The Same Miniature is Not Always the Same

[Member1]

One of the most amazing pieces Eric Pearson made was his set of dueling pistols, a number of these exist but we have no idea how many he made over the years or how long he offered these. My guess is he made them in the 1950's and 60's. A while back I had the opportunity to study  two of them side by side. These were owned by the museums in Kansas City (left) and in Maysville, Ky. (right) The interesting thing is they are the same piece but different in size and finish. Eric Pearson offered the same pieces for a long period of time, as in decades for some pieces. I once studied four of the same secretary, They were all built as individuals or from different batches. There were very few dimensions that were the same.

 

I wish we knew about how some of these early artists worked?

 

If anyone has one of these sets please let me know and if you have any information on Pearson I would love to know more. I have talked to few people that visited his shop in New York City years ago.

 

BTW For those that don't know Pearson was one of the first, if not the first to make his living selling fine miniatures to adults.

 

[ElgaKoster]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing, I don't think I have heard of him before. In looking at the two sets, I am guessing there were a few years between the making of them, somehow (and it is not that easy to tell from the photo) the one on the right strikes me as just a little bit finer, if you look at the brass covering the bottom of the grip it follows the shape of the grip much better than the one on the left. Every artist improves with the years and refines their work, I certainly aim for that in my own miniatures.

As to the different dimensions on the same piece, if they were made over the years it does make sense to me, I found when I made the sixth sewing table a few months after the first five, having to cut all the pieces anew, using the same dimensions and even measuring the one I kept for myself, the final size was not quite the same. I think with the tolerances in miniatures so small and our tools probably set up slightly different each time, a piece that we make months or years later can easily turn out size wise a bit bigger or smaller.