Collins, Mrs (McKechnie Section 1)

The name of Mrs Collins has been associated with that of Mrs Sarah Harrington (q.v.), the evidence for this association being derived from some contemporary advertisements which have survived.

From the recent discovery of some new material, however, it appears that the association did not last long. There is a summary, of necessity incomplete, of Mrs Harrington's travels in the entry on her. From 1774 until the end of 1776 Mrs Harrington was constantly on tour. By January 1777 Mrs Collins, in an advertisement which appeared in a Birmingham journal, was describing herself as `late pupil and assistant' to Mrs Harrington.

Foskett has suggested that this Mrs Collins was possibly the wife of John Collins (a miniature painter born in Bath), and a 'noted beauty'. This Mrs Collins is known to have painted miniatures in profile. Bénézit gives her Christian names as Elizabeth Joanna and mentions that she also executed book illustrations. Until a hollow-cut silhouette signed 'E. J. Collins’ is found, however, we cannot be certain that the profilist associated with Mrs Harrington was indeed John Collins's wife. John Collins is said to have been born in Bath, and to have first worked as an actor, appearing in Bath and, later, in Dublin and

London. He settled in Birmingham in 1793 and died there in 1808.

Whatever her identity, it is at any rate certain that Mrs Collins had, by the beginning of 1777, purchased a share of Mrs Harrington's patent and bought herself out of the profile-making partnership, if such it had really been. A month or two would probably have sufficed for Mrs Collins to learn from Mrs Harrington the entire method of producing hollow-cut silhouettes. The apparatus required was simple, and its use cannot have been difficult either to teach or to learn. Perhaps the most difficult stage to master would have been the exact reduction of the image by means of the pantograph.

By 1778, as the advertisements quoted below will show, Mrs Collins, considering her profiles to be far better finished than those of her former partner, had changed her style. By 1780, she was offering 'work as highly finished as the most elegant mezzotinto', which suggests painted work.

Mrs Collins's cut work, of which I have seen no signed examples, is very difficult to identify. It is, however, evident that no profile bearing the trade label of Mrs Harrington at 131 New Bond Street, London, can be the work of Mrs Collins, since the former did not work at this address until after April 1779 at the earliest. By this date the two artists had parted company, and were working in different styles.

Mrs Collins's story can be pieced together from a series of her advertisements. The earliest of these appeared in the Aris Birmingham Gazette on 6 January 1777: `By H.M. Letters Patent Mrs Collins, late pupil and assistant to Mrs Harrington, who has had the honour of taking the Profiles of the Royal family &c. is now making a tour of the whole Kingdom, having purchased a moiety of that Lady's Patent. Price 2s. 6d. Time of Sitting, three minutes. Coventry, Warwick, Wolverhampton, Lichfield, and Derby will be visited.' At the time of writing, no contemporary advertisements indicating the whereabouts of Mrs Harrington in 1777 have come to light, although some must surely have appeared. It seems clear from the wording of the advertisement just quoted that by the beginning of that year the two artists were financially independent of each other.

By May 1777 Mrs Collins was in Leicester. She had probably already visited the towns mentioned in the Birmingham advertisement, and the discovery of dated profiles inscribed with the names of these towns would help to distinguish her work from that of Mrs Harrington.

It would seem from the advertisement that Mrs Collins published in the Leicester Journal on 24 May 1777 that her technique was still based on Mrs Harrington's, and that she was still cutting profiles. The mention of children's profiles is interesting. The text of the advertisement is as follows:

(By His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent)

The MOST STRIKING LIKENESSES

IN MINIATURE PROFILE

MRS COLLINS, late Pupil and Assistant to Mrs HARRINGTON and now her partner; —Assuring her self that she shall experience a Degree of [text missing] and Spirit in the Inhabitants of LEICESTER, equal to those in any other Place she has practised in, begs leave to inform them, that she shall, for a few days, take the Most Accurate Likenesses, at Mr. Cooke's, Breeches maker in Gallowtreegate, LEICESTER, where Specimens may be seen. Time of sitting three Minutes only. Price Half-a-Crown.

N.B. Attendance will be given from 10 in the morning till 7 in the evening.

*Ladies and Gentlemen need not have their heads dressed for sitting, as they may be convinced from the Specimens, that Mrs COLLINS can decorate them in whatever taste or manner they shall chuse, without their giving themselves that trouble.

The similitude, taste, and elegance, with which these profiles are executed, on Mrs HARRINGTON's plan, so widely differ from everything of the kind hitherto attempted, that MRS COLLINS will require no pay, unless the Likeness is perfectly striking, and the air and manner in which it is cut, agreeable to the true stile of the Greek and Roman Medallions.

Any Ladies or Gentlemen who have Shadows by them of their living or deceased friends, may have them epitomised in whatever size they chuse, and the likeness most perfectly and accurately preserved in the Miniature.

