Needlework picture (Mourning picture)

Description

This is a needlework mourning picture with silk, paper, ink, paint, and metallic threads on a silk ground. It was worked by E.S. Sefford, possibly from Boston, Massachusetts. Engraved prints were widely distributed and were often the design source for silkwork pictures. In this instance, a print by Enoch Gridley, after a painting by John Coles Jr., was copied onto satin and embroidered by Miss Sefford. Gridley was a portrait and general engraver working in New York City and Philadelphia. Coles, who advertised as a portrait, miniature, and heraldry painter, lived and worked in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. Sadly we have not yet discovered the identity of Miss E.S. Sefford.