Finely crafted in miniature and set in exquisite forms, both decorative and functional, each tiny eye portrait harbors enchanting stories of secret romance and love lost. Lavishly adorned with jewels, the portraits set into brooches, rings, lockets, pendants, small boxes, toothpick cases, and other tiny pieces date primarily from late 18th- through early 19th-century England and are few in number. The collection the Skiers have assembled is considered the largest of its kind, with only some 1,000 suspected to exist worldwide.

“How poignant it is that each eye represents an actual person and an actual story of a long-ago love or bereavement, now lost to the passage of time,” says Mrs. Skier. Indeed, while of a few of the eyes in the Skier collection can be identified, the secret history behind many of them can only be imagined. Even in their own time, the eye portraits might only be recognized by persons intimately familiar with one another. Therein perhaps is the feature that accounts most for their appeal and intrigue.  

Dr. Graham C. Boettcher, the William C. Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art, organized The Look of Love with the participation of collectors Dr. David and Mrs. Nan Skier of Birmingham.