Subject:  Sylvia Ashton

Size:  Slightly under 8x10

Description:  Exceptionally scarce inscribed and signed (Mother Ashton) doubleweight portrait circa late 1910s.  Often cast as mothers and grandmothers, Ashton appeared in films throughout the silent period, working for such pioneers as D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. De Mille, and Erich von Stroheim.  Films include Don't Change Your Husband (1919), Why Change Your Wife? (1920), Manslaughter (1922), von Stroheim's monumental and ill-fated classic, Greed (1924), and The Barker (1928).  Despite her matronly appearance, Ashton was not much older than the actors and actresses whose elders she played.  Her untimely death at sixty occurred in 1940.  (Vintage original photograph; true vintage autograph)

Condition:  Very Fine Minus with light wear; low contrast to the writing but fairly readable