WHODUNIT
The Love Letter — Another History Mystery
Someone must have an answer for this
If you search Ebay for “C & A Richards Boston Silhouettes” you will find many examples of the two in my photo. These two were sold as matched sets, but if you look closely, you’ll see that there is something very different about them.
The one on the left came from my grandmother and is called “The Love Letter”. When I researched it, I found that it has a partner, “The Answer”. I was able to easily find that on Ebay, so I bought one for $29 recently. I was quite surprised when I opened the shipment because, unlike my grandmother’s drawing, this one is a reverse image painted on the glass, not on the backing paper. You can see the shadows in the right hand picture.
I asked my sisters if they remembered these. My oldest sister says that she remembers both hanging in our grandmother’s apartment, so it appears that they were bought as a set, though I doubt they were mismatched as what I have is. My slightly older sister thinks they are beautiful, but does not remember seeing them.
So what’s the story? Were there two versions sold at different prices? Googling gives me far too many results, so I asked ChatGPT about them. Unfortunately, it couldn’t find anything helpful.
