Mourning eye for a Viscount

A superior example of a Georgian eye miniature, circa 1820. The high carat gold brooch encloses a watercolour miniature of a male eye with blue iris in clouds, symbolic of mourning. The brooch is surmounted by a pearl coronet which denotes the eye to be that of a viscount. Eye miniatures were an intense manifestation of an already emotionally charged art, apparently an attempt to capture ‘the window of the soul’, the supposed reflection of a person’s most intimate thoughts and feelings. Some eye miniatures were expressions of love, and some, like this, were expressions of loss. The brooch measures one inch by one and 2/3 inches and and the execution of the miniature is extremely fine. Immaculate.

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