Alfred Morrison

Alfred Morrison (1821 – 22 December 1897) was an English politician and collector, known for his interest in works of art, autographs and manuscripts. He was High Sheriff of Wiltshire.

Early life Morrison was born in 1821. He was the second son of James Morrison (1790–1857), the textile businessman. He went to the University of Edinburgh, and spent a student year at Trinity College, Cambridge and travelled.

Career When his father died in 1857, Morrison inherited his father's large fortune. Morrison was High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1857. He later unsuccessfully stood for parliament. In 1868 he was contacted by Spanish metalworker Plácido Zuloaga, administrator of a factory that had lost royal commission. Over the next twenty years Morrison commissioned a variety of damascened art works from Zuloaga, who led a team of artisans in making elaborate art works almost exclusively for Morrison.

Between 1860 and 1878 Morrison formed a collection of engravings, of which a part was described in a printed Annotated Catalogue and Index to Portraits by M. Holloway (1868). His paintings included Clouet and Goya. The main interest of his later life was in autographs and letters, catalogued as:

Personal life In 1860, Morrison married Mabel Chermside. She was a daughter of the Rev. R. S. C. Chermside, rector of Wilton, Wiltshire. His wife survived him with two sons, Hugh and James Archibald, who were both Members of Parliament, and two daughters. Another daughter married Stephen Herbert Gatty.

Morrison died at Fonthill Gifford, Wiltshire, on 22 December 1897, at the age of 76.