Much has been written of the unrivaled Harleian Collection begun with the purchase of the D'Ewes Library in 1705 by the first earl of Oxford, Robert Harley, and added to considerably by his son, Edward, until his death in 1742. This is the bookplate of Edward Harley's wife, Henrietta Cavendish Holles, used for her personal library at Welbeck or at Brampton.

            Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles was born in 1693, the only child of John Holles, forth earl of Clare and first duke of Newcastle, and Lady Margaret Cavendish. In 1713 Henrietta married Edward Harley, second earl of Oxford, in the drawing room of Wimpole at Cambridge. Swift, writing of the rumored engagement between Harley and Lady Henrietta in 1711, said of her, "they say the girl is handsome, and has good sense, but red hair." He then added that she would have been the "richest heiress in Europe" had not her father endowed his nephew, Thomas Pelham-Holles (1693-1768), with the greater part of his vast possessions.¹

            Edward Harley shared his father's propensity toward bibliophilia, and upon inheriting the first earl's great library when he died in 1724, began to add to the collection. Throughout his lifetime Edward made large (however, not always judicious) purchases of books, manuscripts, portraits and other paintings, coins, medals, and other curiosities. By 1740 he found himself in debt, having spent £400,000 of the £500,000 his wife brought into their marriage on "indolence, good-nature, and want of worldly wisdom."² He cared little for public affairs or general society, preferring to surround himself with the wits and other distinguished men of letters of the day. He corresponded regularly with Pope and Swift, and was a great benefactor of George Vertue, the English artist who was the leading spirit in the foundation of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1717. Vertue was quoted as attributing to the earl a large part of the reason for his success, referring to the "Earl's generous and unparalleled encouragement of my undertakings."³

            Lady Henrietta disliked most of the wits who surrounded her husband, and she "hated" Pope. She was described as a dull but worthy woman, and she was presumably well read, for she corresponded regularly with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. In 1731 the earl commissioned Vertue to design this bookplate for her to use for her personal library.

            Vertue sketched the plate in the Allegorical style. It depicts the interior of a library, most likely her library at Welbeck, although it could be of her estate at Brampton. Both of these estates were inherited by Lady Henrietta from her father. In the background there is a doorway, with Corinthian columns on either side of it; beyond the doorway a pastoral scene with a country estate is pictured. In the foreground the allegorical figures of Minerva and six cupids are rendered. Each cupid is engaged in one of the Arts: one is painting oils, another is sewing, a third is weaving a garland of laurel leaves, a fourth is sketching from a drawing the fifth cupid is holding up for him, and the sixth cupid is playing the harp. Atop the bottom border are placed an astrolobe, plane, compass, and sundial.

            The bookplate is framed in a Chippendale design: two cupid busts are perched on either side of the middle flourishing arch. On top of the frame sits a cupid dressed as a Greek architect, with a level in his hand, and a cupid dressed as Hermes. This type of engraving was popular during the Augustan age in France and England, when the balance of reason and feeling were often depicted with classical figures and different symbols of the Arts.

            Between the two figures on the top of the frame of the bookplate is a medallion with Lady Henrietta's monogram upon it. Below the frame is engraved, "Henrietta Cavendish Holles, Oxford and Mortimer. Given me by," where the name and date of the book donor was to be recorded. There is no trace of heraldry in the bookplate, which is unusual during this period in England, when armorial plates were popular. Vertue was proficient in rendering of armorial coats of arms, and he was often called on to depict them for his clients. Since no heraldic devices are in this bookplate, W. J. Hardy, in his volume on bookplates, reasons that this plate was most likely designed, at least in part, by Lady Henrietta herself.

            Unfortunately, information about Henrietta Cavendish Holles's personal library itself is scarce. After her husband's death in 1742 she retired to Welbeck, where she occupied her time by improving the estate and gathering and arranging all the memorials she could find on the various "great families which centered in herself." She hired Vertue to catalogue all the portraits and other paintings left to her by her husband. In March of 1742, she sold all of the books and other curiosities in the Harleian Library to Thomas Osborne, a bookseller at Grey's Inn, for £13,000, several pounds less than the cost of the bindings alone. She sold manuscripts to the nation in 1753 for the insignificant sum of £10,000, and they now constitute the Harleian Collection in the British Museum.

            It is assumed that Lady Henrietta's library was passed on to her only child, Margaret Cavendish, who married William Bentnick. Lady Henrietta died on 9 December 1755 and was buried next to her husband at Westminster. Her grandson, also named William, inherited her titles and estates.

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