Blog Archives

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Ten

9/28/2019

One of my favorite spots in London is the Wallace Collection, exhibited in the wonderful Hertford House on Manchester Square in Mayfair. Below, a drawing from their collection of Hertford House, c. 1812.

Today the home of the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square looks entirely different. Hertford House was built as Manchester House in 1776-88 by the 4th Duke of Manchester. It has been considerably altered from its original form with the addition of galleries to accommodate the art. It is open to the public today, and has a lovely café. Below, the current appearance.

The 2nd Marquess of Hertford, 1743-1822, a member of the Seymour family headed by the Duke of Somerset, bought Manchester House, and renamed it Hertford House in 1797. Hertford was Lord of the Treasury, and Ambassador to Berlin and Vienna under George III and Lord Chamberlain to Prince Regent 1812-21. His wife, Isabella, Lady Hertford, had a long liaison with the Prince Regent from 1807 to about 1819. Lady Hertford's place in Prinny's life was taken by Lady Conyngham. Below, décor of the house reflects the French tastes of the English aristocracy in the mid-Victorian era.
Please remember to click on the thumbnail below for larger versions. In the top row, center, Margaret, Countess of Blessington, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1822.

It seems the Hertfords had an appropriate scandal in just about every generation. The Third Marquess led a dissipated life and he was the model for Thackeray’s Lord Steyne in Vanity Fair. Yet he was a brilliant connoisseur and acted as agent for the Prince of Wales purchase of some magnificent Dutch pictures which are still in the Royal Collection.

The 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-70) never married. He was brought up in Paris by his mother and was one of Europe's richest men, benefitting from extensive Irish estates. I suppose we may safely assume he was one of those wretched landlords during the potato famine. He left his fortune and his unentailed property to Richard Wallace, (1818-1890) son of Mrs. Agnes Jackson, later Sir Richard Wallace, Bart., but never acknowledged his paternity. A second cousin inherited the marquisate. Below, the Staircase.

Richard Wallace was a considerable philanthropist in France during the war with Prussia and eventually married his mistress Julie Castelnau, mother of his son (who died in 1887.) He was made a baronet in 1871 and made many philanthropic donations to both the French and British nations. Lady Wallace, said to have been a former shop girl in a Paris perfumery, lived a secluded life at Hertford House after her husband's death in 1890. She was his sole heir.

The Wallace collection was bequeathed to nation in 1897 by Lady Wallace, widow of Sir Richard Wallace. Sir Richard inherited one of the world's great collections of the Hertford Family and also was a great collector himself.

Above, L to R: The Laughing Cavalier by Franz Hals, 1624; George IV by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1822; Mrs. Mary Robinson (Perdita), by Thomas Gainsborough, 1781.
Below, my only photo of the WallaceCollection Cafe, as reflected in the glass ceiling over the former courtyard, also showing the window-washer. Can you imagine crawling around on that glass looking down at the diners below? Glad it's not my job!

0 Comments

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Nine

9/21/2019

0 Comments

We have reached Kenwood House, part of my talk at the Beau Monde Conference in New York on July 23, 2019, that I did not deliver. I ran out of time!

The façade of the Orangery and Kenwood House facing Hampstead Heath.

The Entrance of Kenwood House Hampstead, London. The house is open today as a gallery of pictures, among them works by Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence; operated by English Heritage. The art collection is primarily the bequest of Edward Cecil Guiness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, who acquired the house to exhibit the pictures in 1927.

Above, the house from the Heath. The first house built here was about 1616, a Jacobean house partially pulled down but with remaining features beneath the 18th century white stucco; several prominent families owned the property throughout the 18th century. William Murray (1705-1793), 1st Earl of Mansfield, hired Robert Adam to redo the house in 1764. Mansfield was the Lord Chief Justice of England, 1756-1765.
Below, the 1775 portrait of Lord Mansfield (by David Martin)hangs in the Library.

Perhaps the most famous room in Kenwood is the Adam Library, completely refurbished in 2012-14.

