Houghton, Samuel (McKechnie Section 5)

See Section Four for main entry, also Houghton and Bruce in this Section

The only type of work specifically offered on Houghton's trade label is 'profile shades reduced so small as to set in Rings, Pins, Bracelets, Lockets, &c.': None of his extant examples on ivory bears a date, but we can infer from the inscriptions on the backs of two of them (illustrated) that these were taken c. 1783. We can conclude from this that Houghton, who lived in Edinburgh, first began work as a profilist by painting small profiles on ivory, and later took up painting on plaster.

The two profiles in question are framed as lockets. The sitters are a son and a daughter of Hew Steuart, Governor of Fort Marlborough, Sumatra, and the senior civil servant in the district. At the time Fort Marlborough was part of the West Coast Establishment of the Indian Civil Service. The inscriptions on the reverses of the profiles read as follows:

John, youngest son of Hew Steuart, Governor of Fort Marlborough, born May 20th., 1776, christened at Fort M. on Oct. 4 1780. Left Sumatra with his father, Oct. 12 1781. Probably died young in Scotland.

Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Hew Stewart, formerly of Fort Marlborough, born 22nd June 1773, in Sumatra (probably at MANNA) Sent home to Scotland before June, 1779, in charge of a slave girl, Rissal. Probably died young.

The Steuarts may have been members of a cadet branch of the family of James Steuart, tenth Baron Allington. John appears to be about seven years old, Elizabeth perhaps ten or eleven. Houghton, therefore, must have begun working in Edinburgh about three years before John Miers arrived in the city in 1786.

Two other illustrated silhouettes offer few clues for dating; one, of a man, shows the sitter wearing a 'physical' wig, which was in fashion for many years; the other, of 'Clarinda' (Mrs Maclehose), cannot be dated more precisely than to c. 1786-89.

Since Houghton began his career by painting on ivory, these early pieces are naturally less finished in technique than his later work on plaster. Unless they are signed, these small pieces are difficult to distinguish from early work by John Miers. Houghton painted several examples for setting as rings. They are placed under thick pieces of convex glass; one, in the Christie collection, is elliptical in shape, and has a fine engraved border.

I have already referred (Chapter Two) to the interesting profile of 'Clarinda'. The illustration has been reproduced from a sale catalogue issued by a firm of auctioneers in Edinburgh, George P. Johnston, of 33 George Street. It originally appeared as the frontispiece to Correspondence between Burns and Clarinda, edited by W. C. Maclehose (Clarinda's grandson), Edinburgh, 1843. The entry in the catalogue reads: 'Silhouette-miniature portrait on enamel, by Houghton, of Clarinda (Mrs. Maclehose), the correspondent. of Robert Burns, in the original leather case.' This piece may well have been fired on enamel, but, since its present whereabouts are unknown, this point cannot be verified. The possibility that the silhouette was painted on ivory cannot be completely eliminated.

It is unlikely that Houghton's large trade label was used either for his small jewellery pieces or for the boxes in which they were supplied. They were normally signed. The signature most often seen is 'Houghton'; one illustrated silhouette is signed 'S. Houghton'.

Ills. 240, 1485-1488