The Starr Miniature Collection: The Feminine Mystique

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

The Feminine Mystique isinspired by Jane Austen’s classic novel, Pride and Prejudice. A handsome gentleman with a penetrating gaze is our Mr. Darcy. He is surrounded by a multitude of English and European beauties from the late 18th century and early 19th century also dressed in their finery.

Until portrait photography was popularized in the 1840s, admirers had only painted images of their loved ones. Portrait miniatures were incorporated into pendants, pins, necklaces, rings and bracelets, allowing images of loved ones to be kept private or close at hand.