LEEDS ARTS CALENDAR LEEDS ARTS CALENDAR MICROFILMED Starting with the first issue published in 1947, the entire Leeds Art Calendar is now available on micro- film. Write for information or send orders direct to: University Microfilms, Inc., 300N Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, U.S.A.
Leeds Art Collections Fund
fhis is an appeal to all who are interested in the Arts. The Leeds Art Collections Fund is the source of regular funds for buying works of art for the Leeds collection. We want more subscribing members to give one and a half guineas or upwards each year. Why not identify yourself with the Art Gallery and Temple Newsam; receive your Arts Calendar free, receive invitations to all functions, private views and organised visits to places of interest, by writing for an application form to the Cover Design Hon Treasurer, E. AL Arnold Esq,, Buttrrleg~ Street, Leeds 10 Detail of oak panel from the Bretton Room at Temple Newsam, c. 1540 LEEDS ARTS GALENDAR No. 68 1971 THE AMENITIES COMMITTEE
The Lord Mayor Alderman J. T. V. Watson, LL.B (Chairman) Alderman T. W. Kirkby Contents Alderman A. S. Pedley, D.F.c. Alderman S. Symmonds Gouncillor P. N. H. Clokie Councillor R. I. Fllis, A.R.A.M. Editorial 2 Councillor J. H. Farrell Councillor Mrs. E. Haughton Two Wentworth Houses 5 Councillor Mrs. D. E. Jenkins Councillor Mrs. A. Malcolm Gouncillor Miss C. A. Mathers New on the Firm of Seddon 17 Light Councillor D. Pedder, J.p., Ms.c. Councillor Mrs. S. M. C. Tomlinson Hummerston Brothers of'eeds 20 Co-opted Members An Alabaster of the Assumption W. T. Oliver, M.A. and Related Tables 24 Eric Taylor, R.E. A.R.G.A.
THE LEEDS ART COLLECTIONS FUND
President The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Halifax
Vice-President The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Harewood
Trustees C. S. Reddihough STAFF George Black, F.R.c.s, W. T. Oliver, M.A. Director Robert Rowe, C.B.F.,M.A., F.M.A. Committee Mrs. S. Gilchrist M.A. Keeper, Temple Xewsam House Professor L. Gowing, c.B.E., Christopher Gilbert, M.A., F.M.A. Mrs. R. P. Kellett Dr. Derek Linstrum, pH.D., A.R.I.B.A. Ratcliffe Keeper, Art Gallery Mrs. G. B. Miss M. Strickland-Constable, B.A. A.M.A. T. B. Simpson Alderman J. T. V. Watson, LL.B. Keeper, Decorative Art Studies Terry F. Friedman, B.A., pH.D. Hon. Treasurer Martin Arnold, B.A. Curator, Print Room and Art Library Alex W. Robertson, M.A. Hon. Secretary Robert Rowe, C.B.E.,M.A., F.M.A. Assistant Keeper, Lotherton Hall Peter Walton, B.A. Hon. Membership Secretary W. B. Blackburn Assistant Keeper, Temple JVewsam Hou~e Anthony Wells-Gole, B.A. Hon. Social Secretary Mrs. M. A. Goldie Trainee Assistant Keeper: Richard Fawcett, B.A.
Secretary: Miss B. Thompson
Administrator All communications to be addressed to the Miss D. J. English Hon. Secretary at Temple Newsam House, Leeds Subscriptions for the Arts Calendar should be sent to Assistant, Print Room and Art Library Hon. Treasurer, Arnold tk Son Ltd., Mrs. E. Brooks The c/o E.J. J. Butterley Street, Leeds 10 Technical Supervisors: 50p per annum, including postage (2 issues) Ron Turner Single copies from the Art Gallery and Temple Michael Tasker Newsam House, 25p each Editorial
Once more Temple Newsam is in the are craftsmen still about whose work can hands of the builders. Barely was there time stand comparison with that of previous to recover from the onslaughts of heating centuries. If this had not been so the screen engineers, armed not only with pipes and across the middle of the oak corridor on the pumps and motors, but a whole new lan- first floor —apparently of fundamental guage about thermal insulation and BTU's importance to the whole precautionary —which sounded to the middle-aged among tale —would have been even more disas- us more like a new form of bread rationing trous. While all this has been going on it than something connected with the well- has been possible to reorganise the top being of the house —when more intruders north-west rooms, always the most de- arrived. The vanguard of this invasion was pressing part of the house and something in uniform and spoke yet another language, of an anti-climax to visitors whose British this time about hoses and hydrants, and (or American) phlegm, energy, youth or half-hour fire resistance. If, one was tempt- what-have-you brings them as far as this. ed to ask, the conflagration they seemed so When the dust settles this area, together frightened about would only last such a with the stone staircase, should be one of limited time couldn't one just wait for it the most attractive parts of the house and to go out ~ No, fire precautions had to be indeed provide a vision of delight with taken very seriously and at last everyone which to leave Temple Newsam. got down to doing so. The trouble was how Summer 1971 represents the first full to fit such totally foreign bodies as emer- season for the Stable Court Exhibition gency staircases and self-closing doors into Gallery at Temple Newsam. It promises a fabric unashamedly planned it seems to well and has already shown itself sympa- encourage destruction by burning. If one thetic to pictures —as long as they are not sees the Fire Brigade as the representative too big —furniture and the decorative arts of the wholly admirable conservation mood in general. We will have to live down the of our day it is ironic that its demands 'ye olde'ouch which the exposed beams appeared to lead directly to the total suggest, they are so pleasant in themselves, visual destruction of the building to be provide such necessary height and, psycho- physically safeguarded. However, man has logically at any rate, are able to hide a always spent much time on defending the very 'modern'ighting system, that their indefensible and ingenuity on reconciling suppression has never been seriously in the irreconcilable —so it was at Temple question. The intimate quality of the exhi- Newsam. bition gallery does, however, impose its own After a year of planning and detailing, rather special terms which will undoubted- the city's Works Department was able to ly influence the sort of shows we hold there suggest how the necessary staircases could during the summer months. We started be hidden in cupboards and doors be made this year by displaying some of the best to close when the fire alarm sounded. All and most interesting things in the T. E. credit to the architects concerned that in Hollings'ollection of English pottery. one or two cases the public circuit will be This complimented the memory ofHollings improved and the house actually made more and showed him to have been a man of beautiful. A consoling aspect of the whole great taste and expert knowledge. It also operation has been the discovery that there emphasised the part played by private benefaction in the progress of Temple these with photographic records to provide Newsam. It is pertinent at this moment in a corpus of material with which to return time, when people