DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0401
ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
375
article of merchandise possible; and fashion decreed that once again
the Duchess’s huge hat should be the proper thing to wear. For
many years afterwards the “Gainsborough Hat” and the “Picture
Hat” continued to be worn in country towns across the Atlantic, far
away from London, by persons who had never heard of the beautiful
Duchess of Devonshire.
Sensation No. 2.
In March, 1901, the newspapers all over the world announced that
the “Lost Duchess” had been found!
Mr. Morland Agnew, after various negotiations, was handed a
parcel in the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago which proved to be the
Gainsborough canvas. The discovery had been made by the New
York Pinkerton Detective Agency, who found the thief, one Adam
Worth alias Henry Richmond, son of a German Jew, who had settled
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and who was one of the most famous
and clever criminals ever known.
A few days after its return the picture was purchased by Mr. J. P.
Morgan at a price beyond £30,000.
Many years before, in 1762-3, Gainsborough had painted in his
studio at Bath the Duchess of Devonshire when she was little Georgi-
ana Spencer, aged six, in a white dress, pink ribbons, and dainty cap.
At the same period Gainsborough painted portraits of her parents, Earl
and Countess Spencer of Althorp, the one of the Countess ranking very
high among Gainsborough’s works of the Bath period. The Countess,
Margaret Georgiana, daughter of the Hon. Stephen Poyntz, was a
very beautiful and extremely wealthy woman and the Earl also pos-
sessed enormous wealth and became famed for the magnificent Col-
lection he made at Althorp. The marriage of this couple in 1755
created a sensation and was much talked of in the gossipy letters and
memoirs of the day. One eye-witness related: “The bride followed
in a new sedan-chair lined with white satin, a black page walking be-
fore and three footmen behind, all in the most superb liveries. The
diamonds worn by the newly married pair were given to Mr. Spencer
by Sarah, Duchess of Malborough, and were worth £100,000. The
shoe-buckles of the bridegroom alone were worth £30,000.”
375
article of merchandise possible; and fashion decreed that once again
the Duchess’s huge hat should be the proper thing to wear. For
many years afterwards the “Gainsborough Hat” and the “Picture
Hat” continued to be worn in country towns across the Atlantic, far
away from London, by persons who had never heard of the beautiful
Duchess of Devonshire.
Sensation No. 2.
In March, 1901, the newspapers all over the world announced that
the “Lost Duchess” had been found!
Mr. Morland Agnew, after various negotiations, was handed a
parcel in the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago which proved to be the
Gainsborough canvas. The discovery had been made by the New
York Pinkerton Detective Agency, who found the thief, one Adam
Worth alias Henry Richmond, son of a German Jew, who had settled
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and who was one of the most famous
and clever criminals ever known.
A few days after its return the picture was purchased by Mr. J. P.
Morgan at a price beyond £30,000.
Many years before, in 1762-3, Gainsborough had painted in his
studio at Bath the Duchess of Devonshire when she was little Georgi-
ana Spencer, aged six, in a white dress, pink ribbons, and dainty cap.
At the same period Gainsborough painted portraits of her parents, Earl
and Countess Spencer of Althorp, the one of the Countess ranking very
high among Gainsborough’s works of the Bath period. The Countess,
Margaret Georgiana, daughter of the Hon. Stephen Poyntz, was a
very beautiful and extremely wealthy woman and the Earl also pos-
sessed enormous wealth and became famed for the magnificent Col-
lection he made at Althorp. The marriage of this couple in 1755
created a sensation and was much talked of in the gossipy letters and
memoirs of the day. One eye-witness related: “The bride followed
in a new sedan-chair lined with white satin, a black page walking be-
fore and three footmen behind, all in the most superb liveries. The
diamonds worn by the newly married pair were given to Mr. Spencer
by Sarah, Duchess of Malborough, and were worth £100,000. The
shoe-buckles of the bridegroom alone were worth £30,000.”