I have hit a research wall and any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

I am researching the provenance of an oil painting portrait in our
Museum's collection.  I am looking for any leads/sources the wise
Listers may have.

      

What I do know:

1)       Who purchased it: Museum Rep.

2)        Where is was purchased from: Merwin Sales Co. auction house

3)        When it was purchased from auction house: 1913

4)        What the auction house listed it as: "artist unknown"
"colonial period."  

 

I am trying to figure out WHO painted it and WHEN (shocking, I know).  I
have looked at the auction houses sales records, but no consignor
information was located. 

 

Is anyone familiar with the frequency of American undisciplined
attribution from the early 1900s or attribution error for portraits from
the Colonial Period in the early 1900s?  

 

AND/OR

 

Does anyone have any experience researching sales records of auction
houses absorbed by Sotheby's OR researching at the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts?  I have exhausted the sources at the NY Hall of Records,
NYPL, and the Frick. 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!  Thank you!

 

 

Jessica Baldwin
Museum Director
Fraunces Tavern Museum

212-425-1778 x3

 


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