Moll Raffles & the natural, or the bed of sweet's defiled

£2,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Very Rare. There is an example in the BM but we have been unable to locate any other examples. A scene illustrating a humorous episode in the memoirs of the famous courtesan Harriette Wilson. The print illustrates a story told by Harriette Wilson in her scandalous Memoirs , published serially in 1825 by John Joseph Stockdale. Wilson (1786 – 1845) became the mistress of the Earl of Craven at the age of 15. In her career as a courtesan, she went on to have relations with men of the upper class who circled around Mayfair. Living in the demi-mondaine she was at once one of Mayfair’s most and least visible characters, witness and privy to the private scandals of the era’s leading men. In chapter VIII of her Memoirs Harriette Willson recounts an affair concerning the Clergyman Lord Frederick Beauclerk, the Courtesan Mrs Moll Raffles, the longstanding mistress of the Marquess of Wellesley. Beaucklerk pays a visit to Wilson and tells her of his intrigue with Wellesley’s “ belle amie Raffles ”, Wilson, wilfully making mischief invites Wellesley to visit her and relays to him the affair. Wilson describes Wellesley arriving, satirically overdressed. “His lordship appeared the very essence of everything most recherché in superfine elegance. He was in fact all essence! Such Cambric, white as driven snow! Such embroidery! Such diamonds! Such a brilliant snuff box! Such seals and chain! And then, the pretty contrast between the broad, new, blue ribbon across his breast, and his delicate whi

• Binding: Hardcover

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