Remarkable vintage matte-finish 11 x 14 photo of Temple posing as Thomas Gainsborough’s iconic painting “Blue Boy,” signed and inscribed in fountain pen with her printed childhood signature, “To Mrs. Quigley, Love, Shirley Temple.” The present item is one of a series of photos of Temple, dating from the 1930s, in which the perky young star posed in the guise of various art masterpieces. While the photographer is unidentified, the closely guarded, proprietary supervision of Temple’s career, as well as the elaborate costuming and staging, strongly suggest the work of a top photographer at Twentieth Century-Fox, Temple’s studio throughout the 1930s. Four additional unsigned photos from the same series, each an original printing, is also included; each of these, along with “Blue Boy,” bears a descriptive label on the reverse and is accompanied by a vintage image of the artwork that inspired the recreations. The additional images are: “The Helping Hand” by Emile Renouf; “The Age of Innocence” by Sir Joshua Reynolds; “Her First Sermon” by Sir J. E. Millais; and “Her Second Sermon” by Millais. The “Mrs. Quigley” Temple inscribes to may well be the mother or other female relative of Juanita “Baby Jane” Quigley (born 1931), a child star who made a cameo in the 1940 Temple vehicle The Blue Bird. Paperclip impression to top edge of signed photo and trivial ding to background, otherwise fine, clean, crisp condition; the unsigned photos are fine and clean overall, with similar paperclip impressions and a few minor surface marks to backgrounds. The singular combination of the early signature, unusually large size, and superlative, rarely seen image add up to a photo that takes a place among the highest rank of signed Temple items. A true show-stopper! R&R COA.
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