English Pearls: or Portraits for the Boudoir

Good copy of this suite of 10 portraits of English Victorian beauties

The 10 beauties include royalty (Queen Victoria herself), aristocrats, and various sultry ladies in off-the-shoulder gowns making eyes at the portraitist.

The exquisite portraits by eminent artists John Hayter, William Drummond and Claude-Marie Dubufe, stipple engraved on steel by William Henry Mote, H. Hall, W.F. Holl, H. Robinson and W.H. Eagleton.

Supervised by Charles Heath, 1785-1848, British engraver, currency and stamp printer, publisher and illustrator.

The subjects include:

Queen Victoria, when a young beauty (she was just 23 when this book was published).

Lady Grey Egerton, possibly Mary Anne Elizabeth Egerton, only daughter of Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 9th Baronet.

Lady Jane Georgiana Seymour, later Duchess of Somerset, 1809-1884. In medieval costume as the Queen of Beauty, with crown over headdress, fur-lined cape over bejeweled robe.

Honourable Louisa Hay, daughter of 8th Marquess of Tweeddale, later Lady Louisa Jane Wardlaw-Ramsay, 1819-1882.

Miss Power, Marguerite Agnes Power, c.1815-1867, writer and niece of Irish writer Lady Blessington (Marguerite Gardiner).

Miss Gore. In off-the-shoulder dress with tight waist, hair decorated with a garland of roses.

Amy. Beauty wearing a veil over long hair, ermine-trim off-the-shoulder dress, holding a pearl necklace.

Miss Wilmot. Wearing pearl headdress and fur-lined cape over off-the-shoulder, tight-waisted dress.

Woman in Persian costume with turban, hair in ringlets, dress with embroidered sleeves.

Gertrude. Beauty with her hair up, wearing off-the-shoulder dress decorated with lace and ribbons.

The artists: John Hayter, 1800-1895, English portrait painter who was Painter-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria.

William Drummond, active 1800-1850, British portrait painter, who exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Claude-Marie Dubufe, 1790-1864, French historical, genre and portrait painter, studied under Jacques-Louis David.

Bound in green cloth with gilt title on front board, blind-stamped borders, cloth stained and bumped, spine crudely repaired with brown buckram, text and plates with some age toning and finger smudges, but mostly outside the plate mark. Two plates with waterstains in the image (Queen Victoria and Miss Wilmot).

A charming work of early Victorian beauty and sensuality.