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I have recently been working on cataloguing the photographs contained in the second volume of the six personal albums that belonged to Teresa Hulton, the 8thLady Berwick. This album covers the period 1901–1906 and contains many informal and intimate photos of the Hulton family on their travels around Europe.

Volume II of the family photo albums

A number of the photos show Teresa and her elder sister Gioconda engaged in typical teenage activities. In the photo below taken in 1903 for example,  Gioconda is shown making repairs to her bicycle while her Uncle Charlie sits gallantly behind with his feet up!

Gioconda with her Uncle

Two other photos, with Teresa on the right, show the girls in costume preparing for a fancy dress party. The photos were taken in April 1903 when they were 15 and 12 respectively.

Gioconda and Teresa (on right) pictured in fancy dress

Their names are written underneath the photos, probably by their mother Costanza Hulton, and you may be able to notice that Teresa is called ‘Bimbele’. This or the shortened version of ‘Bim’, were Hulton family nicknames for Teresa which they used to refer to her throughout her life.

Our archive contains numerous letters written to Teresa by her father and mother and always addressed to ‘Dearest Bim’. One example, written from Florence by her mother in February 1911, is shown below and the use of the nickname continued even in later years when she had married and moved to Attingham.

A letter written to Teresa from her Mother and Father

The photos contained in this album show that Teresa was a well travelled girl in her teenage years. The Hulton family toured round Europewith friends and family visiting some of the most chic and fashionable destinations of the day. Amongst the places they visited are; Florence in Italy, Seefeld in Austria and Munich in Germany. This period of socialising with aristocratic European families and the artist friends of her father, including Walter Sickert and John Sargent, is likely to have had an influence on Teresa and resulted in her developing some of the characteristics that she displayed in later life, especially those relating to art and fashion.

The photos also introduce us to other members of the wider Hulton family. The group photo below, taken in the German resort of Mittenwald in 1903, includes Linda and Pasquale Villari, Teresa’s grandparents at the right of the back row, plus her Aunt Alyne, second from the left in the back row and her Uncle Charlie at the left of the front row. Teresa is sitting in the centre of the front row holding her dog Tora.

Members of the Hulton family

When the Hultons weren’t out and about on their travels, their family home was at the Palazzo Dona in Venice and a view of their living room from 1905 is shown below.

The Hulton family home in Venice

Other photos highlight childhood friendships that Teresa went on to maintain for her entire life. The photograph below shows her on the left of the group next to her friend Mary Wenckheim and was taken on Easter Monday 1903 in Magliano.

Teresa (pictured on the left) with friends

Teresa corresponded regularly with Mary Wenckheim throughout her life and Mary visited Attingham on a number of occasions after Teresa had become the 8thLady Berwick. Below is another photo from our collection, this time in glorious colour, showing the two friends 64 years later in June 1967 at an event in Shrewsbury. Mary is second from the left and Teresa second from the right.

Teresa pictured with the same friend, Mary, as in the previous photograph

A final photograph from the album shows Teresa on the left with Gioconda and was taken in Munich in 1905.

Teresa (left) with Gioconda

The girls are now 15 and 18 years old respectively and have matured from the children of earlier photos into young adults. This next phase of their lives is covered by the photos contained in Volume III of the album series and I will be presenting photos from that album in one of my future posts.