congratulating Taylor on the birth of his "bouncing baby boy"
Provenance: Kerrison Preston Esq. and by descent
Kerrison Preston Esq. (1884-1974) practised as a solicitor in Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset) from 1909 to 1949. He was a noted connoisseur with a collection including Pre-Raphaelite works by Rossetti and Burne-Jones, which were saved for the nation by Duke’s in 2007 and now form part of the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
| Estimate: | £200 - £400 |
The letter reading as follows:
Jan 15 1861
Sandown House
Esher
Surrey
My dear Tom,
With all the pleasure in the world, I will try to meet you there but cannot promise.
I fully believe, and fancy I can in some degree appreciate, your domestic happiness. I think nature intended me to shine under similar circumstances, but instead I have 4 horses, and cannot put them to the good use of carrying me to see my good dear friends at Clapham! Such is life. However when the frost goes (will it ever go?) I will do a bit of circus business, "The flying painter on his way to Lavender Sweep"
I am an anxious to hear this grand composition, though I would rather hear an original one by Laura Taylor, to whom and to the bouncing boy give my love and wishes for a thousand happy new years.
Yours most sincerely
Signor
George Frederic Watts OM RA (23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement.
Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine. It was Taylor who introduced Watts to his wife, the actress Ellen Terry.
Together with another letter from G.F. Watts to an unidentified individual, dated May 28 1883 (2)
Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Ifan Kyrle Fletcher (1905-1968)
