Lady Adeline was the original Lady Whistledown from "Bridgerton" and I will tell you why! For her time, Lady Adeline was somewhat of a rebel: she smoked cigarettes, wore mens' pants, and made up her own royal title - all much to the chagrin of Queen Victoria, who was so offended by her behaviour that she ceased inviting her to royal parties and events. But what really set off Victorian England was the scandalous book of gossip Lady Adeline published (under a thinly veiled pseudonym) called "My Recollections", exposing the secrets of everyone in high society Victorian England. She became more eccentric in her later years, organizing steeplechases through graveyards and keeping her personal coffin in her home. She lived to the ripe old age of 90, and concluded her book with the words: "I have seen everything worth seeing, and known everyone worth knowing, and although I am sometimes inclined to say, ‘all is vanity’ yet I think life’s little vanities are the sauce picquante of existence."
To the piece itself: this mid-1800s steel engraving was made from a work by British artist A.E. Chalon, and produced by H. Robinson; it has the distinction of being hand-embellished with watercolours - white highlights throughout, and blush/burgundy tones on the sleeves and cheeks. Retaining its original period gesso frame, a unique shadow box style lined in velvet. Whoever owned it cared enough to replace the glass sometime in the mid-19th century, when it was presumably broken, as evidenced by the "Little Gallery" sticker on the back. Truly a remarkable piece with an incredible history.
