Sunbeam

[poliphilo]

This is the figurehead from the steam yatch, Sunbeam, owned by Lord and Lady Brassey. The model for the child angel was their daughter Constance- nicknamed "Sunbeam"- who died of scarlet fever aged 4 in 1874. The Brasseys took Sunbeam around the world- and Lady Brassey wrote a number of best-selling books about their voyages .

I keep running into the Brasseys. Lady Brassey's collections of art and ethnography ended up in the Hastings and Bexhill museums- where I've admired them. She died- on board the Sunbeam- somewhere in the South Seas- and her memorial tablet is in the church at Catsfield, Sussex. I've seen that too.