
Peter Rees
Director
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Sold for £23,040 inc. premium
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Provenance
The family of the sitter, by descent.
The 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1797-1861) was born at Stowe, the only surviving child of the third Duke of Chandos. He was educated at Eton and Oriel college, Oxford, before sitting as the Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire between 1818 and 1839. Having succeeded his father in the dukedom he took his seat in the House of Lords. Two years later in September 1841, he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord Privy Seal by Sir Robert Peel, a post he held only until February 1842, he was made a Knight of the Garter then same year. In the following years the Duke's life was held to be remarkable for two personal events. In 1847 just eight years after succeeding is Father, he was declared bankrupt with debts of over a million pounds. Given his position as a prominent member of the aristocracy and the scale of his inheritance, the bankruptcy became national news and resulted in one of the great auctions of the 19th century when the contents of the main family seat, Stowe House were sold in 1848. The second remarkable event of the Duke's life came in the form of his divorce (after the bankruptcy) from Lady Mary Campbell in 1850, a process which, at the time, required an act of parliament.