Jones, Abraham (McKechnie Section 2)

See Section Three for main entry

Some of Jones's advertisements, quoted in Section Three, offer 'profiles taken with all drapery shaded at 2s 6d each'. As one advertisement, dated c. 1783 offers glass profiles at 5s, one can assume that those offered at the lower price of 2s 6d were on paper. A later advertisement, dated 1785, also includes the phrase quoted above. Jones's various advertisements, considered together, suggest that he was an artist who progressed from painting on paper to painting on glass.

At the time of writing no silhouette by Jones painted on paper has been identified. A comparison of the anonymous profile of Mary Gascoigne, illustrated in Chapter Five, with the profile by Jones on glass, illustrated in Section Three, suggests that the former might be Jones's work.

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It is evident from the wording of his advertisements that Jones's profiles were painted in full detail, with the clothing carefully rendered. One would expect his sitters to be wearing fashions of the 1780s. Jones's work on glass, although painstaking, is not outstanding. It is likely, however, that his work on paper was of higher quality, especially as his advertisements state that he was a drawing master who also taught the art of painting on silk and satin, as well as with crayon.