Antiques Roadshow

they came down through my husband's family my husband's grandmother was a wealthy woman in Wilmington Delaware who was known to collect early American items the first one here is signed by the artist but we don't know who the sitter is it's very very tiny signature and it's Thomas Hanford Wentworth who was an itinerant painter in the 18th century and into the early 19th century while we don't know the sitter it's a very fine example of his work and on today's auction market it would be expected to fetch between five and seven hundred dollars okay now the one that's much more interesting is nearest you and in this case we don't know the artist it was probably an itinerant painter but on the back of the miniature is an inscription telling us who the sitter is and the sitter is goes by the name of William by our junior and he was a pretty pivotal figure during the Revolutionary War he's best known for being a close friend of Alexander Hamilton's and Alexander Hamilton after his duel with Aaron Burr died in William by ARDS house in Greenwich Village New York and that's where he passed away the day after buy art was a very prominent banker in New York City and from that likeness and from others like it we determined that that is probably a portrait taken much later in life and it probably dates to about 1810 it's an it's an oil miniature there are very few images of buy art except for a handful of other portraits and this does not appear like those so it was probably taken from life an auction the miniature of by our jr. would be expected to bring in anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 dollars unexpected Wow it's a fantastic thing thank you