The history of silhouettes

The opening pages invite listeners into a world where black‑cut silhouettes once served as the personal postcards of an era. Drawing on cherished family heirlooms—a portrait of a grandmother, a likeness of Princess Elizabeth, and countless amateur cuttings—the author weaves memoir with scholarly curiosity, revealing how these simple profiles circulated among friends as intimate tokens of identity.

From there the narrative unfolds as a careful survey of the art’s rise and decline, detailing the hands‑on techniques that ranged from brushwork on glass to free‑hand scissor cutting. Along the way, it introduces the notable figures who shaped the craft—collectors, master cutters, and even royal patrons—while situating silhouettes within the broader currents of 18th‑century social life and visual culture. Listeners will come away with a vivid sense of the delicate skill, the personal stories, and the fleeting glamour that once made silhouette portraiture a cherished medium.