RARE ANTIQUE GEORGE HEWITT CUSHMAN PORTRAIT MINIATURE

RARE ANTIQUE GEORGE HEWITT CUSHMAN PORTRAIT MINIATURE ANTIQUE PORTRAIT MINIATURE BY GEORGE HEWITT CUSHMAN (1814-1896). THE MINIATURE IS OF ALICE CUSHMAN WHEN SHE WAS ABOUT 8 YEARS OLD. THE MINIATURE IS APPROXIMATELY 3" X 2 1/4." IT IS ATTACHED TO THE INNER PAPERS. THERE IS A SMALL TEAR TO THE UPPER LEFT CORNER OF THE MINIATURE WHICH DOES NOT SHOW IN THE FRAME. I COULD NOT SEE A DATE ON THE 2 CENT STAMP. IF YOU WANT MORE PICTURES, JUST LET ME KNOW AND I CAN SEND THEM TO YOU. CUSHMAN IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN MINIATURISTS, AND HIS MINIATURES ARE VERY RARE AND SOUGHT AFTER. SOME INFORMATION ABOUT HIM IS LISTED BELOW: American engraver and painter of miniature paintings and portraits, turned early to this profession after family financial misfortunes prevented him from entering West Point and becoming a soldier. He studied drawing under Washington Allston and line engraving with Asaph Willard and Seth and John Cheney. In 1843 he moved to Philadelphia and resided there for twenty years, appearing in the city's directory as a miniature painting and portrait painter. In 1849 he married Susan Wetherill. While in Philadelphia he engraved printing plates for many books, including James Fenimore Cooper's novels' thirty-four volumes (1859-1861), the household edition of Charles Dickens (1861), and Frances S. Osgood's Poems (1850), and portraits including Young America in the Alps, Forrest in Alger's Life of Edwin Forrest (1877), and a portrait of Lord Byron. He primarily engraved notes however for state banks until the creation of the National Banking Act and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington D.C. caused him to retire from this work. In 1862 he moved to New York and created miniature paintings and portraits until his death at a water cure. His genius would have placed him atop most American miniature painters. His signed engravings were noted as being "executed with much taste and ability". Sara Jane Lippincott remarked that his miniatures "were always remarkable for purity and simplicity of character as well as tone".