Williams, W. (SCC Newsletter September 2010)

W. (? William) Williams fl. 1800 - 1801

A rare artist, with a name shared by a number of artists of the period.

This silhouette was described as being by "W. Williams, Strand" - as it had a very darkened backing paper with a largely unreadable inscription in ink. However, with the aid of a magnifying glass it was possible to make out the vital words "W. Williams, Strand". I have photographed this 'label' above—the word "Williams" is just to the left of the white bar. The silhouette has been 'tidied up' and the backing paper lined and reattached. The paper restorer hoped to reveal more of the inscription, but was not successful.

Mrs McK. has an entry for W. Williams in three Sections of her Book. Her main entry is in Section Three (artists who painted silhouettes on glass). She had only seen a work on glass with a W. Williams label, but unfortunately she was not able to illustrate this in the Book. Also, she was not able from her research to definitely identify the artist from a number of painters of the same name and initial. She concluded that there were two possibles who might have painted silhouettes on card (which this silhouette is) as well as on glass. (see pages 570-571). These possibles could have painted during the period 1800 -1810 or so.

The silhouette is painted on card—the base colour is black with somewhat lavish gilding on the hair and costume of the sitter. The gold is very yellow in shade giving a rather glitzy effect. The a la titus hair style and the ‘m’ notch placement of the revere of the jacket would indicate that it was painted between 1800 & 1810. It is somewhat smaller than most silhouettes of the period—being 2.25" in height. The silhouette that Mrs McK. recorded was painted on glass of an officer—it had no bust-line termination like the gent above, but the gilding seems to have been more cursory than my man. Also no detail was shown on the hair—the gilding on the head being outside the main body. In 2003 I saw a Williams labelled silhouette of a lady on glass at the Ardingly Antiques Fair—unfortunately I did not make a note of the label wording—so missed an opportunity to find out more about the artist.

Do let me know if any of you have a labelled work on paper (or even glass) by W. Williams—so that we can be clearer about his style of work. There is little doubt that he is a rare silhouette artist and possibly was also a painter of miniatures.