THE FURNITURE HISTORY SOCIETY

Newsletter No. 188 November 2012

MARGARET JOURDAIN: ‘FEW RIVALS AND NO SUPERIOR’

When her will was proved in September 1951, (Emily) Margaret Jourdain left an estatevalued at £4813 13s. 8d.1 Braemar Mansions, the block of flats in Cornwall Gardens whereshe lived for nearly twenty years, bears no trace of her occupancy, though there is a blueplaque commemorating the tenancy of her domestic partner, the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett. The Dictionary of Art Historians refers to Margaret Jourdain as ‘a scholar ofeighteenth-century English furniture and decorative arts’.2 Her name might never bementioned in a contemporary course of study of the decorative arts.

Yet Margaret Jourdain did leave a precious legacy within the decorative arts in England:for nearly half-a-century she oversaw the development of its scholarship, the broadeningof its accepted parameters and the deepening of the scope of its enquiry. She had a keen eyefor detail and her furniture books were some of the first to describe construction methodsof eighteenth-century makers. It is, regrettably, a legacy that has frequently been over -looked and that has been largely forgotten. Twenty-first century students of the decorativearts may be unaware that the wealth of knowledge available to them today was not at thedisposal of their predecessors and that Margaret Jourdain and her contemporariesdeveloped it over a century ago. The development of scholarship in the decorative artsowes an enormous debt to Margaret Jourdain, to those writers she took as her example andto those who, in turn, took her as their model.

Born in Ashbourne (Derwent), Derbyshire in 1876, the eighth of ten children of clericReverend Francis Jourdain, Margaret’s maternal grandfather was a Manchester surgeonand her paternal ancestors descended from Huguenots. According to the DNB, as well as

1 CGPLA Eng. & Wales, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004, online edition 2007).2 Dictionary of Art Historians, Lee Sorensen, ed., www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org

being intelligent, Margaret’s siblings were‘caustic and highly competitive’.3 Her eldestbrother, Francis Charles Robert Jourdain,was a pioneering ornithologist and anotherbrother, Philip Edward Bertrand Jourdain, ahistorian of math ematics and logic. EleanorFrances Jour dain, Margaret’s eldest sister,became prin cipal of St. Hugh’s College,Oxford. In 1887, Margaret herself obtained a‘degree’ from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.According to author Hilary Spurl ing, Mar -garet went up to Oxford on a Hall schol ar - ship, yet attained only a third on leaving,perhaps due to the fact that, even as anunder graduate, Margaret had insisted, ‘onfollowing her own road rather than anyoneelse’s’.4 The quality of Margaret’s degreemay be, in any case, a moot point since itwas not until late in 1920 that womenbecame eligible for admission as full mem -bers of the university and were given theright to take degrees.5

Her family’s modest finances requiredthat Margaret attain early financial inde -pend ence. Both of her younger siblings suf -fered from Friedreich’s Ataxia, a heredi tarydisease causing progressive damage to the nervous system that eventually resulted in theirpremature deaths. Although she remained living with her widowed mother for twentyyears after leaving Oxford, helping to care for Philip and Melicent, Margaret also embarkedon a writ ing career. Her early literary output was varied and included Pompei, The City, ItsLife & Art by Pierre Gusman, (1900); Translations of the Odes of Horace (1904), a collection ofprose poems titled An Outdoor Breviary, (1909) and Diderot’s Early Philosophical Works trans -lated and edited by her in 1916. The eclectic nature of this early work indicates the broadnature of Margaret’s classical education and the wide range of her interests.

Written in three volumes during the period 1924–27 by the pioneering furniture historianPercy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, later Keeper of the Department of Woodwork at theVictoria and Albert Museum, The Dictionary of English Furniture is an important book in thehistory of English furniture writing; the number of contributions made to it by MargaretJourdain signified her rising importance in the world of English furniture. Her signedcontributions included work on everything from chimney furniture to window curtains tothe work of English architects William Kent and James Wyatt. As an original contributor to the Dictionary, Jourdain took her place among such well known and respected furniturescholars as Oliver Brackett (writer of the first book on Chippendale, published by CountryLife Limited),6 Francis W. Galpin, Ingleson C. Goodison, John Seymour Lindsay,

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3 James Lees-Milne, rev. Hilary Spurling, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford: 2004, online edition,2007).

4 Hilary Spurling, Ivy: The Life of I. Compton-Burnett (London, 1974), p. 319.5 www.ox.ac.uk/…university/…oxford/women_at_oxford/index.html/ (Oxford, 2011).6 John Cornforth, ‘Hudson’s Choice’, Country Life, Vol. CXCI (London, June 12th, 1997), p. 139.

Fig. 1 Margaret Jourdain as a young woman

W. A. Propert, John C. Rogers, H. Clifford Smith, H. Avray Tipping and W. G. Thomson.7She was the only female contributor.

In considering the world of the decorative arts as it was when Margaret Jourdain wasestablishing her career, mention must be made of the company, B. T. Batsford Ltd., a lead -ing publisher of works in the decorative arts. According to what Harry Batsford, the com -pany’s last managing director said in 1943:

Our longest connection with a woman writer is with Margaret Jourdain. She has done 35 years ofserious work for us . . . Miss Jourdain delights in unearthing the names and careers of craftsmen ofdecoration and furniture in wood, plaster and metal during the 300 years covered by her books.8

It seems likely that writing on the subject of textiles gained Margaret Jourdain the oppor -tunity for employment with the London decorating and furnishing firm Lenygon & Co. and it was with the publication of Decoration in England from 1660 to 1770, in the autumn of1914, that Margaret Jourdain moved from being an occasional and specialist writer in the decora tive arts to becoming a recognised authority on its English history and development.The firm was paying her a retainer and Miss Jourdain allowed this book to be publishedunder the name Francis Lenygon. Whether she did so out of loyalty to the firm or fromrecogni tion of the greater marketing potential of male furniture writers and historians atthe time, it was a move she was later to regret. Margaret simultaneously published a com -plementary volume, entitled Furniture in England from 1660 to 1760; it, too, was distributedunder the pseudonym Francis Lenygon.

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7 Ralph Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture (London, 1964), preface.8 Hector Bolitho, editor, A Batsford Century, 1843–1943 (London, 1943), p. 131.

Fig. 2 Margaret Jourdain taking tea with her lifelong friend and companion Ivy Compton-Burnett (1942)

It has recently been suggested that Francis Lenygon was eminently capable of writing thetwo books, since he had previously published a book in 1909, before officially havingbecome associated with Margaret Jourdain (though it is possible that she also wrote text forLenygon prior to 1911).9 However while it is true Lenygon was capable of writing the worksunder consideration, there is no convincing evidence that he did so, and the writing of theirtext is much more likely to have been entirely the work of Margaret Jourdain.

In 1922, Margaret Jourdain published a sequel to the Lenygon volumes, titled EnglishDecoration and Furniture of the Later XVIIIth Century 1760–1820, this time under her own name. It formed the third volume of the Library of Decorative Art, replacing the W. G. Thomson book on tapestry.10 The last in the four-volume Library of Decorative Artseries, entitled English Decoration & Furniture of the Early Renaissance 1500–1650, waspublished by B. T. Batsford Ltd. in 1924, under the name of Margaret Jourdain. In 1934,Country Life Ltd. published Regency Furniture 1795–1820, a book that helped establishMargaret Jourdain’s reputation as a ‘furniture expert’. As Ralph Fastnedge wrote in theForeword to the revised and enlarged fourth edition, published in 1965:

(Margaret Jourdain) had been acknowledged for many years past as a leading authority on Englishfurniture and decoration and had written extensively within that field of study. Regency Furniturewas a pioneer study which she revised and enlarged in 1948, and revised again in 1949; and it hasremained a classic for more than a quarter of a century.11

In The Regency Country House: From the Archives of ‘Country Life’, John Martin Robinsonclaimed it was Margaret Jourdain ‘who pioneered the study of Regency furniture’ and inanother posthumous tribute, written in 1953, her colleague, Ralph Edwards, said:

The list of her books, which appeared at short intervals from before the first world war onwards,is so long as to constitute a small reference library on her chosen themes — a library, moreover, soauthoritative that it is not likely to be superseded.12

In 1948, Country Life also published what some people consider Margaret Jourdain’sidentifying work, though not all agree it was her finest. The Work of William Kent contained144 illustrations and an introduction by Christopher Hussey, architectural editor of CountryLife magazine whose extensive career had been spent considering architecture in the lightof its social history (fostered by Hussey’s own mentor and predecessor, H. Avray Tipping).

Her growing reputation led to another very important source of income as an advisor onantique furniture. Jourdain did not function as a dealer but rather, she acted as a ‘friend’ orintermediary, a friend kept on a retainer by many of the wealthy and well connected amongher wide acquaintance. Hilary Spurling asserts that:

Her own reputation for disinterested scholarship did not stop her working for Dealers like ActonSurgey or Phillips, obtaining pieces on commission from the trade and placing them with her ownwealthy clients . . . She generally relied on at least one steady client or patron (the Hon. Mrs Levyor Lady Assheton-Smith, Herman or Derek Patmore or Basil Ionides, for example) whosecollections she helped build up and tend.13

As well as being a regular contributor to Country Life magazine, Margaret Jourdain alsowrote for other periodicals and publications related to the fine and the decorative arts, such

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9 Eleanor Dew, PhD candidate at the Bard Graduate Center, New York.10 Dew, op. loc.11 Margaret Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795–1830 (London, 1965), p. 11.12 Ralph Edwards, Document obtained from John Hardy at the V & A Furniture Department, July 2011.13 Spurling, op. cit., p. 310.

MAJOR ACCESSIONS TO REPOSITORIES IN 2011 RELATING TO FURNITURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN

local

Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies: National Association of Decorative & Fine ArtsSocieties: Chiltern group records incl. minutes, newsletters 1965–2008 (D 281) Cheshire Archives and Local Studies: National Association of Decorative and Fine ArtsSocieties, Cheshire: St Peter’s Chapel, Tabley House, record of furnishings 2003–10 (D 8032) East Sussex Record Office: James & Frank Dengate, builders, decorators and undertakers,Sedlescombe: records 1924–48 (ACC 11001)

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as Apollo, The Burlington Magazine and The Connoisseur, as well as newspapers and specialistpublications. Colleagues as knowledgeable as Ralph Edwards valued Jourdain’s opinions.In a posthumous tribute to her written in 1953, Edwards pointed out that although heropinion also was solicited in questions of interior design, her ‘approach . . . was factual andscholarly rather than visual — strictly an art historian, subjective criticism and the passingof aesthetic judgments was not in her line’.14

Margaret Jourdain had an indirect connection with the National Trust and its presenta -tion of historic interiors through the prodigious amount of work done for them by JohnFowler; a more direct connection came in her friendship with James Lees-Milne. Appointedsecretary of the trust’s Country House Committee in 1936, Lees-Milne consulted Jourdainon many of his projects, including Polesden Lacey.

Whether or not Margaret Jourdain always succeeded, the point to be made is that shetried very hard to ‘get it right’. She was diligent in her research and wide-ranging in hersources. Margaret Jourdain set a standard of scholarship and adopted methodologies thatstill have relevance today. Moreover, she often had the great advantage of studying furni -ture and the original records of its manufacture and sale while they were still stored underthe same roof. Much of what she recorded for posterity about the decorative arts inEngland now has been lost forever. Michael Hall commented in The English Country House:From the Archives of ‘Country Life’, that she ‘became one of the founders of English furniturehistory’.15 In tribute to her, Ralph Edwards famously said that, ‘in her own field . . . she hadfew rivals and no superior’.16

It is time not only to revisit Margaret Jourdain’s twentieth-century contribution to thedecorative arts in England . . . but also to celebrate it and carry it forward into our own time.Her obituary in Country Life said that Miss Jourdain was mourned, ‘no less for her integrityand good taste than for her expertise’.17 The currency of integrity must never beundervalued in any area of scholarship.

