Historic AmericanaBenjamin Franklin "Peales Museum" Silhouette Portrait

c. 1920 (First Half of the 20th Century), Silhouette Portrait Of Benjamin Franklin, Embossed Stamp below with "Peales Museum" Under a Spread Eagle, Very Fine.
This Silhouette of Benjamin Franklin shows him in later years, facing left. The central silhouette portrait measures 6" x 4" in an 8" x 5.5" central oval design and has surrounding laid paper. It is housed within what appears to be its original gold painted wooden frame with a green fabric interior surround, to 11.5" x 9" which shows light wear. The background paper shows some expected light age tone. Overall, it is attractive and pleasing. According to Anne Verplanck is the Curator of Prints and Paintings at Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware, Peale initially employed Moses Williams to create the silhouettes; from the 1810s to the 1830s, a succession of other silhouettists worked at the museum, each in a slightly different style. Two different embossing stamps were used at Peale's museums: one reads "Peale's Museum" under a spread eagle, the other reads "MUSEUM". A rarer embossed "PEALE" stamp is associated with the often itinerant work of Raphaelle Peale (1774– 1825), Charles Willson Peale's eldest son. Not all silhouettes cut at Peale's Museum, however, bear a stamp. The authentic silhouettes, done at Peale's museums, are rectangular and are usually cut from about 4 3/4-by-3 1/2 inch paper. This larger design was likely reproduced in New York City c. 1920 and is a nice, presentable example of that type.


Charles Willson Peale's Museum, also known as the Philadelphia Museum, was an art, history, and natural history museum established in 1784 and sold to P.T. Barnum in 1849; its contents were sold in 1854. Peale's son Rembrandt established Peale's Baltimore Museum in Baltimore, Maryland in 1814, while another son, Rubens, founded Peale's New-York Museum in New York City in 1825, both of which were also simply referred to as "Peale's Museum." Peale and his sons also established other museums. All of the museums closed in later years.

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