LOVELACE (ADA) Two daguerreotype portraits of Ada Lovelace's children, and another member of the...

[LOVELACE (ADA)] Two daguerreotype portraits of Ada Lovelace's children, and a female member of the Lovelace/Byron family, comprising: KILBURN (WILLIAM EDWARD) Portrait of Byron King-Noel, Viscount Ockham, in midshipman's uniform aged around 13, quarter-plate daguerreotype, the face tinted in pink, the sky in blue, the buttons and braiding heightened in gilt, in original velvet-lined maroon morocco case with Kilburn's details on upper cover, overall 122 x 95mm., [c.1849]; Portrait of Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace, aged around 10, sixth-plate daguerreotype, the face tinted in pink, the buttons and studs in the chair heightened in gilt, in original velvet-lined maroon morocco case with Kilburn's details on upper cover, overall 98 x 86mm., [c.1849]--BEARD PATENTEE. Portrait of a woman, variously identified as Ada Lovelace or Elizabeth Medora Leigh, ninth-plate daguerreotype, in velvet-lined maroon morocco case, the gold-coloured metal mount with embossed credit 'Beard | Patentee', overall 75 x 60mm., [1840s] (3) Footnotes: Byron King-Noel and Ralph King-Milbanke were the sons of William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace and his wife, Ada Lovelace, considered the world's first computer programmer. They were, therefore, the legitimate grandsons of Lord Byron. The female sitter has been variously identified as either Ada Lovelace or Elizabeth Medora Leigh (1814-1849). Medora was the third daughter of Augusta Leigh, reputedly fathered by her half-brother George Gordon Byron. There are few definite likenesses of Medora, the most reliable being an engraving in the Morgan Library of the sitter in her mid-teens, highly idealised and of little use as a comparison for the sitter in the present daguerreotype. Medora and Ada Lovelace were born one year apart, so distinguishing them by their apparent age is not feasible. Whilst the present sitter bears some resemblance to Ada in the accepted Claudet photographs, a firm identification cannot be made. The stamped credit 'Beard | Patentee' relates to commercial photographer Richard Beard (1801-1885) who opened Europe's first public photographic studio in March 1841. In July 1841 Beard purchased the sole patent rights of the daguerreotype process in England and Wales and licensed others to use the process, requiring them to stamp the daguerreotypes 'Beard patentee' as in the example here. Provenance: By descent within the family of Ada Lovelace; Lady Wentworth, presumably Judith (1873-1957), the great-granddaughter of Anne Isabella Noel Byron; Doris Langley Moore (1903-1989); Sotheby's, 19-20 July 1993, lot 246 (included in a larger group lot from the collection of Moore, the daguerreotypes within this group originally 'from the collection of Lady Wentworth'); Marlborough Rare Books, from whom acquired on 9 September 1993 by the present owner, Geoffrey Bond. Illustrated (the female sitter): Doris Langley Moore, Ada, Countess of Lovelace, 1977, facing p.182 (as Medora Leigh). Susan Normington, Byron and his Children, 1995, fig.58 (as 'Medora Leigh, from a daguerreotype taken on 19 July 1842 and intended as a parting present to Lady Noel Byron'). Miranda Seymour, In Byron's Wake, 2018 (as Ada Lovelace, confusing the image with the photographs of her by Claudet). For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing