BY ANNE SEYMOUR DAMER (1749-1828), LATE 18TH OR EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Anne Seymour Damer was the granddaughter of the 4th Duke of Argyll, and the wife of the eldest son of Lord Milton, later Lord Dorchester. She was also a great favourite of Horace Walpole's, who would later leave her his beloved house, Strawberry Hill. As a female member of late Georgian aristocracy, she was therefore highly unusual in her pursuit of a career in the world of sculpture. She did, however, study under Ceracchi and John Bacon the Elder, and is perhaps best known for her personifications of the rivers Thames and Isis which were carved for Henley Bridge in 1785. She also executed a number of delicate, classicising busts of friends and acquaintances, among whom was the present sitter, Mary Berry, an author and protegée of Walpole's.