Benjamin Stead, Jr. was the son of Benjamin Stead (d. 1766) London factor for Peter Manigault, and Mary Johnson, daughter of Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina. This miniature is one of five in the collection of the Gibbes Museum of Art listed in George Engleheart's account book. The others are another miniature portrait of Stead himself, at an earlier age, a miniature of Stead's wife, and two of his nephew, Ralph Stead Izard. Unlike the other miniatures, that of Benjamin Stead, Jr. is set in an ivory snuff box, which gives it an added note of luxury.
Notes:
This text is adapted from Martha Severens "The Miniature Portrait Collection of the Carolina Art Association" published by the Carolina Art Association, 1984
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