Heather Burnet

14 Jourdain and Rose, English Furniture, The Georgian Period, (London), 1953), p. 9.15 Michael Hall, The English Country House: From the Archives of ‘Country Life’ (London, 2001), p. 62.16 Margaret Jourdain and Fred Rose, op. cit., p. 9. 17 ‘Obituary’, Country Life, Vol. CIX (London, April 13, 1951), p. 1090.

Glamorgan Archives (formerly Glamorgan Record Office): HM Owen, cabinet maker,Cardiff: business diaries, job notebooks 1964–2001 (D769) Somerset Heritage Centre: Yatton Local History Society Collection: deeds rel to the Wallfamily, manor of Yatton, directors’ minute book for Wake and Dean Ltd, later AvalonFurniture Co, survey of Yatton, 1821, deeds for cottage at Claverham Cross, day books forStuckey Bros, butchers, Yatton 1751–1997 (A\ACC) West Sussex Record Office: Jim Wakefield & Leslie Staniforth, builders and decorators,Shoreham: records c. 1930–79 (Acc 16166)

national

Victoria & Albert Museum, Archive of Art and Design: Robin Day, industrial, interior andfurniture designer: additional designs and papers incl material by Lucienne Day 1947–2006(AAD/2011/9); Elisabeth Tomalin, textile designer: papers c.1930–60 (AAD2011/1)

special

Glasgow Women’s Library: Margaret Meades Whalley: collection of textiles and wallpaperdesigns, oral history interview c.1960–90 (2011–2)

university

Bangor University, Archives and Special Collections: William Evans, cabinet maker,Bangor: papers 1860–1925 (Bangor 39504) Oxford University: Bodleian Library, Western Manuscripts: John Stefanidis, interiordesigner, London: additional files for client projects (6628) University of Birmingham: Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections: John Hardman& Co. Ltd., artists in stained glass, Birmingham: designs for stained glass windows inchurches and other religious buildings 20th cent (MS785)

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SUBSCRIPTIONS 2012–13 YEAR

Subscriptions are now due from members who pay annually by cheque orcredit/debit card. Members who have already paid by banker’s order on 1 Julyshould ignore this request. Members who pay UK tax and have not provided a giftaid declaration are requested to do so. If you are uncertain if payment has alreadybeen made please contact the Membership Secretary. No surcharge is being made onsubscriptions paid by card.

Dr Brian Austen, Membership Secretary, 1, Mercedes Cottages, St John’s Road,Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 4EH. Tel/fax 01444 413845. Emailbrian.austen@zen.co.uk

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NEW EVENTS SECRETARY

The FHS Council is delighted to announce the appointment of Anne-Marie Bannisteras the new Events Secretary. Her address is given in the Bookings paragraph of FutureSociety Events and on the final page under Officers and Council Members in thisNewsletter and also on the blue Events Booking Form. The Events telephone numberwill remain the same as in the past, 07775 907390. The email address for Events, isfurniturehistorysociety@hotmail.com until further notice.

FUTURE SOCIETY EVENTS

bookings

For places on all visits please apply to the Events Secretary, Anne-Marie Bannister, BricketHouse, 90 Mount Pleasant Lane, Bricket Wood, St Albans, Herts, AL2 3XD (Tel: 07775907390) enclosing a separate cheque and separate stamped addressed envelope for eachevent using the enclosed booking form. Some advance event information (including week -ends) will be available by email, please send your email address with your application toevents@furniturehistorysociety.org

Applications should only be made by members who intend to take part in the wholeprogramme. No one can apply for more than one place unless they hold a joint member ship,and each applicant should be identified by name. If you wish to be placed on the waitinglist, please enclose a telephone number and email address where you can be reached. Pleasenote that a closing date for applications for all visits is printed in the Newsletter.Applications made after the closing date will be accepted only if space is still available.

cancellations

Please note that no refunds will be given for cancellations for occasional visits costing£10.00 or less. In all other cases, cancellations will be accepted up to seven days before thedate of a visit, but refunds will be subject to a £10.00 deduction for administrative costs.Separate arrangements are made for study weekends and foreign tours and terms areclearly stated on the printed details in each case.

N.B. PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND SUFFICIENT STAMPED, SELF-ADDRESSEDENVELOPES FOR ALL APPLICATIONS, INCLUDING REQUESTS FOR DETAILS OFFOREIGN TOURS AND STUDY WEEKENDS

ANNOUNCEMENTSFURNITURE HISTORY for saleA member has kindly donated to the Society a run of Furniture History to be sold in aid ofSociety funds. This consists of Vol IV (1968) to XLVII (2011) inclusive, less volume X (1974)plus the four index volumes and a copy of ‘Furniture History: Forty Years On’. The con -dition is good throughout. If you would like to purchase, make an offer for the run or suchvolumes as you wish to acquire. All offers will be considered on 30 November. The vol -umes are currently at Haywards Heath and may be inspected there. The purchaser wouldneed to collect them or pay the cost of carriage.

Contact Brian Austen on brian.austen@zen.co.uk or tel/fax 01444 413845 or by post.

Annual General Meeting and Works in Progress Talks

Saturday 24th November 2012

East India Club, 16 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LH(Men are required to wear jacket and tie)

10.30 am Coffee/Tea on arrival11.00 am Furniture History Society Annual General Meeting 11.30 am 50th Anniversary Appeal

Followed by Works in Progress Talks

11.40 am Christopher Rowell, Curator of Furniture, The National Trust11.55 am Dr Susan Jenkins, Senior Curator, London & East, English Heritage12.05 pm Christopher Wilk, Keeper, Department of Furniture Textiles & Fashion, The

V&A Museum, will update on the Department12.15 pm Joanna Norman, Department of Furniture Textiles & Fashion, The V&A

Museum will update on the Europe 1600–1800 Gallery12.25 pm Rufus Bird, Deputy Surveyor of the Queen’s Works of Art, The Royal

Collection 12.40 pm Dr John Martin Robinson — Recent Works at Wilton House 1.15 pm Close and Lunch

Please inform the Events Secretary if you will be attending. Lunch (optional) to include aglass of wine (£20 per head) Lunch must be pre-booked with the FHS Events Secretary atleast 7 days in advance

The 37th Annual Symposium of the Furniture History Society

The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1

Saturday 9 March 2013, 10.00 am – 5.00 pm

The Architect as Furniture Designer

The subject of architects designing furniture, for their own buildings or for commercial sale,was first investigated by Charles Handley-Read in the 1960s in his researches into 19thcentury architects and interiors. However, there have been few attempts to take a broadlook at the subject since the exhibition and associated catalogue by Jill Lever in the RIBAHeinz Gallery in 1982. This symposium brings together a number of distinguished scholarsand curators to speak on architects from the 18th century to the 21st century and theirmove able contributions to the interiors of their buildings. The sessions will be chaired byCharles Hind, Chief Curator, RIBA Library and Julius Bryant, Keeper of the Word andImage Department, Victoria and Albert Museum.

Dr Susan Weber, Director, Bard Graduate Center, New YorkThe Furniture of William Kent

Dr John Harris, Curator Emeritus, Drawings Collection, RIBA LibrarySir William Chambers and the French Connection

Dr James Yorke, Furniture HistorianH. W. Inwood (1794–1843), the Erectheion and the Grecian furniture of St Pancras Church

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Max Donnelly, Curator of 19th Century Furniture, Victoria and Albert MuseumJohn Pollard Seddon and the Medieval Court of 1862

Matthew Williams, Curator, Cardiff CastleWilliam Burges and the Marquess of Bute — the furniture at Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch

Dr Irena Murray, Sir Banister Fletcher Director and Research Director, British ArchitecturalLibraryModern Movement Furniture in Central Europe between the two World Wars

Dr Alan Powers, School of Architecture, Design and Construction, University of GreenwichThe furniture of Raymond Erith (1904–73)

Abraham Thomas, Curator of Designs, Victoria and Albert MuseumContemporary Architects and Limited Edition Furniture

Tickets must be purchased in advance and early booking is recommended.

Fee: £40 for FHS and RIBA members (£35 for FHS / RIBA student members and FHS / RIBAOAP’s)

All non-members £45. Ticket price includes morning coffee and afternoon tea.

A light lunch will be available for FHS members in the Meeting Room at the WallaceCollection at a cost of £20.00 to include a glass of wine. Tickets for lunch must be purchasedat least 7 days in advance from the Events Secretary. The Wallace Collection Restaurant willbe open for bookings (Tel: 0207 563 9505) and there are plenty of local cafes / restaurants.

All ticket bookings must be made via the Events Secretary, email:furniturehistorysociety@hotmail.com tel. 07775 907390

OCCASIONAL VISITS

The Gilbert Collection, V&A Museum, London SW7

Thursday 24 January 2013, 10.30 am – 12.30 pm

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection is one of the finest private collections ofEuropean Decorative Arts formed in the 20th century, and has been on loan to the Victoriaand Albert Museum since 2008. In addition to gold boxes, silver and miniatures the collec -tion comprises a world-famous collection of modern Italian mosaics. Curator Dr HeikeZech has kindly agreed to take a group around the Gilbert Collection galleries to look atfurniture with pietre dure or micromosaic decoration. Afterwards the group will have theopportunity to study smaller examples in the department and get a sense of the incrediblecraftsmanship behind masterpieces in both techniques.

£15 per head Limit: 15 members

Closing date for applications: 15 December 2012

Apsley House, London W1

Thursday 14 February 2013, 2.00 – 4.30 pm

Apsley House built in 1774 by Robert Adam is the last surviving aristocratic townhouse inLondon, and the Duke of Wellington and his descendents still retain apartments in the

build ing. Apsley House is renowned for its internationally important collection of paint -ings and porcelain but it is also a showcase of regency style and taste. The WaterlooGallery, the vast Benjamin Dean Wyatt extension, houses a pair of rare Russian torcheresmade of Siberian (Korgon) porphyry which were originally intended for the Winter Palacein St Petersburg but were presented to Wellington by Tsar Nicolas I and there are otherpieces from the Russian diplomatic gift. Amongst other pieces we will also examine a suiteof 18th century gilded furniture which, survives in the Gallery, said to have come from theDuke’s country estate, Stratfield Saye.Josephine Oxley, Keeper of the Wellington Collection, English Heritage, has kindly agreedto take a group round Apsley House on a closed afternoon.

£15 per head to include tea and biscuits Limit: 20 members

Closing date for applications: 15 December 2012

Burghley House, Stamford, Lincolnshire

Wednesday 27 February 2013, 10.30 am – 4.30 pm

Miranda and Orlando Rock of the Burghley House Preservation Trust have invited the FHSto a private study day at Burghley House. Together with Jon Culverhouse, Curator, we willbe able to view private rooms within the family apartments on the ground floor. Here thereare fine examples from the workshops of Mayhew & Ince and James Newton, who workedextensively for the 9th Earl of Exeter in the second half of the 18th century. The afternoonwill be spent in the magnificent state rooms which contain some fascinating pieces collectedon 17th and 18th century Grand Tours.

