A young lady with the intitials SAMH by Moses B. Russell, circa 1840.

Set in the original gilded copper engine-turned locket frame with cast foliate border, the reverse with aperture containing a lock of hair.

2 3/8 inches high.

Moses B. Russell (1810-1884) an apparently untrained artist, worked for fifty years, first as a miniaturist, portrait painter and later as a daguerreotypist. A native of Woodstock New Hampshire, Russell married and spent most of his life in Boston, exhibiting at the Boston Athenaeum, the Harding Gallery, the Boston Art Association and the Boston Mechanic's Association. During the years 1854 - 1861, when Russell worked in New York and Philadelphia, he exhibited at the American Institute of the City of New York. Russell was married to miniaturist Clarissa Peters, who exhibited as Mrs. Moses B. Russell.