Miniature Paintings

The history of miniatures started when people started painting illustrations in small handbooks. As for miniatures, they started circulating in the 1520s. They were generally very small size paintings created with gouache, watercolor, or enamel. In the beginning, they were used as medals in the court, however, they soon started becoming everyone’s favorite for gifts. Since the portrait miniature didn’t need to be framed it became an ideal object for gift purposes. The only downside of this was that the one receiving the miniature portrait had to bear the expenses of making a locket, although it made for a very memorable piece of item. The most famous use of miniature painting was to be kept inside a locket, although later on, it started to be painted on ivory too. Bernard Lens was the first British person who painted miniature portraits on ivory. However, in a short time ivory had been replaced with vellum. Since the miniatures was painted by watercolor, vellum was a much easier surface to paint than ivory. Such a beautiful art form is hard to find these days. Nonetheless, some antique and vintage miniature paintings can be found at Bidsquare. They are available in different designs which can be used for decoration, as jewelry, and more. There are various auctions that provide antique and vintage miniature paintings for sale. One can go looking for miniature paintings at auction for sale on our platform at Bidsquare.