LEAR, Edward (1812-88). Illustrated autograph letter, signed ("Edward Lear"), to Mrs Digby Wyatt, Nice, 14 March 1865. Four-pages, 133 x 207mm, illustrated with three caricature drawings.

LEAR, Edward (1812-88).  Illustrated autograph letter, signed ("Edward Lear"), to Mrs Digby Wyatt, Nice, 14 March 1865. Four-pages, 133 x 207mm. Illustrated with three caricature drawings, depicting a Russian princess, an acquaintance’s dog, and Lord Fitzwilliam’s chairs. "What celebrated city is like a heron who catches fish in many ponds? – Constant to no pool. – Ahem!". Lear recounts vignettes of life in Nice and poses three typically nonsensical nonsense riddles to Mrs Wyatt: "Oh dear, I must stop. Please excuse this absurd letter ... Why is the skin of an ugly great goat like the sea near Barbary? – Because it abounds with Coarsehairs. Why, if mules lose their masters, would their weeping bring them back? Because their tears would all be muly tears. O my!". Elsewhere Lear amusingly describes the dress of a Russian princess ("her crimped petticoat is quite hard and tears up the gravel, sweeping away all small obstacles, while you can’t pass her for she takes up all the walk") and her green parrot ("has white, gold and green feathers ... She positively always carries this bird about: a cruelty"), a friend’s dog with an unfortunate gait ("A friend of mine has a new little dog, which is a most remarkable beast, for his legs grow out of his back somehow, so he waddles along his stomach") and the uncomfortable chairs at the home of Lord Fitzwilliam ("t’other day I dined at L Fitzwilliam’s, where we complained of the chairs bitterly as being hard ... like ostrich eggs"). Lear is characteristically playful with language throughout ("‘Oily deloited was I my dearest Mrs Digby, to get your letter just now"; "memories of Corfu = days that are know maw"). The Russian Princess to which Lear refers may well be Princess Dagmar of Denmark, future Empress of Russia and at the time betrothed to the Tsarevich of Russia Nicholas Alexandrovich, who is known to have toured southern Europe in early 1865. Indeed, Nicholas Alexandrovich died at the Villa Belmond, Nice in April of the same year. Provenance: Collection of Dr. B.W. Paine; Sotheby's, London, 15 & 16 December 1980, lot 329.