IVORY CARVINGS 89 



some extent. Charm may lie in the exquisite fitness or 

 the balance of parts to the whole. In our own country, 

 Edward Greene Malbone, not only excelled his contempo- 

 raries at eighteen, but in his short life painted many min- 

 iatures that are superior to almost all others, barring a few 

 masterpieces by English, German, and French miniaturists. 



A highly gifted modern American miniaturist was the 

 late Miss Theodora Thayer, of Cambridge, Massachusetts 

 (died 1903) . Her portrait of "Miss Gray" in the Metro- 

 politan Museum of Art, New York City, is distinctly the 

 work of a true artist. The absence of all useless detail 

 would have earned the applause of Holbein, who might 

 have said of the work: *'It is complete, it is charming with- 

 out sentimentality, it is true expression." 



One of our great collectors had a number of miniatures 

 by Malbone, Cosway, and other great miniaturists, all of 

 which had warped, rendering the surface uneven in parts. 

 They were handed to a skilful repairer, who asked for a 

 sufficient length of time in which to perform the repairing. 

 By a timely and skilful application of moisture at the 

 proper places he was able to restore the entire collection — 

 some fifty pieces in all — without breaking a single one. It is 

 most important that in mounting a miniature the glass that 

 is to cover it should be placed on the face of the ivory. 

 First, a piece of thin blotter or paper must be placed on the 

 back of the miniature, the edges being concealed by swan- 

 skin or some thin "onion-skin." This being done, all 

 moisture is removed, and the miniature is placed where it 

 will be subjected to no changes of temperature. 



"Buckles" or "spots," as they are termed, are apt to de- 

 velop on imperfectly or unevenly cut pieces of ivory. The 

 ivory miniaturists find that by placing a bit of damp blotter 

 under the miniature, and laying a piece of blotter on the 

 upper side, and upon this successive plates of glass, one half 