sometimes talk wist- to St. Ives and create pictures. Among the fully of co-operation between private and first of these to emerge from his studio were public collectors, that T. E. Hollings should six gouaches —ours among them. In August be remembered as just that sort of partner of the same year Peter Lanyon was killed from whom particularly American mu- in a glider accident. seums have benefitted so greatly. Since the beginning of the present The Acquisitions of the Year exhibition financial year quite a number of important was a new production on a new stage of a purchases have been made —or are at hardy annual, but the Furniture from present in process of negotiation and so Broughton Hall broke new ground. Limited will have to wait for comment in another in scope —furniture fiom one interesting issue of the Calendar. Some of the most local house only; academic in concept in immediately attractive things have been that original research on little known bought from the Gascoigne endowment furniture makers could be published and fund for Lotherton Hall. Among these is a illustrated but at the same time easy on the Swansea porcelain cabaret dating from eye and mind because everything was the early nineteenth century, most beauti- pretty and its use obvious. We experi- fully decorated with garden flowers and mented too with the catalogue; largely subtle gilding. Not only is it satisfying to be home-produced and therefore cheap but, able to represent Swansea so well, but to we pride ourselves, of high quality within find a complete cabaret service in good its terms of reference. Another exhibition state fulfils a museologist's happiest dreams due to open on August 4th has a superfi- —and, heaven knows, he has enough night- cially similar theme in that it will also be mares these days, particularly over security. concerned with furniture. In this case, Cabarets, and this strangely enough is the however, the time span will run through the second to be acquired for Lotherton Middle Ages to the seventeenth century recently, can readily be displayed as and material v ill come mainly lrom York- complete services. The juxtaposition of shire churches. The idea is to show the tray, teapot, cup and saucer, bowl and jug particular features of form and decoration can demonstrate the prowess of their characteristic of this region; a subject manufacturer better perhaps than any other which has never been studied over all but similar sized group of porcelain from the which becomes ever more obviously worth same factory could do. detailed attention. In recent years great As this Calendar goes to the printers two strides have been made in furniture history fine pedestal tables have just arrived at research and this exhibition we hope may Lotherton. The first is made of slate extrav- lead to similar shows demonstrating local agantly, but tastefully, painted in gold and styles in other regions. Plans are now going enamel colours. It willmakean excellent foil ahead for the 1972 season based on exper- for the papier-mache bedroom furniture ience of 1971 including our now thorough for the company of which it is destined. familiarity with a new exhibition tool The other table, placed initially in the the stable court gallery. drawing room, seems likely to stay there The most recent purchase made by the for its scale and splendour of design and Leeds Art Collections Fund was Peter detail are just what was needed to domes- Lanyon's Clevedon Belle—which was shown ticate this vast room and bring it down to in the Acquisitions of the Year exhibition. human proportions even when there is In the early summer of 1964 the artist took nobody in it. This table, bought inciden- a number of students to Clevedon in search tally with the aid of a government grant, of landscape subjects, but it was he himself has a most interesting history. It is related who seems to have been most inspired by to a design published in 1838 by R. Brid- this little seaside town with its iron pier and gens and was bought by the Duke of brilliant flashes of colour. He made Buccleuch in 1840, probably for Dalkeith numerous sketches and supplemented House, from E. H. Baldock whose shop Octagon Centre T'able with marquetry decoration in the Chinese taste, English c. 1840. Supplied to the Duke ofBuccleuch br E.H. Baldock of Hanooay Street, London, Related lo a design lrublished by R. Bridgens in 1838. Diam. 60 in
was just off Oxford Street. Baldock was a has had to be chopped down to manage- well-known dealer of the day and supplied able size. the Duke with a considerable amount of In the last Calendar it was reported that porcelain and furniture for his houses, Mrs. Goldie had agreed to become Social Dalkeith, Bowhill and Drumlanrig Castle. Secretary and it was possible therefore to The growth, perhaps one might call vvish her well in print. At that time although it the nurture, of the collections at the he has already been approached on the Art Gallery, Temple Newsam and Lother- subject, Mr. W. B. Blackburn had not ton, is the most exhilarating part of a finally accepted the office of Membership curator's job here in Leeds and if it were Secretary. Fortunately, as many members not for the sharp mental axe he is trained will knov;, he did agree and has now been to wield comment on acquisitions 'since part of the Establishment for some months. last time'ight go on indefinitely. Readers Better late than never, especially if as in please understand, if their favourite object this case it can imply no charge of negli- is never mentioned, that it may well have gence, we wish him well with his activit- received 'the treatment'hen an editorial ies on our behalf. Two Wentworth Houses
Few Yorkshire lamilies have rivalled the in the eighteenth century, but as it was Wentworths in the extent of their posses- marked on Robert Saxton's map of York- sions; they held estates at Wentworth shire it can be assumed it was considered Woodhouse and Stainborough, North and of some importance in the sixteenth South Elmsall, Woolley, West Bretton and century. There was a chapel attached to Hickleton in the West Riding, and they the house, as was the custom, but other- owned property and manors in other parts v;ise nothing is known of it except that an of the country. Above all there were the inventory of 1675 indicates the number and two branches whose family pride was contents of the rooms when Sir Thomas largely responsible for the magnificent Wentworth died.2 The 'Hall', probably the monuments of Wentworth Woodho use old Great Hall with a screen at one end,s and Wentworth Castle; much has been seems to have been traditionally furnished written about these two houses,'ut less as the central, communal room for the about the neighbouring Woolley and household with 'One Longe Table, Two Bretton v, hich seem to form a natural pair. Formes, One (S)quare Table, One Long Both are on sites with a long history, even planck Table and a planck Forme', chairs before