Ella Jerman-Riddell
Sale Coordinator
Lady Glenconner: My Life in Objects
Lot 80
Rev. Lansdown Guilding(Saint Vincent 1797-1831 Bermuda)A view of the old crater of the Morne Soufrière - St. Vincent, taken from the eastern brink
19 November 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£3,000 - £5,000
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Madeleine Cater
Associate Specialist
Charlie Thomas
Group Head, Private Collections, Furniture & Works of Art, U.K
Rev. Lansdown Guilding (Saint Vincent 1797-1831 Bermuda)
A view of the old crater of the Morne Soufrière - St. Vincent, taken from the eastern brink
pencil and watercolour
36 x 46.2cm (14 3/16 x 18 3/16in).
Executed in 1821
pencil and watercolour
36 x 46.2cm (14 3/16 x 18 3/16in).
Executed in 1821
Footnotes
Lansdown Guilding was born in 1797 on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean Sea. A keen botanist and biologist, he studied at Oxford University and was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society at the young age of 20.
Returning to his birth country he began to meticulously study the natural world around him, sending research papers, drawings and specimens back to the Society. His first zoological paper was published in 1822, and species of sea star and parrot were subsequently named after him, most notably the Linckia guildingi (the common comet star) and Amazona guildingii (Saint Vincent parrot).
Guilding had a fine eye for accuracy of form and colour and in 1825 published A Table of Colours Arranged for Naturalists, considered by many to be the first biological colour chart which has now since been lost. The same year he also published An Account of the Botanic Gardens of the Island of St. Vincent.
The present lots 77 to 80 relate to Morne Soufrière, now more commonly referred to as La Soufrière, an active volcano with the highest peak on the island. It has had eight recorded eruptions since 1718, including an 1812 eruption while Guilding was away studying in England.