£48 per head, to include coffee and lunch Limit: 20 members

Closing date for applications: 15 December 2012

Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, London W1

Changing Attitudes . . . the importance of copies in the Wallace Collection

21 March 2013, 10.00 – 11.30 am

Christopher Payne (independent furniture historian) and Dr Helen Jacobsen (Curator ofFrench 18th-century Decorative Arts at the Wallace Collection) will lead this guided studysession which will look at some of the more important pieces in the Wallace Collection thatwere specifically com missioned in the nineteenth century by the 4th Marquess of Hertfordto enhance his collection of French eighteenth-century furniture. It will enable us to exam -ine more closely the materials and techniques that were used and will also spotlight thechanging attitudes to replicas and copies over the last century. Lord Hertford often paidmore for his copies than for original pieces of ancien régime furniture and close study ofsome of these will demon strate the superb craftsmanship and skills of the mid-nineteenth-century cabinet makers, many of whom still remain anonymous and about whom we hopeto learn more during this session.

£15 per head Limit: 15 members

Closing date for applications: 15 December 2012

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OVERSEAS EVENTS

New York Study Weekend

1 – 3 December 2012

This event is now fully subscribed.

Rome

11 – 14 April 2013

This four day, three night study trip will concentrate on the Great Roman palaces and villasfrom the Baroque to the Neo-Classical, including the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, the PalazzoColonna with their famous galleries of paintings and furniture and the Quirinale Palaceand Palazzo Altieri. Based in the centre of Rome, we also plan to visit the Vaticancollections and the Palazzo Farnese, with the ceiling painting by Annibale Carracci as wellas the Mario Prez Museum. One day will be spent exploring villas outside the city by coach,such as the Villa Aurora, by kind permission of TSH the Principe & Principessa NicoloBoncompagni-Ludovisi, the Villa Borghese and possibly another private villa. As many ofthe palaces are in the centre of the city, there will be a great deal of walking. The trip isbeing organised by Adriana Turpin and Charlie Garnett.

Full details and cost will be available and sent out from early November. Please registeryour interest by email, or using the blue form as usual.

The Tom Ingram Fund and the Oliver Ford Trust invite applications from MA/PhDstudents, junior curators or young professionals at an early stage of career development, for funding towards participation in this study weekend. For details of funding and grantapplica tion form please contact Clarissa Ward, Secretary FHS Grants, email:grantsfhs@gmail.com.

Completed grant application forms for this particular weekend must be returned forconsideration by 15 December 2012.

FHS RESEARCH SEMINAR

Organised by the Tom Ingram Memorial Fund Committee (FHS Grants) with the generoussupport of the Oliver Ford Trust

Friday 23 November 2012, 10.30 am – 4.30 pm

The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1

The concept of this event is to present current studies of research on furniture history,design, construction, conservation and the history of interiors by MA and PhD students,and museum/heritage curators and professionals at an early stage of career development.The seminar will provide useful insights into current trends of research in the educationaland museum world. The programme will include:

Mia Jackson, PhD student Queen Mary, University of LondonAndré-Charles Boulle as a Collector of Prints and Drawings

Antonia Brodie, PhD student Queen Mary, University of LondonA Room of One’s Own? Unlocking the Closet 1650–1730

Wolf Burchard, PhD student Courtauld Institute of Art/Curatorial Assistant The RoyalCollectionCharles Le Brun: Unity and Hierarchy in the ‘Visite du Roy aux Gobelins’

Dr Naomi Luxford, post-doctoral research fellow University College LondonHas it Changed? Is it Damaged? A study of Veneer and Marquetry surfaces

Elizabeth Bisley MA, Assistant Curator Furniture Textiles & Fashion, V&APainted Decoration and the Cultures of Imitation — study of an Eighteenth-Century TyroleanCupboard

Shari Kashani MA, Christie’s Furniture Department LondonImitation/Presentation: Some Observations on Medalliers and Coquilliers in Eighteenth CenturyFrance

Dr Barbara Lasic, Assistant Curator, Europe: 1600–1800 gallery project, V&ASalon Tales: A set of mid-eighteenth-century panelling depicting the Fables of Aesop in thecollections of the Victoria and Albert Museum

Peter Nelson Lindfield-Ott, PhD student University of St AndrewsGeorgian Gothic Furniture: a New Pathway to interpreting British Gothic Furniture 1740–1840

David Oakey MA, Assistant to the Surveyor of the Queen’s Works of ArtHenry Holland and Furniture

Diana Davis, PhD student the Wallace Collection & University of BuckinghamWily brocanteurs: Retailing curiosity in the Regency

Christopher Maxwell, PhD student Glasgow University with the Virtual Hamilton PalaceTrustThe Dispersal of the Furniture from the Hamilton Palace Collection

Myriam Tondeur, PhD student University of SorbonneThe Architects and Creators of Furniture in the Belgian Modernism movement of the 1920s

Tickets are available to FHS adult members at £15 per head and £5 for students. Thisincludes morning coffee and afternoon tea at the Wallace, but not lunch. There are a varietyof local cafes, restaurants in the area, or The Wallace Collection Restaurant (bookings tel.0207 563 9505)

To apply for ticket booking form please contact FHS Grants Secretary, 25 Wardo Avenue,London SW6 6RA. Any telephone/email bookings for this event should be made toClarissa Ward, FHS Grants Secretary, email grantsfhs@gmail.com, or tel. 0207 384 4458.

We are expecting this event to be popular so members are advised to book tickets inadvance as there may not be tickets available at the door on the day. If tickets are availableon the day then these will be £20 for adults and £10 for students.

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GRANT ASSISTED EVENT FOR ‘EARLY STAGE CAREERDEVELOPMENT’ FHS MEMBERS

Tefaf Maastricht Fair, Visit Friday 22 – Saturday 23 March 2013

The Oliver Ford Trust, as part of its remit to promote scholarship for young people, isorgan ising an intensive specialised visit to the world renowned Fair, through the TomIngram Memorial Fund (FHS Grants). The group of a maximum of four participants will beled in their study of the furniture by Leela Meinertas, Curator in the Department of Furni -ture Textiles & Fashion, Victoria and Albert Museum. There will be 11⁄2 days at the Fair forclose examination and discussion of the exceptional furniture being exhibited, meetingexhibitors and general discussions about the current market. Part and full grants will beavailable for the cost of travel by train to Maastricht from London on early Friday morningreturning Saturday evening, meals and one night’s accommodation (the full cost being£220).

Applications are invited from junior museum/heritage curators. Those who areinterested in participating in this visit should apply to the FHS Grants Secretary, ClarissaWard, email grantsfhs@gmail.com, for an application form. This should be completed andsubmitted, with Curriculum Vitae and a note (400 words approx.) outlining professionaland academic career development benefits envisaged by the applicant. Applicationsshould be submitted by 12 December 2012, will be considered by the FHS GrantsCommittee, and successful individuals notified by 12 January 2013.

EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES

Please note that the following are not organised by the Furniture History Society.Information/booking instructions can be found under individual items.

Secret Splendour: The Hidden World of Baroque CabinetsExhibition

27 October 2012 to 6 January 2013

The Holburne Museum, Bath

This theatrical exhibition casts new lighton some of the most magnificent fur nitureever made. Made from a wide vari ety ofrare and exotic materials includ ing ivory,tortoiseshell, pietra dura and silver,cabinets-on-stands were one of the greatstatus symbols of the seven teenth cen -tury. Their outer doors open to revealexquisite interiors, origi nally designed toimpress only the most privil eged ofguests. For the first time, a splendid array

Cabinet-on-stand (detail), Dutch, oak and walnutwith marquetry of various woods, c. 1670

© The Holburne Museum, Bath.

of cabinets from the V&A Museum, CorshamCourt and the Holburne Museum will bedisplayed fully open to enable visitors to seetheir extra ordinary interiors, an experienceformerly reserved for a select few.

Wood Inside and Out — Lecture

22 November 2012, 7.00 pm, Economic Botany Collection, Kew

Peter Gasson offers a fascinating insight into wood, illustrated with timber samples, photo -graphs and microscope images. He will explain what wood is and how trees produce it,from familiar native species to tropical timbers. He will also look at the importance ofKew’s research into wood.

£5

See below for booking instructions

From Timber to Treen: Useful Woods at Kew’s EconomicBotany Collection — Lecture

22 January 2013, 7.00 pm, Economic Botany Collection, Kew

The Economic Botany Collection contains one of the world’s largest collections of timbersand wooden objects. Its curator, Mark Nesbitt, will show you some of its amazing treasures,ranging from ancient Egyptian woodwork to Victorian furniture.

£5

For both of the above lectures, booking is essential, call 020 8332 5626 or email adulted@kew.org or go to http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/whats-on/events-calendar/talks-courses/index.htm

REQUESTS FOR HELP AND INFORMATION

Heather Burnet is continuing her research on Margaret Jourdain and is seeking informationon her work and her life. If you have documents or insights that might be helpful, kindlycontact Heather at haburnet@gmail.com

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The Witcombe Cabinet, English, japanned and silveredwood, c. 1697 © The Holburne Museum, Bath.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Suggestions for future reviews and publishers’ review copies should be sent to Dr ReinierBaarsen, Reviews Editor, Rijsmuseum, PO Box 74888, 1070 DN Amsterdam, TheNetherlands, tel. 00-31-20-6747220. E-mail: r.baarsen@rijksmuseum.nl .

Françoise Bigot du Mesnil du Buisson and Etienne du Mesnil du Buisson, Serrurier-Bovy,Un créateur précurseur 1858–1910 (Dijon: Editions Faton, 2008), 299 pp., 250 col. illus.,ISBN 978-2-87844-109-3, € 97.

The publication of this monograph on Gustave Serrurier, the Belgian art nouveau architectand designer of interiors and furniture, came as something of a surprise, following, as itdoes, by only eight years on the book written on the same subject by Jacques-GrégoireWatelet (Éditions du Perron), the leading authority on the work of Serrurier since the 1970s.Watelet’s monography provides a well-documented survey of the work of the artist fromLiège. What might the new publication’s added value be?

The book is based on the doctoral theses defended by its authors at the Université deVersailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines in 2004 and 2006. In the introduction they immedi -ately state in which respect their studies differ from Watelet’s work. Unlike Watelet, theydo not seek to present Serrurier-Bovy as an art nouveau artist, but as a precursor of moderndesign. This is doomed to be an idle attempt.

The first part of the book consists of a relatively brief biography of the artist. Trained asan architect, in 1888 he was more or less forced to join the decorating firm of his wife, MariaBovy — hence Serrurier-Bovy. In 1894 and 1895 he participated in the exhibitions of La libreesthétique. As the firm continued to expand, it entered into partnership with the Frencharchitect René Dulong in 1903, selling its products internationally, through shops in Paris,Nice and The Hague, under the imprint Serrurier & Cie.

The second part attempts to analyse the various influences and ideological principlesunder lying Serrurier’s work. The third and largest section, devoted to his furniture, pro -vides a profusely illustrated catalogue, accompanied by useful commentaries. The fourthand last section deals with Serrurier’s architecture and interiors. The book more or lesscovers the same ground as Watelet’s monography, but because of its structure some aspectsof the subject are given more emphasis than others.

