December - Micro-calligraphy

Can you please help me in researching these images? I am not sure whether they classify as micro calligraphy, micro-text, micro writing, micro engraving, or some other description?

The four miniature images have been sitting in a bottom drawer for about ten years without being researched. When purchased at auction I thought they were originals, but after the auction changed my mind to thinking they were engravings and, in disappointment, consigned them to the bottom drawer. Engravings seem more likely, as at the bottom can be see a little extra line of writing which is original and has bled a little into the paper.

From the frames, I think they date to the early or mid 19C. I have never seen any other examples and am now displaying them here in the hope that a kind visitor may have seen something similar and know the artist or more about the technique involved? If you can help identify them, please click on my profile for my email address and send me any information you have that may help throw a light on the subject.

If you click on any of the images you should a larger version and be able to see that each picture is made up of tiny dark or light writing, on varying angles to give the effect of shading. A partial and enhanced close up is included to help show the nature of the shading.

The right facing miniature portrait is 25mm high and the left facing portrait is 35mm high. The writing is very hard to read, but I wonder if one of them is intended to be Plato.

The two scenes are 60mm high. After a search based upon a small selection of words, it was found that the writing on these two is a transcription of writings of Oliver Goldsmith (1739-1774).

Slightly right and below the centre of the close-up image is written "a boy who happens to say a sprightly thing". This link should take you to the source of that quote, The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith

Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), his pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770) (written in memory of his brother), and his plays.

Goldsmith wrote The Good-Natur'd Man in 1768 and She Stoops to Conquer, which was first performed in 1773. He also wrote An History of the Earth and Animated Nature. He is thought to have written the classic children's tale The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, the source of the phrase "goody two-shoes". 129, 130, 131, 132.