THE LONG LOST TREASURES
As Strawberry Hill House puts the nishing touches to an exhibition that sees much of its former collections return home, Alice Hancock gets to know the original creator of the collection
On a Monday morning in April !8"#, George Robins, a reputed London auctioneer known as ‘The Martel of Covent Garden’, sat on the one-time throne of the Abbot of Glastonbury.
It was the $rst day of the sale of the collection of Horace Walpole, son of Britain’s de facto $rst prime minister and the man credited with England’s gothic revival. Though Walpole had died "% years earlier, his collection was still famed. The roads between Twickenham and Walpole’s home at Strawberry Hill thronged with carriages. Newspapers reported that
Newspapers reported that 18,000 people a ended the 15-day auction preview, and the rooms of the house were said to ‘groan’ from the weight of the display.
!8,&&& people a'ended the !%-day auction preview, and the rooms of the house were said to ‘groan’ from the weight of the display.
Strawberry Hill was Robins’ largest ever sale. The total achieved was £((,"%& !!s )d, with a further £(,8(* from a later sale of books and prints. Even the throne upon which Robins sat was sold.
Relics Returned
This October, !6& pieces from Walpole’s collection will be reunited at Strawberry Hill. It will be the $rst time that the objects have been in the house in !*6 years.
To some, Walpole was a gentleman academic, but to others he was merely a dile'ante. The contemporary English critic William Hazli' wrote in !8!8 that, ‘His mind, as well as his house, was piled up with Dresden china, and illuminated through painted glass’.
Walpole did own odd historic relics, such as a dagger thought to have been Henry VIII’s and a lock of Mary Tudor’s hair, but he was nonetheless a serious collector. Michael Snodin, in-house curator at Strawberry Hill, says that Walpole cultivated his o!-hand air on purpose. ‘Walpole was intensely academic and anorakish but, because he was a gentleman, he couldn’t show it,’ he explains.
Crucial to the character of Walpole’s collection were his parents and status within the family. He was the youngest son of Robert Walpole and his wife Catherine. His father had received his title on merit, along with the wealth to create his great house, Houghton Hall, in Norfolk. Horace never expected to inherit.
But he did want to create a genealogy for himself. He inherited both his father’s interest in classicism and power, and his mother’s love of the lighter French rococo style. Her favourite artist was the painter JeanAntoine Wa"eau, who was renowned for his celebration of rural idylls and gentle use of colour.
Strawberry Hill, says the new show’s curator, Silvia Davoli, was Walpole ‘trying to create the idea of an aristocratic country house but in an ironic way’. He collected a vast number of portraits and portrait miniatures – few of whose real selves he was related to – as well as fashionable items such as Sèvres porcelain and costly Boulle furniture.
‘The house and the collection were conceived together,’ continues Silvia.
Horace inherited both his father’s interest in classicism and power, and his mother’s love of the lighter French rococo style.
‘The rooms are theatrical sets for a speci#c group of objects.’ The Round Drawing Room showed paintings and objects in the tradition of his father: big-name artists (such as Van Dyck) and classical works, such as a bust of the Emperor Vespasian.
The Tribune (so-called because it was based on the Tribuna of the U$zi in Florence, where all the Medici family’s greatest works were shown) related to Walpole’s mother. Many of his treasures from this room, including a cabinet commissioned in 1743 to hold his collection of enamels and miniatures that will be included in the exhibition, are today at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
A turning point in Walpole’s collecting came in 1756 with the death of his friend and fellow antiquarian George Vertue. Vertue spent his life visiting country seats in England with a view to publishing a book. When he died, Walpole acquired Vertue’s notebooks from his widow, along with a number of drawings and paintings.
In 1758, Walpole began the construction of the Holbein Room, the only room in the house to gather pieces, including a number of Holbein paintings, from the same era. The ceiling imitates the Tudor ceiling of St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle and the
furniture was displayed to recreate the illusion of the Tudor age. It was a work of serious study for Walpole who, according to Michael Snodin, considered the Tudor era ‘the key period of British history’.
‘Something changed [when Vertue died],’ says Silvia. ‘Walpole became a serious art collector and started to see the house as a museum.’ And he did open his home to visitors – four per day with guided tours from his housekeeper.
This October’s show is the result of its own laborious study. Unlike the exhibition that inspired it – the return to Houghton Hall of paintings from The Hermitage in St Petersburg – the Strawberry Hill show has drawn in work from 11 public collections and 16 country houses. There are 49 lenders in total.
The hunt for objects was a mixture of meticulous research based on Walpole’s 7,000 le!ers and his
Description of the Villa of Horace
Walpole, self-published in 1774, and ‘serendipity’, according to Michael. ‘Without his Description, Walpole would have gone down in the annals of mythical collectors and the collection would have been impossible to retrieve,’ he says.
A Remarkable Discovery
In some cases, discoveries were lucrative. A Roman fresco, initially dismissed by Sotheby’s in New York as an 18th-century replica, was recalled when Silvia happened to send a drawing of the lost piece to Sotheby’s specialist Dr Florent Heintz, in the hope that he would know its whereabouts. Florent immediately recognised the painting.
‘Once we uncovered the exceptional provenance of the piece, it took on a new signi"cance,’ Florent explains. ‘Without the provenance, it would have fallen below our minimum
‘I consider Strawberry Hill as Walpole’s masterpiece – and by that I mean both the house and the collection.’ SILVIA DAVOLI
consignment value for auction.’ The piece sold for £16,250.
For both Michael Snodin and Silvia Davoli, the highlight of the show will be a large, 1st-century AD Roman eagle, bought by Walpole while on his Grand Tour, and now in the collection of Lord Wemyss at Gosford House in Scotland. Walpole was so fond of it that, despite his love of the gothic, he chose to pose with a sketch of it in his portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds (seen on page 141). It will be shown in the Great Parlour, where it was !rst displayed upon its arrival at Strawberry Hill.
Silvia believes that Reynold’s portrait of Walpole’s nieces, The
Ladies Waldegrave, and his collection of 17th-century Isaac and Peter Oliver miniatures will also be crowd pleasers. ‘They are jewels,’ she says.
Royal Connections
Alongside the paintings, there will be intriguing objects. These include a clock given to Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII as a wedding present in 1532 (which, interestingly, Queen Victoria bought at the 1842 sale), and also Wunderkammer- type (or cabinet of curiosities) pieces, such as a pre"y crystal rock jug.
The crucial thing is that the objects can be appreciated in the environs for which they were bought. ‘I consider Strawberry Hill as Walpole’s masterpiece,’ says Silvia, before she heads back to her work in the archive. ‘And by that I mean both the house and the collection.’