The second part, Les idées, Une pensée d’avant-garde, differs most clearly from what haspreviously been published about the artist. Here the authors’ central idea is elucidated:Gustave Serrurier was a true precursor of modern design, a visionary in his intellectualapproach. In order to substantiate this claim, the influence of the Arts and Crafts movementand of japonism is discussed, and Serrurier’s rationalism and social feeling are identified ashis leading principles. Although the argument is presented logically and well-supported bydocumentation, it fails to convince. Many artists of the second half of the nineteenthcentury were receptive to these same influences, and an entire generation of architects anddesigners was touched by the rationalism preached by Viollet-le-Duc. A sensitivity to socialproblems was also wide-spread in the last decades of the nineteenth century, being closelylinked with the Arts and Crafts movement. Gustave Serrurier, very much a man of his own time, occupied himself with contemporary ideas and movements. From the back -ground of these perceptions, he was able to distinguish himself and to develop anindividual creative imprint. But this did not make him a particularly advanced precursorof modern design.

The word design can have many meanings, and the authors are not clear about theirreading of the term. In its broadest sense, it denotes the (artistic) design of any object, ofwhatever period. By presenting Serrurier as a precursor of design, the authors implicitly

interpret the word as denoting modern, industrial, design. Serrurier obviously strove tocreate modern designs, and he also ran an industrial firm. There are well-known photo -graphs of the workshops and engine rooms of his enterprise, that give an idea of its largescale. It is a curious omission that these photographs are not reproduced in this book. Theauthors devote little space to Serrurier’s role as an industrialist, although this is an essentialaspect of the man. An investigation of this side of his activities could have lifted this bookabove comparable studies.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany pioneered the industrial productionof the decorative arts. The German display of works in this category created a sensation atthe Universal Exhibition held in Paris in 1900, because of the new principles of productionand presentation. It inspired France to re-direct its own production of decorative arts. Thiswas much discussed in the press, and it is impossible that Serrurier, himself prominentlypresent at the exhibition with his enchanting restaurant, Le Pavillon Bleu, was unaware of itor that he failed to visit the German section. There was also a great deal of internationalinterest for the opening, in 1901, of the Künstlerkolonie in Darmstadt, a prominent memberof which was Peter Behrens. In 1907 Behrens was to be one of the founders of the DeutscheWerkbund, and he was one of the initiators of industrial design in Germany (AEG). GustaveSerrurier visited the exhibition in Darmstadt and wrote about it. In a pronouncement thatis merely based on a quote concerning architecture, the authors of the book state thatDarmstadt did not influence Serrurier. However, there are many stylistic similaritiesbetween the house Serrurier designed for himself in 1902 and several buildings in thecolony in Darmstadt. And, moving beyond issues of style, it can be observed that Serrurierreorganised and expanded his business along modern lines in 1903; moreover, the newdisplays in the various shops reflected German principles. After 1903 Serrurier’s workbecomes more rigid, with straight lines predominating. It cannot be imagined that thischange was not influenced by contemporary work from Germany.

Although the new monography on Serrurier is worthwhile, it is not the last word on thisartist. A new approach and new research are needed to place this artist in an internationalcontext and to determine his true historical position.

Werner Adriaenssens

REPORTS ON THE SOCIETY’S EVENTS

Study Day at Knole, Tuesday 27 March 2012

The afternoon of our visit was spent in the rooms that are open to the public, following thevery same route that visitors took nearly 200 years ago, as revealed in the 1817 guide bookthat we were shown. Christopher Rowell, National Trust Curator of Furniture and JacobSimon, recently retired as Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery were our experteyes, drawing our attention to many extraordinary and wonderful objects.

In the Great Hall, the chimneypiece wall is dominated by John Wootton’s huge canvasThe 1st Duke of Dorset returning to Dover Castle after taking the oath as Lord Warden of the CinquePorts (1728). It is framed in a magnificent gilded Kentian frame surmounted by the Sackvilleleopards holding a duke’s coronet, while the border, instead of the usual Greek-key fret hasthe shield-like ‘vair’ motif, a heraldic representation of squirrel pelts taken from theSackville arms. Kent worked for the Duke, so it was almost certainly designed by him andmay well have been executed by the sculptor-carver, John Boson.

Processing up the Great Staircase with its charming grisaille decoration we noted theearly 18th century hexagonal lantern has a wonderful ratcheted mechanism for raising and

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lowering it. The Brown Gallery has a line-up of seat furniture that has now becomelegendary. How ever, all is not quite what it seems; it would appear that changes weremade by Mortimer Sackville-West, 1st Lord Sackville, in the 19th century to create‘schemes’ of furniture by covering different suites with the same covering, albeit antiquecoverings. Unravelling what has happened is made slightly easier by annotations in the1864 Heirloom inventory. Whatever the alterations, there are some truly iconic pieces ofseat furniture and their continued survival and preservation was much discussed. Thisconversation discussion was picked up again in the Venetian Ambassador’s Room wherethe bed is in the process of a complete conservation programme with a public appeal forfunding. Made for James II in 1688, it arrived at Knole, via Copt Hall, at the beginning ofthe 18th century, as one of the 6th Earl of Dorset’s perquisites. After the ravages of time, itwas given a very heavy-handed restoration in the 1960s which is now being rectified.

The famous Knole settee — actually a Royal ceremonial couch and far removed in usefrom its myriad of descendants — provoked further discussions about conservation versusdisplay. At present it is behind glass, but the viewer is left feeling they are the ones in thecase, the same experience as visiting the King’s Room.

Jacob Simon drew our attention to the blue ground on the contemporary gilded frame forthe Mytens portrait of James I in the Leicester Gallery. Christopher Rowell pointed out theseven exuberant gilded wall sconces, circa 1720, bearing the 1st Duke of Dorset’s coronet inthe Ballroom, which were again almost certainly designed by Kent. He also highlighted thebronze heads and feet on the caryatids of the splendid marble chimneypiece in theReynolds Room, based on French and Dutch engravings.

Inevitably, we ran out of time and almost had to be chased out of the house by EmmaSlocombe, our extremely patient and knowledgeable National Trust Curator. We were toldabout a proposed book on Knole that would cover its historic collection in detail; given howmuch we saw and merely touched upon in passing, this is clearly a must!

James Peill

We were privileged to visit the Private Apartments with Lord Sackville and his mother.This report will be included in the February 2013 Newsletter.

Eastnor Castle, 9 July 2012

Eastnor Castle is a great repository of fine and documented furniture, but its name belies its19th century origins. It is a Regency Gothic castle, built by Robert Smirke between 1810 and1824 on the lines of his now-demolished Lowther Castle, and furnished in the 19th cen turywith some of the most innovative furniture of the time — all in a historical or historicisttradition. His patron was John Somers Cocks (1762–1841), first Earl Somers, and descendantof John Somers (1650–1716), Lord Chancellor to William III, of whom at least one associatedpiece (and a number of portraits) survive in the collection. Smirke produced a large castle,furnished with some Regency Gothic pieces, that must have been rather empty until thethird Earl, Charles (1819–83), embarked on an innovative furnishing policy, firstly from thedesign firm of Crace (and their designer Pugin), and latterly in the 1860s, after a number ofvisits to Italy, where he obtained furniture and fittings on the antique market.

We were met in the Great Hall by the present owner, James Hervey-Bathurst, whoinherited the house from his mother the Hon. Elizabeth Somers Cocks. He kindly took usaround the main rooms. The hall itself was rather empty until the 3rd Earl furnished it witharmour bought in Milan in 1856, together with some fine pieces from the Meyrick collec -tion. In 1989 the family took the bold decision to furnish it as a drawing room, bringingdown much furniture from the storerooms, and other parts of the house. A set of dark

wood chairs and settees with gothic [k] tracery in their backs no doubt formed part of theoriginal Smirkian scheme. We were much taken with a very fine black ebony cabinet, madein Paris in the time of Louis XIII or the Regency for the young Louis XIV, the panels carvedwith Biblical scenes and the Labours of the Months, and an interior decorated withcoloured marquetry of tropical woods, and mirrors enhancing painted perspective views.Such cabinets were often imported into Britain in the 19th century, and often survive inparts, but this one was in especially fine condition, on its original stand of ‘Solomon’sTemple’ columns, no doubt as a result of its long provenance from Lord Chancellor Somers(said to be a present from the Earl of Shrewsbury). Also in the hall, on the opposite site,were three sections from an Italian Renaissance wall seating (from a sacristy?), with tallpilasters rising to a frieze of vases, griffins and masks.

Much of the armour once shown here had been moved into the neighbouring Red Hall,which led into the fine gothic dining room where we were much struck with a set ofbobbin-turned Regency ebonized dining chairs, with ivory balls acting as finials, in theAntiquarian rather than gothic taste (which did however appear as tracery in the side of theframe). A similar, but smaller set, lacking the bobbin turning at the top, were also in theroom, and there was a debate as to how the two sets were intended to work together. Alsoon show were a sturdy Smirkian gothic sideboard and sidetables, on which it was impos -sible not to notice three pieces of large and elaborate Wedgwood pottery decorated byAlfred Powell with view of Eastnor Castle in 1931, after the return of the 6th Baron in thatyear from his Governorship of the State of Victoria in Australia.

However, the piece de résistance of the house is undoubtedly the elaborate Gothic draw -ing room, decorated by Crace to designs from Pugin from 1849 onwards. It is one of his fewsurviving domestic interiors surviving more or less in its original form. Furniture includeda marquetry writing table, circular octagonal table and chairs, some inlaid with the letter‘S’. There was much discussion as to derivation or similarity of the octagonal table from theone shown in the Great Exhibition of 1851 and now in Lincolns Inn. The chairs derive froma pattern made for Chirk Castle. The enormous brass chandelier is also of a pattern shownin the 1851 exhibition, made by Hardman of Birmingham for £100 (their accounts survive).A unique piece though was the very fine work table, inlaid with gothic style marquetry,made as a wedding present for the 3rd Earl’s wife Virginia Pattle (one of a group of con -sciously ‘artistic’ sisters). The elaborate gothic carved chimney piece is comparable to oneat Chirk Castle, but with Minton tiles specially made for the Eastnor commission. Thedraw ings survive in the V&A [Alexandra Wedgwood, A. W. N. Pugin and the PuginFamily, V&A, 1985, pp. 192–4]. The whole was ‘softened’ by the incorporation of Baroquetapes tries from Wimpole Hall in Cambridge and elsewhere. Sadly, Pugin himself disap -proved of the end result, commenting on the chimneypiece that ‘I never saw a fine job socompletely ruined and cut to fritters’.

The afternoon was devoted to the libraries and bedrooms, where the purchases in Italy bythe 3rd Earl were much in evidence. Sadly the bills do not survive, and the dealers are notrecorded. The larger library has shelving with inlaid marquetry newly-made and importedfrom Italy; the smaller library has baroque carved shelving by Josef Posi of 1624 taken fromAccademia of the Intronati in Siena. The chapel and bedrooms had more the same, includinga grand Renaissance-style bedroom with a bed associated with Cardinal Bellarmino.Scattered around the rooms was a quantity of extremely interesting Renais sance or Baroquestyle furniture, probably (one suspects) made up by Italian dealers from authentic panelling,though one cassone from Eastnor is in now in the museum at Copen hagen. At least one piece— a set of shelves in the staircase hall — had a marquetry frieze of seagods in the style ofMantegna. A casapanca with (later?) arms of the Medici sat oppo site an overmantel surroundin the style of Grinling Gibbons from Reigate Priory, a former family house. It is noticeable

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that there is not one piece of Victorian rococo revival in the house, a tribute to the strict tasteof the 3rd Earl and his wife. However, a lighter touch was provided in the bedrooms upstairs,one of which was a wonderful bedroom in the Chinese taste, with painted Chinese wallpaperas a background to a large Regency wardrobe with Japanese panels (no doubt taken froma screen or cabinet — for this topic see Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jorg, Japanese ExportLacquer 1580–1850, Amsterdam 2005) and a modern (or moderne?) painted Chinese-stylebed, complete with dinky lights and Chinese light shades set above the pilasters of theheadboard, no doubt made for a visit by Queen Mary in 1937.

