[Keith H. Thompson]

that we have yet to learn of any provenance, and we should, to help in establishing the origin of this "portrait." Sam Thompson is a dead on target for forgers, and I could cite several examples where genuine, period items have been elaborately embellished with purported inscriptions and successfully sold in four figures at auction. To be more blunt, who is to say that this is a portrait of Sam Thompson? I still feel that the pictorial evidence that I see points to a Mareska family origin, but so what ...