A SILK AND WATERCOLOR ON SILK PICTURE

WORKED AT SUSANNAH ROWSON'S SCHOOL, BOSTON, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A SILK AND WATERCOLOR ON SILK PICTURE
Worked at Susannah Rowson's School, Boston, early 19th century
Worked in red, blue, brown, black, yellow, white and pink threads depicting the Landing of Columbus within a reverse painted glass mat inscribed Landing of Columbus
26 x 17¾in. (sight)

Provenance

Stephen Adams, 21 June 1980.

Literature

Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery, Vol. I (New York, 1993), p. 91, fig. 95.

Lot Essay

This is the most brilliantly colorful of three very similar embroideries derived from a David Edwin engraving after an Edward Savage painting that was published in Philadelphia, 1 January 1800. It is among many Boston silk embroideries with superb painting that is now attributed to portrait painter John Johnston (1753-1818), youngest son of heraldic artist and engraver Thomas Johnston (1708-1767). The similar "Columbus" embroideries were signed by Susanna Rowson students Margaret Mitchell and Abbey Low. See Antiques (August 1976), pp. 293-294 and (October 1992), p. 421.

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