British Portrait Miniatures from the Thomson Collection - Susan Sloman - Paul Holberton - relié - Beau livre

Portrait miniatures were highly prized in Europe for nearly four hundred years and, unusually, artists based in Britain were the acknowledged masters of this specialised fi eld. Many of the best painters are represented in this remarkable but relatively little-known collection. As is illustrated and described in this book, miniatures were frequently made as tokens of love or memorials of loved ones; part-likeness, partreliquary and part-jewel, they might be wearable in a locket, on a bracelet or even on a fi nger ring, but their portability also made them desirable as gifts. Styles, techniques and modes of presentation naturally evolved between 1560 (the date of the fi rst miniature in the catalogue) and around 1900. Some changes happened rapidly; in England, for example, the foundation of exhibiting societies in 1760s created a demand for larger miniatures that could hang on the wall alongside full-sized portraits. The Thomson collection includes fi ne examples of the work of Nicholas