THREE MORE KEY BEQUESTS
... that were welcomed by their bene!ciaries
1 DENNIS SEVERS’ HOUSE
Number 18 Folgate Street, in Spitalfields, London, is a handsome early Georgian house once owned by Californian émigré and Anglophile Dennis Severs. Over 20 years, Severs transformed the former weavers’ house into a living museum – an intimate portrait of the lives of a family of Huguenot silk weavers from 1724 to the early 20th century.
On his death in 1999, Dennis bequeathed the house to The Spitalfields Trust, whose mission is to save and repair buildings at risk of demolition. Oliver Leigh-Wood is one of the administrators of the Trust and knew Dennis personally. ‘As Dennis came to the end of his life, he spent some time trying to persuade various potential institutions to take on his life’s creation: his London house,’ Oliver explains. ‘Everyone turned it down. But the Trust loved it so much that we offered to buy the house and its contents from him at the market price, and then to do all we could to continue to run it as he had done.’
All was agreed, but the Trust only discovered after his death that Dennis had altered his will, making the house and its contents over to the Trust. ‘It was an incredibly generous act, and we are forever grateful to him. We now do all we can to make sure it continues just as Dennis would have liked it.’ Within the house, the Trust has created its own office, which it shares with the house’s own maintenance team. ‘This has allowed us the freedom to carry on with the work we do – giving a new future to buildings for which no one else has a vision.’ dennissevershouse.co.uk
2 GAMBIER PARRY AT THE COURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART
In 1966, The Courtauld Institute of Art received a bequest, from Mark GambierParry, of a collection of art and artefacts assembled by his grandfather: the noted Victorian artist, traveller and collector Thomas Gambier Parry (1816-88, the hyphen was added to the surname later).
The collection includes a major group of early Italian Renaissance paintings by artists including Lorenzo Monaco, Bernardo Daddi and Fra Angelico, alongside gothic ivories, Limoges enamels, sculpture, maiolica, glassware, and a small but highly important group of Islamic metalwork.
‘The Gambier Parry bequest was a gift – not so much to the nation, as to a public teaching institution where it could enhance the students’ experience,’ explains Dr Karen Serres, Curator of Paintings at The Courtauld Institute of Art. ‘It is still very much a part of this experience for our students.’
The Gambier Parry collection now forms a significant part of the full Courtauld collection, and will be on display in the permanent gallery space when it reopens in 2021 after its transformation project, Courtauld Connects ( connects.courtauld.ac.uk).
Thomas Gambier Parry’s interests extended well beyond his art collection – he also founded a children’s hospital, orphanage, and college of science and art at Gloucester, and provided one of the most ambitious church designs of the gothic revival for the tenants of his estate at Highnam, Gloucestershire. courtauld.ac.uk Continued overleaf
LEFT A Venetian 16th-century bowl and cover from the Gambier Parry collection at The Courtauld Gallery, London; Dennis Severs’ House is a still life, with the interior based on a historical imagination of what life would have been like for a family of Huguenot silk weavers.