Oil on canvas, unsigned, bust length portrait of Mary Catherine Custard Michael (wife of John Michael of Maryland) painted in a feigned oval, presented in the original magnificent Aesthetic Movement gilt wood frame with applied composition ornament.

SS 26.25 x 21.5 in; DOA 41.5 x 36.25 in.

Collection of Mrs. Jacqueline R. Stroupe, Pinehurst, North Carolina

Mary Catherine Custard was born in Burkittsville, Frederick County, Maryland on October 4, 1844. She and John Lambert Michael, of Urbana, married about 1880. A history of the Michael family records that John and Mary were "in merchandising in Frederick City" and owned "two farms and several houses in the City." One of John's farms was located on Carrollton Manor, as recorded in Wm. J. Groves' History of Carrollton Manor, 1927. John and Mary Catherine had two children: Pearl Custard Micheal (b. September 7, 1882, d. November 28, 1972) and Bessie Michael (b. May 1, 1881, d. January 24, 1956). Mary died in July 1912 and is buried, alongside her husband, at the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, Maryland. See lots 218 and 219 for related family portraits.

$1,000 - 2,000