Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess of Manchester

Estimate

70,000 - 90,000 USD

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Description

Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess of Manchester
a volume of 49 botanical studies
All watercolor and bodycolor on vellum;
many inscribed with identifications of the species depicted;
all mounted on card, within wash borders, and bound in contemporary red morocco, elaborate gilt panels on sides with yellow morocco onlays, gilt urns on spine, gilt edges

Provenance

Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle (armorial bookplates and library label),
thence by descent until 2009

Catalogue Note

This album is a fine representative of the 18th-century fashion for botanical drawing among aristocratic English ladies. Elizabeth Montagu, eldest daughter of Sir James Dashwood and Elizabeth Spencer, married George Montagu, fourth Duke of Manchester (1737-1788) on 23 October 1762. In 1766 or '67, Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a portrait of the Duchess with her son George, Viscount Mandeville (1763-1772), as Diana disarming Cupid. She seems to have learned her skill as a flower-painter from Peter Brown (fl.1758-1799), a successful exponent of the art, who was appointed botanical painter to the future King George IV in 1783. The strongest stylistic influence on Brown, and therefore on Lady Manchester, seems to have been that of Georg Dionysius Ehret.