Lot 125: Ernest Rinzi (British, 1836-1909)

Lady Randolph Churchill (1854-1921), née Jeannette (Jennie) Jerome, wearing gold-coloured dress with embroidered bodice, black collar overlaid with white lace and jewelled aigrette in her hair
signed on the obverse E RINZI, gold mount
Oval, 3 3/16mm. (81ins.) high

Jennie was the second daughter of Wall Street financier, Leonard Jerome of New York and his heiress wife, Clara. From 1868 she lived in Paris, and at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, moved to England. At a ball in August 1873 aboard the HMS Ariadne, moored off Cowes, Isle of Wight, she met Lord Randolph Churchill, youngest son of the Duke of Marlborough. A case of love at first sight, they became engaged the following day and married the following year. Of their two sons, the elder, Winston, was to become British Prime Minister. Five years after her husband's death in 1895, she married the 26 year old Captain George Cornwallis-West. They divorced in 1913 and she married again in 1918, Montagu Phippen Porch, a colonial administrator. Considered a great beauty in her time, her dark looks were said to be a legacy from an Iroquois ancestor. As well as supporting the political ambitions of her first husband and then a son, she was an editor and playwright. Like her son, she was an ardent opponent of Women's suffrage. Most surprisingly, she was one of the first Society women to have a tatoo. She died in June 1921, and was buried beside her first husband at Bladon, near Blenheim Palace.