Photograph of Mary Emily Howard as a young woman c1880's

A charming studio photograph of Mary Emily Howard (1859 - 1940), later 5th Viscountess Bolingbroke, as a young women with her pet dog.

There are no magnificent portraits of Lady Mary, just a collection of photographs. Her relationship with Henry, 5th Viscount Bolingbroke had begun by 1882 when she was 23 and he was 62, probably around the time this photograph was taken. When he died in 1899, she was only 40, no longer his mistress but his wife. Later photographs show her in her widow’s weeds.

Here we see her in a summer hat bedecked with flowers, and wearing a few simple pieces of jewellery. A bar brooch at her neck and a ring. In the Lydiard collection there are several bar brooches, simple, pretty items, most likely paste and not expensive jewels, it may be one of these she can be seen wearing.

After Henry’s death Mary had to sell what she could to meet the mounting estate debts and by the time of her death in 1940, she was living in one room, with most of the house uninhabitable.