Queen Victoria commemoratives could crown sale

A collection of commemoratives relating to Queen Victoria will be offered in Essex auction house Sworders’ Homes and Interiors sale on November 20, including an array of prints, embroideries, Staffordshire groups and other pottery commemorative figures.

The collection was in the late 20th century by Essex collector, Mrs O’Brien, from White Roding in Uttlesford.  

According to her son, Jason, Mrs O’Brien obtained the piece of Queen Victoria memorabilia in 1978 as a birthday gift from her godmother. Over the next 25 years, she amassed an extensive collection, aided by her husband who, as a professional musician, toured the UK and visited its antiques shops.  

A highlight of the sale, estimated at £300-500, is a massive 1.46m mezzotint and mixed media engraving by Samuel Cousins after Charles Robert Leslie, showing Queen Victoria receiving the sacrament at her Coronation. Found in Devon, it was wrapped in a blanket and strapped to the roof rack of Mr O’Brien’s car before being driven back to Essex. 

The sale also includes a series of porcelain and plaster busts of the queen taken at different eras in her long life. The large 70cm cast of Victoria in her prime, after a model produced by sculptor Mary Thornycroft in 1853, has a guide of £400-600, while a 58cm high bust made by the Copeland factory in parianware (a biscuit porcelain imitating marble) stamped ‘Victoria, M Noble S, London, 1856’ is expected to bring £300-500.

Also made in Parian  is a large Robinson and Leadbetter showing Victoria at the time of her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. This familiar image of the queen modelled by R J Morris depicts her in full mourning dress wearing a cameo of Prince Albert on her left breast. It carries an estimate of £400-600.