ILLUSTRATED AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ('E Burne-Jones'), to Mrs Benson, probably the wife of Robert Benson, of Kleinwort Benson, illustrating his point that babies should be born with their names predetermined; with a pen and ink drawing of a baby with its name 'Tommy' on its arm, Burne-Jones playfully laments his inability to find a suitable name for her child, all the saints relating to 23 May being incongruous and incompatible, whose 'names would oppress childhood and make manhood laughable - what could happen to a little mortal called Desiderius?'; he also explains that he is prevented from making his intended 'little visit' by a 'savage sore throat that wont let me sleep, nor swallow, nor talk, nor breathe, nor do any mortal thing with comfort', very fine, 4 pages, small octavo, slight trace of former mounting, The Grange, West Kensington, contemporary date written sideways-on on the last page, 3 February 1888 The recipient of this charming letter was probably the wife of Robert Benson of the bankers Kleinwort Benson, brother of William Arthur Smith Benson (1854-1924), the metalworker whom William Morris called 'Mr Brass Benson'. She was, in Pre-Raphaelite parlance, a 'stunner', and one of Burne-Jones's group of female confidantes as well as one of his models. Her husband was the original for Pygmalion in Burne-Jones's picture The Soul Attains, made metalwork that Burne-Jones incorporated in pictures such as The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, remodelled Burne-Jones's house at Rottingdean and sat to the artist for his portrait. He later became a director and Chairman of Morris and Co and supplied most of the metalwork for the firm.
Guy Benson was born on 24 May 1888. The letter is dated 3 February 1888. Burne-Jones did not usually date his letters, so either it is mis-dated or the letter is not to Mrs Evelyn Benson.