Lady of a Thousand Treasures

by Sandra Byrd

First published 2018

Amazon

4.2(1,056)

In 1866, Eleanor Sheffield works as an evaluator of fine art and antiquities in a profession usually controlled by men. The will of a wealthy collector requires her to decide whether his collection should pass to the South Kensington Museum or to his son Harry, whose broken engagement to Eleanor makes a supposedly objective judgement personally difficult.

Questions about debt, provenance and the collector’s intentions turn the appraisal into a mystery with consequences for Eleanor’s livelihood and family. The novel places romance and Christian faith within the expanding Victorian museum and art market, where professional expertise must compete with class authority, secrecy and assumptions about women’s judgement.