“Happening to be at Dundee at the time of the Tay Bridge disaster (it
occurred upon the last Sunday evening in 1879, when 67 people were
drowned), I recollect a Mr. Saunders, a saddler at Broughty Ferry, in the
immediate neighbourhood, possessed and showed me as a curio one of these
identical portrait-taking machines.”
CHAPTER V.
PROCESSES.
(3) _Freehand Scissor-work._
In the foregoing accounts of black profile painting, the cutting out of
a sketched outline obtained by shadowgraphy or any other means, little
mention has been made of the freehand scissor artist, who, without pencil
or pen sketch, cut a small likeness after studying the sitter for a few
seconds.
Though there were many other processes which gave charming and artistic
results, there is no doubt that from the dated convent work of 1708 and
the first known record in England of Mrs. Pyburg, who _cut_ the portraits
of William and Mary, up to the few remaining cutters of the present day,
this type of freehand scissor-work has persisted in England, and also in
Germany.
Some of the early cut-work examples were made with the assistance of
fine small-bladed knives. Specimens of cut vellum exist, which it would
have been impossible to cut with scissors alone. A notably fine example
is in the Francisco-Carolinum Museum at Linz; it is an Ex Voto offering,
and represents the Flight of the Holy Family into Egypt. The parchment
mount has the most elaborate tendrils cut out, while typically German
flourishes and mantling support birds and beasts. A stag-hunt is seen
in one part, while the imperial eagle is not wanting in this skilful
production. The picture is dated 1708.
In the same museum is a magnificent Dedication to the State Deputation of
the Province of Nymwegen. Justice is surrounded by angels and trophies,
painted and gilded, and the arms of the province are cut with much
delicacy, and with richly foliated ornament. The whole is mounted on
red, and dated 1710, but the artist wielder of the penknife unfortunately
does not sign his work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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