PEARL NECKLACE, LATE 19TH CENTURY, AND A SEED PEARL NECKLACE, CIRCA 1900

Footnotes

Accompanied by a report from GCS stating that the pearls in the first (single-row) necklace are natural, saltwater. Report number 5783-2111, dated 24th March 2023

Provenance
Audrey Tennyson (1854-1916)
The Descendants of Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Accompanied by a letter from Hallam Tennyson, elder son of Alfred Tennyson, written in 1922 to The Hon. Margaret Cicely Tennyson (wife of his nephew, Alfred Browning Stanley Tennyson):

"...I give you the necklace of pearls because she always wore them and would like you to have them. As you know, she was very fond of you. The pearls took years to collect and are carefully graded. I should like them to go to your son's wife or to Rachel...."

In 1884 Hallam Tennyson married Audrey Boyle and after their marriage, the couple lived with his parents, Alfred and Emily Tennyson, at their home Farringford in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. (The couple had met as early as 1882 when Audrey was a guest at the painter G.F.Watt's nearby home, The Briary). Hallam, acted as his father's secretary but Audrey was often the one who took dictation and who took down notes and longhand for Hallam's biography of the Poet.

From 1899 until 1903, the couple and their sons lived in Australia (Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney) where Hallam Tennyson was Governor of South Australia and then Australian Governor-General. Their time is recalled in "Audrey Tennyson's Vice-Regal Days", (Canberra, 1978), a volume of Lady Tennyson's letters, edited by Dame Alexandra Hasluck. Lady Tennyson's role in the community in Australia was active, and she was most notably responsible for funding and patronising the building of a maternity hospital for women giving birth in the outback, which she named after Queen Victoria.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian era, succeeding William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850. His most famous works include "The Lady of Shalott", "In Memoriam A.H.H." and the "Charge of the Light Brigade". His poetry was a major influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who considered him one of their "immortals" and Queen Victoria was an admirer. In 1856, from the proceeds of "Maud", Tennyson purchased Farringford, a manor house in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. The estate remained in family until 1945.

The Tennyson's circle was wide. Known as excellent hosts, they regularly entertained their numerous friends and acquaintances - artists, intellectuals, writers, statesmen, politicians, and thinkers of the day - including Prince Albert, Giuseppe Garibaldi, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, George Frederic Watts, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Julia Margaret Cameron, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Algernon Charles Swinburne, to name but a few.

The photograph above, by Oscar Gustave Rejlander, circa 1862, shows Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-1892) with his wife Emily (1813-1896) and his sons Hallam (1852-1928) and Lionel (1854-1886) in the garden of Farringford on the Isle of Wight.

This collection of jewels (lots 17 - 34) is offered for sale by direct descendants of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Some pieces were worn by Audrey Tennyson, wife of Hallam Tennyson, the Poet's elder son and biographer, who served as the second Governor-General of Australia, and some were the property of Margaret Cicely Tennyson, daughter of the 10th Viscount Strathallan and wife of Alfred Browning Stanley Tennyson, son of Lionel Tennyson, the Poet's younger son.