William Eaton, 2nd Baron Cheylesmore
William Meriton Eaton, 2nd Baron Cheylesmore (15 January 1843 – 10 July 1902) is best remembered as a leading collector of English
As his elder brother had predeceased him, he became 2nd Baron Cheylesmore, which is pronounced "Chylsmore", in 1891 on the death of his father
Early and private life
Eaton was born in 9 Gloucester Place near Regent's Park, the second of three sons of Henry William Eaton and his wife Charlotte Gorham (née Harman). His parent also had two daughters. His maternal grandfather was from New Orleans.
His father founded the family silk business, H. W. Eaton & Son, was a Conservative Member of Parliament for
He was educated at
He died at home in London on 10 July 1902,[1] and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery, with his body later interred in the Cheylesmore Mausoleum, built in 1926 for his brother, Herbert Eaton, 3rd Baron Cheylesmore.
Collecting
Mezzotints
Eaton seems to have begun collecting seriously in the 1870s, and a visitor in 1902 reported that his house in Prince's Gate was dominated by his collection, the best hanging in frames such that there was "no more hanging room", and others were "stacked in great heaps" or in "great portfolios". By the standards of art-collecting peers, Cheylesmore was not rich, and in 1902 his estate was valued for probate at £51,476, "even in 1902 not a very great sum". Most of his prints cost under a pound, with only a "few dozen" costing more than £10, and the top price paid £94.16.3 at a sale at Christie's in 1895. He evidently enjoyed a bargain, and his careful catalogue of his collection notes many higher prices paid at auction for prints he had bought for little.[2]
British mezzotint collecting was a great craze from about 1760 to the
Cheylesmore began as the first type of collector, but in his last years "the balance of his interest had swung more decisively towards technique rather than subject", and his bequest specified the collection should be arranged by artist rather than subject.
Cheylesmore assisted John Chaloner Smith in compiling his catalogue British Mezzotinto Portraits ... with Biographical Notes (London, 1878–84, 4 pts.), which "remains the definitive catalogue of the subject" up to 1820.[6] He was a member of the committee of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, where he exhibited some of his prints in 1902.
Oil paintings
The five paintings left to the National Gallery in 1902 included four bought at his father's sale at Christie's in May 1892. He did not buy the star of the sale,
Notes
- ^ "Obituary". The Times. No. 36817. London. 11 July 1902. p. 8.
- ^ Griffiths, 139
- ^ Griffiths, 134–137; 141–142
- ^ Griffiths, 139–140
- ^ Griffiths, 140–141
- ^ Griffiths, 138
- ^ Christie's; Griffiths, 139; National Gallery page
- ^ Christie's; Griffiths, 139 and 144, note 55; Aberdeen Art Gallery
References
- Christie's, Catalogue of the important collection of modern pictures and sculpture formed by the late Rt. Hon. Lord Cheylesmore, auction catalogue, London, 7 May 1892, online copy with prices realized added by hand
- Antony Griffiths (ed), Landmarks in Print Collecting – Connoisseurs and Donors at the British Museum since 1753, 1996, British Museum Press, ISBN 0714126098
- W. B. Owen, ‘Eaton, William Meriton, second Baron Cheylesmore (1843–1902)’, rev. Sheila O'Connell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 Sept 2013
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