A FINE AND UNUSUAL REGENCY GILT AND PATINATED BRONZE MINIATURE MONUMENT TO LADY CHARLOTTE FINCH

A FINE AND UNUSUAL REGENCY GILT AND PATINATED BRONZE MINIATURE MONUMENT TO LADY CHARLOTTE FINCH, ROYAL GOVERNESS TO THE CHILDREN GEORGE III AND QUEEN CHARLOTTE, 1762-1793, C1813 in the form of an alter set with an oval glass paste portrait medallion, the unfurled scroll lying on the top with engraved memorial inscription, 17cm hProvenance: By descent in the Finch and Fludyer families to the present vendors.For the engraved inscription please see online catalogueAppointed the day following the birth of Prince George (later George IV) Lady Charlotte Finch, née Fermor (1725-1813) was ideally suited for the important role of Royal Governess. Keenly intelligent, well educated and travelled, her temperament was judged by contemporaries to be kind and warm-hearted. Queen Charlotte's fulsome praise, "They can never be in better hands than yours" underlined an important aspect of what was then the enlightened view that the female children of the elite should receive as rigorous an education as their brothers.In a letter Horace Walpole reacted to news of her appointment as "a choice so universally approved that I do not think she will be abused even in the 'North Briton'" (the radical newspaper of John Wilkes).Lady Charlotte Finch was the daughter of Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl Pomfret by his wife Henrietta Louisa Jeffreys and married, in 1746 the much older Hon. William Finch, heir to the 8th Earl of Winchilsea.She is the only non-royal figure in Zoffany's group portrait Queen Charlotte with members of her Family, 1771-2 (Royal Collection).