Just as I found her, this magnificent subject and her shy dog are from c.1800-1830, and saved in a late 1800s French bronze round frame, making it a marriage. The dour woman in her blue dress with white lace collar and bonnet, and lace bib front would be a fun miniature all on its own, but holding her shy cowering cute pup makes it one that's just impossible to pass up. Uncertain if the puppy is afraid of her or the artist is impossible to know, but isn't it charming! And the attribution of a famous Austrian portrait miniature artist written on the tape on frame back can't be either proven or disproven since there is no visible signature and yet the work does have a resemblance to other miniatures by Leopold Lieb (1771 - 1836). Makes me wonder if a signature might have been overpainted there when this miniature went through some restorative touching up. Since it's not in the original frame, one can suppose other information may have been lost with it. Even so, the painting is so appealing, I wasn't able to pass her by. Are you? Full measurements noted on the photos.
Good to very good condition for age and type, with a nod to the overpainting we can readily see on the miniature portrait wafer, and the fact that she's been removed from the late 1700s to earliest 1800s frame to which she belonged and put into an excellent doré bronze French frame that would be around 80 years newer than the painting - she's well worth a search to find a much older portrait miniature frame and convex cover glass to return her to correct form. Wafer is flat, unbroken. The frame is a valuable antique on its own, but for highest value you'll want a much older miniature frame if you can locate one. None of my spares fit.