Compare this view with the previous appearance and the changes in the ceiling below. The original version was painted by Antonio Zucchi

Much of the gilding had been added well after the original design, as well as the scarlet carpeting, now gone. The way it looked in the left above is the way I first saw it many years ago. The far more subtle shades of the restoration make me much more amenable to working in the library, so if there is sufficient wi-fi access, don't be surprised if you find me there next time you visit. Don't I wish!!!
Below, three more views of the re-done library.

For some years, the library was about the only room furnished as the original. But in the recent restoration, other rooms were returned to their 'residential' as opposed to 'gallery' appearance. Below, the dining room, refurbished.

The portrait above the dining room fireplace is Princess Henrietta of Lorraine attended by a Page by Anthony Van Dyck, 1634. Below, two of the priceless masterpieces from the collection. Left, Portrait of the Artist by Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1663; and right, The Guitar Player by Jan Vermeer, c. 1672.

The Music Room, below, including the chamber organ, from 1796, and many excellent English portraits.

Below, a selection of the fine English portraits from Kenwood House. Below, top, left, Mrs. Musters as Hebe by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Miss Murray, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1825-27; lower, left, Kitty Fisher as Cleopatra, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1759; right, Mrs. Jordan as Viola, by John Hoppner,

The 1st Earl of Mansfield, was noted for his reform of English law and was important in the fight against slavery. He was the author of a court opinion that slaves brought into Britain or its territories were free.
The Film Belle, 2013, tells the story, a bittersweet one, of these two young ladies, Mansfield’s niece, Elizabeth Murray, and Dido Bells, the natural daughter of Mansfield's nephew with a West Indian slave woman. They lived with the Mansfields for most of their lives. A cop of their portrait hangs at Kenwood, below.

Above, drawing of the house, c. 1774. Below, The café garden.

0 Comments

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Eight

9/14/2019

0 Comments

Another in a series excerpted from my talk at the Beau Monde Conference in New York City on July 23, 2019, brings us to Spencer House. This is part of the talk I did not deliver due to time constraints.

Spencer House by Thomas Malton, 1800. Façade overlooking Green Park. Spencer House was built in 1756 by John, first Earl Spencer, great grandson of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough and grandson of the third Earl of Sunderland. He inherited fortunes from both of them before he came of age.

Above, Spencer House today. In 1755 the 1st Earl Spencer married his childhood sweetheart, Georgiana Poyntz, age 18, at Althrop, upstairs in a secret ceremony during a ball for 50 guests. The Spencer family was one of the great wealthy Whig families of the 18th century. Based on their fortunes in wool and their service to the crown, they entered the peerage at the time of Charles I. Althrop was, and is, the Spencer country estate, famous as the 1997 burial place of Diana, Princess of Wales, daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer,

Entrance is 27, St. James Place. John Vardy (1718-1765), a pupil of William Kent, designed Spencer House and later, it was also worked on by James 'Athenian' Stuart (1713-1788). It is an excellent example of the classical style and was highly praised upon its completion.

Above left, the Ante-Room; Right, the Morning Room.
The first earl died in 1783 and was succeeded by his son, a member of the Whig inner circle around Charles James Fox and the Prince of Wales. The 2nd Earl's sister was Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. The Great Room, below, with a ceiling of green and gold was intended for receptions and balls.

During WW II, many fixtures were removed to Althrop. After the war, it was taken over by a series of businesses and now is leased by the RIT Capital Partners, under the chairmanship of Lord Rothschild.
The fantastical architecture of The Palm Room, below, with carved and gilded palm trees is based on John Webb’s design for the King’s Bedchamber at Greenwich Palace. The palm trees were a symbol of marital fertility. The frieze of griffins and candelabra is derived from a Roman Temple.

Below, Lady Spencer’s Drawing Room was the ladies withdrawing room for escape from the men’s cigars and port. The ceiling is based on a ceiling in the Baths of Augustus in Rome, by Stuart.

