Lot 67: Two albums of approximately two hundred and eighty nine drawings and watercolours on one hundred and eighty two sheets, including interiors of Hockwold; 6 Montague Street; Munden; Teddesley, Staffordshire; Delapre Abbey; Moor Park; Farming

Caroline Vernon, née Fazakerley (fl.1829-1868)
Two albums of approximately two hundred and eighty nine drawings and watercolours on one hundred and eighty two sheets, including interiors of Hockwold; 6 Montague Street; Munden; Teddesley, Staffordshire; Delapre Abbey; Moor Park; Farming Woods, Northamptonshire (illustrated lower right); exterior studies of Althorpe House; Woodhouse Eaves; Loughborough; Sleaford;Farming Woods, Northamptonshire; Culver Cottage; Fulbourn (illustrated lower left); Mayfield; Shooter's Hill; Old Hall; Little Cassiobury; Chenier; Houghton; Wentworth; Haglewood; Evington; Lilford; 2 Marine Parade, Bognor; Colworth; 11 High Street, Windsor; Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire; Chenies; Place Vendôme, Paris; studies of women sewing and reading, studies of children playing and sleeping; landscapes of Richmond Park; Loch Fannich; Oban; Roslin Chapel; Malvern Hills; humorous drawings of Bognor Regis; and sketches after Flaxman, Corregio, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lely and other artists
some inscribed and dated variously 'September 1849- 14 August 1868'
one hundred and eleven pencil, twenty-six pencil, pen and ink, one hundred and thirty-one pencil and watercolour, two pencil and brown wash, fifteen pen and ink and wash, three pencil, ink and watercolour, one red chalk
6 7/8 x 9¾ in. (17.8 x 24.8 cm.); the album 7¼ x 10 in. (18.5 x 25.5 cm.) overall (2)

Caroline Vernon, née Fazakerley, married Gowran Vernon Smith, son of Baron Lyveden of Farming Woods, Northamptonshire and Emma Mary Wilson, daughter of John Fitzpatrick, 2 n d Earl of Upper Ossory. Caroline's daughter Gertude, was born in 1860 and married Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw, who famously sat for John Singer Sargent, Lady Agnew circa 1892-3.

Little is known of Caroline Vernon, but her watercolours, particularly the interior scenes, exhibit a delight in her surroundings both at the family home in Farming Woods, Northamptonshire and at the homes of family and friends that she visited. She recorded not only the anecdotal detail of the people and how they lived but the wall decorations, furniture and textiles, including interiors of subsequently demolished houses such as Teddesley, Staffordshire, and paintings that she saw, the following can be identified Sir Joshua Reynolds' Richard Robinson, the Archbishop of Armagh ; and Mrs Montagu ; Mrs R B Sheridan by Thomas Gainsborough.