A.P.F. The Rat Catcher after Rembrandt

Waller-Bridge Family Collection

This etching forms part of an interesting collection of works spanning four female generations of the Waller-Bridge family (the youngest generation being grandparent to the actress and writer of 'Fleabag', Phoebe Waller-Bridge). The eldest of the generations, Louisa Waller (1829–1892), was due to inherit the large fortune of her brother, Frederick Waller QC of Cuckfield, West Sussex, but she died prematurely and the fortune passed to her daughter, Florence Catherine Maunsell (1861–1928). Many of the pictures in the collection are by Florence, including views at Bad Homburg, a fashionable German spa resort. Florence married Theodosius Cotterell Henry Ward-Boughton-Leigh, vicar of Rodmersham, Kent, and together they had one surviving child, Elsie Noëline Waller Ward-Boughton-Leigh (1895–1953). Elsie married Horace FitzHenry Bridge, Rector at Worth in Sussex, and the married couple added 'Waller' to their surname in recognition of the inheritance from Frederick Waller QC. There are pictures in the collection by their daughter Noëline Cyprienne Waller-Bridge (1915–1983).

The locations depicted in the collection reflect the residences of the family, including around Cuckfield and Worth in Sussex, and in Devon, where the Maunsell family lived for a time. There are also Italian subjects by the landscape painter Edward Mills (fl.1876–1918), who lived for a time in Rome.