A Mysterious Silhouette

Daft Bat

Daft Bat

Administrator. Chief cook & bottle washer!
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My friend, who is eternally grateful to you all for helping with the horn beaker, has now thrown this query into the ring. :rolleyes:

He thinks that it might be foreign and would be grateful if anyone is able to read what is on the back of the silhouette:

upload_2021-6-27_8-13-7.png

It is currently for sale and so the number is probably the lot number.

The front:

upload_2021-6-27_8-14-11.png

Thank you. :D
 
Is it a silhouette or possibly a reverse painting on convex glass...found one of a lady that looks similar to the above. This one was early 19th century measuring 2 1/2" x 3 1/8"
 
Yup, I took the Dutch idea back to my friend and a friend of his said that it translated as "Captain of the Sea". :)

Doesn't help with knowing who the chap was though... :headbang:
Archie's Mum said:
The initials, whatever they maybe 'C? V(an)? K? Captain of the Sea'....:nailbiting: Dutch or Belgium.
Click to expand...
 
Archie's Mum said:
Is it a silhouette or possibly a reverse painting on convex glass...found one of a lady that looks similar to the above. This one was early 19th century measuring 2 1/2" x 3 1/8"
Click to expand...
Apparently a silhouette but enhanced with fine paints. :)
 
He could have been working for the Dutch East India Company, but where you would find names I have no idea.
 
If he is wearing a peruke, then it would seem to date from mid to late 18th Century. In Britain perukes were all but dead by the end of the Century and the Dutch navy weren't what they used to be, Battle of Camperdown.
But then i could be Barque-ing up the wrong tree.
 
Wikipedia has quite a lot on the Dutch East India Company, as well as lists of various Dutch naval personnel etc - though these are probably not complete. Some came from a slightly later period, which might fit the silhouette medium better.

Among the names I found (all have their own articles) were:
Carel Hendrik Ver Huell
Lodewijk van Heiden
Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen​
but the initials don't seem completely right to me.

However, we might be on the right lines - Google images produces results for all of these, and there's an engraving of Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen in a coat very similar to this one; this is reproduced in his Wikipedia article with the inscription "Kapitein ter Zee" (as Schnurrbart said).
 
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