This post is part of ongoing researches into the life and Works of Anne Seymour Damer (1748 - 1828).
Notes on the two busts of Caroline Campbell by Mrs Damer and the bust of Maria Bellenden.
see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/12/anne-seymour-damer-some-portraits.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/12/anne-seymour-damer-and-her-sculptures.html
Caroline Campbell, Countess of Aylesbury (1721 - 1803)
The Mother of Mrs Damer.
The Marble Busts carved by Anne Seymour Damer. 1789 and 1808.
The bust dated 1789 with London Dealers Libson Yarker and the bust of 1808 on the Monument in the Chancel at St Mary's Church Sundridge, Kent.
Caroline Campbell was the Daughter of John, 4th Duke of Argyll and widow of Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury.
Lady Ailesbury's only child from her first marriage to Charles Bruce, Lady Mary Bruce (1740-1796), married Charles Lennox, third Duke of Richmond. In 1747, Lady Ailesbury married the Hon. Henry Seymour Conway.
The Libson Yarker Bust.
Inscribed: On the front of the socle:
‘CAROLINA •/ CAMPBELL •/ ARGATHELLAE •/ DUCIS • FILIA •’
On the left-hand side of the socle:
‘ANNA •/ SEYMOUR • DAMER •/ FECIT •’
On the back of the bust:
‘ANNA/ ΣΕΙΜΟΡΙΣ/ ΔΑΜΕΡ/ ΕΠΟΙΕΙ/ ΦΙΛΗ ΜΗΤΗΡ/ ΑΥΤΗΣ’
Provenance.
Bequeathed by the artist to her cousin Lady Louisa Johnston;
Captain Frederick Campbell-Johnston (1812-1896), son of the above;
By inheritance in the Campbell-Johnston family;
Campbell-Johnson sale, Sotheby’s London, 8th December, 2006, lot.142;
Private collection Kagan, New York to 2022;
Previously on Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum, New York until 2021.
with London Dealers - Libson Yarker, 2022.
https://www.libson-yarker.com/recent-sales/caroline-campbell-lady-ailesbury
They say -
Mrs Damer, portrays her mother, Caroline Campbell. The bust's dual signatures in Latin and Greek reflect Damer’s erudite connection with the classical tradition. Damer’s personal dedication of the work to her, "friend and mother" is inscribed solely at the back.
Damer kept this bust throughout her life. She carved another version for her mother’s tomb in Saint Mary’s Church, Sundridge, Kent, where Damer is buried. She was daughter of Marshal Conway.
This veiled figure was intended to be viewed from below, it may well have been specifically designed for her mother’s tomb at St Mary’s, Sundridge in Kent.
Lady Ailesbury had been born at Coombe Bank in Sundridge, which belonged successively to her father and brother, Lord Frederick Campbell.
Damer made a second version of the bust which was eventually set-up in the chancel at St Mary’s, Sundridge.
Damers mother was born in 1721, Caroline Campbell was the daughter of Colonel John Campbell of Mamore, later fourth Duke of Argyll.
Her godmother was Caroline, Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen-Consort to George II, for whom her mother, the beautiful Mary Bellenden had been maid-of-honour. In 1739, at the time of her first marriage to Charles Bruce, third earl of Ailesbury, nearly 40 years her senior, Lady Ailesbury was described as ‘very pretty, well behaved, and just eighteen, has £2000 a year jointure and £400 pin money’.
The most vivid accounts of Lady Ailesbury come from Horace Walpole: ‘Her face and person were charming, lively she was, almost to étourderie, and so agreeable she was that I never heard her mentioned afterwards by one of her contemporaries who did not prefer her as the most perfect creature they ever saw.’
Lady Ailesbury was well-read, being particularly interested in Rousseau, for whom she secured a pension of £100 a year. Amongst her close circle were the historian, David Hume, the writers Gray, Thomson and Shenstone and the painters Reynolds and Angelica Kauffmann.
Lady Ailesbury was herself celebrated for the remarkable copies after old masters she rendered in embroidery.
Unsigned; the artist unidentified.
Date of production based on watermark: A. Blackwell & G.
Jones 1802.
Mounted on page 25 in Anne Damer's extra-illustrated copy
of: Walpole, H. A description of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole ... Strawberry
Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate, MDCCLXXXIV [1784]. See Hazen, A.T.
Bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press (1973 ed.), no. 30, copy 33.
Provenance
Given by Mrs. Anne Damer to Sir Wathen Waller. Later owned
by John Hely-Hutchinson, with his bookplate on verso of first flyleaf of
volume. Sold Sotheby's, 14 March 1956 (Hely-Hutchinson Sale), lot 584, to Maggs
for W.S. Lewis.
Extent
1 drawing : sheet 36.5 x 23 cm (folded to 29.2 x 23 cm),
mounted to 29.4 x 23 cm
The chancel at Sundridge was remodelled in 1808 by John Carter and the
north and south lancets, and their associated monuments inside date from this
time.
1806.
A view of the chancel with the altar at centre beneath a large stained-glass, Gothic window and monuments to the left and right of the altar beyond the altar rail.
Visible in
an alcove on the right is the bust of Lady Ailesbury, made by her daughter Anne
Seymour Damer.
Mounted on page 15 in Anne Damer's extra-illustrated copy
of: Walpole, H. A description of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole ... Strawberry
Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate, MDCCLXXXIV [1784]. See Hazen, A.T.
Bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press (1973 ed.), no. 30, copy 33.
Provenance
Given by Mrs. Anne Damer to Sir Wathen Waller. Later owned
by John Hely-Hutchinson, with his bookplate on verso of first flyleaf of
volume. Sold Sotheby's, 14 March 1956 (Hely-Hutchinson Sale), lot 584, to Maggs
for W.S. Lewis.
Extent
1 drawing : image 16.3 x 17.4 cm, on sheet 18.8 x 19.8 cm,
mounted to 29.4 x 22.9 cm.
Presumably The Hon. Maria Bellenden (b. 1 August 1729, d. 15 May 1805).
In the past this bust has been ascribed erroneously to Mrs Damer.
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