LONDON, Oxford Street, The Pantheon, Italian Opera, silver-plated copper, frontal elevation...

LONDON, Oxford Street, The Pantheon, Italian Opera, silver-plated copper, frontal elevation of the Pantheon dividing engraved k s [King’s Side], 1790=1 engraved in exergue, rev. italian opera pantheon, box no. 5, named (Earl of Egremont), 34mm, 15.87g (W 377). Some surface marks, otherwise about very fine, obverse dark-toned, very rare; pierced for suspension £300-£400 --- George O’Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837), Petworth House, Sussex and Orchard Wyndham, Somerset; educ. Wandsworth and Westminster; succeeded to the family titles and estates in 1763, and those of his uncle, Percy Wyndham O’Brien, in Ireland in 1774; substantial patron of the arts, including Turner, Constable and Flaxman; canal builder and majority shareholder in the Arun Navigation Co; bred horses and pedigree Sussex cattle, maintaining a racing stud near Lewes; his horses won the Derby six times between 1782 and 1826 and the Oaks five times between 1788 and 1820, records that remain unbeaten today. By political persuasion a Whig, he purchased the pocket borough of Midhurst in 1787, using it to return his two younger brothers to the House of Commons, but sold it in 1796 to Lord Carrington. He revived the Sussex Yeomanry Cavalry in 1794 and installed himself as its colonel. Chiefly known today for his myriad affairs, he fathered 43 illegitimate children and maintained some 15 mistresses at Petworth House, as well as Lady Melbourne (1751-1818), of whom it was rumoured that Wyndham ‘bought her’ from a previous lover, Lord Coleraine, for £13,000. The earl is said to have behaved no differently to most wealthy young men of his day, “taking women as frequently as they took snuff and changing lovers as often as they changed their linen”, according to the National Trust, which acquired Petworth House in 1947