Jewels of Byron’s unrequited love for auction
The story of Lord Byron (1788-1824) and Mary Ann Chaworth (1785-1832) reads like a Regency Romance. They were distant relatives, both privileged and beautiful, and lived on adjoining estates. They met as teenagers in the summer of 1803 and Byron fell in love.
He wrote her poems (surprisingly bad ones), gave her jewellery, and refused to go back to school. When Byron fell in love, he did it thoroughly. His mother wrote to the family lawyer: “You may well be surprised … that Byron is not returned to Harrow. But the Truth is, I cannot get him to return to school, though I have done all in my power for six weeks past. He has no indisposition that I know of, but love, desperate love, the worst of all maladies in my opinion. In short the Boy is distractedly in love with Miss Chaworth, and he has not been with me three weeks all the time he has been in this county, but spent all his time at Annesley.”
The jewellery that Byron gave his first love is coming up for auction at Adam’s At Home sale on July 5: a set of garnets comprising a necklace of floral detail, set with fancy-cut garnets, a bangle and a pair of earrings of similar design, all mounted in silver (est. €800 to €1,200). The set was auctioned in Nottingham in the early 20th century when it was purchased by the great grandfather of the current owner and includes a letter of provenance. “The golden age for almandite garnets, the type included in this set, was between the late 18th and early 19th century,” says Claire-Laurence Mestrallet, jewellery expert at Adams.
“Foiling the stones and fully enclosing the mounts at the back intensified their glowing appearance, especially when illuminated in candlelight. Garnets were moderately priced, so I don’t believe Lord Byron would have spent a fortune on the set, but maybe it was a fortune for him as a young chap.”
Being several years older than Byron, who was 16 when they met, Mary Chaworth repelled his advances, declaring that she had no interest in the “lame, bashful, boy lord.” The poet had a club foot and had not yet learned to disguise his limp.
Two years after their lopsided summer romance, she married a local philandering hunting man, John Musters. He was a dreadful husband but Byron, who was deeply misogynistic, would probably have been worse. Much later, he reflected on his passion for Chaworth: “She was the beau idéal of all that my youthful fancy could paint of beautiful; and I have taken all my fables about the celestial nature of women from the perfection my imagination created in her — I say created, for I found her, like the rest of her sex, anything but angelic.”
By 1813, Byron had become a serious poet and possibly the world’s first celebrity. Disillusioned with her husband, Chaworth fancied another twirl around the park. She wrote to Byron, expressing her interest. The poet declined. His once-beloved by then had five children and a drooping eye. “The woman is a fright!” he wrote frankly to Lady Melbourne.
But their connection wasn’t meaningless to him either. Byron’s truly beautiful poem The Dream (1816) reflects on his passion for Chaworth in a way that is unsettling, uncanny and probably sincere. It even mentions her drooping eye (the poor lady had erysipelas). Whatever Byron’s attitude towards women and romance, it’s safe to say that their connection was important to him and a memory of it stayed with him throughout his life.
In February 2020, Chiswick Auctions in the UK held a sale entirely devoted to Byron memorabilia entitled: The Poet, The Lover and the Patriot: Lord Byron. The lots included an enamel and gold ring (1823-4), possibly a love token given by Byron to Theresa Makri before the poet’s death. It was engraved with Greek letters, meaning “I love you, my life”, the famous refrain at the end of each stanza of his poem, Maid of Athens, ere we part. The ring sold for £6,875 (€7,594).
Theresa Makri was the daughter of Byron’s Greek landlady. She was just 12 years old; he was 22. Amid many portrait miniatures and commemorative busts, an English pair-cased pocket watch engraved with lord Byron’s crest on the outer case sold for £12,500 (€13,808).