[Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford.] Autograph Letter Signed (Draft?), urging her ‘Darling’ to overcome the ‘love of blue in yr. pictures’ and ‘do an oil sketch of white on white’. With reference to Selwyn Image.

Author: 
Margot Asquith [Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, née Tennant] (1864-1945), wife of Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, author and socialite
Publication details: 
12 March 1932; on letterhead of 44 Bedford Square, W.C.1. [London.]
£50.00
SKU: 24186

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. An interesting letter, whose circumstances are intriguing. 3pp, 12mo. On two leaves of letterheaded paper. In pencil. From the Asquith papers, and possibly a draft letter to her son Anthony (‘Puffin’). In good condition, lightly creased. Folded once. The signature is a short squiggle. The handwriting is challenging, and the following interpretation is tentative. She begins: ‘My Darling, I felt rather guilty after leaving you about abusing yr. love of blue in yr. pictures. - I can see that nothing I say can alter yr. love of this colour, & I hate hurting yr. feelings all the same I wish you wd try once to do an oil sketch of white on white like S[?] P[uff?]’s head where no one but S[?] wd. have put his thistle-down hair on a white background. I long for you to do a wild sketch of flowers quite unfinished, as you cd. do it on yr. head “Avoid l’illustration” as Image [the artist Selwyn Image (1849-1930)] said to me. It was lovely seeing thee so well & warm in yr. lovely shelter, my [back?] so nice on yr. little head. Do a few short paragraphs for me & send them to La Dame de Vie. I was 10 years out in Chardins birth! - [?] safe to try my head against yours in dates! - Just off to [?]’ Postscript appears to read: ‘Cssh me the xtra [sic] sending Times article here’.