ATTRIBUTED TO ABRAHAM ELDRED (c.1794-1854)

Cutwork Picture
Philadelphia, circa 1835
Layered cut paper, 9 ½ x 14 inches, in period cherry block-corner frame

A recent discovery, this painstakingly intricate cutwork belongs to the celebrated group of closely related examples made for members of prominent Philadelphia families attributed to Abraham Eldred while he was an inmate at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia during the 1830s. This example displays a vocabulary of signature motifs and exquisite, razer-cut white paper over multi-colored paper backings. Other examples by this artist are in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Folk Art Museum, and Winterthur. Abraham Eldred was born in Long Island, New York, trained as a weaver, and from 1828 to his death in 1854, served numerous prison sentences in Philadelphia and later Baltimore for larceny and forgery. This entry draws on Deborah M. Child, “Tributes in Paper from the City of Brotherly Love,” Americana Insights 2023 (Philadelphia, 2023), pp. 96–125.

Provenance:
Collection of Albion P. Fenderson (1914–2010), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Modesto, California