"Surrounded with Brilliants": Miniature Portraits in Eighteenth-Century England

Technology and its miniature: the photograph

“…Men could wear tiny portraits of their loved ones only concealed under their clothing since any public display could affect their masculine image. 21…”

In search of pearlescence: Pearls, empire and obsolescence in South Asia

“…In spite of its small scale, the field of vision is open, potentially aggressive and elliptically reciprocal (Lacan, 1980). Marcia Pointon (2001) pushes this in a slightly different direction to think about the miniature as analogous with a relic. Eye miniatures she defines broadly as 'portrait objects': 'the miniature replica -unlike convex mirrors in paintings -does not partially reflect the surroundings but later offers an accurate reflection of the subject of the work itself that is, it acts as a commentary on the work itself' (p. 46).…”

The Carte de Visite in the 1860s and the Serial Dynamic of Photographic Likeness

“…As Marcia Pointon and others have described, the portrait and particularly the portrait miniature had a substantial position in the social transactions of the affl uent, a tradition which was well established by the eighteenth century. 35 The custom of exchanging portraits to secure alliances either of the straightforwardly political or the more affective kind was typical, although not commonplace since it depended on the consumption of what were usually luxury commodities (private sketches or cheap cut-paper silhouettes provide exceptions to the luxury status of portrait images). But the importance of this aspect of portrait culture is that portraits were created normally for a destination in which the sitter already had an established role: the domestic setting of family or friends; in an institution such as a College or Diocese; or among the personal belongings of an intimate who was the recipient of a special gift.…”