Altogether this was a rich, stimulating and varied visit, and gave us much to think aboutconcerning the totality and artistic vision of a family furnished their house in a highlyappropriate manner.

With many thanks to James Hervey-Bathurst, and Sarah Medlam and Max Donnelly ofthe Victoria and Albert Museum.

Howard Coutts

St Petersburg, Russia, 22 – 28 April, 2012

European Furniture Galleries at the Hermitage

Today’s State Hermitage encompasses a very complex conglomerate of Baroque, Neo-Classical and Neo-Baroque buildings, which includes the Winter Palace, former imperialresidence designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli (built in 1754 for Empress Elizabeth, destroyedby fire in 1837 and re-erected for Tsar Nicolas I), the Small Hermitage (begun in 1764)designed by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe for the ever growing art collection of EmpressCatherine the Great, the Old Hermitage by Georg Friedrich Veldten (begun in 1787) andfinally the New Hermitage, designed by Leo von Klenze for Tsar Nicolas I (begun 1839).

The Hermitage’s galleries of western-European furniture, situated in Rastrelli’s Winter -palace, contain an exquisite assemblage of predominantly French pieces, deriving not onlyfrom the imperial collection, but also from major princely estates, such as the Yusopov andStroganov collections.

Arranged chronologically, the galleries begin with mid- to late seventeenth-century fur -ni ture, some of which was acquired by Tsar Peter the Great. One of the most notable piecesin the first room is a Parisian Diana-themed cabinet, ven eered in ebony and most prob ablydating from the 1650s or early 1660s. Several pieces of Boulle furniture are on dis play in thenext rooms, including one very large cabinet from around 1715. Its door panels are deco -rated with a combination of inlaid wood and tortoiseshell depicting two large vases withflowers.

The French fauteuil à la reine made for the Princess of Parma and attributed to Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot (Paris, c.1749) is certainly one of the most impressive pieces in the Euro -pean galleries. The crispness with which the intricate floral ornamentation is carved intothe gilt-wood frame and the relatively good condition of the original upholstery of crimsonvelvet with elaborate silver embroideries make this one of the jewels of the Hermitage’scollection.

Another rather intriguing item is the serre papier of which the upper part is attributed toBernard van Riesenburg (BVRB). It is a very good example of the bombé bronze work,typical for BVRB.

The ensuing rooms contain mostly Neo-classical pieces from the late eighteenth- and thefirst half of the nineteenth century, such as a pair of fine commodes attributed to AdamWeisweiler, which incorporate early eighteenth-century Japanese lacquer panels combinedwith delicate gilt-bronze mounts. Four standard lamps of gilt and patinated bronze areattributed to Thomire. They are surmounted by a deep blue Sèvres vase surrounded by

three female beauties. In addition to the fine furniture listed above, many of the rooms werehung with very well preserved French tapestries, such as two examples from the Maisonsdu roy series (Gobelins, mid-eighteenth-century reweaving from 1660s cartoon), three fromthe Histoire de l’Empereur de Chine (Beauvais, probably early eighteenth century) as well asseveral pieces from Jean François de Troy’s Histoire d’Esther (Gobelins, 1760s) and Histoirede Jason (Gobelins, 1780s).

The visit ended with a viewing of Catherine the Great’s finest pieces of Roentgen furni -ture acquired in the 1780s. We were very privileged to witness how the conservators openedseveral bureaus to demonstrate how they work and to show us their intricate mechanisms.

The State Hermitage: The Peacock Clock, Imperial interiors and Russian Furniture in theWinter Palace

After witnessing the breath-taking spectacle of the James Cox Peacock Clock, 1781, inaction, we set off to explore some of the restored interiors of the Hermitage, in particularthe Winter Palace and its display of Russian furniture from the 18th to 20th centuries. Dr Natalja Guseva, Keeper of Russian Furniture, included the apartment of Alexander IIIin her tour. After the destruction of the original interiors in the Second World War it wastrans formed into the galleries of Russian decorative arts. These were conceived as a seriesof exemplary historical rooms in the Museum of the Revolution. Only the library retains itsoriginal interior. The tour included other reconstructed highlights of Imperial interiors,such as the Malachite room, the state drawing room of Alexandra Fiodorovna (wife ofNicholas I). This room was designed by Alexander Briullov, 1839, after a fire had destroyedmuch of the previous interiors of the palace. Some furniture by August Montferrand from1813, survived the blaze and was integrated in the new set-up. It illustrates the rapidchange of taste at the court in this era.

Proving a fantastic dry sense of humour, Natalja explained the difficulty to determine theprovenance of many items due to the raids of aristocratic palaces during the revolution andthe Second World War. The nationalisation meant that furniture from private and imperialcollections was pooled in one central store, and subsequently distributed to various mus -eums, such as the Hermitage or the Russian Museum.

What became evident throughout the tour is the continued interest in historic and tradi -tional styles in Russian decorative art and furniture, most importantly the various phasesof classicism, as well as Neo-Boulle furniture. The Western European influence becomesmore and more pronounced since its first appearance in the late seventeenth century. EveryWestern European style from Baroque to Art Nouveau found its way into Russian furnituredesign, sometimes adapted to include traditional Russian elements. The factory of NikolaiF. Svirski often led the way in stylistic development: around the same time they providedfurnishings in Gothic style for the library of Nicholas II, and a marvellous Art Deco lady’sworking table that won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1889.

The wealth of hardstones and the outstanding achievements of the Peterhof andYekaterin burg lapidary factories, not only in terms of craftsmanship, but also with regardto form, could also be felt in every room with elegant and monumental examples of out -standing craftsmanship from all periods. In the early nineteenth century, malachite wassourced from the Ural, in fact from an area that formed part of the Demidoff estates. Amonu mental vase and the famous Columbia pietre dure cabinet, 1893, in the malachiteroom are marvellous examples of the use of this material.

Natalja also introduced Mikhail Lomonosov at the end of the tour. He was the drivingforce behind the revival of mosaics in Russia from the mid eighteenth century onwards.

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The Russian tradition developed to some extent parallel to Roman micromosaics which,mostly thanks to Italian mosaicists, found their way to Russia around 1800. It seems thatthe most important subject-matter for Russian mosaics during the 18th century were por -traits, often in fantastic Catherine II gilt-bronze frames.

Pavlovsk

In 1777, Catherine the Great presented her son, the future Paul I, with the estate ofPavlovsk, close to her Palace of Tsarskoye Selo, to celebrate the birth of his first male heir,the future Alexander I. The two rather rustic lodges, which came with the estate soonproved to lack in space and grandeur, which is why Paul and his consort Maria Feodorovna(née Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) commissioned the Scottish architect CharlesCameron to build them an entirely new structure. Cameron imagined a vast Neo-Palladianvilla inspired by the works of his British contemporaries, such as Lord Burlington.

The house impresses by its sheer size. Due to its classical proportion, the main pavilion(five axes and three stories) appears relatively small on photographs. In reality, however,the building turns out to be much larger than what one would expect.

The interiors of Grand Duke Paul’s summer retreat are both luxurious and exciting. Inthe rusticated vestibule, the visitor is greeted by eight large statues of Egyptian menaligned along the walls. They are presumably made of plaster and painted to look likepatinated bronze. The Italian Chamber on the first floor was designed by Cameron incollaboration with Vicenzo Brenna and is at the very centre of the house. Its circular layoutis echoed by the cupola surmounting it. The room’s main feature is a large gilt-bronzechandelier of eclectic style with intricately curved crystal ornaments. Indeed most chan -deliers at Pavlovsk are worth noticing, both for their richness as well as for the wide rangeof materials, such as porcelain or even papier mâché made to look like gilt-bronze.

The upstairs apartments of Paul and his wife are furnished with some of the finest piecesof furniture we saw on our visit to Saint Petersburg. Some of them returned to the palaceafter the Revolution, others are substitutes acquired by the Russian State in recent years.The predominance of French furniture is easily explicable: in 1781 Paul and MariaFeodorovna embarked on a grand tour through Europe and attended Louis XVI’s court atVersailles as ‘Comte and Comtesse du Nord’. In France they visited many private homesand the manu factories at Sèvres and the Gobelins. Many of the works purchased at thetime, are now on display at Pavlovsk, such as a particularly well preserved suite of thefamous Gobelins Don Quixote series and several rare ornamental Savonnerie panels withanimals of the forest surrounded by flowers and trees.

Several rooms are furnished with very fine sets of Jacob seat furniture with Lyonsupholstery. However, the most important work by the ébéniste remains the remarkableNeo-classical state bed designed for Maria Feodorovna. The walls of her bedroom are hungin French silk with trophies of flowers, birds and blue ribbons on an ivory background.Laid out on the dressing table is vast Sèvres toilet set including a large mirror. The set waspresented to the Grand Duchess by Queen Marie Antoinette and every piece was sculptedby Louis-Simon Boizot (1781–2) to match the overall decoration of the room.

The side wings house the family’s private apartments, which are equally opulently fur -nished. In addition to its handsome furnishings and the impressive range of large por celainand hard stone vases, Pavlovsk also contains a very important collection of old masterpaintings.

We are grateful to the Curator Alexey Guzanov and his colleagues who showed us roundthe Palace.

Hard stone Furniture at the Hermitage

Emmanuel Ducamp conducted a visit through the Hermitage concentrating on hard stonepieces. This visit further helped us understand the layout of the Winter Palace as anImperial residence, rather than a museum.

The Winter Palace displays an extraordinary variety of precious marbles of both Russianand foreign provenance. In 1721 Peter the Great established the first Imperial hard stonemanufactory at Peterhof to provide luxurious furnishings for his palaces. Production wasstrictly controlled. Court architects were requested to supply designs, which would subse -quently have to be approved by the Imperial Cabinet. Works produced in the imperialmanu factories tend to be well documented, since the architects were obliged to provide twodesigns: one for the manufactory and one to be archived. The archival material of theImperial Cabinet regarding eighteenth-century hard stone productions can therefore claimto be close to comprehensive.

Our visit began in the large Jordan staircase destroyed by fire in 1837, but rebuilt accord -ing to original designs, though using more enduring materials. Whilst the giant columnshad formerly been coated in Scagliola, the new ones are huge monoliths of green granite.The white steps were carved of imported Carrara marble. The scarcely furnished Field-Marshall Hall (the equivalent of a vast guard chamber), contains a huge Russian mosaictazza (1828–36) with a fine deep blue lapis lazuli veneer. Thanks to the great array andwealth of lapis lazuli and other hard stone furnishings at the Hermitage, Emmanuel wasable to illustrate how the techniques of veneering gradually improved in the nineteenthcentury. Especially when applying malachite, the stone’s natural grain was taken into con -sideration in order to create elaborate patterns. Whilst around 1810 small pieces of mala -chite were set next to each other randomly, from the 1830s onwards lager pieces were usedto arrange specific designs.

In the ‘Peter the Great Throne Room’, also known as the Small Throne Room, we founda pair of polychrome jasper columns flanking the altar-like portrait of Tsar Peter behind thethrone. These columns contrasted with the much larger white columns, structuring the restof the room. The so-called Main Throne Room, also functioning as a Ball Room, comprisesa variety of Neo-classical vases of jasper, malachite and lapis lazuli veneer from the mid1810s. Most of them were designed to include gilt-bronze mounts, but some were neverreceived. A very impressive pair of obelisks, carved of powerful pink and black rhodonite,is set up on to the left and right of the throne. These obelisks are solid, rather than merelyveneered, but not monoliths.

