Gold Leaf Art- Portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson-Gold Leaf Art by SmileyNC posted Jan 23, 2024 at 3:42 PM

Gold leaf portrait of Thomas Jefferson with glass & frame.

Back of Gold Leaf Art-Thomas Jefferson by SmileyNC posted Jan 23, 2024 at 3:42 PM

Has wire to hang up. The note on the back says: “The silhouette of: Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826. President of the United States, 1801-1809 Presented by him to Dr. Michael Leib

Gold Leaf Art-Dr. Michael Leib by SmileyNC posted Jan 23, 2024 at 3:42 PM

Gold leaf art portrait of Dr. Michael Leib with glass and frame. Dr Leib was the United States Senator for PA from 1809-1814.

Back of Gold Leaf Art portrait of Dr. Michael Leib by SmileyNC posted Jan 23, 2024 at 3:42 PM

Has a wire hanger for hanging. The note on the back says: “The silhouette of Dr. Michael Leib 1760-1822. United States Senator from Penn.” OK

if anyone has any info/thoughts on what the Value might be I’d appreciate it

 

The note on the back suggests that the one was given by Thomas Jefferson. Seeing as it is typewritten, one has to take this provenance as suspect. The typewriter is a latter half of 19th century invention. What do you know about these? What provevance do you have?

 

@SmileyNC included more information in duplicate post -
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/gold-leaf-art-thomas-jefferson.82807/

Can you tell us what the Library actually confirmed? Did they say who created the portrait and gave it to Jefferson? As @verybrad notes, provenance/history is essential to any attempt at evaluation.

 

Rather than being silhouettes, they look like they are portraits based loosely on engravings by Max Rosenthal (1833-1918). However, the engraving he did of Jefferson was based on an earlier painting, so possibly the gold leaf item here was based on that painting as well. Clearly, the note on the back was created after the death of the Jefferson, not only because it's typewritten, but also because it includes the date of death.
On further reflection, the gold leaf portrait is fairly different than the engraving by Rosenthal, so those may be entirely unrelated other than purportedly being of the same person.

 

Link to previous thread does not work. Confirmation of provenance from the Jefferson library may put this in a whole other category of value. Really depends on what they have to say. Important that anything by the library be put in writing.

 

Here is a miniature portrait in similar technique, referred to as "verre-eglomise", with a good description of the process, and attributed to the artist Charles Peale Polk -

https://mesda.org/item/collections/verre-eglomise-silhouette/727/

 

Perhaps our moderator has combined/removed the duplicate thread.