Rare Victoriana Folk Art -- Tinsel & Glass Painted Valentine Portrait Miniatures

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Rare Victoriana Folk Art -- Tinsel & Glass Painted Valentine Portrait Miniatures:
$29.95

Rare miniatureVictorian tinsel-art paintings.
These beautiful, hand-painted, folk art valentine portraits were handed down in my wife\'s father\'s family. These folk were Swiss Mennonite farm families from western Pennsylvania and the women were skilled in the craft of tinsel-art painting.
In tinsel art painting, a pattern is painted on the reverse side of a glass and then mounted in a frame over a crinkled piece of scrap tinfoil (aluminum foil was not commercially available back then). The authenticity of these pieces is underscored by the yellowed and brittle period wallpaper used as a backing. See the photos above that show these features.
When they came into our possession, they had badly deteriorated, cut-out portraits of Victorian women that showed through a clear window in their centers. One of these originalimages is shown in a photo above. These images appeared to be cut from old valentines or magazine covers. We replaced those imageswith copies of historic paintings of Victorian women.
Our best estimate is that these tinsel art portraits are late 19th or early 20th century. They are miniatures, measuring 4-3/4\" by 6\" in gold and black painted wood frames.The crinkled tinfoilimparts a sparkling effect which isn\'t captured in the photos.
Don\'t miss this opportunity to own, not one, but two classic Valentine treasures!