Ring with Miniature Portrait

Many portraits were painted posthumously to commemorate a lost loved one. They often included on the reverse mourning imagery, painted in monochrome with chopped hair dissolved into the watercolor, which sometimes depicted a tomb inscribed with the loved one's name. This mourning miniature for Blaney Townley Balfour, a friend of Horace Walpole, shows a tomb inscribed "BTB born 14th June 1744 Ob 8th Dec. 1771" and around the perimeter "He being made perfect in a short time fulfill'd a long life." The companion mourning ring is engraved on the band "taken from the evil to come 8 Dec. 1771."