they came into the possession of the stools, suits of armour and military wea- Wentworths; both were rebuilt or exten- pons. There was a 'Dineing pa(r) lor'hich sively improved during the eighteenth and must have been of a good size as it early nineteenth centuries; and both pass- contained, besides 'One drawing Table,4 ed into the care of the West Riding County Two Square Tables with green Cloath Council in the same year, 1947, when their Carpit ts, 'ne Frensh Table', a large contents were dispersed. There is nothing chair for the head ol'he family, six other to suggest that the Went~ orths ol Woolley chairs and a dozen stools, all covered with and Bretton, like their kinsmen, were ever green cloth, and a 'Couch Chaire'r moved to architectural emulation by family day-bed; the inventory of furniture in this pride; advantageous marriages and inheri- room suggests that the house had been tances were usually responsible for their partly refurnished during the seventeenth building schemes, their new decorations century in accordance with changing and furniture, but the two houses form a fashions. The main room in which guests closely woven texture spanning from the were received and entertained, the Great fifteenth century to the nineteenth, and in Chamber, was probably on the first floor. the foreground are some well-known It must have been spacious, as it had two figures. fireplaces and five windows, and in it were In 1407 the West Bretton estate had 'One Long draw Table and T~ o side come into the possession of John Went- Tables', with 'settwork'i.e. Turkey or worth of North Elmsall through his wife hand-knotted work) and 'Flowered Leth- Agnes, the daughter of Sir William Drons- er'd'overings, twelve chairs and twelve field; it was settled on Richard, the third stools, all covered with 'settwork', and one son of the marriage, and descended 'Couch Chaire'; on the walls were four- through his heirs until 1799 when it passed teen pictures and a 'Large Lookinge glass'hich, out of the Wentworth family. There are no depending on the interpretation of records of the house at this time, or of its the size, was a comparative rarity at the subsequent appearance until it was rebuilt time. According to Joseph Hunter, the nineteenth-century historian, this room heroes in the representations of St. George had an ornamental plasterwork ceiling slaying the dragon, and of Samson and in which were incorporated the arms of David in their hours of triumph. Entwined seven families connected by marriage in the series are arabesques, masks, vases with the Wentworths; and in one of the and fantastic animals and devices from windows appeared the royal arms and the Franco-Italian Renaissance ornament. The letters H R. The descriptions of the fur- use of what was called at the time 'anticke nishings in 'the green pa(r)lour', 'the Gilt work'n conjunction with the Tudor pa(r) lour', 'the Gilt Chamber', 'the Perpendicular frames of the portrait- Yellow Chamber', and rooms known by busts is typical of the brief time when, the names of their occupants, 'Mr. Mat- under the patronage first ofCardinal Wolsey
(t) hew', 'Mr. Wentworth','ye I.adyes'nd and then of Henry VIII, Italian and Flem- 'my Ladyes'ive an indication of the ish artists and craftsmen were working in interior of the house as it was after the England and introducing the continental Restoration. The identification of the fashions to native craftsmen. A hybrid rooms as green, gilt and yellow suggests Anglo-Italian decoration developed which, that the wall-panelling v as partly painted largely because of Henry's break with and gilded, but whereas the details of'he Rome, changed to a coarser form in- background remain shadowy, the room fluenced by the pattern-books produced known as 'King Henry pa(r)lour'an be in the Low Countries during Elizabeth's more clearly imagined (Fig. 1). The reign. The series of low-relief profiles of panelling now in the 'Tudor Room'n helmeted warriors, prelates and court- the west wing of Temple Newsam House is ladies set in medallions are probably the only known survival of the pre-eight- imaginary portraits, but they and the eenth century house at Bretton, and varied Renaissance motifs immediately although it has been re-arranged at least below them are fine examples of this form twice since the inventory was made, the of decorative woodwork. They are close in major part of it must have formed the form to similar decoration in Great Ful- setting in which were the 'Little Square ford in Devon, Boughton Malherbe in Table, Two Wood-stand(s), One I.arge Kent, and Waltham Abbey in Essex.'ther Chaire, and three other Chaires. One panels are probably portraits of Covered Stooll'. There were two windows Sir Thomas and his family, and there are and a fireplace in the room, and a 'Look- representations of musicians in the deco- inge glass with three Brass Screwes'n the ration of the cupboard; there are obvious wall, but the most important contents variations in the craftsmanship in all were the bed and the livery cupboard these, but there is no doubt that the bed, which were fixtures and survived to come the cupboard" and much of the panelling to Temple Newsam with the panelling were all in the 'Kinge Henry pa(r)lour'. in 1947. The inventory records that the 'Cubbard'ad Traditionally, Henry VIII slept in this a covering, and that the bed, under bed, and it is noteworthy that his name was which was wheeled a 'Truckle bedd', was firmly attached to the room by 1675; as the furnished with hangings. It can be as- woodwork dates approximately from the sumed that the diff'erent patterns of linen- last fifteen years of his reign it is not im- fold panelling and decorative friezes now possible that the tradition is founded on at Temple Newsam came from more than fact. It was presumably inserted in the one room in the old house and were used house by Sir Thomas Wentworth, one of to fill out the room into which they were the King's Knights Marshal, who married fitted by Sir William Wentworth in the in 1531 and died in 1543; T W K is carv- eighteenth century when he incorporated ed in the panel containing his arms, and the woodwork in his new house. the sequence of decorative panels is a It is unlikely there was such a richly mixture of armorial family pride in the decorated room at Woolley, which had Fitzwilliam, Wentworth and Dronsfield been bought from the Woodruffes in 1599 alliances, and of allusions to chivalry and for $6,000 by Michael Wentworth.'2 There easy a thinge to builde well as men take it to bee that knowe it not, and therefore at your perill looke well about you'.'s In spite of this warning Woolley was to some extent rebuilt in the early seven- teenth century, though some of Michael Wentworth's money, $50 yearly, had to go in paying the recusant penalty for ad- hering to the Roman faith.'4 He kept his own chapel in the house,'s and it is inter- esting that much later in the century, in 1688, the later Sir Michael