DIAMOND HAIR ORNAMENT

CIRCA 1890

Footnotes

Provenance
The Hon. Margaret Cicely Tennyson, née Drummond (1880-1963), wife of Alfred Browning Stanley Tennyson, grandson of the Poet
The Descendants of Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Hon. Margaret Cicely Drummond was the 6th child of the 10th Viscount Strathallan. A historic Scottish family, the Drummonds were given lands in Dunbartonshire following the Norman Conquest and were created Viscount Strathallan in 1686. She married Alfred Browning Stanley Tennyson in 1912.

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.