Something Old: Georgian Miniature Painting

Here is my newest oldest bijou. It is a tiny water colour of a dove painted on Ivory which dates to the late 1700s, early 1800s. In the days before photography, folks would carry tiny, portable portraits of loved ones — many of these images were fashioned into jewellery. The Georgians were a sentimental lot, and a lot of these miniature portraits contained a lot of symbols to further denote their feelings toward the person in the picture. And sometimes the picture would just be reduced to the symbol, in this case, a dove. In the Georgian era, the dove carried both religious and sentimental meaning, signifying peace, gentleness and purity.

If you want to learn more about Regency/Georgian-era miniatures, check out the The Tansey Collection Of Miniatures