Although best known for his well-cut silhouettes of people, Augustin Edouart also cut family conversation pieces that often included the family dog. In addition to his personal archive of cuttings, he kept his practice and experimental cuttings in scrapbooks. These scrapbooks and his archive volumes were mostly all lost to the sea when Edouart was shipwrecked off the coast of Guernsey in 1829. Some years ago a salvaged scrapbook came to light in a Parisian bookshop and this is the source of this fun silhouette. Edouart has cleverly cut the dog and the chair as a single piece without any overlay or joint. The dog even has a tiny eyelash! The silhouette carries a stamp of authenticity within the frame and on the backing board.The silhouette is presented in a period bird’s eye maple veneer frame with a gilt (bit tarnished) slip.Finding himself exiled in England with a wife and young family to support, Augustin Edouart (1788-1818) opened a shop in Cheltenham selling French curios a...