A portrait postcard signed and dated by Lady Constance Lytton dated 1910

LYTTON, Lady Constance (1869-1923). Photographic postcard portrait, signed and dated.
 
Women’s Social and Political Union, 4 Clement’s Inn, Strand, W.C.; photo by Lafayette, [1910].
 
Portrait postcard, 90 x 140 mm. Signed and dated by Lytton in ink to lower margin. Light edge wear and marking, a little surface rubbing; small areas of prior mounting residue to verso, unused. Overall about VG.
 
A scarce signed WSPU-issued portrait of one of the most prominent aristocratic suffragettes. Lytton (1869–1923), daughter of the Earl of Lytton, became a leading militant activist within the Women’s Social and Political Union. In 1909–10 she was repeatedly imprisoned for suffrage protests; her treatment in Holloway and later Walton Gaol, including force-feeding after hunger strike, became a cause celebre. To expose class disparities in the prison system she later adopted the alias “Jane Warton”, resulting in harsher treatment and further public scandal. This portrait, issued by the WSPU and signed at the height of her activism in 1910, captures her during the period in which her imprisonment and writings were helping to galvanise support for the movement. It is uncommon to find signed.