Outstanding Augustus Day Hollow Cut Silhouettes

Circa 1837: Silhouette aficionado Peggy McClard notes that Augustus Day's hollow cut silhouettes "are some of the most rare of signed American silhouettes," and both of these painted hollow cuts are signed "Day Fecit" as they should be. Additionally, McClard explains that the most desirable of Day's painted silhouettes are, like these examples, "olive-green and elaborately gilt embellished." On top of this, the sitters are identified as Hannah Brick Willets (1804-1893), daughter of a prominent New Jersey family, and Dr. Reuben Leaming Willets (1801-1856), a New Jersey State Senator 1842-1844. These silhouettes were cut in Philadelphia, where most of Day's silhouettes were produced, in approximately 1837. Finally, these remarkable hollow cuts are house in their original lemon gilt frames with eglomise mats with original backboards affixed with square brads and a period note about each sitter affixed to each backboard. Quite frankly, these lovely examples of Day's output have all the bells and whistles and are just about as good as it gets in the arena of early American silhouettes.