Ask the Scholar

Charles Fraser was a painter of miniatures, portraits in oils and landscapes. He spent most of his life in his native city of Charleston depicting its leading citizens. The subject of this miniature is Elizabeth Sarah Faber (1825-1882). She was the daughter of Henry F. Faber and Sarah Faber (née Seabrook) of Charleston, South Carolina. Her father was a rice planter who lived near Adams Run. We know from the artist's account book, in which he recorded his sitters and the sums received for each portrait, that this miniature was completed in January 1846 and cost $38 (see entry on page 27). In 1846 the sitter was 21 years old. That year was significant for Elizabeth as she came of age and received the significant sum of $6000 from her grandfather's (Thomas Bannister Seabrook's) will, drawn up in 1827, but which came into effect on his death on 19 April 1839. In June 1852 Elizabeth married Berkley Grimball Wilkins. (This information is taken from "The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine," Vol. 17, p. 19.)This miniature was also shown in a solo exhibition in honor of the artist in 1857 in Charleston (see "Catalogue of the Fraser Gallery," no. 115). A miniature of her father dating from 1837 was also shown in this exhibition (no. 114). The case recalls those made for daguerreotype photographs, although in fact these were adapted from traveling cases for miniatures.