Wentworth, suspected of being an adherent ofJames II and a Papist, was obliged to ask the clergy- man of High Hoyland church for a state- ment that he had received the Sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England. t 6 I III'111I There were many Yorkshire gentry with m I I f~ 1 and there must have 's Jacobite sympathies, a been speculation about the allegiance of the Scottish nobleman, Alexander, 8th Earl of Eglintoun, whose second wife was the widow of Sir Thomas Wentworth of Bretton; after a third marriage, the Earl took as his wife the widow of Michael, one of the Wentworths of Woolley. Although Sir Thomas's brother Matthew succeeded to the baronetcy and estate in 1675, the late owner's widow and her new husband continued to live at Bretton until 1695.'' In 1706 Matthew's grandson William inherited, and three years later he set off on a Grand Tour that lasted until 1712. His cousin Lord Raby (Earl of Strafford from 1711) commissioned him to negotiate for works of art for Stainborough in Rome, but. the young man prudently 1. TemPle ~Vesosam House. Detail of the /oanelling fions refused to take Lord Raby's advice to the 'King Henry Parlour'n Bretton Hall. think of decorating his own house with Italian paintings and Antique sculpture. was a house on the site in 1327, but it was 'I shall be very well content with the probably rebuilt at the end of the fifteenth walls of Bretton just as they are,'e v, rote, century and this was what came to the 'so that I have but a good glass of Ale new owner as part of 'the house of the and Bear (sic) to make my friends welcome Manor, with gardens, orchards and with when they honour me with his (sic) courtes'nd a deer-park. Evidently he company, which is all that I desire.''s was thinking of rebuilding in 1634 when Marriage in about 1720 to Diana, sister of he was cautioned by his kinsman Thomas Sir William Blackett who possessed great Wentworth, the great Earl of Strafford: estates in Nor thunaberland which Lady 'If you builde a new ltouse temernbcr ~nr nr;; o. rh eventtsa1 lv shared with her that I tell you itt is a matter wherein sister, changed this contented view of t.he you may shew a great deale and a great old house which had probably altered want of discretion, itt being nothing soe little since Sir Thomas's death in 1675. Sir William is said to have begun to gentlemen for whom Burlington provided rebuild Bretton in about 1720.'o But who designs) arrived unannounced at Londes- was the designer of the severe rectangular borough with Colonel Moyser;2s pre- house without a pediment or architectural dictably the conversation on that Sunday orders? There was a phenomenal increase afternoon was largely architectural. in the number of new houses being built There is probably no need to look any in the 20s and 30s, but the architectural further than their common Yorkshire profession u as barely in its infancy at interests to find a connection betv.een this time, and the system of training by Burlington and Sir William AVentworth, apprenticeship and ~vorking for a recog- who was High Sheriff of the County in nised fee had not become an accepted 1723, and frequently in York, where he practice. Landowners who wished to build had a house in Coney Street. He was one had to turn to other sources for their of the leading members in the group of designs —to knowledgeable amateurs or Yorkshire gentry responsible for the pro- experienced building craftsmen, or often motion of the Assembly Room in York, to a consortium of advisers in which their and he signed the documents for the pur- own voices ~vere as loud as any. Thanks chase of ground in trust for the subscrib- to the discovery of a manuscript list of ers24. Burlington was supervising the early eighteenth-century houses, it is pos- erection of his own design for this im- sible to identify the designers of some portant building in the early 30s, but there hitherto unattributed houses o among would have been no lack of opportunity them is Bretton, of'hich the architects in the 20s for Sir william to obtain were said to have been 'Sir Wm 8: Col Burlingrton's advice. He was also closely Moyser'. It is not at all surprising that connected with william Kent, Burling- Sir William, like many of'is fellow ton's protege. According to Horace Wal- gentry, was partly responsible for his pole, the young Kent had given 'indica- own house; by 1720 there were two vol- tions enough of abilities to excite a gener- umes of Iritruuius Britannicus available as ous patronage in some gentlemen of his source-books, and a third appeared in own county'ho sent him to Rome at 1725. But who was his collaborator? their expense in 1710; there he studied 'John Moyser of Beverley Esq', a sub- painting and, 'although his first resources scriber to the third volume of I'itrurius were exhausted, he still found friends. Britannicus, was related to several county Another of his countrymen, Sir William families; he was Member of Parliament wentworth, allowed him $40 a year for for Beverley and, almost inevitably, an seven years'." This seems to contradict acquaintance of Lord Burlington. It is Sir W'illiam's plea to his cousin that he had difficult to discuss the design of an early no money to spend on paintings and works Georgian country-house, especially in of art, but it corresponds with the time he Yorkshire, without finding a Burlington- is known to have been in Rome and carry- ian connection,~'nd there are several ing out commissions with dealers for Lord strands of his influential web in the genesis Raby. Sir William thought Kent should of Bretton. return to England in 1716 when the seven As Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding years were up, but the painter, who and owner of the Londesborough estate, believed 'some envious person has put it Burlington was frequently in Yorkshire. in his head yt I have been long enough',24 In 1715, William Wentworth of XVoolley, succeeded in finding other patrons until a Deputy-Lieutenant of the West Riding, he returned at the end of 1719 in Burling- was asked by an acquaintance to give his ton's company. It can reasonably be compliments to Burlington when he saw him in Leeds,2~ and the Lord Lieutenant 2. The Earl of r%1ar's 'Prjoet for some additions td a was available to advise his fellow land- feu alterations to 5r William Wentroorlh's house owners on their architectural problems. nato a building in Torkshire for giceing it the Beauty ur'b it is capable uyb small additional expence. One occasion is recorded when General of a Spa. gully 1730'reproduced by courtesy of the Earl Wade and Sir William Strickland (two of Mar and Aettzel. p 5-'i~ .4 J5, ! IIV'i', ~ li~ '~
