Marble bust of Disraeli, with his head turned slightly to the right, with moustache and goatee beard and wearing a morning coat with bow tie, a sash and the badge of the Order of the Garter; on a turned socle.

This bust of Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister, Tory politician and novelist, was made for Queen Victoria in 1880. It was carried out by the sculptor Count Gleichen, who according to correspondence in the Royal Archives wrote to Disraeli on several occasions in 1880 to ask for a sitting. In the summer of 1880, Disraeli, who was known for his outspoken opinions and outbursts, expressed in his letters to Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield his displeasure at having to sit for Gleichen ‘for a torturing hour about this cursed bust’.

Benjamin Disraeli was created Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, the year in which he retired to the House of Lords. This bust was commissioned four years later. It is inscribed at the front EARL OF BEACONSFIELD / 1880 and is signed with the artist’s monogram on the back and dated 1880.