MARSHAM

Sepia portrait on 10 x 15 cm photographic print, on card. In good condition, lightly aged. Good bold inscription across foot: ‘Best wishes / Joan Barry’. A soft-toned head-and-shoulders portrait of a Marcel-waved Barry, staring dreamily to the left, with pursed made-up lits, in a sleeveless white gown with pearls and bracelet, left hand to chin and right hand supporting left elbow. Scan on application.

A lively Oxford spoof, which can be dated precisely from the references to Marsham, Gladstone and the coming General Election. In the General Election of July 1852 the Peelite Gladstone defeated the Conservative Marsham, who had been put forward by 'the heads, Protestants and protectionists'. A reference to German education is a nod towards the first Oxford University Commission, whose report published in 1852 recommended that a switch to a more Germanic educational system. (For the background see Brock and Curthoys, 'History of the University of Oxford', vol.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Tipped in onto a leaf removed from an album. Holderness's predecessor Sir Richmond Ritchie (1854-1912) had died ten days before the writing of the letter, as a result, according to the Oxford DNB, of the undermining of his health by 'unremitting hard work [...] over several years'. Holderness begins the letter: 'It is very good of you to congratulate me on succeeding to poor Ritchie's responsibilities.