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k g 'i)p g Ypf'» ~,N ski i ilk' ~» '~,",. i,mr assumed that he was in touch with his to the first or piano nobile in imitation of the benefactor at the time the new house at traditional Italian practice. Nor was it Bretton was being discussed, and this ornamented on the outside with an en- probably forged another Burlingtonian trance portico or even pilasters, and it was link. this external severity and the lack of a Sir William subscribed in 1727 to Kent's touch of the grand manner that Lord Mar The Designs of Inigo jones, and there is thought of amending. evidence that he might have intended to He suggested a 'Beau window'n the employ Kent to decorate part of his south front and an Ionic giant order portico new house. The same source introduces and two corresponding pilasters on the another architectural adviser, the exiled east or entrance front 'for beautifying the Lord Mar who, unlike Burlington, was house'; then he ivent further and thought able to comment on country-house designs that on the u est front there might be only from a distance. John Erskine, 6th another portico 'like that on the side of the Earl of Mar, was the early patron of the entry opposit(e) to it, but it would be much architect James Gibbs and highly re- finer'. The central ('dinning') room might garded as an arbiter of taste. He was be enlarged by projecting it into this en- secretary of state under Queen Anne, but closed portico, and two 'salonns'ight be after the accession of George I he led made on the first floor, separated by two the Jacobite rising in Scotland in 1715; screens with a balcony above which would by the following year he was in exile with open on to both rooms.'his additional the defeated James Stuart at St. Germain. grandeur would, thought Lord Mar, make Yet he kept up a correspondence with an apartment that was 'proper to be England, a mixture of political and archi- decorated by Mr Kent'. His advice, tectural comments and advice, until his assuming it ever reached Bretton, was not death in 1732. In 1730 he was putting taken and there is no evidence that Kent doivn his thoughts about Sir William's repaid his debt to Sir William by decorat- house at Bretton which he described as ing any of the rooms. The Roman figures, 'now a building... for giving it the Beauty trophies and architectural fragments and of v'" it is capable w'" a small additional ruins in the Entrance-hall and Staircase- expense'Fig. 2). 'o far there is no hall, although they have many of the explanation of why Mar was thinking characteristics of Kent's decorative work, of the house in West Bretton, or what the were almost certainly painted in the connection was between the exiled earl nineteenth century. and the Yorkshire baronet, but Lord Mar's Sir William built a new chapel some architectural thoughts suggest that he distance away from the house in 1744, considered the Wentworth —Moyser design and then he might have started to lay out too austere. the landscape to the south. The owner of It was, for its date, a conventionally Woolley, Godfrey Wentworth, was living planned house with a central hall and at Hickleton during the first half of the saloon, balancing staircases on each side eighteenth century, and that estate was and a series of interconnecting rooms his chief concern; but in 1 766 he employed grouped inside a rigid rectangle. Like James Brindley, the famous canal-builder, many houses of the 20s and 30s (including to construct a new dam at Woolley.29 It is the east and later wing of Wentworth possible that Brindley had also been work- Woodhouse and Nostell Priory in York- ing at Bretton where the little river Dearne shire), it derived from Colen Campbell's that flowed through the estate was dam- first design for Wanstead House in Essex, med to form two lakes, the water cascading which was illustrated in the first volume of from the upper into the lower and finally Uitruvius Britannivus; but it was a smaller into the Dearne again. There is no record version of this great house, from which it of when this work was executed, or who differed in one important detail by con- was responsible for the layout of the land- servatively retaining the principal rooms scape or the design of the Gothic house on on the ground floor and not raising them the island in the upper lake, the grotto,
10 the boathouse or the bridge that spans the park & it was said that many were stolen Dearne at the east end of the lower lake; by the crowd from Wakefield'.ss Who was it is tempting to speculate if Kent had the architect? Was it the mysterious Bond been consulted, but there is no evidence. Hartley whose signature appears on a plan The landscape had certainly been formed of the house made in 1798 and who pro- by 1777 when Peregrine Wentworth wrote bably made the design for the stable block? to Godfrey Wentworth, 'We have now Or was it the unknown maker of other such fine weather, that we go upon the plans of improvement? Payments were Lake and we are rigging out a Fete and made in 1799 and 1800 to masons, joiners pi epat it tg ill untinations & Fireworks to and carpenters, and for 'the Iron upright be exhibited upon the Island of Venus'.so Bannisters on the best Staircase',ss but it In 1772 Godfrey Wentworth is reputed is not until 1807 that there is any record
to have 'added a great deal'o Woolley,s'ut of an identifiable architect. In that year it is not clear what he did before his Charles Watson of York, who later entered death in 1789. Evidently the new owner, into partnership with J. P. Pritchett,s4 de- Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth, began to signed a new organ-casess to replace the think about improvements to the pictur- one destroyed in the fire eleven years esquely irregular house in the 90s, and, previously. Perhaps Watson was the according to his grand-daughter Anne, architect for the earlier work, and he and great alterations were being made in 1796 his new partner were at Woolley again in when, during his absence on duty in York 1814 when they built the present lodge and as High Sheriff, there was a fire which gateway.s" Godf'rey Wentworth was also burnt 'the hall... & the Organ in it, & I making more gardens and replanting the suppose the Staircase, as the Architect said, 'Pleasure Ground'n 1800, bringing over he could now build a better one. The books trees from his other Yorkshire property at out of the Library were thrown out into the Hickleton.