In the galleries we saw some of the greatest pieces in the collection, such as several verylarge Korgon porphyry tazze, with deep grey stone, with a touch of violet, which alwaysfeatures both matt and shiny parts. The galleries are dominated by large works with mala -chite veneer, such as several console tables designed by Leo von Klenze. They also com -prise the largest lapis lazuli table slab ever to have been produced. Its gilt-bronze mounts,with their fine modelling and chasing emulate the work of Pierre-Philippe Thomire. Themonochromatic lapis lazuli itself is worked in such a way as to show its veins and the goldinside the stone.

Most of the earlier hard stone pieces at the Hermitage were imported from Italy. Some ofthem survive in their original configuration; others were taken apart and individual panelswere then re-inserted into new pieces, such as a pair of console tables comprising seven -teenth- and eighteenth-century Florentine panels populated by birds and flowers. In orderto enhance the depth of the design, smooth shades were achieved through heat. Altogether,the visit has shown that due to the country’s great resources — the range and intensity ofcoloured and lavishly grained stones — combined with the determination to outdo

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Euro pean productions, the Russians were able to produce some of the most incredible hardstone works.

Restored Glory: Tsarskoye Selo/Catherine Palace with Agate and Hermitage Pavilions

We visited the Catherine Palace on what its director Dr Irina Bott considered a ‘quiet day’.The palace after designs by Rastrelli was first initiated by Empress Elizabeth, and subse -quently extended by her successors. Equipped with earphones we negotiated our waythrough the huge crowds to get an overview of this battleship of an Imperial palace. TheSecond World War has not spared the building, and without exception the interiors in themain part are reconstructions that showcase changing fashions of restoration since 1945.Without doubt the most famous reconstructed interior is the Amber Room.

Given the history of destruction and gradual rebirth, it is all the more noteworthy thatthe furniture collection of Catherine Palace does include mid 18th-century fauteuils thatwere created for the palace. The majority of furniture now on display reflects the tastes oflater Tsars, most importantly Catherine the Great. Dr Bott described the group as ‘few, butvery important objects with an extraordinary history’. She also mentioned the recentappearance of pieces that can be traced back to Catherine Palace on the international artmarket; in fact just before our visit a table by Christian Meyer — found in a Christie’sauction in New York — had been approved for acquisition.

In Dr Bott’s opinion the history of Russian furniture as a distinct stylistic group startsonly with Catherine the Great: parquetry and marquetry are a particular strength inRussian furniture-making, with Christian Meyer as one of the foremost exponents. Threefloors in Catherine Palace are attributed to him and exemplify the early phase of his work.During the 1770s Charles Cameron was commissioned by Catherine to design an extensionof the palace including furniture; some pieces after his designs are still part of the furniturecollection. The structure of the Cold Baths and Agate Rooms survived the War. We had theextraordinary opportunity to visit the construction site of the restoration and partial recon -struction of this unique suite of rooms with its agate-clad walls.

The Hermitage Pavilion, a banqueting hall in the garden, was the last stop on the tour ofthe Catherine Palace. It dates from the Rastrelli period, and was also severely damaged inWorld War II. As so often, reconstruction work spanned several decades, and is stillongoing. The recently reconstructed Tischlein-Deck-Dich dumb-waiter mechanisms are theglory of the pavilion: either the entire tables or individual dishes can be mechanicallylowered to, or sent up from the kitchen area on the ground floor. Once more shifting atti -tudes to restoration could be seen — from restoration in style just after the war thatdisguises its nature as reconstruction under gilding to more or less subtle ways of makingrestorations visible while allowing the visitor to read the space as originally intended, forexample by leaving reconstructed carving plain rather than gilded. The visit ended with alively discussion on attitudes towards restoration.

Peterhof Palace

As we walked along the terrace of the Grand Palace at Peterhof, we were fortunate towitness a rehearsal of the Great Cascade in action. Designed to commemorate Russia’svictories in the Northern War, this grand baroque monument consists of over seventyfountains and 250 sculptures and bas reliefs of bronze, lead and marble (of which sixteenof the free-standing figures are gilt). The ensemble was completed, like the palace, in 1723,and forms just one of the series of extensive water features at Peterhof. We then entered theGreat Palace itself, begun for Peter the Great in 1714 after St Petersburg had been promotedas the Russian capital. It was designed as a truly grand suburban summer residence, and

its con struc tion and decoration was undertaken by Europe’s leading architects, sculptorsand artists, including Le Blond, Francseco Bartolemeo Rastrelli and Johann FriderichBraun stein. After Peter’s death in 1725, subsequent monarchs completed, adapted andextended the Palace. Empress Elizabeth continued the baroque style, while Catherine IIintroduced Classical elements into the building.

Following the Russian Revolution, the palaces and gardens were nationalised in 1918,and became public museums. The efforts of its staff to conserve the building and groundswere halted with the German invasion, although 13,000 of the 31,000 museum’s exhibitswere saved before the site was occupied. In 1941 a shell hit the Palace and the ensuing firereduced it to a ruin. In 1948, the decision was taken to reconstruct the palace. As we see ittoday, the fabric of the building, and its interior decoration, is therefore relatively recent;the result of decades of restoration by highly skilled craftsmen and women, and work isstill ongoing. For me, the visit was unsettling in terms of the ethics of such an extensive andcostly reconstruction project; while the sharpness, cleanliness and brightness of the par -quetry floors and giltwood boiserie was rather extraordinary compared to the fadedgrandeur of most of Europe’s palaces with which we are more familiar. However, I feltimmense admiration that the skills required for such a project were still alive, and patron -ised by the state. The historic collections on view comprise pieces from both royal and othercollections, and the quality is mixed.

We entered the Grand Palace via the main staircase, designed by Rastrelli in the mid 18thcentury, with a partially gilt wrought iron balustrade by N. Stube. Next came the white andgilt ballroom, again designed by Rastrelli, with a painted ceiling by Bartolomeo Tarsiafeatur ing Empress Elizabeth in the guise of Juno, and sixteen painted roundels representingOvid’s Metamorphosis. Following this was the Chesme Hall, a neo-classical room withstucco work, designed to commemorate Russia’s naval prowess with its display of navalpaint ings. In the adjacent Blue Reception Room, the Palace’s officials once recorded eventsin the life of the court. Official receptions were held in the Throne Room, a vast green andwhite space with royal portraits, and Peter I’s gilt oak throne, featuring a double-headedeagle. The adjacent gilt and white rococo room for ladies in waiting displayed a collectionof Meissen porcelain, and a pair of demi lune Russian tables with cabriolet legs, inlaid withwood and ivory and featuring the double headed eagle. In the White Dining Room, thetable was laid with Wedgwood’s table service commissioned by Catherine II in 1768. Thecrystal lighting was supplied by the St Petersburg Glassworks. In the same period, LaMothe created two Chinese cabinets for Catherine II, elaborately decorated by Russiancrafts men, including the two elaborate stoves with polychrome tiles and ceramic figures.The Picture Hall was in the process of restoration, enabling us to glimpse the giltwoodframe work which La Motte designed in 1764 to display hundreds of painted portraits oncanvas of Russian ‘types’ by Pietro Ritali.

We then entered the series of private apartments, which were more extensively furnishedthan the state rooms. French and Russian furniture dominated, the Study comprising aRussian-made writing desk alongside furniture by Jacob, Beneman and Roentgen. ThePartridge Room featured some of the best hardstone objects to be found in Russia, and inthe Passage a Russian folding game table featuring landscapes inlaid with indigenouswoods. Emmanuel drew our attention to two stools, discovered by Wilfred Saisser, whichare from a set by Foliot for Marie Antoinette’s bedroom at Compiègne. The suite waspurchased after the Revolution for Gatchina Palace, and although mostly destroyed duringthe Second World War, a similar set survives in Gatchina’s Raspberry Drawing Room.

The Large (Blue) Drawing Room was used for intimate meals, and now displays itemsfrom the Banquet Service for 250 persons made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in 1848and decorated by Russian artists in the in the Sevres ‘cabbage leaf’ style. For me, the

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highlights of the tour were the two display cabinets to the far side of the room, by theFrench bronze manufacturer Ferdinand Barbedienne whose furniture production was sig -nifi cant in terms of ambition of design but has received little study compared to his bronzereproductions of historic and 19th-century sculpture. His revival of Renaissance sculpturein his furniture designs influenced the revival of interest in Renaissance sculpture by ama -teurs, manufac turers and sculptors. The pair of Renaissance style cabinets at the Peterhofhave gilt bronze mounts, and are copies of what was first displayed as a bookcase, withsilver gilt mounts, by Barbedienne at the International Exhibition of London in 1862. Thisdesign had specifi cally French Renaissance overtones, incorporating truncated andreduced copies of Michel angelo’s Slaves, resolved in a manner typical of caryatids. TheSlaves had entered France during Michelangelo’s lifetime, and the Louvre in 1794, wherethey consequently became better known by artists, historians, collectors and manu -facturers. The Louvre’s plaster work shops first produced casts in 1819. The bookcase alsoincor por ates bas relief panels after the French Renaissance sculptor Jean Goujon for HenryII’s triumphal arch into Paris, recon structed as the Fountain of the Innocents in 1787. Theupper section of the bookcase displays an angel blowing a Roman tuba, similar to a reliefby Goujon in the Musician’s Gallery in the Salle des Cariatides in the Louvre. The designof the Peterhof and 1862 cab inets thus represent a more distinctly French Renaissanceversion of an earlier bookcase by Barbedienne, displayed on the stand of his English repre -senta tive Jackson and Graham at the Great Exhibition of 1851. This incorporated elementsof Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise (of which he also displayed a half-size bronze), and receivedextensive praise from the French and English press as forming a new direction in theapplication of bronzes to furniture. It was unfortunate that our visit was so hurried, withfew opportunities for close examination of objects.

Following the tour of the Grand Palace, we had a refreshing stroll through the lowerpark, passing the Chessboard Hill Cascade with its polychrome dragons and marblestatues; the Roman fountains, after those at St Peter’s Square, Rome and the ‘trick’ Umbrellaand Little Oak fountains that were turned on by gardeners to surprise visitors. After asplendid lunch we continued our visit of Peterhof with a visit to just one of the manypavilions around the site. The Catherine Block, erected by Rastrelli and completed in 1760,continued his theme of enfilade rooms and bold parquet floors. The furnishings appearedto be more extensive here than in the Grand Palace, and were predominantly in the style ofthe French First Empire, which continued to be favoured by Russian cabinet makers andpatrons into the 1840s. A daybed had lacquered, rather than ebony, legs, and a veneer ofpos sibly Karelia birch. The identification of veneers proved somewhat problematicthrough out this visit, particularly between this birch and Carpathian elm; Robin Millerexplained that the latter has tight clusters, whereas Karelia birch has almost wormyrepeated patterns like thin hair lines. A table top incorporated a landscape made from glassbeads. There were bronzes by Bergenfeldt, and it was noted that Het Loo has a mirror withcandlesticks for Pavlova also made by him. A set of Russian papier maché chandeliers wereimpressive for their scale and intricate craftsmanship. In the Blue Drawing Room, a pair ofcommodes with grisaille panels were discussed, and it was noted that similar examples hadbeen seen in Italy. Various items by Gamps were noted throughout, including a pair ofdemi lune commodes with stepped shelves above. Also on display was the Guryev Service,commissioned from the Imperial Porcelain Factory in 1809, and at around 5,000 items is oneof the world’s largest porcelain ensembles.

