AFA Autumn 2019

Antiques & Fine Art 99 2019 World from Cheshire, England, in the early eighteenth century. Rufus’s grandfather, Thomas, was born in Boston in 1725, and was living in Candia by 1752, when he married Mary McClure there. Thomas and Mary had twelve children, including Rufus’s father, the grandly named Samuel George Washington Patten, born in 1779. Samuel married Lydia Emerson (1783–1851) in Candia on September 10, 1807. Their first child was Rufus Emerson Patten, born on October 22, 1807. Some quick calculations suggest that Lydia was about seven months pregnant at the time of her marriage. Rufus grew up in Candia and was married there in 1834 to Mary B. Hall (1813–1854). The couple would have one child, Mary Elizabeth Patten (1838–1898). Through serendipity and the connective power of the internet, a silhouette (Fig. 1) was recently “discovered,” with a faint period inscription on the front indicating the subject is Rufus E. Patten. It shows an elegantly coiffed young man and appears to have been created at about the time Patten was executing the drawings discussed here. 2 A cache of about a dozen of Patten’s tiny drawings have survived; saved perhaps by a family member. 3 Done with a very fine point and probably with the aid of a magnifying device, they include examples of his penmanship (Figs. 2, 3), giving his name in all caps and with some decorative flourishes. Another drawing features a walking or marching man decked out in striped trousers, a short waistcoat, and a large top hat (Fig. 4). A group of nautical images forms a subcategory of Patten’s Fig. 4: Rufus E. Patten (1807–1879), Man in top hat, ca. 1825–1835. Ink on paper, 2⅝ x 3½ inches. Collection of Craig and Alison Jewett.