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Painting: Small, rectangular format, white shaft placed against a black background. Flanked by pair of urns, and adorned with several religious inscriptions. Another inscription appears across the base of the image. Frame: Simple, mitered-cornered, black-painted, stencilled frame made by Anson Clark, West Stockbridge, Mass.
memento mori
funerary art
painting (coating)
paper (fiber product)
watercolor (paint)
deaths
fleur-de-lis (motifs)
mourning
obelisks (monumental pillars)
urns
Watercolor
Unidentified Paper
Painted
Death
Mourning
Obelisk
Urn
Fleur-de-Lis
PICTURE, MOURNING
1- On obelisk (this part of inscription contained within an oval): Tomb/Reader,/with solemnity/Survey this Tomb,/ and reflect on the /Precarious Condition/ of Humanity;/ and whilst the virtues/ of the Wife and Par-/ent is remembered,/Drop a Tear/ that thou shalt see/Her Face/no more. 2- Below oval: SACRED/To the Memory of/Mrs. Abagail Channel/Of Ipswich/Who was Born/April ye. 17th, 1754/ And departed this Life/ June ye. 24th 1794. Aged/ 40 years 2 Months 4 Days. 3- On plinth: Farewell dear Friend a Short Farewell,/Till we Shall meet again above:/ In the Sweet Groves where pleasures dwell,/ And Trees of Life, bear fruits of Love. 4- Below plinth on scroll: Death is a path, which must be trod,/ If Man would ever pass to God. 5- On ground in front of monument: To the Memory of the late Abagail Channel this Inscription/ is dedicated by her Friends and Relations. Drawn by William Saville 6- On frame reverse, along left, in pencil: ""Frame painted by Aaron Clard of W. Stockbridge Mass./ in the 1830s/ Bought from his estate. 7- Frame reverse, lower right on a jelly label in pen: ""Frame sten[cilled]/At- by/ Anson Clark/ W. Stockbridge/Mass."" 8- Frame reverse, lower left on a jelly label, written in blue fountain pen: ""N.F/ Little"" 9- Tucked into center bar is a white card with typewritten entry: ""MEMORIAL TO MRS. ABIGAIL CHANNEL/ Essex (formerly Ipswich South Parish,/ ""Chebacco"") Mass./ Painted by William Saville, a Gloucester/ school teacher, in 1795. Bears no resemblane to her actual tomb/ Eighteenth century ""mourning pictures""/ are very rare. This pre-dates the/ usual design of tomb with willow tree and/ mourners.
Channel, Abigail, 1754-1794
Original to Cogswell's Grant (Essex, Mass.),
Saville, William, 1770-1853 (Maker)
Clark, Anson (Maker)
Gloucester, MA, USA; West Stockbridge, MA, USA; Ipswich, MA, USA, Essex County
13.25 x 10 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little
1991.1319
Massachusetts (United States)
Title Family Register Accession Number 1991.1320
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