Mary Chetwynd, [née] Hussey, [1820-91]. Work Book of Viscountess Chetwynd. [Circa 1861].

Over 145 hand-drawn pen & ink designs and patterns for embroidery, needlework, and silk-work. Fine, semi-translucent, blue, satinised paper. Many designs have hand-written ink titles near the margins and some have pin holes. Designs for smoking caps, watch pockets, nib wipes, children's frocks, petticoats, dresses &c. Loosely tipped in three paper patterns and two Berlin engraved hand-coloured patterns. Owner's ink ownership inscription on front paste-down endpaper. Provenance: Mary Chetwynd, née Hussey, (1820-91), 2nd wife of Richard Walter Chetwynd, 6th Viscount Chetwynd, (1800–1879), officer in the Grenadier Guards and 6th Baron of Rathdowne, co. Dublin - he was called "Oroonoko Chetwynd," from the darkness of his complexion; Oroonoko was the enslaved African prince in Aprha Behn’s 1688 novel of the same name. Original yellow endpapers. Front free endpaper blind embossed with oval stamp, 'W.M. Bounsall, Stationer, Exmouth'. One of two closed marginal tears, not affecting the artwork. Endpapers quite marked and showing that this work book was well used. 270 x 220 mm. Contemporary embossed red cloth with green morocco label on front cover, gilt tiling within roccocco hand-tooled borders. Corners, edges and spine worn. 

See attached a fine portrait negative of Mary from a photo by French photographer Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy. Before her marriage to Richard in 1861, she was listed in the census as a silk-weaver and stay-maker in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Mary never had children of her own but was a step-mother, and she last lived in Courtland Lodge, Highcliffe, Christchurch, Dorset, England. This work book documents a key part of an extraordinary woman's social history as a skilled Victorian dressmaker and member of the British nobility. 

The National Art Library of the V&A holds 60 original embroidery books.