conqueror, with a red plume in his helmet, raising his sword against a fighter on foot. A printed version of this image, shown above, was made by William Bromley. (See the British Museum registration number 1858,1009.115 for a fine impression.) The second scene, composed with a similar central mounted knight with a raised axe (sword in the original) represents Richard the Lionheart in combat against Saladin at the Battle of Acre. In this case the print was made by Anker Smith...

These charming English School portraits show the subjects half-length by a desk, the surgeon with a skull at his elbow and his wife with an open writing box. Oil on canvas within a gilded frame and accompanied by five related letters. English, circa 1810. Footnote: Robert Prideaux died aged 36 in 1818 but in his short life he managed to rise rapidly through the ranks as a naval surgeon. The Naval Chronicle Vol. 19 (1808) records his appointment as a surgeon, aged only 26, on the cutter Sprightly and that he moved to the Lily by the end of the same year. In 1809, a member of the crew of the vessel Polyphemus was involved in a drunken incident that culminated in him being sick on the quarter-deck of the Lily whilst both vessels were docked at Port Royal in Jamaica. This led to a Court Martial appearance for one Joseph Fountain, the Master at Arms...

Allegorical scenes with ebonized frames.

Reverse glass floral paintings in giltwood frames Continental, 19th Century Frame: Height 55.5cm, width 58.5cm, depth 7cm Glass: Height 4...