Live Auction 10697The English Collector
A PAIR OF EARLY VICTORIAN CUT-FELT PICTURES
Lot 1 THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE MRS BARBARA OVERLAND
REMOVED FROM MONT PELLIER, JERSEY

A PAIR OF EARLY VICTORIAN CUT-FELT PICTURES

BY GEORGE SMART, FRANT, CIRCA 1840

Closed21 May 2015

Price Realised

GBP 4,750

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A PAIR OF EARLY VICTORIAN CUT-FELT PICTURES
BY GEORGE SMART, FRANT, CIRCA 1840
One depicting 'Old Bright The Postman' leading a donkey with Frant church in the distance, on a painted background, with maker's paper label on the reverse 'G. SMART, ARTIST/ IN CLOTH AND VELVET FIGURES, To his Royal highness The DUKE of SUSSEX'; the other depicting 'The Goose Woman' before a milestone with a castle and windmill in the distance, on a painted background
10 ½ x 8 ¼ in. (26.7 x 21 cm.)

Specialist note

The artist George Smart (d.1846) was, by trade, a tailor in the village of Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He made figured pictures out of scraps of left-over cloth and became very popular supplying pictures to Queen Victoria's uncle, the Duke of Sussex. His pictures often included portraits of local figures.
For a detailed discussion on the work of George Smart, see James Ayres, British Folk Art, London 1976.
Comparable pictures of 'Old Bright' and 'The Goose Woman' were sold in The Roger Warner Collection, Christie's, London 20-21 January 2009, lots 480 and 481 (£2,500 and £4,250 including premium).