Lady Charlotte's China Mania

Sally Kevill-Davies, MA

Lady Charlotte Schreiber (1812-1895) came to London aged 21 and befriended Benjamin Disraeli. He introduced her to Sir John Guest, Master of the Dowlais Ironworks in Wales, known as ‘the greatest manufacturer in the world.’ In 1833 she married him and threw herself whole-heartedly into his industrial world. She translated The Mabinogion from Welsh into English, a publication which inspired her friend, Alfred Lord Tennyson, to write his Idylls of the King. She bore her husband 10 children. On Sir John’s death in 1852 she engaged Charles Schreiber as tutor for her children, fell in love and they were shortly married. Around 1867 their joint passion for collecting ceramics took hold. Self-taught, they travelled throughout Europe under highly unsatisfactory conditions, experiencing triumphs and disasters.

Their story was recorded minutely in her journals, and will resonate with every contemporary collector. Charles died in 1884 and their collection of English ceramics, which numbered 1,800 pieces, was given to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The speaker will also discuss some of the most exciting pieces in the collection as well as the background to her collecting.