Lady Dorothy Nevill is the owner of a most interesting relic of this favourite pastime of a royal princess. It is the original scrap-book given by Princess Elizabeth to her friend, and is filled with every variety of cutting executed by the princess herself. The book is of dark blue morocco leather, 9 inches by 6 inches in size. On its silver lock and clasp is the initial of the royal donor, and between the pages are the little gem cuttings, a selection of which we are able to reproduce here. Many varieties of silhouette cutting are shown; none of the specimens are gummed into the book, or, if they have been, the mucilage has perished. Faint pencil notes head the pages, and the cuttings are placed separately between the leaves. Some of the groups are cut out in black paper; some, notably the shadow perforation type, are in white paper; and some are painted in Indian ink and then cut out. The groups of children playing are most animated; there is real movement in the baby toddling downstairs held by ribbon strings by its nurse.
The portraits of Queen Charlotte and King George III., the parents of the artist, are naturally of great interest. These have a note on the page in which they lie that they were taken in the year 1792. They are drawn in Indian ink, and not cut, and those who have had occasion to examine the profiles of the king and queen will at once see that Princess Elizabeth was proficient in catching a likeness. There are two other bust portraits of George III. in this interesting scrap-book, and a full-length picture in black profile, in which the stiff coat-tails and dangling court sword or rapier are admirably portrayed.
The cutting of the shadow perforation pictures seem to have been an agreeable variety in scissor-work. These strange silhouettes were so cut that, on holding a light at a particular angle behind the picture, a shadow was cast by it which resembled some special character or object group. Thus the head of Christ is thrown in shadow upon any white surface when the strange-looking mask is held up between the candle and the board; the child on the rocking-horse is arranged for the same effect, which thus reverses the shadow portraiture of long ago.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a large portfolio with examples of scissor-work and black portraiture. Amongst the specimens are many of the perforated shadow-throwing type, some well-known pictures being thus reproduced. They were bequeathed by the Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, and consist of shadow and silhouette pictures and portraits “done by C. H. Townshend and his family.” This donor also bequeathed many paintings to the Museum. Little groups, such as “A Child and a Goat,” “Children Playing,” “A Lady holding up a Child,” give glimpses into the domestic scenes it was considered pleasing to portray in silhouette. Some of these are done by Charlotte Townshend; some by other members of the family. There is no very great interest attaching to these amiable records of a bygone day.
“Copied by Mrs. Wigston from Lady Templetown’s designs” gives us an insight into the part played by those not sufficiently skilful to originate but who, by copying, could take their share in the fashionable pastime.
The late Andrew W. Tuer, who was keenly interested in the subject of silhouettes, wrote thus in Notes and Queries concerning silhouettes of children:—“Much should I like to know who designed and cut out in black paper a remarkably clever series of about eighty minute silhouettes of child life, mainly groups. They are loosely placed in a book of blank leaves bound in contemporary citron morocco, lettered on the front ‘M. G.’ To some the artist has written a verse, and to others a date—the earliest 1796, the latest 1806. Inferentially, the work is that of gentlefolk. Between two of the leaves is a piece of black paper, on the reverse or white side being written ‘J. Poulett, Twickenham, Middlesex,’ and on another piece of paper the name ‘Lucy’ is cut out in silhouette.”
Later Mr. Tuer wrote:—“From the Earl Poulett I gather that these interesting and clever silhouettes were probably the handiwork of the first wife, whose initials were A. L., of the fourth Earl Poulett, of Poulett Lodge, Twickenham. What the initials M. G. stand for his lordship does not know.
“Andrew W. Tuer.
“The Leadenhall Press, E.C.”