N.B. The Mantle-Pieces of the Palace Royal, as well as those of the Nobility and Gentry in most parts of the Kingdom, are at present decorated with those Patent [text missing] they being at this time the reigning taste of the BEAU MONDE.

* The features of Children accurately taken, from two month old to any age.

In February 1778 Mrs Collins was in Bristol. It will be seen from the lengthy advertisement which she published in that city, quoted below, that she appears to have changed her style, for she says that her profiles are `executed on an improved plan far superior to that which Mrs Harrington adopted when here'. Again, children are specifically mentioned. The advertisement appeared in Bonner and Middleton's Bristol Journal on 14 February 1778:

By His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent granted to Mrs. Harrington for her inimitable Method of taking MINIATURE LIKENESSES from shadows in Profile

Mrs. Collins respectfully informs the Ladies and Gentlemen of Bristol and its neighbourhood that she commences on Tuesday next 17th. inst. February to take the Most Striking Likenesses which the outline of Nature can possibly afford, at Mrs. Pritchard's, No. 44, in Princes Street; where specimens may be seen and attendance will be given from Ten till Two and from Three till Eight.

Time of sitting no more than one minute and but one Sitting required.

Price Half-a Crown.

The taste, elegance and high finishing which these patent profiles exhibit at the first sight (from being executed on an improved plan far superior to that which Mrs. Harrington had adopted when here) so obviously transcend the imperfect performances of unskilled adventurers who by various erroneous Methods have aspired at this Art, that there is scarcely a Nobleman's or Gentleman's Seat in this Kingdom, without several Striking epitomes of Mrs. Collins' or her preceptor's delineating. No Pay will be required of anyone who sits unless the Likeness is acknowledged to be Striking, and the air and contour of the Head and Bust in the true Stile of the Greek and Roman medallions.

The features of children accurately taken from one month old to any age; any Person having Shadows by them of Living or Deceased friends may have them reduced to any size, and the Likenesses most critically preserved in the miniature.

It should be noted that there is no mention of cut work in this advertisement. In fact, the profiles taken by Mrs Collins after the publication of this advertisement may not have been cut.

We have no information about Mrs Collins's movements during 1779. Possibly she was still touring the country, though it is unlikely that she visited Scotland, since she was bound by the terms of Mrs Harrington's patent, which did not permit her to work north of Berwick-on-Tweed.

I have, however, found an advertisement, published by Mrs Collins in the Bath Chronicle on 6 January 1780, which confirms that, as her Bristol advertisement suggests, she had once more completely changed her technique and style: 'The most perfect Likenesses in Miniature Drawing, as highly finished as the most elegant mezzotinto, taken in one short sitting by Mrs. Collins, price only five shillings. Specimens may be seen in the Pump Room, or at Mrs. Collins' apartment, No. 3, Bond Street, where attendance will be given from 10 in the morning until 4 every day during her short stay in Bath.'

The advertisement in the Bristol Journal, quoted above, suggests that Mrs Collins may have abandoned cut work by 14 February 1778, and I have explained why I think no cut profile, bearing the trade label of Mrs Harrington at 131 New Bond Street, Bath, can be from Mrs Collins's hand. The advertisement in the Bath Chronicle, however, seems to establish beyond doubt that she had ceased to produce cut work by 6 January 1780.

Since no later advertisement by Mrs Collins is known to exist, our knowledge of her career as a silhouette artist ends here. I should add, however, that there are in my collection two glass profiles of a date c. 1780-81, akin stylistically to Mrs Harrington's work, but painted with a certain amount of stippling and with what could be called a `mezzotinto' effect. It is just possible that these profiles are by Mrs Collins, and that the advertisement in the Bath Chronicle refers to work of this type. But there is no sign of any signature on either of these pieces, and I do not feel justified in illustrating them as possible examples of the work of Mrs Collins.

It is evident that Mrs Collins was producing cut work (probably in the hollow-cut technique) perhaps towards the end of 1776, certainly during 1777, possibly in 1778-79, but certainly not by very early in 1780.

As far as I know, no signed work by this artist has been recorded. I have seen hollow-cut work in three styles distinctly different from Mrs Harrington's manner. One of these styles involved the use of black silk backing, another may indicate the hand of Steell (q.v.), and a third may be Mrs Collins's style. By February 1778, as I have indicated, she was certainly advertising what she called work far superior to Mrs Harrington's. But how different from Mrs Harrington's we do not know; it is very likely that it was not cut work.

For all that we know, cut profiles definitely executed during the years 1776-77, and manifestly in Mrs Harrington's style, may in fact be Mrs Collins's work. Some of these, attributed to Mrs Harrington on stylistic grounds, are illustrated in this Section. On the existing evidence, I am sceptical of the theory, which has been advanced by some writers, that the more decorative hollow-cut profiles produced by the partnership are by Mrs Harrington, and the plainer examples by Mrs Collins. I consider that the extent of the decorative detail depended entirely on the clothes worn by the sitter.

In this context, it is worthy of note that Mrs Collins, in two of her advertisements, offered to take profiles of children.