Sometimes silver leaf was used instead of gold, and occasionally, as in the Forberger memorial picture in the Wellesley collection, and in a fine, small example at Knole, both gold and silver are used in the same picture.
In the Graz Museum in Germany there is a beautiful head of a youth painted on glass. A pyramid-like building also figures in the picture, both gold and silver foil being used as background.
We have seen gold-backed silhouette portraits showing profiles which, like the old puzzle pictures popular at the same period, are hard to decipher. Thus an urn is made the central feature of the picture, but the outline, varying slightly on either side, gives the profile of a man and his wife. Such quaint conceits were popular at the time. George III. and Queen Charlotte, or his successor and Queen Caroline, are sometimes the subject of such freakish portraiture in silhouette; this method in black and white survives to the present day.
The richness of the gold-leaf background made this variation of the profile portrait especially suitable for jewels. Lockets, brooches, and pins are the most usual form; these may be set in gold or in carved pinchbeck. Occasionally a tiny silhouette picture is in pearl framing, or an ornamental one of paste.
The silhouette rings are most frequently in the marquise setting; it was not unusual for a bequest to be made for profile portrait memorial rings. Occasionally some apt motto was engraved inside, such as, “Il ne reste que l’ombre.” The ethereal shadow picture seems to have specially appealed to the sentimental of the eighteenth century as a suitable reminder after death.
In the Wellesley collection there is a charming patch-box with three gold-backed profile portraits set in a row. None measures more than half an inch across; the faces are those of three lovely women. Another example is of a fine silhouette portrait of somewhat larger size, set in the lid of a small, round black lacquer snuff-box.
A mirror case was exhibited at the Silhouette Exhibition held in Maehren, Germany, in 1906, which had, on one side, the head and shoulders of a woman painted in black on glass. This was mounted on a yellow ground.
Finer than either of these is a patch-box in ivory, set in gold, with gold hinges and snap. In the centre is a gold set profile portrait of a man, signed by Miers; on either side there are beautiful panels of blue enamel. Doubtless this was a well-thought-out gift of a devoted admirer to the lady-love whose patches were to be held in this artistic box. A tiny oblong looking-glass is set in the inside of the lid to facilitate the adjustment of the beauty spots.
It is in work for the embellishment of such dainty things as these that the art of the profilist touches its highest point in minute work. Those who had the opportunity of examining the marvellous collection of the late Mr. Montague Guest can judge how these rare gems are not only beautiful in themselves, but speak of the illusive charm of the eighteenth century more eloquently than many other more costly bibelots.
The dainty sentimentality of a gold ring set with the shadow of a beautiful woman, or the scarf-pin with the shade of a friend; a locket with the unsubstantial reflection of a child’s face; who can resist the colourless appeal of so unobtrusive a jewel, which is yet one of such rich association and rare beauty?