Depicting Malbourne Addison Angier and his wife, Mary Jane Pearson Angier. Both oil on canvas by Norval H. Busey, each housed in the original ornate gilt composition frame. Each with Baltimore artist supply stencil on the verso. See lot 206 for the mourning brooch Mrs. Angier is wearing in this portrait.

SS 29.5 x 24.5 in.; DOA 41.5 x 36.5 in.

By direct descent from the family

Malbourne Addison Angier is counted among the great pioneers of Durham and played a great part in its early history. Born locally in 1820, he was one of Durham''s first merchants. An article in the Durham Sun on May 18, 1962, by Wyatt T. Dixon, notes that old bills of sale for tobacco sold in the Reams Warehuse indicate that he was operating his store in 1850, a few years before the railroad was extended to Durham. By 1880, "Squire Angier" owned one of the most successful stores in the city. He served his community throughout his life - as director of the NC Railroad, Durham Academy trustee, three term mayor of the city, member of the General Assembly, and much more. Mary Jane (Pearson) Angier and Malbourne married in 1853. They set up their home in the Hayti section of the city and raised four children, William Jackson Angier, Sarah Pearson Angier Duke (wife of Benjamin Newton Duke, and namesake for the Sara P. Duke Gardens), Jonathan Cicero Angier, and Mary Gilmore Angier Stokes. These portraits are related to four portraits currently hanging in the Lilly Library at Duke University and a portrait of Mrs. B. N. Newton at the Washington Duke Inn. In her portrait, also painted in 1894, she is wearing her crystal anniversary dress. Norval H. Busey, the artist, was born in 1845, in Christiansburg, Virginia. He studied painting with Bouguereau in Paris. Around 1871 he became a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York, an early important art club that held regular exhibitions and formed a collection. Busey also painted portraits of Benjamin N. Duke, Master Angier B. Duke, and Miss Mary Duke, which hang in Lilly Library's Main Lobby, and The Reapers, which hangs in the south foyer on the second floor. It is fitting that Busey received such a prestigious commission, as not only was he a well-known and respected portraitist, but he was also from the Baltimore area. As is relayed in the family history accompanying Mrs. Angier's blanket chest, her great grandfather, Captain Samuel Pearson (b. 1723) was originally from Baltimore County, Maryland. They likey maintained family and social ties in the Baltimore area. See lot 204 for Mrs. Angier's paint decorated blanket chest. Additional lots of related family interest are 204, and 206 through 213.

$500 - 1,000