June 2024 – Our Collections: Clarendon

OUR COLLECTIONS: CLARENDON

A Cox descendant from Victoria has recently donated to Clarendon a Cox family Christening robe and pair of engravings of Queen Victoria’s Coronation Ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 1838 and the Christening of Prince Albert, later Edward VII at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1842. The engravings, after the British painter, George Hayter, were listed for Clarendon’s dining room in 1869 where they were described as having ‘carved oak frames’. Scenes like this were typical for dining rooms and reflected the 19^th century’s sense of itself as a time of history-making and empire-building. Clarendon’s builder, James Cox (1790-1866) established pastoral properties in Victoria. His grandson and heir, another James Cox, appears to have taken the engravings to his property, Mininera, Victoria.