Lady Lettice Lygon Country Life Magazine Portrait March 1 1930

Lady Lettice Lygon Country Life Magazine Portrait, Frontispiece, March 1 1930. LXVII No. 1728

The featured frontispiece this week is a portrait of Lady Lettice Lygon, published to mark her recent engagement and her prominence within London society.

• The Subject: Lady Lettice Lygon, eldest daughter of the Earl and Countess Beauchamp, one of Britain’s most distinguished aristocratic families.
• The Occasion: The portrait coincides with the announcement of her engagement to Mr. Richard Charles Geers Cotterell of the Royal Horse Guards.
• The Groom: Richard Cotterell, later the 5th Baronet, was the only son of Colonel Sir John Cotterell, Bt., a prominent landowner and politician.
• Society Context: At the time of publication in March 1930, Lady Lettice was at the height of her debutante years, a well-known figure of the London season.
• Family & Cultural Legacy: The Lygon family’s home, Madresfield Court, is widely regarded as the inspiration for Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. Her brother Hugh Lygon is often cited as the model for Sebastian Flyte.
• Marriage & Later Life: Lady Lettice married Richard Cotterell in June 1930. They had four children before divorcing in 1958. Their son, Sir John Henry Geers Cotterell, later succeeded as the 6th Baronet.

This is an authentic original page from Country Life magazine, part of the iconic series often affectionately referred to as the “Girls in Pearls” portraits — elegant society images that captured a distinctive era of British publishing and portraiture.

Size: Approximately 13.75 x 9 inches (35 x 23 cm)

Condition: Very good for its age. As with all vintage magazine pages, light signs of handling or minor age-related blemishes may be present. Please review the large photo carefully for full condition details.

This original Country Life Magazine frontispiece portrait forms part of The Old Map Shop’s curated archive of society portraits published between 1897 and 2026.