Louis Huth (22 March 1821 – 12 February 1905), was a British company director and merchant banker. He was a partner in Frederick Huth & Co, the merchant bank established by his father. Huth and his wife, Helen Huth (1837-1924), were significant patrons of the arts, not only possessing a large number of paintings by some of the greatest British artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but also commissioning works from contemporary artists. Their collection included paintings by artists of the Aesthetic and Symbolist movements, such as James McNeill Whistler RA (1834–1903) and G. F. Watts OM RA (1817 –1904), by both of whom Helen Huth was portrayed in important paintings. Huth, whose collecting extended to antique porcelain, was also a leading influence on the activities of one of the greatest art collectors and connoisseurs of the late Victorian era and the Edwardian years, George Salting (1835-1909), who ultimately left his outstanding collection of art to the British nation.
Early life and business career
Louis Huth was born at Finsbury in London, the son of Frederick Huth (1774–1864), a merchant and merchant banker born in Germany, who 'came of very humble origins, the son of a soldier [without rank], with only his intelligence and appetite for hard work to single him out from other poor boys at the bottom of the social heap in the small village of Harsefeld in the Electorate of Hanover.' After an apprenticeship to a Spanish merchant in Hamburg, Huth eventually established a business in Corunna, Spain, where he met his wife, an orphan believed to be the daughter of a prominent member of the Spanish Royal court. In 1809, following the invasion of Spain by France, Frederick and his wife and children emigrated to England from Spain and established the family merchant house in London, Frederick Huth & Co. By 1829 Huth had become the banker and financial adviser to the Spanish Queen, Maria Christiana, later Queen Regent, and in due course became financial agent for the Spanish government, for which Huth was rewarded with a knighthood by the Spanish crown. Gradually Huth and Co expanded its business in Europe, particularly Germany, and extended its operations to the Americas, becoming a major accepting house concerned with financing international trade and marketing securities; and by the end of the 1840s the Huths ranked 'immediately below such companies as Barings and Rothschilds.' It has been stated that Frederick 'Huth's reputation was second to none. Notwithstanding his small, slight stature, he had great presence [and] had been known as 'Napoleon of the City'’. The firm, which operated from various premises, latterly 12 Tokenhouse Yard in the City of London (which in due course became the office of the famous stockbroking firm Cazenove & Co), was eventually wound up in 1936, with the partnership of Frederick Huth and Co being dissolved and the business absorbed into the British Overseas Bank Limited (which in turn was itself merged into the Royal Bank of Scotland).
Family
The eldest son of Frederick Huth, his elder brother Charles Frederick Huth (1806–1895), also a collector of art, purchased Oakhurst Manor near Tunbridge Wells in Kent where he lived with his wife Frances and their large family. Another brother, Henry (1815–1878), was a noted bibliophile, building a world-renowned collection of books at his home, Wykehurst Place.
Wealth
Huth was a Director of The London Assurance for Fire, Life and Marine Assurance, although that seems to have been in a non-executive capacity, and he remained a partner in the firm founded by his father, although he was hardly ever involved in it operations following the death of his father. Huth was extremely wealthy, at his death in 1905 leaving an estate then valued at £341,000.
Homes
Huth and his wife, Helen Huth, lived in London at 28 Hertford Street, Mayfair. Between 1865 and 1869 Huth commissioned the architect Matthew Digby Wyatt to design Possingworth Park, Cross-in-Hand, Waldron, East Sussex, a red-brick neo-gothic mansion, built by the Uckfield firm of Alexander Cheadle. Possingworth served as Huth's country house. Apparently, it contained 'forty-two bedrooms with a wealth of oak panelling and huge, intricately carved stone fireplaces in lofty reception rooms with beautifully moulded and painted ceilings. Squire Huth and his wife brought to Possingworth the graciousness of the Victorian age, holding elegant dinner parties and lavish dances and balls.' Huth was very generous to the local community near Possingworth, providing a range of social benefits and paying for certain improvements to and objects for the church.