Here are a rare pair of hand painted and artist signed portraits on thin natural wafer wafer: a French military officer and his wife, at least we'll assume she is his wife. I don't know the military insignia and costumes well enough to tell you what office this gentleman holds, but the powdered wigs they both wear wear and other issues of style of clothing and all would lead us to believe they're 1780-1800 French. Experts? What we do know is that they're both signed by the same artist's hand, "Saint Jules", I believe. The facing profiles make a striking pair, housed as they are in a superb old shell inlaid natural shell frame.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. The old slightly convex glass is intact on both paintings, as is the brass outer frame into which each is matted/set. The woman's portrait appears to have sustained a very slight water or moisture flaw, however, visible far more in our grand enlargements than it is to the eye in her 2" diameter painting. Splendid on all counts, I'd still rate this pair as very good to excellent, age considered. HIGH appeal, low price for a military duet and a shell frame!
IMPORTANT NOTE regarding antique tortoise shell or ivory: We are great supporters of protection for endangered species in our modern world. We never buy or sell anything 100 years or newer; we donate to anti-poaching organizations; we don't hunt; we conserve in ways that impact global warming (we're totally solar at home), knowing those measures also protect the animals in the wild today. We also recognize the vast cultural history we preserve with our care and reverence for these antique objects, and agree with CITES that objects over 100 years of age have nothing whatsoever to do with species depletion in our current world.
Our offering exceeds the age limitation of "more than 100 years of age", and is well within the exemption for CITES regulation. If imported, met the CITES regulation. This item will be handled and shipped from our Utah business, and is not available for shipment internationally, nor within the USA to California, NY, Nevada, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington if it contains ivory, sorry. Please see our small print for more details.
