Journey through time with ten extraordinary treasures
From a gown made of beetle wings to one of the world’s first sofas, we bring you a tiny sample of the National Trust’s precious collections
AN INTRICATE dolls’ house, a dress made of iridescent beetle-wing cases, and a suit of Japanese Samurai armour decorated with dragonflies... just three of the exquisite treasures in the National Trust’s astonishing collection of more than a million extraordinary objects housed in their 200 or so historic buildings.The charity’s vast treasure trove includes more than 13,000 oil paintings, 55,000 pieces of antique furniture, 6,000 sculptures, 80,000 ceramics and 100,000 textiles and tapestries.
To celebrate 125 years of the National Trust – founded in 1895 – a new book has now gathered together insights into 125 of the most intriguing items, enabling a fascinating armchair tour through these absorbing cultural riches.
“These works often started out as the personal and private treasures of aristocrats,” says Dr Tarnya Cooper, the Trust’s Curation and Conservation Director. “But today they belong to us all and are a key part of the nation’s heritage.”
Accompanying the launch of 125 Treasures is a five-part podcast, presented by actor Alison Steadman and telling the stories behind the most fascinating objects. It is available from nationaltrust.org.uk, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Here we showcase 10 unusual items and explore the little known stories behind them.
ONE HUMP OR TWO, MISS MARPLE?
THIS eighth-century ceramic camel was a gift from the archeologist Sir Max Mallowan to his first wife, crime writer Agatha Christie. They met on an archeological dig in Iraq in 1930 and married the same year. Ceramic figures, depicting entire households and their animals, were installed in the tombs of Tang aristocrats – and unearthed in the late 19th and early 20th century in northern China. The camel was displayed at the couple’s holiday home, Greenway in Devon. Christie called it “the loveliest place in the world” and featured it in her story Dead Man’s Folly.
DINING IN STYLE
IN RICH Georgian households in the 1700s, beautifully designed silver tureens steaming with soup were elaborate status objects placed at the head of the table to be admired. This item is among the most important pieces of silver in the National Trust’s collection. Commissioned for Ickworth, Suffolk, by George William Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, the 15inch-long tureen features the Hervey coat of arms and the family crest of a chained snow leopard.
CARDINAL WOLSEY’S PURSE
FASHIONED from leather and silk and decorated with silver thread, this purse is believed to have belonged to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, one of the most powerful men at the court of King Henry VIII. It would have been attached to a girdle or belt with leather loops – hence the term “cutpurses” to describe thieves or pickpockets. Purses such as these fell out of fashion when pockets sewn into clothes became common later in the 16th century.
In 2012, the purse was accepted by The Government in lieu of inheritance tax and was allocated for display in the Grade I listed house, Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland, sold to the National Trust in 2009 by the Astley family.
THE EARLIEST ENGLISH GLOBE IN EXISTENCE
FOR nearly 400 years, this extraordinary globe – which cost £20 to produce (£3,500 by today’s prices) – has been part of the collection at Petworth House,West Sussex. It was created in 1592 by maverick mathematician Emery Molyneux and engraved by Dutch artist Jodocus Hondius using what were described as “the newest, secretes, and latest discoveries”. This is the only surviving first edition.
In the 16th century, accurate maps and globes were key to planning trade, maritime navigation and warfare. The quality of information could determine success or failure, life or death. It was acquired by the 9th Earl of Northumberland, whose family have owned Petworth for more than 900 years. A peer at the court of Elizabeth I, he was known as The Wizard Earl for his interest in science and alchemy.
RICHLY DECORATED DOLLS’ HOUSE
ONE OF only a dozen or so dolls’ houses surviving from the 18th century, this is an intricate world in miniature, with each room beautifully furnished. Silverware is displayed on the table, the beds are hung with velvet, and there are paintings above the fireplaces. It was commissioned by Sir Rowland Winn and his wife Susanna Henshaw, who had seven children, though wasn’t meant as a toy. Married in 1729, they lived at Nostell, West Yorkshire, one of the great houses of the north of England, where the dolls’ house is on display to this day.
In 2019, more than £100,000 was raised to conserve this unique 300-year-old specimen.
LADY MACBETH’S BEETLE-WING DRESS
A SHIMMERING emeraldgreen dress – embroidered with gleaming beetle-wing cases – is a theatrical costume designed to evoke fear. Worn by leading Victorian actress Ellen Terry in the role of Lady Macbeth at the opening of Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in December 1888, it now wows visitors to Smallhythe Place, Kent – the 16th-century farmhouse Terry bought in 1899. Worn with a purple velvet cloak, the costume contrasted with her red hair, plaited with gold. The spectacle made such an impression on artist John Singer Sargent, he painted a portrait, above, of Terry in character.
ANGELICA KAUFFMAN AND HER MUSES
THIS glorious oil painting was acquired in 1908 by Rowland Winn, 2nd Baron St Oswald, who believed the Austro-Swiss artist, Angelica Kauffman, had worked on the decoration at his stately home, Nostell, West Yorkshire. In fact, she had not, but the painting is now closely associated with the National Trust property.
Before settling in London in 1766, Kauffman was one of the most prominent artists in England and one of only two founding female members of the Royal Academy. Painted in her fifties, this work dramatises the quandary she felt at the beginning of her career: Whether to pursue a profession in music, or in the traditionally male-dominated field of painting.
Music (on the left) looks persuasively at Kauffman; Painting (on the right) points towards a classical temple on a hill in the distance – a symbol of the difficult journey ahead. Kauffman gazes at Music with regret and resolve, having made her choice to follow Painting – to great success, as it turned out.
A WINNER ON THE RACE COURSE
WIDELY considered to be one of artist George Stubbs’s masterpieces, this was painted in 1800, right at the end of his career and shows the animal gleaming with sweat having just won a race that “drew together the greatest concourse of people that ever was seen at Newmarket”, according to The Sporting Magazine at the time. Hambletonian, Rubbing Down was commissioned by Sir HenryVane-Tempest and depicts his prize-winning racehorse, Hambletonian.
It was bought at auction in 1853 and hangs at Mount Stewart, a 19th-century neo-classical house and garden in County Down, Northern Ireland.
INTIMIDATION AND DISPLAY
THIS beautiful example of ceremonial Japanese Samurai armour was purchased for the quality of its craftsmanship by the collector and illustrator Charles Paget Wade in the early 20th century and displayed at Snowshill Manor, his house in Gloucestershire, which he gifted to the National Trust in 1951.
Although Samurai armour is intimidating – with its scale-like metal plates and fearsome horned helmet – this piece was used for ceremonial purposes during a peaceful period in the 1830s when it was necessary for Samurai knights to pay homage at the court of the Shogun (military dictator).
THE INVENTION OF COMFORT
AMAZINGLY, the word sofa (written “saffaw”) was first used in the 1600s, and this is one of the earliest surviving examples. Originally made for use in Stuart royal palaces, this opulent piece of furniture was influenced by decadent designs from Italy and France.
Covered in crimson velvet, it was part of a grand suite that would have included two other sofas, six chairs and eight stools. “Hampton Court” is stamped under the seat of a comparable chair, so the National Trust believe it was moved from one of the royal palaces to Knole, Kent, the house of Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, in the 1690s.