Caroline Norton

Two autograph letters signed, to John Watkins

i) thanking the eminent studio photographer for "the first batch of photographs", explaining that her letter of thanks may have got lost in the confusion of a bazaar, in which she also explained that she would be unable to meet in London as she is hurrying to visit her son who has been reported sick in Naples and had been unable to receive news "on account of the telegrams to Southern Italy being stopped when Garibaldi was taken", 3 pages, 8vo, n.p., 22 September [1862?], mounted on card [with:] a carte de visi✅te photographic portrait of Norton, by Watkins, 87 x 58mm, mounted o🃏n card (105 x 63mm) with printed caption

ii) acknowledging receipt of a daguerrotype, explaining that her son has taken "the one in profile coloured" and should be sent the original, enquiring about prices, 3 pages, 12mo, 3 Chesterfield St., n.d.; [mounted in a copy of:] The Dream and Other Poems. Henry Colburn, 1840. 8vo, half dark blue morocco with spine gilt

A V🐟ICTORIAN CELEBRITY ON HER IMAGE. Caroline Norton (1808-77) is perhaps best remembered as a leading campaigner for women's property rights following the very public breakdown of her marriage, but her significance as a novelist and poet is increasingly recognised. A flamboyant and aristocratic figure, and the grand-daughter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Norton was acutely conscious of her image; she writes here to John Watkins (1823–1874), a studio photographer whose subjects included many leading writers, from Charles Dickens to Thomas Carlyle.