American School, Late 18th Century Portrait of Mary Ann Elizabeth Thum of Philadelphia, Age Two, Holding a Bird.

Description:

American School, Late 18th Century

Portrait of Mary Ann Elizabeth Thum of Philadelphia, Age Two, Holding a Bird. Unsigned, the subject identified in inscriptions affixed to the backboard. Pastel on paper, the blue-eyed child is portrayed wearing a sheer laced-trimmed white mobcap, a necklace with the initials "ME" on the pendant, and a white gown with pink and black dots with pink ribbons on the sleeves; she is holding a bird with red and gray feathers in her hands, 21 x 15 3/4 in., in a period, molded gold-painted frame. Condition: Repaired tear u.c., c.r., and l.r., not examined out of frame.

Provenance: Family descent to the consignor. With a genealogy inscribed on a paper attached to the backboard.

Note: Gleaned from an inscription in a family bible and family notes applied to the backboard, Mary Ann Thum was born in Philadelphia, December 21, 1797. She was the daughter of a doctor. It is not known what her mother's name was. Mary Ann married Captain Alexander McNeilledge, a native of Greenock, Scotland, on October 5, 1819. They had children including boy and girl twins, and in 1829 they moved to Greenock Farm near Port Dover, Ontario, on Lake Erie.

An article titled "Who was Captain Alexander McNeilledge?" appeared in the Port Dover Maple Leaf, February 17, 2010. It described how Mary Ann's husband was a sailor who served through the ranks to command several ships plying the Orient trade. They came to Dover in 1829, and it was Alexander's expertise that gave the town its harbor, on which the economy of the town grew and developed through its fishing and shipping industries.
Estimate $10,000-15,000

Not examined out of the frame. The work appears to have been conservated and sealed in the frame. The tear at upper center goes down about 1 1/2 in. and sideways to the right through her cap about 2 in. There is a tear at the l.r. corner and one at c.r. about 1 1/2 in. into the background.

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