David Mumford gave this pair of romantic vignettes to his daughter Abigail when she wed Thompson Phillips in Connecticut in 1793. The facility with which the diminutive scenes were painted suggests that they were executed by an English itinerant artist. In one image, a gentleman emerges through the bushes, surprising a lady with a dog, a symbol of fidelity. The other image illustrates a scene from Fanny Burney’s popular English novel Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress (1782): the older man (at center) introduces Cecilia, the rich heroine (at left), to Henrietta, the poorer woman (at right). The fictional Cecilia values character over wealth, made evident in her choice of husband and friends.

Tokens of love, these miniatures descended on the maternal side of the Mumford-Phillips family for generations. Around 1850, the original, simple bracelets were replaced by intricate cut-gold filigree bands made in Paris. These alterations may have been made to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Abigail Martha Phillips and John Porter, whose 1825 marriage date is inscribed on the reverses of the miniatures. The decision to update the miniatures attests to their continued significance to family members.