{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O82328"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82328/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG1427/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG1427/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AG1427","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP6303","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O82328/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O82328","accessionNumber":"P.41-1952","objectType":"Portrait Miniature","titles":[{"title":"Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Woman","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This miniature is framed in a locket with a hair ornament set on the reverse. The fashion for hair ornaments set in the back of miniature lockets developed in the late 18th century. The giving of tokens of hair was a long-established practice. When Queen Charlotte appointed Samuel Finney as her miniature painter in 1763, she sent him a lock of her hair. This, he wrote in his memoir, should be 'preserved by his family with the same care and reverence as a good catholick would the relicks of his patron Saint'. The back of a miniature provided a perfect setting for such tokens, but the fashion for hair ornaments grew to such an extent that they were sometimes merely decorative rather than sentimental. It is not clear whether these two curls of hair joined by a band of seed pearls come from the sitter or are merely ornamental.\n\nThe miniature was painted by Mary Ann Knight (1776-1851), a well-known miniature painter in Regency Britain. She regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. Knight took lessons with Andrew Plimer, who, through his time with Mary Ann, met and eventually married her sister, Joanna Louisa Knight. Mary Ann Knight and Andrew Plimer remained close throughout her life. In addition to her portraits of British sitters, she also painted the miniature portrait of Teyoninhokarawen, Major John Norton, an Indigenous Mohawk chief of Cherokee descent, and several in his social circle in London.","physicalDescription":"Portrait, head and shoulders, to left and looking to front, of a young woman.  The sitter has a white scarf in her hair.  This miniature has a hair ornament set on the reverse of the locket.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Knight, Mary Ann","id":"A9869"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"hair","id":"AAT11820"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on ivory","categories":[{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Hair and hairstyles","id":"THES258945"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Miniatures","id":"THES269968"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Georgian","id":"AAT21048"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AG1427","2006AP6303"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"UpSmallStudio","id":"THES393032"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature (painting)","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1800","earliest":"1795-01-01","latest":"1804-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased from the funds of the R. H. Stephenson Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"4.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <u>Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1952</u>. London: HMSO, 1963.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"M.A Knight","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed on bottom left"}],"objectHistory":"This miniature was part of Lot 30 at Messrs. Sotheby's sale on 25 November 1952.","historicalContext":"Portrait miniatures were frequently exchanged between loved ones and family in eighteenth-century Britain as tokens of affection and remembrance. Although the sitter for this miniature is yet to be identified, it likely served a similar purpose.","briefDescription":"Portrait miniature, Portrait Miniature of an unknown woman, by Mary Ann Knight, watercolour on ivory, ca.1800","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1952</u>. London: HMSO, 1963."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"George Williamson, <i>Andrew and Nathaniel Plimer</i> (London, 1903), 135-50."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Katherine Coombs, <u>The Portrait Miniature in England</u>, V&A Publications, 1998, pp.87-92."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Katherine Coombs, <i>Finney, Samuel (1719-1798)</i>', <u>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</u>, Oxford University Press, 2004."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Damiët Schneeweisz, Rosalind McKever, and Adriana Concin. The Portrait Miniature: A New History. London: Thames & Hudson  and the V&A, 2026."},{"reference":{"text":"Damiët Schneeweisz, Rosalind McKever, and Adriana Concin. <i>The Portrait Miniature: A New History</i>. London: Thames & Hudson and the V&A, 2026.","id":"AUTH411474"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"woman","id":"AAT25943"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.41-1952"],"accessionNumberNum":"41","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1952,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-19","recordCreationDate":"2003-07-14","availableToBook":false}}