Edward Lear (1812-1882) - photo 1
Edward Lear (1812-1882) - photo 2

Edward Lear (1812-1882)

Starting price
£ 100
Auction dateClassic
15.12.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 1108928
Lot 129 | Edward Lear (1812-1882)
Edward Lear (1812-1882)
Illustrated autograph letter signed (‘Edward Lear’) to Mrs Digby Wyatt, Nice, 14 March 1865
Four pages, 133 x 207mm. Illustrated with three caricature drawings, depicting a Russian princess, an acquaintance’s dog, and Lord Fitzwilliam’s chairs. Provenance: Collection of Dr. B.W. Paine; Sotheby's, 15 & 16 December 1980, lot 329.

'What celebrated city is like a heron who catches fish in many ponds? – Constant to no pool. – Ahem!'. Lear poses three nonsense riddles to Mrs Wyatt and recounts vignettes of life in Nice. Lear puts three typically nonsensical riddles to Mrs Wyatt: ‘Oh dear, I must stop. Please excuse this absurd letter ... Why is the skin of an ugly great goat like the sea near Barbary? – Because it abounds with Coarsehairs. Why, if mules lose their masters, would their weeping bring them back? Because their tears would all be muly tears. O my!'. Elsewhere Lear amusingly describes the dress of a Russian princess (‘her crimped petticoat is quite hard and tears up the gravel, sweeping away all small obstacles, while you can’t pass her for she takes up all the walk’) and her green parrot (‘has white, gold and green feathers ... She positively always carries this bird about: a cruelty'), a friend’s dog with an unfortunate gait (‘A friend of mine has a new little dog, which is a most remarkable beast, for his legs grow out of his back somehow, so he waddles along his stomach’) and the uncomfortable chairs at the home of Lord Fitzwilliam (‘t’other day I dined at L Fitzwilliam’s, where we complained of the chairs bitterly as being hard ... like ostrich eggs’). Lear is characteristically playful with language throughout (‘‘Oily deloited was I my dearest Mrs Digby, to get your letter just now’; ‘memories of Corfu = days that are know maw’).

The Russian Princess to which Lear refers may well be Princess Dagmar of Denmark, future Empress of Russia and at the time betrothed to the Tsarevich of Russia Nicholas Alexandrovich, who is known to have toured southern Europe in early 1865. Indeed, Nicholas Alexandrovich died at the Villa Belmond, Nice in April of the same year.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
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