Lot 166: Anne Seymour Damer (1748-1828) English, late 18th century , A white marble bust of Peniston Lamb as Mercury

signed and inscribed in Latin: ANNE SEYMOUR DAMER FECIT and in Greek ANNA DAMEP/LONDINIA EPOIEI

measurements note 53.5cm., 21in.

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION
Peniston Lamb (1770-1805) was the eldest son of Elizabeth Milbanke and Sir Peniston Lamb, later Vicount and Vicountess Melbourne. His mother was a close friend of the artist, Anne Seymour Damer; indeed the first portrait Damer exhibited at the Royal Academy was of Lady Melbourne in 1784. Both women were born into aristocratic Whig families and formed part of an influential circle of flamboyant and politically active women in the last years of the 18υth century. The two were painted together with the great political hostess, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, in the guise of Macbeth's Three Witches by Daniel Gardener in 1775. This depiction in theatrical character was typical of the circle surrounding the women as they frequently performed amateur dramatics in costume in each other's homes. The portrayal of Damer's friend's young son in the guise of Mercury is testament both to these theatricals and the artist's blue-stocking obsession with ancient Latin and Greek, witnessed here in her Greek inscription.

The women in the Devonshire House circle displayed quite unconventional attitudes towards marriage and although Peniston Lamb was one of eight children, he was said to be the only child fathered by his mother's husband. He was the idol of Lord Melbourne, but grew up to be rather too like his father who was lampooned as a 'Paragon of Debauchery' in a satire of 1812. Young Peniston's affair with the much older Mrs Musters caused a great deal of comment. His brother William, who outlived him and succeeded to the title, married the notorious Caroline Lamb, née St Jules, whose madness and affairs, most famously with the poet Lord Byron, brought the family into even greater scandal. Although Peniston was Member of Parliament for Hertfordshire he showed no great interest in the political life which both his mother and his brother William adored.

The bust was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1787, under the title 'Portrait of a Boy in the character of Mercury'. It survives as a fascinating insight into an extraordinary moment in Britain's social and political history.

RELATED LITERATURE
A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904 (London, 1905) vol. II., p. 235-6