A sketch and ALS between Queen Victoria and William Essex 1840
QUEEN VICTORIA; ESSEX, William (1784–1869). Group of autograph material relating to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, comprising a preparatory sketch, two autograph letters signed, and a royal envelope in Victoria’s hand, 1840–1846.
Single sheets, two folded, plus an envelope (largest 210 x 180 mm). Autograph letter signed, 5 August 1840, 1 sheet folded, written on two sides; small pencil sketch of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, c.1840, c.80 x 110 mm; autograph letter signed, 21 August 1846, 1 sheet folded, written on one side, with integral address panel; and a small envelope with embossed royal crest and pencil address in the hand of Queen Victoria. Old folds throughout, occasional light marking and wear; the whole in very good condition.
A small group centred on William Essex, enamel painter to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, illustrating both his artistic practice and his connection to the royal household. The earliest letter (5 August 1840) accompanies and describes a sketch for an enamel portrait of the Queen and Prince Albert, explaining the proposed arrangement of their likenesses within a medallion format. The surviving pencil sketch, almost certainly that referred to, shows the royal couple in profile.
A later letter (21 August 1846), addressed to Mrs Robert Napier, finds Essex writing in his capacity as “enamel painter to the Queen and Prince Albert”, and forwarding a “Royal Envelope”. The envelope itself is present, bearing an embossed crest and a pencil address in the hand of Queen Victoria, noted contemporaneously as such. The Queen has written notes about an enamel that Essex sketched of her daughter.
William Essex was one of the leading practitioners in enamels and he carried out many different ones of Victoria, Albert and their family in the early years of her reign. Many examples are now kept in the royal collection. It is uncommon to find a sketch by him of the young couple in the year of their marriage, as well as having the accompanying autograph fragment where she is giving feedback on an enamel he completed of her daughter in 1845.