Below. two final rooms of elegance and refinement. Left, the Dining Room. Right, the Painted Room, primarily the work of James 'Athenian' Stuart, completed in 1765.

Spencer House is open to the public on most Sundays, usually by pre-arranged tours. Don't miss it on your next London jaunt.

0 Comments

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Seven

9/7/2019

0 Comments

In these excerpts from my talk on London Mansions at the 2019 Beau Monde Conference in New York, we'll take a look at three mansions adapted for other uses: Uxbridge House, Crewe House, and Number 106 Piccadilly. In my opinion though these three examples are significantly smaller than the three previous subjects (Burlington, Devonshire, and Lansdowne Houses), they definitely qualify as Mansions.

Above, an 1880 drawing of Uxbridge House in Burlington Gardens, at the corner of Saville Row. Built in 1721-23 by Giacomo Leoni, until 1778 it was the residence of the 3rd Duke of Queensbury and his protégé John Gay, the poet.

At left, Thomas Malton's print from 1800. Purchased by the Earl of Uxbridge, the house was enlarged and lived in by the families of the earl and his son, Henry Paget, first Marquess of Anglesey, 2nd in command at the Battle of Waterloo, until 1854. It subsequently became the Royal Bank of Scotland

Today's occupants are rocking the foundations of Saville Row, where the tailors are afraid the new digs will lower the distinction of their fabled street.

It is the home of Abercrombie in London and it’s bare-chested models on bill boards, sides of buses, and in the tube, have set London ablaze all over again. In a way it has stimulated a renaissance on Saville Row, for the bespoke tailors were not only offended, but organized and now they are more amenable to serving their clients in China, New York, Los Angeles and Russia where perfectly tailored sober British suits are highly esteemed and unlikely to be replaced by American chinos.

Nevertheless, Number 7 Burlington Gardens is a Grade II* building and will be preserved.

Crewe House is now the embassy of Saudi Arabia, in Curzon Street. It was once owned by Edward Shepard, one of the earliest developers of Mayfair-- see Shepard Market. Much altered, it 'became' a late Georgian mansion owned by 1st baron Wharncliffe in 1818 as Wharncliffe House, then, in the late 19th century the townhouse of the Marquess of Crewe. Its forecourt and rear gardens are not open to the public of course, and they would be a mere shadow of their former selves.

Above, a view of the Drawing Room of Crewe House, a pair of chair from the house at auction, and the house as it appeared before the iron fence and security cameras were installed. Many such houses with yards and stables in the forecourt and gardens either behind or beside, existed in Mayfair as London grew west.

Coventry House, better known as 106 Piccadilly, is now a school, with a fee of more than 2200 pounds a year, built in 1759 as home for Sir Hugh Hunlock, or Hunloke. He sold it for £10,000 and ground rent of £75 per annum to George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry who hired Adam to remodel it in 1764.

Coventry House was purchased by Comte de Flahaut, former aide de camp to Napoleon, and husband of Margaret Mercer Elphinstone, daughter of Admiral Lord Keith, and confidante of the late Princess Charlotte. Flahaut was the ambassador of France to Britain and this was their embassy; subsequently purchased from Madame de Flahaut, also known as Baroness Keith, it become the site of the St. James Club from 1868 to 1978 when the club merged with Brooks. Below, l to r, Emily Jane Flahaut, Baroness Nairne, daughter of the Flahauts who married Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Landowne and became the marchioness and the mother of the 5th marquess and so forth; Before her marriage to General Flahaut in 1817, Mercer had been a close friend of Lord Byron who gave her the Albanian costume he wore in the painting below and which she wears in the engraving at right.

Coventry House was once the site of the Old Greyhound Inn. It is a five bay structure with a handsome staircase and Adam ceilings and walls remaining on the piano nobile. Now 106 Piccadilly is a Grade 1 listed building, the Eaton Square Upper School for super rich kids.

0 Comments

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Ten

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Nine

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Eight

Speaking About London Mansions...Part Seven

Victoria Hinshaw, Author

Archives

Categories