200 THE SCHREIBER COLLECTION
Lady Charlotte Schreiber
Lady Charlotte Schreiber, direct ancestor of the Congreves of Mount Congreve, was noteworthy both for her expertise in ceramics and her collection of same, found during her “china mania” travels throughout Europe with her second husband, Charles Schreiber. The voyage lasted from 1869 until shortly after Charles Schreiber’s death in 1884.
Born Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie to Albermarle Bertie, the ninth Earl of Lindsey, and his second wife, Charlotte Susanna Elizabeth (Layard) in 1812, Lady Charlotte began keeping personal journals at the age of nine, soon after the marriage of her mother to the Reverend Peter Parsons, three years after the death of her father. An accomplished and influential writer in her adulthood, Lady Charlotte would eventually keep a journal over the next seventy years, and her personal accounts of the 15-year ceramic expeditions would be published.
It was not only ceramics that captured her interest and enthusiasm; she is widely known for her translation of the set of Welsh myths and legends called Mabiogion. Although the education of girls was discouraged by her stepfather, as a girl, Lady Charlotte taught herself French and Italian, and with the help of her brother’s tutors, learned Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Persian and later studied archaeology and medieval history and legends.
On July 29 1833, at the age of twenty-one, Lady Charlotte married Josiah John Guest, a successful ironmaster and the first Member of Parliament from the town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales and moved near to the Dowlais Iron Company. Lady Charlotte was a driving force behind John Guest’s political career; she lobbied for him, spoke to the locals in the Welsh language and wrote on his behalf. A pillar for the community, Lady Charlotte’s social activism was a positive influence on both the welfare and rights of workers and the quality of education of the community. Her many gifts to the Welsh community included, but were not limited to: helping re-organise the system so that children fourteen and under could remain in school; opening a night school for working men and women; and focusing on educating illiterate young country women who came to work in the iron industry.
In 1855, three years after Sir John’s death, Lady Charlotte married Cambridge scholar Charles Schreiber, who over the course of fifteen years accompanied Lady Charlotte through Europe, collecting china, antique playing cards and fans.
Spanning sixteen years over two volumes, Lady Charlotte kept a now published and illustrated journal of her ceramics-related travels throughout Europe and the Middle East. The tone of her writing is energetic and thorough; the content sprinkled with the names of the known ceramics dealers and experts of England, The Netherlands, Germany and France, and the aristocrats who shared her interests and were her good friends. Lady Charlotte herself became an established authority on identifying markings and recognizing forgeries.
After Charles Schreiber died in March 1884, Lady Charlotte catalogued the entire collection of fans, antique playing cards, and ceramics, and donated these to the South Kensington Museum and the British Museum. Her impressive collection of salt-glaze ceramics, including the Spanish cabinets where the collection her most unusual discoveries were stored by Lady Schreiber herself, are now offered to the public for the first time a single lot collection, together with the two volumes of Lady Charlotte’s journals.
200
A pair of Spanish walnut, giltmetal-mounted and ebonised display cabinets, basically 17th century, with tortoiseshell bands crested with arched centres below a baluster with brass acorn finials, the arched centre with a trifoil within a gilt metal frame above a glazed door enclosing a red velvet line and interior with shelves, the sides each with three glazed panels in ripple-moulded frames, the panelled pilasters headed by putto figures and fruit swags flanking a large glazed door, raised on ball-and-claw feet on later ebonised stands with rectangular tops on splayed bob and turned legs, united by a conforming x-shaped stretcher with centre roundel, 88” (224cms) h x 48” (122cms) w x 17.5” (45 cms) d. (4)
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