ciated, through initiation, perhaps, until 1831. Leonard Cotton was in Trinidad unti11826. Also, Leonard Cotton's mother's name was Miriam, not Martha. The Cotton portraits descended through the Cottonfamily at Portsmouth to Ann Withington, who sold them to Dr. Vaughan. At the time ofpurchase the portraits were accompanied by a pair of painted and decoratedfire buckets (fig. 5)and several pieces of Cotton furniture and jewelry. The portrait retains its originalframe.(Dr. Dorothy Vaughan) 5. Pair offire buckets painted and decorated by
John S. Blunt. (Dr. Dorothy Vaughan;photograph courtesy ofStrawbery Banke, Inc.)H. 11/ 1 2': 6. Page dated 1826from the John S. Blunt Account Book. Notice the entryfor August 22 where John Blunt recorded a charge of$3.00 to Leonard Cotton for painting 3fire buckets. Thefire buckets with their brilliant red background relate directly to the primer used by John Blunt during the execution of his portraits. The lettering on thefire buckets is stylistically similar to lettering used by Blunt on the globes shown in several portraits ofsea captains (figs. 37 and 39). Thefire buckets,
12.
fire bags, and the portraits ofLeonard and Martha Cotton descended together through the Cottonfamily ofPortsmouth, New Hampshire.(Private collection) 7. Detail of the Portrait of the Navigator (fig. 37). (Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection) 8. Detail of the Portrait of Captain Daniel Borden (fig. 39).(The Whaling Museum) 9. Detail offire bucket (fig. 5). (Dr. Dorothy Vaughan;photograph courtesy ofStrawbery Banke, Inc.) 10. Detail offire bucket (fig. 5).(Dr. Dorothy Vaughan; photograph courtesy ofStrawbery Banke, Inc.) 11. Detail ofPortrait ofa Gentleman holding a card inscribed John S. Blunt (fig. I). (Mr. and Mrs. John Howe) 12. Captain and Mrs. William Henry Topham (1806-1859 and 18081884). 1831-32. Oil on canvas. 38" x 50'! Captain William Henry Topham and Abby Ingraham Bush, the subjects in the only known double portrait of adults painted by Blunt, were married in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1828.
Announcement of their marriage appeared in both The Rhode Island Republican (February 7) and The Newport Mercury (February 9). The son of mariner Philip Morse Topham and Mary Richard Peck, William Henry was born August 30, 1806, in Newport. Abby Bush, also a Newport native and the daughter ofHazard Bush, was born January 11, 1808. In 1828 after his marriage, William H. Topham advertised his wares and services as a brassfoundry operator and manufacturer' in New Bedford. The Tophams' first child was born in 1829 in Massachusetts, so perhaps thefamily stayed in New Bedford where he had conducted his foundry business. By 1833, however, Captain Topham was at sea on a whaling vessel, the Franklin, in the South Atlantic. The Captain was master of at least three other whaling shipsfrom 1836 to 1846—the Vermont, the America, and the Canada. Thefamily was located in Fall River at the time of the 1840 census, but had returned to New Bedford by 1850. The 1850 census shows Captain Topham no longer listed as a mariner, but rather as a brass manufacturer. William Henry and Abby hadfive children—Mary, William,
7.
8. Abby, George, and Lydia. (The last-mentioned child is the descendant through whom the portrait passed to its current owner.) Abby outlived her husband by 16 years. She died June 17, 1884; Captain Topham died July 27, 1859.(Mrs. Joseph Brouillard) 13. We Sisters Three. 1831-32. Oil on canvas. 43"x 55'!(Shelburne Museum, Inc.)
body of work was first set forth by Dr. Dorothy Vaughan, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who has generously loaned to this exhibition the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Cotton (figs. 4 and 3), a pair of fire buckets (fig. 5) known to have been painted by John Blunt and recorded in his account book, and fire bags with Leonard Cotton's name stenciled on them. The similarities between the writing on the fire buckets (fig. 5) and the signatures on genre pictures and landscapes by Blunt, and inscriptions on globes in many of the portraits (figs. 7 and 8) of sea captains are strikingly similar. The fire buckets and the portraits of the Cottons descended directly through the Cotton family in Portsmouth until they were acquired by Dr. Vaughan several years ago.
23