Dorothea Banks
English china collector (1758 – 1828) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dorothea, Lady Banks (née Hugessen, 1758 – 1828) was an English collector of ceramics.
She was born Dorothea Hugessen on 8 November 1758, one of two daughters of William Western Hugessen of Proveden, Kent, and his wife Thomazine, née Honywood.[1] She was a 'well-acred heiress' at the time of her marriage to scientist Sir Joseph Banks on 23 March 1779,[2] and she was described by Banks' colleague Daniel Solander as 'rather handsome, very agreable, chatty & laughs a good deal.'[3]
Her collection of ceramics, which she displayed in the dairy of her home at Spring Grove, is recorded in her Dairy Book.[4] Like the ephemera collection of her sister-in-law Sarah Sophia Banks, it is informative about women collectors in the Georgian period.