My wife’s mother has decided that it is time that her extensive Staffordshire figures collection should come to us. They have been gathered over many years, and Stephanie and I are eager to see that the collection stays together and in good hands. The family’s ivory collection of figures, horses, tusks, children is to come to us as well. Two Louis XVI walnut chairs which Stephanie and I covered in needlepoint which we worked when we were young and foolish are to come to two of our daughters. So, Mrs. Moore and I are going home to Boston to gather and pack these fine family heirlooms. We have decided to pack a car and drive across the country so we can have a few days enjoying the country landscapes in the beauty of early spring. But while in Boston, there are two places I want to visit. One of them is a third visit to Braintree to see the home of John Adams and his posterity. The second place is the Boston Fine Arts Museum to see the portraits by John Singleton Copley. Every time I see the equestrian portrait of George IV when Prince of Wales, I have to remind myself that his later life was spent in London where he died. Copley’s family members were Loyalists; however, the artist’s heart was in the colonies on his land on the Charles River. He never returned to the young United States because of his commissions and financial responsibilities in London. Don’t you agree that a double-take is warranted when one encounters this portrait of the Prince Regent, painted in 1810 in London, on a large wall in the Boston Fine Arts Museum? How it came to Boston is another great story. What a wonderful painting to enjoy as we close this Sunday evening.
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Thomas Moore email: TMooreSr@me.com Telephone: 801.791.9918
