Benzon, Edmund Ernst Leopold Schlesinger (1819 -1873)

Born in Hamburg, Germany, Edmund Ernst Leopold Schlesinger Benzon, migrated as a young man to Britain where he became the U.S. agent for Vickers, a firm of iron founders in Sheffield. He married Elizabeth Lehmann, sister of the distinguished artist Frederick Lehmann. Benzing was a patron of the arts and philanthropist, and could count among his acquaintances Wilkie Collins, Robert Browning, Felix Mendelssohn and George Eliot. Browning and the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev were visitors to his country house at Allean in Perthshire, Scotland. His library was sold in 1875, partly in London by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge 24 May 1875 and partly in Paris. Remaining parts were sold by Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge 14 June 1880 and 17 April 1888.