3. Bretton Hall. The upper part of the f'estibule seen fro In 1814, the name of Agostino Aglio It was in the early nineteenth-century first appeared in Godfrey Wentworth's that, for the first time, the two houses were account book, and early in 1815 he was architecturally and decoratively linked. By paid $100 for the first of the decorations then the West Bretton Wentworth line had he executed at Woolley. 'orn in Cremona died out, and the estate had become the in 1777, Aglio had settled in England early property of Colonel Thomas Richard in the nineteenth century; he had decora- Beaumont, who had married Diana, eldest ted the Opera House in the Haymarket daughter of the last Sir Thomas Wentworth (1804), the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane who had died in 1792. The 1720—30 house (1807), and the Pantheon in Oxford Street had been partly remodelled inside when (1811).ss Perhaps his decorations inside the small rooms in the north-east corner Ackworth Villa, near Pontefract, in 1809so were made into a Breakfast-room, and had introduced him to the owner ofWoolley, those in the north-west corner into a but everything he painted for Wentworth Library. No names of an architect or has disappeared and his work survives only craftsmen have survived, but the similar- in a book he published in 1821 which re- ity of the plasterwork to that attributed to cords in detail not only the painted panels Joseph Rose in the 1780s, in particular the of Italian landscapes with which he deco- Dining-room in Farnley Hall, suggests that rated the Drawing-room but also the re- he might have been responsible. The oval modelled Entrance-hall with Watson's panels painted in grisaille on the walls of organ-case and the rebuilt staircase in its the Breakfast-room are also close in style new position (Fig. 5). He added an illus- to those at Farnley which were executed tration of the temporary ballroom he had by Theodore de Bruyn in 1790. 'f it is made and decorated in 1818 in which the assumed these new rooms were made in the coming-of-age ofGodfrey Wentworth's son, 80s or 90s, they were more or less con- another Godfrey, was celebrated; and he temporary with Godfrey Wentworth's also included a view of the house with the improvements at Woolley. additions made from the late 1790s on- It was probably shortly after Aglio had wards, the south-east wing, the neo- started to decorate Woolley that Jeff'ry Jacobean gables, and the galleried entrance Wyatt42 was called in by Colonel Beaumont portico over the steps up to the ground to design a large addition to Bretton, a floor. wing which provided him with a complete 12 suite or rooms Dining-room, Library, Wyatt, who was shortly to begin improv- Music-room, Vestibule, Museum and Con- ing and extending Chatsworth for the sixth servatory.4s It was built at the north end of Duke of Devonshire, and was then to be the house, extending towards the west, with called to Windsor Castle by George IV to a view from the Dining-room across the remodel it and create the opulent suites of deer-park to the triumphal arch gateway state and private apartments, was a sympa- which was probably built about 1807 to a thetic improver ofBret ton. His most imagin- design by William Atkinson; the I.ibrary ative addition was the Vestibule (Fig. 3) windows face south and overlook the lower which, above a lower arcade of yellow lake, and the Music-room has one large scagliola-faced Doric columns, rises the tripartite window in the west wall. The full height of the house to a large octagonal Regency decoration in these rooms, com- lantern glazed with armorial glass. The parable with Atkinson's work at Broughton south wall is pierced with a huge arch at the Hall a few years earlier, is only a shadow of level of the staircase half-landing, and its former splendour as recorded in the this opens up a view of the upper space from pre-war pages of Country Life,44 but enough the original Staircase-hall; the eAect of the remains to suggest that at the time Aglio interpenetrating spaces and contrasted was decorating Woolley he was also work- light and shade is heightened by large ing at Bretton. painted wall-panels of Roman ruins and 5. H'oolley Park. 7he Drau.'ing-rootrt as decorated by Agtio c. 1815 (frorrt Sketches of the Interior 8c Tem- porary Decorations, 18'21 i. architectural fragments. These and the Wentworth gryphons stood proudly on the arabesques and musical trophies in the gate-piers at the sides of the fine gates, Music-room were probably Aglio's work, now rusting away, which cost /178 10s Od the last examples in England of this use Wyatt was paid f136 10s Od for his services of ruins in decorative paintings.4s in 18234', shortly before he moved on to Wyatt added one of the improvements Windsor Castle and the greater glory of thought of by Lord Mar eighty-five years being Sir Jeffry Wyatville. This seems to earlier an entrance portico on the east have been the end of his work at Bretton front —and he built lodges, estate buildings and Woolley. and a Camellia-house on the west side of Godfrey Wentworth was completely re- the house. furnishing his house, and there are sub- Such horticultural buildings were a stantial sums recorded in payment be- speciality of Wyatt's, and he designed tween 1820 and 1825 to Gillows, the fash- others at Longleat, Belton, Woburn and ionable furnishers and cabinet-makers. so In Thoresby; in 1821 he was called to Woolley 1828 he went to reside in London, and an to discuss the idea of a long wing across inventory of the contents of Woolleys'as the south front of the house.4't was made which is as valuable a record of a late intended that the large glazed sashes in his Georgian house as the 1675 inventory of design could be removed in Summer so Bret ton is of an Elizabethan house changed that the structure was an open colonnade; if somewhat to suit Restoration taste. In the they were replaced in Winter it became a 1840s Aglio surprisingly came back to hot-house. There is no evidence this addi- Woolley when he was almost 70; in 1844— tion was ever built, but in the previous year 45 he redecorated the Drawing-room Wyatt had designed and built a handsome (Fig. and the so-called 'Middle 6), Room'ext new entrance 'in the Style of the Mansion'n to it, and in 1847 he was painting the — the Wakefield Sheffield road (Fig. 4).4't ceilings of'he Library and Dining-room is now disused, but until recently the with trctmpe l'oeil views in some of the painted 6. WooBey Park. Aglio's design for the later decoration of the ceiling of the Drawing-room c. 1844. (reproduced by courtesy of the Brother(on Library, C'nit ersity of Leeds). openings in his richly-coloured, geometric- when he became a Royal Academician in ally panelled designs. All his work was 1846, and in the Great Exhibition of 1851 ss destroyed about seventy years ago. he exhibited a Cupid, Virginius and his There are no later records of artists Daughter, Morning Prayer and Early Sorrow; working at Woolley; throughout the nine- the latter caused Macdowell to be acclaim- teenth century both it and Bretton re- ed as 'an artist that England may well mained comparatively unchanged, but in be proud of...who makes his appeal to our the 1830s Thomas Wentworth Beaumont best and noblest feelings', and his reputa- followed the example of his predecessor tion led to the commission to make the group Sir William Wentworth and sent an artist emblematic of Europe on the south-west to Italy to study at his expense. Yet the angle of the Albert Memorial in South reputation of Patrick Macdowell, in spite Kensington. His work can be found in St. of some important commissions, has not Paul's Cathedral, the Palace of Westmin- survived as well as William Kent's. He was ster and the Ny Carlsberg in Copenhagen, encouraged by John Constable and Sir but the last of the Wentworth proteges is Francis Chantrey, and after returning from also represented at Bret ton by a neo- Rome he made figures for Beaumont —Girl Classical group nine feet high which Going to Bathe in 1841 and Love Triumphant stands at the end of the terrace in the Italian in 1844—which were examples of what was Garden, an appropriately monumental referred to as his 'work in poetic sculpture epilogue to the history of building, deco- ...mostly devoted to the representation of rating and furnishing in the two houses. the female form'. s4 He presented a similar figure of a nymphss as his Diploma work DEREK LINSTRUM 1. For Wentworth Woodhouse, see Hussey, C. 9. A Knight Marshal was an officer of the royal English Country Houses —Early Ceorg 15 18. Quoted in Oswald, A. 