Memorial Miniature for Thomas Gordon
Date1800
Maker
Unidentified
MediumPainting in later daguerreotype frame
DimensionsOverall: 2 5/8 × 2 1/8in. (6.7 × 5.4cm)
Credit LineGift of Beatrix T. Rumford
Object number2020.304.2
DescriptionMiniature memorial painting housed in a daguerretoype case which is inscribed, "IN MEMORY OF / THOMAS GORDON PEYTON / OBIT MARCH 20, 1800 / [illegible] 12 MO. & 17 DAYS / HIS DEATH WAS CAUSED / BY A FALL FROM A CHAIR."Label TextThis sweet memorial was worked in memory of Thomas Gordon Peyton, an infant who died at just 1 year old. He was the son of Dr. Chandler Peyton and his wife, Elizabeth Brown Scott Peyton of Fauquier County, Virginia. The Peyton's lived at "Gordonsdale" a two story stone house built by Thomas's maternal grandfather, Reverand John Scott in 1776 and named for his wife Elizabeth Gordon. In 1792, Dr. Peyton purchased the house from his widowed mother-in-law. The family cemetery on the property is likely the resting place of young Thomas.
InscribedTomb inscribed "TGP" within a reverse at top, base inscribed, "From trifling causes / great events arise / This infants fall / has raised him / to the skies."
MarkingsThe historical, circa 1850 leather-covered dauerreotype case having a facing leather panel gilt-stampled "IN MEMORY OF / THOMAS GORDON PEYTON / OBIT MARCH 10 1800. / ET AT 12. MO. & 17. DAYS / HIS DEATH WAS CAUSED / BY A FALL FROM A CHAIR."
Provenance1965, purchased in Balitmore Maryland by Beatrix Rumford [1939-2021] (Lexington, VA) ; 2020, given to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)
ca. 1825
1811-1820
