A RARE 1885 COLLECTION OF PRIVATELY CIRCULATED WORKS - Shakespearean actress

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ONE OF ENGLAND'S GREAT SHAKESPEAREAN ACTRESSES A RARE 1885 COLLECTION OF PRIVATELY CIRCULATED WORKS BELONGING TO Baroness Burdett-Coutts - great friend of both Charles Dickens and the wealthiest woman in England WITH SEVERAL AUTOGRAPH INSCRIPTIONS AND TWO LETTERS TO THE BARONESS. The Book: Martin, Lady Helena Faucit. On some of Shakespeare's Women. Ophelia and Portia; On Desdemona, On Juliet, On Imogen, On Rosalind, On Beatrice. 5 vols in original wraps; Desdemona with 1/2" chip to front wrapper, some light chipping to spines and wrappers. [Llangollen?] : Printed for strictly private circulation, 1885. Provenance: Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutt with A.L.S. of Martin inscribed the Baroness tipped-in to 'Ophelia and Portia'; additional inscription to verso of blank; Inscription to the Baroness in Desdemona; Inscription in 'On Beatrice' to the Baroness. A.L.S. of Martin to the Baroness in 'On Juliet'. All housed in a commissioned full blue pebble morocco solander box (rubbed). Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress, who played numerous Shakespearean roles, among them Juliet, Imogen (Cymbeline), Hermione (The Winter's Tale), and Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), alongside both Macready and the soon-to-retire Charles Kemble "Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts (21 April 1814 – 30 December 1906), born Angela Georgina Burdett, was a nineteenth-century philanthropist, the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet and the former Sophia Coutts, daughter of banker Thomas Coutts. In 1837 she became the wealthiest woman in England when she inherited her grandfather's fortune of nearly three million pounds sterling, following the death of his second wife, Harriot Mellon, who had enjoyed a life interest in the estate. Angela joined the surnames of her father and grandfather, by royal licence, to become Burdett-Coutts. King Edward VII is reported to have described her as, "After my mother [Queen Victoria], the most remarkable woman in the kingdom." She was widely known as "the richest heiress in England". She was a great collector of paintings including many Old Masters. Amongst the contemporary paintings she purchased was Robert Scott Lauder's Christ Walking on the Sea. The Reverend Richard Harris Barham, in a ballad he wrote under the pen name "Thomas Ingoldsby" for the Victoria's coronation as part of the Ingoldsby Legends, referred to her as "Miss Anjaley Coutts". She became a notable subject of public curiosity, receiving numerous offers of marriage. She inherited the country house at The Holly Lodge in Highgate, which was then just outside London, where she was famous for throwing large parties. Burdett-Coutts spent part of each year at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton with her former governess and later companion Mrs Hannah Brown, to whom she was devoted. She was a great friend of both Charles Dickens and the Duke of Wellington, and it was rumoured that she had proposed to the Duke despite the great disparity in their ages. When Hannah died in 1878, Burdett-Coutts wrote to a friend that she was utterly crushed by the loss of "my poor darling, the companion and sunshine of my life for 52 years".[1]She was widely known as "the richest heiress in England". She was a great collector of paintings including many Old Masters. Amongst the contemporary paintings she purchased was Robert Scott Lauder's Christ Walking on the Sea. The Reverend Richard Harris Barham, in a ballad he wrote under the pen name "Thomas Ingoldsby" for the Victoria's coronation as part of the Ingoldsby Legends, referred to her as "Miss Anjaley Coutts". She became a notable subject of public curiosity, receiving numerous offers of marriage. She inherited the country house at The Holly Lodge in Highgate, which was then just outside London, where she was famous for throwing large parties. Burdett-Coutts spent part of each year at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton with her former governess and later companion Mrs Ha... read more

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