American School, 19th Century Pair of Portraits: Elisha Wales with a New England Church Bass Viol

Description:

American School, 19th Century

Pair of Portraits: Elisha Wales with a New England Church Bass Viol and Lucy Bates Wales Holding a Book. Unsigned, both identified on labels affixed to the reverse. Oil on panel, 27 1/2 x 22 in., in matching period molded giltwood frames. Condition: Good; panels bowed, vertical splits and cracks to panels, craquelure.

Provenance: Descended through the family of the sitters and then consigned to Skinner in 1997.

Note: Elisha Wales was born April 25, 1777, in Braintree, Massachusetts. He died in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in April of 1823. He married Lucy Bates September 25, 1801, in Weymouth. They had seven children. Elisha's ancestor, Nathaniel Wales, arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1635. Elisha was the seventh generation. Lucy Bates was born March 3, 1785, and died May 17, 1817. She was a direct descendant of John Alden.
Estimate $15,000-25,000

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