The Hermitage StoreWe visited the storerooms of the Hermitage located to the north of St Petersburg on Hare(or Zayachy) Island in the mouth of the Neva River. The plans for a modern storeroom date

from the Soviet era. The storerooms are housed in a modern block dating from 1990. Thebuilding work and installations were completed around 2000 and the store has been in usesince 2003. The building has thirty-eight spaces fitted out with the most up-to-date equip -ment: large lifts, automated lighting, no daylight, air conditioning, security systems etc.The remark able thing is that seven storerooms are open to the public from Wednesday toSunday. There is a compulsory guided tour four times a day. Most of the visitors are locals,forty-eight per cent are children. One hundred people are employed at the site includingroughly twenty cura tors, restorers and guides. The remainder are security and monitoringstaff, and cleaners.

The ground floor accommodates the large carriages and sleighs and with them costumesfrom the film ‘Russian Ark’ (2002). There are quite a lot of carriages for daily use (excep -tion ally rare), but also ceremonial coaches, three of which are 18th century from Paris.

On the first floor there are more than a thousand busts in cupboards on two levels. Thesecond floor houses the tapestries and two of the five 18th- and 19th-century Turkish tents.One can actually enter one of the tents, as one can at Powis Castle (state tent of Clive ofIndia), because the textile is supported by a new metal palisade over a Perspex structure sothat it is impossible to touch the fabric.

This floor also accommodates the furniture storeroom. Mrs Guseva generously took thetime to come with us and show the furniture. Everything is installed behind glass panelswith a route set out for visitors. The pieces of furniture (around 800) are on two levels andapparently mixed up, with a great feeling for effect. The chairs are in low, metal, mobileopen compartments with glass panels, and chairs are also displayed on top. Striking pieces:a beautiful round table by Fortner with the Romanov coat of arms inlaid around 1840,entirely in Boulle technique, tables by Christiaan Meyer in Piranesi style. We saw a few neogothic pieces, which are regarded as being very exotic in Russia, because there was nogothic style in Russia in the late middle ages.

The fresco fragments are kept on the fourth floor, and are mounted on sliding racks Theycome from Russia churches, mainly from the 14th century, which Peter the Great had con -verted into fortresses. In the 1970s these buildings were systematically excavated, theremain ing frescoes removed and preserved on wooden planks. Two hundred squaremetres have now been restored in twelve years and another 100 square metres still needsatten tion. The Hermitage’s collection of Russian icons is on the same floor, including a 19th-century icon that, very rarely, is signed. The restoration ateliers are on the fifth floor.

None of the items are labelled with captions because the Hermitage wants to emphasisethe storeroom aspect.

The Chinese Palace, Oranienbaum

We were privileged to have a private visit as the Palace is still in the midst of a long periodof restoration. It is remarkable being the only Summer Palace to survive the ravages of warand its upkeep was neglected for a long time. The Palace was the first major building pro -ject ordered by Catherine the Great in 1762 after the coup of Peter III, completed in 1768,and was originally the Baroque estate of Prince Alexander Menshikov. Built by AntonioRinaldi, it was redone in a much lighter and fanciful Rococo style, which Catherine theGreat embraced for a short period.

The elaborate floors in marquetry and parquetry were designed by Rinaldi, employingebony, amaranth, mahogany, pallisander and lemon wood.

The highlight was the Glass Beaded Salon. A room lined with over two million glassbugle beads sewn onto fabric-based embroidery motifs featuring exotic scenes with birdsand flowers designed by the Barozzi Brothers. They were produced by nine Russian

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embroiderers overseen by a French woman, Marie de Chele using glass beads from thenearby Lomon osov factory from 1762–4. Each panel is encased within framed columns ofpalm trees carved and gilded in very high relief. The twelve panels are newly cleaned andonly recently reinstalled having been on view at the Hermitage. Alas, this room originallyhad a mosaic glass floor imitating semi-precious stones also made at the Lomonosovfactory, but has not survived.

The final room housed two glass mounted tables, also recently restored and destined tobe in the Glass Beaded Salon. They were products of Lomonosov’s factory using smalt, aground cobalt containing glass. The glass was fused with metal pigments and then inset inmosaic fashion. The first was a Louis XV French inspired ormolu mounted table depictinga trompe l’oeil still life of books with mosaic imitations of malachite, jasper and other semi-precious stones. The second a Neoclassical ormolu mounted table with a serpentine top andsquared tapering legs. The central section with a mosaic patterned neoclassical landscapesurrounded by stylized Greek key and four trellis patterned white pointed arches with fauxjasper, lapis lazuli and onyx.

With thanks to Emmanuel Ducamp for leading the trip and to Dr Heike Zech, WolfBurchard, Dr Claire Jones, Dr Paul Rem, Robin Miller for the reports.

Northumberland Study Weekend, 10 – 13 May 2012

Floors Castle

The generosity of Elizabeth Kowalovski and her team made it possible for the Society’s visitto Floors to begin with some thorough examination of furniture before the house wasopened to the general public. In particular, Lucy Wood drew attention to a set of nine chairsand a settee c.1710 almost certainly made for the Duke of Leeds at Kiveton in Yorkshire.This suite appeared in the South East Drawing Room in the 1727 inventory of the contentsof Kiveton as: ‘1 Double Seat with black & Gold frame. / 10 Chairs Do. all Cover’d wth. greenCoffie, trim’d with Lace & Green Serge Cases’. These remarkable survivals have both theiroriginal caffoy covers and upholstery and as such presented an unrivalled opportunity toadmire the seat profile, twill base cloth, webbing and back leg rake of untainted earlyeighteenth-century seat furniture. The rosettes of gold braid decorating the scalloped frontedge of the seats, and the scrolled arms of the settee were especially fine. Another set ofchairs, c.1680 from Glemham Hall in Suffolk with painted and gilded frames very similarto a set at Burghley, also presented an excellent opportunity to admire original striped web -bing. Other noteworthy objects included two Savonnerie carpets, one an unusual uncutexample made for the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre from 1669, the other smaller andmore colourful made in 1739 for Louis XV’s private dining room at Fontainebleau; twogilded side tables made by Pascall for the gallery at Temple Newsam and en suite with theseat furniture still there; a pale yellow late seventeenth-century japanned cabinet on carvedand gilded stand; a gilded George II table also from Glemham Hall, and a coffre fort byJean-Pierre Latz with floral marquetry and heavy rococo mounts.

Later, Ian Gow, who wrote the guide book to Floors, explained its complex architecturaland decorative history. Long the home of the Ker family, Floors was extended from a smalltower house into a Palladian mansion by William Adam in 1721. The house was extensivelyremodelled in the 1830s and 1840s by William Henry Playfair, who added bay windows tomany of the rooms and turned the plain classical house into a fairytale castle. Most of thesurviving interiors at Floors, however, were created for May, the American heiress wife ofthe 8th Duke of Roxburghe some years after their marriage in 1903. Duchess May collectedextensively, patronising dealers such as Parker, Woudstra, Partridge and Hyne, but most

particularly the decorators Lenygon and Morant. A pair of settees in the Needlework Roomcovered in vibrant Soho tapestry depicting birds and flowers typify Duchess May’s taste,but the room which most clearly illustrates her relationship with Lenygon and Morant isthe Sitting Room, for which a complete set of bills survive. Of interest in this room were aset of early Georgian gilded pad foot chairs with brackets to the legs and braces underneathwhich suggested that they were made outside London. The chairs retain their originalupholstery under modern covers. Duchess May also inherited many tapestries and otherworks of art upon the death of her father, Ogden Goelet of New York, and installed a num -ber of these pieces from the family home of Ochre Court, Newport RI at Floors. The Ball -room was altered to accommodate a set of Gobelins Potieres des Dieux and the DrawingRoom was refitted in order to display the set of Brussels tapestries depicting the Triumphsof the Gods. This room also houses a Joubert commode with geometric marquetry suppliedto the Comtesse d’Artois at Versailles in 1773.

A tour of the rest of the house produced unusual fitted furniture, namely the cases madefor the taxidermy collection of the 6th Duke by Mein of Kelso, a serpentine chest of drawerswith lions paw feet and marquetry top depicting a house that resembled Floors possiblymade in Scotland, and a cradle purported to have been that of James VI of Scotland’s.

Seaton Delaval Hall

We were welcomed at Seaton Delaval Hall by Julie Hawthorn, collections manager, andJohn Wynne Griffiths, conservator, of the National Trust. Hugh Dixon, former NT regionalcurator, introduced us to the house and its history. Seaton Delaval came under the manage -ment of the National Trust only in 2009, after the house, garden and many of the contentswere accepted by the government in lieu of inheritance tax, following the death of the lateLord and Lady Hastings in 2007. The Trust is still developing the presentation of the house,after large-scale consultation with local residents. The unique feature of this property forthe Trust is that the main block has been a burnt-out shell since a fire in 1822, but hasalways been considered of such architectural interest that soon after the fire it was sup -ported internally and roofed over, rather than demolished. The furnishings of the house,which were carried into the garden as the fire progressed, have mostly since beendispersed; the only remaining furnished parts are in the service wing which was convertedinto living accommodation after the fire. This is also open to visitors, shown as arranged bythe late Lord and Lady Hastings.

This was the last house to be designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, who was commissioned byAdmiral George Delaval in 1717 to build a house for his retirement. The impulse for preserv -ing the house is immediately apparent on entering the huge north-facing forecourt, which isenclosed by long symmetrical arcaded building ranges housing the stables to the east and thedomestic services to the west. Across the forecourt on rising ground is the small scale, butspectacularly monumental central block. The tower-like house, raised above a semi-basement and built in local stone, is eccentrically composed, with Doric col umns on eitherside of the entrance drawn back like curtains on rails around the corners of the bay, and anattic storey ‘look-out’ rising above in the form of a classical temple. Inside, the theatricality isheightened by the absence of ceilings, so that the originally double-height entrance hall nowrises to the roof. The hall, with it stone arcades, is the best-preserved part of the house. Twopainted wooden pedestals supporting marble plaques, stand ing against the far wall may wellhave been saved from the fire, possibly recorded in an inventory dated 1786 as ‘2 mahoganypedestals & 4 marble head of Roman Emperors’. Copies of early inventories are available toread in the ‘mahogany parlour’, a small room in the north-east corner which survived the

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fire, itself interesting as it was panelled in 1724, an early date for the use of mahogany. It isstill possible to climb the stairs to the first floor cross-corridor, with a balcony allowing acloser view of the mutilated stucco statues repre senting the arts in the niches around the sideof the hall. Visitors can also explore the impres sive stone-vaulted basement rooms. Behindthe hall, little remains of the internal deco ration of the principal rooms, which wererepaired by local architect John Dobson c.1860.

