The Captivating Miss B/The American Negotiator

Date1783

Maker A. Hamilton

MediumLine engraving and etching on laid paper

DimensionsOverall: 4 3/4 × 7 1/4in. (12.1 × 18.4cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2024-214

DescriptionLower margin reads: "The Captivating Miss B__./ The American Negotiator./ London, Publish'd by A. Hamilton Jun.r Fleet Street, Oct.r 1, 1783."
Label TextThis print was published in a regular series in Town and Country Magazine that focused on the scandals of London society. It was called "Tete a Tete." This series used fake names in thinly disguised accounts of both fictional and real romantic relationships between members of society. Paired portraits illustrated each short article. Allegedly, these two paired portraits depicted Silas Deane (1737-1789), an American diplomat who negotiated the French-American alliance during the American Revolution, and a courtesan-- Miss B. Deane's reputation took a hit when Congress charged him with financial misdealings and intercepted letters that Deane wrote about the American cause being hopeless-- causing him to flee to France. Miss B was supposedly the daughter of a farrier and did not want to marry someone from her father's trade, causing her to run off with several different men. The magazine story implied that Deane became a patron of Miss B.
ProvenanceBefore 2024, Grosvenor Prints (London); 2024-present purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).