'Bretton Park', Country 42 See Linstrum, D. Sir jegry Wyatville —Architect Life. 31 May 1938, p. 352; nevertheless, Sir to the King (to be published 1972) or the Ph.D. William probably brought the Antique frag- Thesis of the same title (1970) in the Depart- ments that still survive in the grounds. ment of Fine Art, University of Leeds. 19. Hunter, J. op. cit. 43 The plan is in the RIBA Draivings Collection; 20. Information from Mr. John Harris, based on J7/25. an annotated copy of the Builder's Directory 44 Oswald, op. cit. (1734) in the Metropolitan Museum, New 45 cf. the decorations in the Staircase-hall in 20 York. Cavendish Square, London, attributed to 21. The designs 1'r Rokeby Park, Kirby Hall, the John Devoto. There is a close resemblance east vving of Wentworth Woodhouse, Boynton between the large ruin-paintings in the stair- Hall, Nostell Priory and Bishops Burton were case-halls in these two houses although those all in some degree associated with Burlington. at Bretton are much later. «r Wentworth, O'. E., op. cit. pp. 191f. '1o Weritwortihi->W oollcy Hall Papers (no acces- sion no.) 'A Design for Additions to the South 23. Lees-Milne, Earls Creation 163. J. of (1962), p. front of Woolley Park. Godfrey Wentworth 24. Wittkower, R. 'Burlington and his svork in Esqr.'. gc d. 'Jeffry S'e yatt Archt. 1821'. York', Studies in .4rchitectural History (1954i, Wentworth-Woo)Icy Hall Papers acces- p. 52. (no sion no.); three draiiings for 'an Entrance in 25. Walpole, H. Anecdotes of'ainting in England the Style of the Mansion'. s. esc d. 'Jeffry (1862 edn.), iii. p. 777. Wyatt. Archt. 1820'. 26. WalPole Bocietyi xxii. p. 138. 48 Godfrey Wentu!orth Wentworth's account book with 27. Register House, Edinburgh, iMar-Kellie MS. the )3!akefietd Bank. July 5 1823 to Machell (3) RHP nos. 48—49. I am grateful to Dr. Terry Iron Gates g)78—10—0. (Wentworth-Woolley Friedman for bringing these draivings to my Hall Papers. BV 41, 1). attention. 49 ibid. Oct 11 1823 to Wyatt $ 136—10—0. 28. cf. Chicheley Hall, Bucks., built by Sir John 50 ibid. Aug 14 1820 g)59—6—0. July 6 1821 Chester, another of Kent's benefactors. The g4,580—15—0. Apl 2 1822 /500 —0—0. Oct 10 Entrance-hall —— — — was designed by Henry Flitcroft, 1823 /500 0 0. June 9 1824 g 1 16 12 0. one of Burlington's architectural proteges; the Aug 17 1825 g)09—11-0. ceiling vvas decorated by Kent who also added a 51 Wentworth-Woolley Hall Papers. Box 64. grisaille figure of Mercury in 1725. 52 Wentsvorth-Woo)Icy Hall Papers. BV 44, 29. Wentvvorth, G. E.i op. cit. p. 220. Aglio's Sketches insc. 'To Godfrey Wentivorth 30. ibid. opp. p. 40. Wentworth Esqr. with the Artist's Most 31. ibid. p. 220. Grateful Thanks'; inserted loose inside are a memorandum from Aglio acknowledging pay- 32. Wentsvorth, Anne. MS note book (Wentivorth- ments of f30 each on 18 June, 24 June and Woolley Hall Papers. BV 34'1). 12 July 1847, a letter acknowledging /30 33. Mernorandu!n book begun .4D 1730, evidently by elated 23 Aug 1847, and a memoranclum datecl Godfrey Wentvvorth. The 1799 entry w.as added 23 Sept 1847 acknowledging /50 'as .iettle- by his grandson, Godfrey Wentworth Went- ment for the decorating executed by me in the u orth. (Wentivorth-Woolley Hall Papers. Dining Room and the Library'. There are also BV 11). designs for the Drawing-room (undatecl but 34. In 1828 Watson. Pritchett and Watson made probably c. 1815), a part ceiling of the designs for alterations to Lotherton Hall. Leeds Draiving-room (s. but n.d. probably c. 1844), of the Middle Room tk Arts Calendar no. 64 (1969), 6. a part ceiling (s. d. p. 1844) . Wentivorth-Woolley Hall acces- 35. Papers (no 53 loc. cit. Letter from Coxon (Woolley Park sion three drasvings the organ-case. B.J. no.); of Estate Office) dated 22 confirming s. 'Charles Watson Arch!. 1807'. Sept 1938i 8'. that the first decorations were 'painted on 36. Wentivorth-Woolley Hall Papers (no acces- canvas'nd destroyed 'about 40 years ago'; sion no.) 'Elevation of a Design for a Lodge 6c what remained of his late.r work was stripped Gateway at Woolley Park for G. W. Went- '35 years ago'. worth Esq.'. R d. 'Watson 8 Pritchett. 54 Quoted in Gunnis, R. Dictionary of'ritiih 1814'. York. June .Sculptors 16(>0—1850 (rei. edn. n.d. pp. 249f., 37. G. W. )Iten)worth's account boot uith Il'entrco! th The two named figures vvere sold in 1947 (see Chaloner and Rishworth. Oct. 28 1814 to Aglio Hollis and Webb sale catalogue. p. 75, lots /10 —0—0. Jan 19 1815 to Aglio /100 —0—0. nos. 1547, 1548). (Wentworth-Woolley Hall Papers, BY 41 2). 55 Illustrated in Radcliffe, A. 'Acquisitions of 38. See Linstrum, D. 'Last of the Classical Deco- Sculpture by the Royal Academy', 4potto. rators', Country Life, 25 August 1966. pp. 444f. lxxxix. (January 1969) p. 50. 39 Ti «weri rrrtainlir in exicti'nri', )943. and 56 The Cut!id, Morning Prayer anil Early Sorrows are there were old photographs of them which illustrated in 7he:lrt journal Lllusrrarect Cata- have not yet. been found. They secre of Italian logue (1851), pp. 81, 325 and frontispiece. scenes in trellised framec am gratelul to the Librarians of tlie Brothe.rion 6» I 40. Aglio, A. Sketches of the Interior 7ernt>orary Library and the Yorkshire Archaeological Society Decorations in Woolley-Hall, lorkshire (1821). for permission to quote from documents and to the 41. See Hussey. C. English Countiy Houses Mid- Earl of Mar and Kellie for allowing me to repro- Georgian (1956). pp. 2181. duce the clesign for Bretton Hall. New Light on the Eirm of Seddon There seems nothing unusual in Joseph isolated township in the parish of Man- Robinson Pease's purchase of furniture chester and, in particular, with the Unitar- from the London firm of Seddon, for Pease ian Chapel in the village.s Leo Grindon, was a wealthy Hull merchant-banker- in his Manchester Banks and Bankers4 noted industrialist, and Seddon's were well- that in such compact little places as Blackley known makers of fashionable furniture. Chapel people would not long remain The Pease family archives'eveal that strangers. Joseph Robinson in one of his Seddon's supplied furniture worth childhood