The furniture now housed in the service wing was mostly introduced by Lord and LadyHastings, including some important pieces from Melton Constable, the Norfolk home of theAstley family to whom Seaton Delaval passed by marriage. However, we saw two greenand gold side tables with lion masks and paw feet, which may be from a set inven toried atSeaton Delaval in 1755 (‘3 marble tables’) and are more clearly identifiable in the 1786inventory (now a pair, each described as ‘1 Marble Slab, Carved frame Green & Gilt’. Thearchitectural nature of the tables suggests that they might have been designed by Vanbrughhimself for the house. Little is known about the other furniture originally at the house,although more might come to light. For example a commode now in the Lady Lever ArtGallery, was commissioned by Sir John Hussey Delaval for the house (Lucy Wood, FurnitureHistory 1990). We were able to examine, led by Lucy, a set of red leather chairs with theAstley crest of about 1730–40, and a slightly earlier set of eight chairs and two settees withfine needlework covers, with largely original upholstery, which are conse quently goodobject lessons for thin 18th-century profiles. The covers depict the ‘Astley Combats’, thefighting exploits of Sir John de Astley in the 1430s and 1440s. Both sets were brought fromMelton Constable. We also saw an interesting early Flemish cabinet with engraved ivoryinlay, Japanese export cabinets on stands and other pieces of family furniture.

Lady Waterford Hall

We were welcomed by Lord and Lady Joicey in what has been the Ford village school for100 years. It was commissioned in 1860 by Louisa Anne, Marchioness of Waterford as shere-designed the village for the welfare of its residents. A pupil of Dante Gabriel Rossettiand John Ruskin, she was an accomplished artist and it took her over twenty years todecorate the interior of the Hall with watercolours depicting biblical episodes in a Pre-Raphaelite style. Thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund the paintings have beenkept in good condi tion. The nearly life-size watercolours are executed on paper stretchedon wooden frames to the wall. In her paintings she used the village residents as models, forexample: her house keeper and her personal maid, the schoolmaster and the children of hergardener have been identified amongst the biblical figures depicted. She chose to illustratescenes that include children such as ‘Jesus blessing the children’ as it was her favouritesubject although she never had a child of her own. Born Louisa Stuart, she was the daugh -ter of Charles Stuart, Baron Stuart de Rothesay, who was appointed British Ambassador inParis and inherited High cliff. In 1842 she married Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess ofWaterford who died in 1859. During her marriage she lived in Curraghmore House inIreland but moved to the estate in Ford she had inherited after her husband’s death anddevoted her life to painting and improving the living conditions of the village inhabitants.

After tea, we went to see Ford Castle, guided by Lord Joicey whose grandfather acquiredthe property in 1907. It had been in the Delaval family’s hands in the18th century when thecastle was rebuilt in the Gothic style, before Lady Waterford modified the façade. The castleis now enjoyed by young people who come for educational activities. The visit ended inRomantic melancholy as Hugh Dixon took us to her tomb, carved with a pair of angels,surrounded by fields of rape.

Alnwick Castle

On a site dating from the Norman period, Alnwick castle was bought by Henry Percy in1309. After the division of the Percy lands in 1750, the heiress Elizabeth Seymour and herhusband, the first Earl and later Duke of Northumberland started the first restoration of thecastle in the Gothic revival style, before it was rebuilt by Anthony Salvin for the 4th Dukewho spent the extravagant sum of over £322,266 between 1854 and 1866. Most of the stateroom interiors have been conceived for the 4th Duke by the Roman architect Luigi Caninawho had met the Duke in Rome. Canina had previously restored the iconic Villa Borgheseand he incorporated designs from 16th-century Roman palaces in the castle’s interiors. TheDuke took the opportunity to create a school of wood carving and employed a Florentineartist to teach at Alnwick to provide English craftsmen with the skills of the Italian carvers.Conceived essentially in the classical Italian style, these interiors are very interestingexamples of the eclectic taste dominating the Victorian era. The Fourth Duke expanded thecollection of his ancestors, the major collector being the third Duke who followed the tasteof the Prince Regent in employing the furniture makers Morel and Hughes and buyingFrench furniture and decorative arts from the London dealer Robert Fogg. Most of the furni -ture displayed was supplied by Morel & Hughes, together with 18th-century English andFrench pieces bought from various dealers but also an important collection of Old Masterspaintings. Part of the collection displayed at Alnwick was once furnishing Stan wick inYorkshire and Northumberland House in London, before the house burnt in fire in 1850.

Guided by curators Lisa Little and Kate Devlin, the visit started in the entrance hall witha collection of armour displayed on the walls, described as ‘The equipment of the PercyTenantry Volunteers’, homage to the Percy ancestors. The faux-marble decorated staircaselead us to the upper grand chamber where we discovered French giltwood chairs stamped‘T.CRAY’, next to seats by Morel & Hughes and a pair of George I consoles, each centredby a drapery and female mask, flanked by winged putti. The Ante library is the first roomwith a carved décor executed by Italian craftsmen who came especially to Northumberlandfrom Italy and set-up local wood carving studios, initiating the ‘Alnwick school of carving’.The large white marble mantel piece was equally impressive, surmounted by a carvedmirror frame. In the main tower, at the centre of the library hangs a very large chandelierfrom Northumberland House, below an intricately carved and parcel gilt coffered ceilingwith allegories of art, archaeology and navy, music and sciences designed by Montiroli.The chairs were originally delivered by Morel & Hughes for Northumberland House. LucyWood pointed out two English 18th-century serpentine commodes with marquetry in theFrench Louis XV style.

The Music Room is centred by a rather impressive figural mantel piece with Dacianslaves carved in Giovanni Tacalozzi’s workshop in Rome and conceived by Nucci.Amongst the portraits by Lely and Dobson, we looked at a pair of tables by Linnel in theneo classical style and with Vitruvian Scrolls and laurel wreath. An 18th-century parquetryarmoire in the manner of Charles Cressent, was used as a vitrine to reveal an interestingcollection of porcelain. The pair of walnut carved double doors was flanked to each side bya Boulle style meubles à hauteur d’appui; the two pairs, most probably made in Paris, weresup plied by John Webb specifically for this room in 1854.

The drawing room is considered the most sumptuous. Designed by Montiroli, it iscovered by a stunning carved coffered ceiling and reveal an interesting collection of Italianpaintings by Guido Reni and Andrea del Sarto, but most of all this is where the Cuccicabinets stand, flanking the large figural marble mantel piece. They form one of the gemsof the collection, executed for the King Louis XIV apartments by Domenico Cucci from1679–82, mounted with pietre dure panels from the Gobelins royal factory. They were first

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displayed in the salon de Mars in Versailles. They were then moved to the Louvre palacebefore being sold to the dealer Lemaignan in 1750 as they became out of fashion during thereign of Louis XV. The Third Duke of Northumberland purchased them from the dealerFogg in 1822. Apart from being very unique architectural cabinets, incorporating incredibleormolu-mounts, they are extremely important for the history of French furniture as theyare the only surviving examples of the ‘grands cabinets de pierres dures’ made for the SunKing. If some of the pietre dure tables made in the Gobelins workshop have survived, the‘grands cabinets’, even the ones designed by Charles Le Brun, were half a century laterregarded as interesting only for their pietre dure panels and were therefore dismantled anddestroyed. Under the reign of Louis XVI, some of the panels will re-appear, remounted oncommodes or secrétaires by Martin Carlin or Adam Weisweiler. The English furniturespecialists looked closely at a canapé made in 1750s and re-profiled by Morel & Hughes forNorthumberland House. Another very intriguing piece was the marquetry circular tabledepicting the five senses, made by Blake in the 1860s.

The Dining Room, at the emplacement of the old Great Hall is also surmounted by anintricately carved pine ceiling, un-gilded and decorated with the heraldry of Percy. Thegreat marble mantel piece flanked by Bacchic figures was considered so fine that it wasexhibited in Italy by Taccalozzi before being sent to Alnwick.

The visit of the State apartments terminated with the Chapel where we admired thegothic style chair and lectern, carved in mahogany after a design by Robert Adam. We hadthe privilege to be lead to the private apartments where we notably discovered a veryimpres sive Great exhibition-type cabinet and an armoire, with very fine floral marquetrypanels and figural ormolu mounts. According to the records they were supplied by JohnWebb in 1855.

These grand interiors are a perfect example of the eclectic taste that dominated in Britainthroughout the 19th century, revealing chefs-d’oeuvre from the Ancien Régime, displayedtogether with 18th-century English and 19th-century ‘European’ furniture.

We also visited Chillingham Castle, Bywell Hall and Beaufront Castle.

With thanks to all our hosts and guides, to Kate Hay, Antonia Brodie, and Camille Mestaghfor the reports, and to Lucy Wood and Louisa Collins for organising the visit.

The Oliver Ford Trust and Tom Ingram Memorial FundIn line with one of its roles — the promotion of interior design — the Oliver Ford Trust hasgenerously expressed the desire to sponsor a place on each FHS study weekend or foreigntour. Applicants should either be a student with a particular interest in interiors or a juniormuseum professional. Application from non FHS members will be considered. Grants willbe awarded by the Tom Ingram Fund, to which candidates should apply.

The Tom Ingram Memorial Fund makes grants towards travel and other incidentalexpenses for the purpose of study or research into the history of furniture (a) whether ornot the applicant is a member of the Society; (b) only when the study or research is likelyto be of importance in furthering the objectives of the Society; and (c) only when travelcould not be undertaken without a grant from the Society. Applications towards the cost ofFHS foreign and domestic tours and study weekends are particularly welcome fromscholars. Successful applicants are required to acknowledge the assistance of the Fund inany resulting publication and must report back to the FHS Grants Committee oncompletion of the travel or project. All applications should be addressed to Clarissa Ward, Secretary FHS Grants Committee, 25 Wardo Avenue, London SW6 6RA,grantsfhs@gmail.com, who will also supply application forms for the Tom IngramMemorial Fund and the Oliver Ford Trust. Please send sae with any request.

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Events Committee Chairman: David Wurtzel

Officers and Council Members

Membership Secretary (Membership, Subscriptions, Address Changes, andPublications): Dr Brian Austen, 1 Mercedes Cottages, St John’s Road, Haywards Heath,West Sussex RH16 4EH. Tel. and fax 01444 413845, e-mail: brian.austen@zen.co.uk

Events Secretary (Events Booking): Anne-Marie Bannister, Bricket House, 90 MountPleasant Lane, Bricket Wood, St Albans, Herts, AL2 3XD. Tel: 07775 907390, e-mail: furniturehistorysociety@hotmail.com

Tom Ingram Memorial Fund/FHS Grants: Clarissa Ward, 25 Wardo Avenue, LondonSW6 6RA, e-mail: grantsfhs@gmail.com

FHS e-mail: furniturehistorysociety@hotmail.com

Web site: www.furniturehistorysociety.org

Council members can be contacted through the Events or Membership Secretaries whose detailsare shown above. Contributors can be contacted through the Newsletter Editor who in the case of this issue is Elizabeth Jamieson at 10 Tarleton Gardens, Forest Hill, London SE23 3XN,

tel 0208 699 0310 or email: ea.jamieson@tiscali.co.uk

This issue edited by Elizabeth Jamieson

Published by the Furniture History Society c/o Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL

Produced in Great Britain by Oblong Creative Ltd, 416B Thorp Arch Estate, Wetherby LS23 7FG

The views expressed in this Newsletter are those of the respective authors. They are accepted as honest and accurateexpressions of opinion, but should not necessarily be considered to reflect that of the Society or its employees. Those who

wish to do so should write to communicate with the author direct.

The FHS Grants Committee requests that applications for study trips/weekends be madewell in advance of the deadline for booking with the FHS Events Secretary — preferablyone month before.

Copy Deadline

The deadline for receiving material to be published in the next Newsletter is 15 December.Copy should be sent, preferably by email, to m.winterbottom@bath.ac.uk or posted toMatthew Winterbottom, The Holburne Museum, Bath BA2 4DB.