I first learned about “lover’s eyes”, known in period as or “eye miniatures”, from Stephanie Barron’

I first learned about “lover’s eyes”, known in period as or “eye miniatures”, from Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mystery Jane and the Wandering Eye. This was an odd fad of the Georgian era where people had portraits made of someone’s eye (and usually eyebrow) instead of their whole face.The Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent and even later King George IV) supposedly started this trend when he sent his mistress a locket with such a portrait.  Since an eye miniature wasn’t obviously a likeness of a particular person it was considered a suitably discreet token of affection for illicit affairs, but they were also commissioned for spouses, parents, and other family members.A brief conversation about eye miniatures appeared in earlier drafts of G&G, but I wound up dropping this.  I did collect several images of extant eye miniatures which I’ll be posting over the next few days. -- source link

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