Metford, Samuel (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Jackson (Dictionary) and Mrs van Leer Carrick (A History of American Silhouettes). Most authorities agree about the main events of Samuel Metford's life. He was born in Glastonbury, Somerset, of Quaker stock, in 1810. His father (Joseph Metford, of Glastonbury) married a Miss Elizabeth Rawes in 1801. Mayne refers to this artist as 'Sam Miles Metford'. There seems to be no other record of the middle name of 'Miles'; Mayne may have seen a silhouette bearing Metford's signature, with this second Christian name included.

Samuel Metford went to the United States in c. 1834, and eventually took American citizenship. He would therefore have been aged about twenty-four when he left England, and one would think that, since he was to make a career in profile work for the rest of his life, he would have taken a number of silhouettes in England by the time of his departure. Only one example dating from before 1834, however, has come to light: a full-length silhouette by Metford of his father. This, measuring 91/2 x 8 in., shows the figure standing and is inscribed on the back 'Joseph Metford, born 12th. month, 19th. 1776' (that is, 19 December 1776). The piece appears to have been taken in c. 1830, and is therefore an early example of Metford's work, taken before his sojourn in the United States. It is in the possession of Mrs Melanie Buck.

Metford worked in the United States for about ten years. He seems to have centred his activities on Connecticut, but no doubt visited neighbouring states. He was certainly in New Haven in 1842, and had an address there at 111 Chapel Street. Jackson records two seated full-length silhouettes (illustrated by Mrs Carrick) of the Hon. Davis Dagge and the Hon. Nathan Smith, taken in New Haven in 1842.

Metford returned to England in c. 1844. He was certainly in practice as a silhouette artist in Lancashire by 1845, for this is the date on a full-length silhouette of a man, owned by the Municipal Library in Warrington. He continued to work as a silhouette artist until 1865, when he returned to the United States. If taking silhouettes was Metford's main occupation, a good deal of his work must surely survive from these twenty years. There seems to be no evidence that Metford worked either in Bath (a haven for travelling silhouette artists) or in Brighton (where other artists were making a reasonable living). Metford seems to have chosen the north of England. An example in my collection bears the label of a Birkenhead frame-maker, two of the illustrated examples were taken in Warrington, and we know that in 1846 the artist was in Manchester. 534

Jackson tells us that 'many of his silhouettes are to be found in Scotland', which implies that Metford probably used centres in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The illustrated examples cover the period c. 1845 to c. 1853, or perhaps a little later. Whether Metford continued making silhouettes up to his departure for the United States in 1865 is not known, but no example which I have examined suggests a date of the early 1860s. Possibly he cut silhouettes in the United States during the years 1866-67. His whereabouts in the United States during these years, however, are not recorded.

During or after 1867 Metford returned to England: not to the north, but to Somerset. Some writers state that he died in 1890, but Carrick, and later Woodiwiss, give the year 1896, and state that the artist died in Weston-super-Mare.

Jackson states (though Mrs Carrick denies) that in 1801 Samuel Metford married. Soon after the marriage his wife Elizabeth became mentally afflicted, and became an inmate of The Retreat in York. In consequence, Metford had no descendants. The Quaker community of the time in the north of England had closely intermarried, and there were many solid ties of friendship between the various quaker families. Metford came to an agreement with one of his Quaker friends, named Warner, that Warner's next son should be named Metford. The artist probably helped to educate the boy who was in due course born and named after him. I was told this story by the grandson of Metford Warner, as the boy was called. It bears out the assumption of previous writers that Metford was of Quaker stock.

It is fortunate that Metford signed most of his work; it would otherwise be hard to identify, since it varied greatly both in quality and style of painting. Mayne mentions bust-length profiles; these I have not seen, and unless signed would be very difficult to identify.

Metford's full-length portraits are embellished either in gold paint, Chinese white, or yellow-ochre water-colour. Those painted in gold vary greatly in quality: in some cases the gold is thinly and inartistically applied; in others it is applied with considerable skill. Silhouettes with the detail painted in Chinese white are usually not of a high standard; I own an especially poor example. Those in yellow ochre (which Metford appears to have used in body colour, which was necessary to cover the black paper from which he cut the profiles) are good; all the detail is shown with care and with skilled brushwork. (It is possible that Metford used Naples yellow, itself an opaque pigment, for these examples.) 537 233 539

Although some of Metford's male sitters are seen wearing the fashionable half-boot of the 1840s (made with a somewhat pointed toe and with a small heel), Metford often cut his sitter's heels too small.

Some of Metford's silhouettes are set against lithographed interior backgrounds. Woodiwiss (British Silhouettes) mentions that many of these backgrounds show a sailing ship or steamer, seen through a window. I have illustrated two silhouettes with these backgrounds, and it is interesting that Mrs Carrick illustrated a seated full-length silhouette of Mrs John Maynard Davis (from the Charlestown Museum) pasted against a background identical with that of one 537 of the examples illustrated by me. In view of this one cannot say where these backgrounds were produced; some may well have been produced in the United States. Two other illustrated examples show palatial backgrounds of balustrading and urns. These, painted two years apart, were no doubt created for the 'nobility and gentry' to whom silhouette artists so often referred in their advertisements. This particular background seems to have been devised for a standing figure, whereas the indoor backgrounds were normally used for seated profiles. From the dating of the illustrated silhouette it would appear that Metford only used these lithographed backgrounds for a few years after he returned from the United States in c. 1844. From c. 1848 he adopted wash backgrounds. Some merely indicated the shadow of the figure against a block of paler wash; others represented sketches of interiors. One of the latter shows a floor formed from the pattern of concentric circles sometimes favoured by silhouette artists. Apart from the ready-lithographed examples, Metford seems to have used no set pattern for his backgrounds.

Frames for Metford's work also vary. Some silhouettes may have been sold unframed, and the sitters may have framed the figures or groups afterwards according to their own taste. Ebonised wood frames have been seen, as has another type of gilded metal frame, popular for pictures during the early days of Queen Victoria's reign.

No trade label is known; Metford's work was usually signed. Typical signatures are 'S. Metford fecit' and 'Sam'l Metford fecit'; sometimes the date, and more rarely, the place where the profile was taken were added. Metford usually signed his silhouettes on the front near the base.

Ills. 223, 266, 534541, 641