"She is doomed, poor, dear, innocent young creature to be my wife"

These stunning busts  pay eternal tribute to a couple who put duty above all else--but circa 1830, there was, fortunately, no Oprah!

"She is doomed, poor, dear, innocent young creature to be my wife, ”So said Prince William, Duke of Clarence, ahead of his marriage to his German bride, Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, some twenty-seven years his junior. The year was 1818, and William had settled into a comfortable domestic arrangement with the actress Dorothea Jordan, by whom he had fathered ten children. But the monarchy was in crisis. King George III was insane, and his aging sons lacked legitimate offspring. Lured by promises of parliamentary allowances, the princes rushed to negotiate suitable marriages. Deeply in debt, William, third in line to the throne, did his duty. He reluctantly settled on the homely but amiable Princess Adelaide, who proved to be accepting of his large illegitimate brood. 

These stunning busts are attributed to "Sherratt". They are almost ten inches tall. Their footed bases, each with a wreath motif along the front edge, are exclusive to "Sherratt," but I have not hitherto seen "Sherratt" bases painted in these rainbow colors. Note the rather confused spelling of Adelaide's name: "Addaerlene." 

I have long admired single examples of these busts on traditional "Sherratt" brown bases that reside in two private collections, an ocean apart. This time, the titles are on the bases rather than on the socles, and note yet another spelling of Adelaide's name: Adderlene.

Courtesy the William Herbert and Nancy Hunt Collection.

I have also recorded one example of William on an unusual base that "Sherratt" sometimes used.

I must admit that I have been stalking William and Adelaide busts for some years, hoping a pair might exist somewhere on this planet. The pair at the start of this post finally appeared on the market late last year because, I am told, a cash-strapped museum cleaned out its cupboards. Collectors who give objects to museums: take note! 

​In my archive, I have the pair below, clearly from the same molds. They may have lost their foooted bases, but quite possibly they were made without them. I suspect that they too are "Sherratt," but I would not bet my life on that.

And then there is this lone bust of Addelaide, which was made without a footed base. Note that it is not of the same caliber as the previous examples. Adelaide's beaded necklace had been reduced to painted black lines. And her earrings, each a hoop of nine little beads on the previous busts, are now yellow dangling chunks. 

Courtesy Gorringes.

I would like to think that someone other than "Sherratt" made the bust of Adelaide, above. Maybe I am right, for it seems that the molds for both busts were copied or they passed into other hands. I have seen a few pairs like the pair below. They are sometimes described as porcelain, sometimes pottery. I haven't handled a pair, so I don't know, but the bodies may well be of a hybrid porcelaneous nature. They are very beautiful and well made, but they lack the charm that draws most pottery lovers.
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As for the busts' design sources, I suspect Adelaide is after a drawing of the Queen published in Bell’s Weekly Messenger of 1830 (below).  William could be after any one of a number of prints. ​

How did William and Adelaide's story end? On July 13, 1818, they wed in a double ceremony with William’s brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the father of the future Queen Victoria. Marriage mellowed William, and he and Adelaide settled into a staid, parsimonious lifestyle. Despite multiple pregnancies, she produced no surviving children, and by the time William ascended the throne in 1830, Princess Victoria was his acknowledged heir. King William died on June 20, 1837, nursed to the end by the devoted Adelaide. She died on December 2, 1849.