Lot 426: Jacob Spornberg (1768-c.1840): Silhouette Portrait

Jacob Spornberg (1768-c.1840): Silhouette Portrait of Streemer Thomas, the father of Bishop Thomas of Winchester, and his wife, Mrs Streemer Thomas, in red on black, oval, 9cm, with inscriptions M Spornbergh Invenit Bath and W Spornberg Fecit Bath 1792, in original gilt embossed brass gadroon edged frames Jacob Spornberg is noted for newly invented Etruscan profiles" executed on glass. Subjects were painted against a red background with a black surround on the underside of convex glass. He was Finnish by birth having been born in Bjarna the third son of Isak and Elizabeth Spornberg. After working in Stockholm he first came to England in 1785 and stayed in Bath. The Swedish Authorities only allowed him to stay a year but in 1790 he returned to Bath and settled. He married at St Marylebone Church London in 1795 a widow named Rebecca Baguley nee Hindmarsh who was about thirteen years older than her husband. In 1840 some time after his wife's death Spornberg emigrated to America and it is thought that he died in Indiana.