letters, noted visiting Aunt f352 13s 10d in 1781, with a further Robinson in Blackley, then "a place of consignment costing at least $240 9s 3d summer resort"s with many of the pro- twenty years later: but why was George minent Unitarian families of the day. Seddon chosen from among the many Years later, when on a visit to Holland, eminent cabinet-makers working in Lon- he commented on receiving the news of the don during the last quarter ofthe eighteenth death of the Rev. Mr. John Seddon, who century? Indeed why did Pease feel it c. 1760 was responsible for leading the necessary to patronise London men at all Manchester congregation away from Pres- when there were several highly competent byterian thought towards that ofUnitarian- makers then at work in Hull whose prices ism, and it was this same Mr. Seddon from were somewhat cheaper? The connecting whom Robert Robinson had borrowed link appears to have been that both Pease $100 in the years immediately before the and Seddon spent their childhood in the lat ter's death. The other Seddon men- sprawling parish of Manchester. tioned in the same account book, was also Joseph Robinson Pease (1752—1807) was called John, and was listed as among the born Joseph Robinson, son of Mary and regular suppliers of fresh cotton yarn, doing Robert Robinson of Manchester. He was business with the Robinsons'f between named after his maternal grandfather, $20—f45 per year up to 1754. Joseph Pease (1688—1778), a very wealthy The exact relationship between John merchant, industrialist and banker of Hull Seddon (1679—17?) the father of the who, in 1773, applied for and obtained a cabinet-maker, and those of similar name Royal Licence for his favourite grandchild mentioned above is uncertain, but George' to add Pease to his surname. The grand- birthplace has been given as Blackley (or father had long determined that the young- Blakelea —the phonetic spelling). George er Joseph should inherit his many concerns, Seddon was one of eight children, and, as and, when his daughter and son-in-law the minister (who died in 1720) left died in 1757 and 1756 respectively, he saw children in need of support, it is likely to it that the lad was well cared for by his that both were of the same generation and uncle Samuel Robinson. The latter was in perhaps brothers. At the moment this is partnership with his brother Robert as a speculation. At all events the Robinsons cotton merchant and one of their surviving and the Seddons were known to each account books2 shows that they dealt other. regularly with at least two members of the The Robinsons, like many of their Seddon family during the years 1746—1756. wealthy co-religionists in Manchester, Both families were also well acquainted were interested in the arts. Many built with the small village of Blackley, then an very large houses in the town and its 17 suburbs, and most of them bought furni- be mentioned that the Seddon furniture ture from Gillov, s of Lancaster.7 was bought during a flush of spending by a In 1781 the architect Charles Mountain young man nev ly freed from his aged (1743—1805) designed and in part con- grandfather's restrictions, and by one who tracted to build a large house for J. R. had had the advantage of a good education Pease in the newly laid out Charlotte Street followed by foreign travel. The age of the in Hull. This was astutely planned by the illiterate millionaire was yet to come. Dock Company to absorb land surplus to IVAN HALL its requirements.s Pease was, of course, one of the leading shareholders in that venturer The fnf 1nvs ing transcript of George and he did his best to ensure that Charlotte Seddon's account for furnishings supplied Street was handsomely built by taking up to J. R. Pease in 1781 is the first complete many of its best sites. His own house (Fig. edition of one of the firm's bills to appear in 1), the centrepiece of three, survived in print." Although Seddons were probably part until the virtual destruction of that the largest cabinet-makers and general part of Charlotte Street (now called George house furnishers in London by 1780, em- Street) in 1968—69. Within, there was a ploying some four hundred hands, compar- great staircase under an oval dome, beyond atively little furniture from their workshops which lay the principal reception rooms. has yet been identified, surviving invoices On the nominal ground floor these over- too, are surprisingly rare. It has not been looked the garden from a balcony whose possible to trace any of the items listed in cast ironwork was adorned with the Pease this bill. family crest, a bird holding a pod full of It is clear from the schedule that Pease peas in its beak. The mahogany doors had commissioned Seddons to equip his princi- architraves with 'composition'rnament- pal drawing room —the objects are not a material also found, at its most delicate, numerous, since at this period quite sparse on the chair rails.o Such chimneypieces and formal furnishing schemes were favoured stucco ceilings as had survived the last f'r fashionable reception rooms. It is note- war, were sacrificed soon afterwards, until, worthy that all the movables for this by 1968, the house had become little more interior were of satinwood, a timber which than a derelict shell. was just starting to replace mahogany as the When Pease placed his first commission most highly regarded wood for luxurious with Seddons, his new house was not yet furniture. The wall fixtures —mirrors and built, and the furniture must first have been girondoles -were gilt to provide a suitable sent to the older Pease town house in High impression of opulence, it is interesting 1. Draroino by F. S. Street, Huff.Io This, too, fell a victim of the that one pair of pier glasses displayed 'Blue wraith, 1883, shou inrr the house in the fornrer blitz, and only its front ground floor wall Transparent borders'o match the colour Charlotte Street, Hull, now survives. The much smaller scale of scale of'he satin curtains and upholstery built by doselrh this other house would allow neither fabrics. Such decorative refinements are Robinson Pease, c. much 1783. Reproduced bp room for hall chairs nor a fitting background exceedingly rare in mirror plates. courtesy of Hull City for elegant satinwood furniture. It should The two sets of'japanned chairs and pair .~userrm. of baisen stands were presumably intended for the best bed and dressing roosns, while the trays obviously served in the dining room. The curious status of hall chairs, part utility, part ornamental, makes it appropriate that the set of'ix ordered by Pease should have mahogany frames in- corporating satinwood panels inscribed Although twenty or so furniture makers holstery department, the two branches active in Leeds during the last century are being carried on as quite distinct concerns known to have labelled their work very at Nos. 10 and 11 East Parade. Henry little has so far been published about the withdrew his share of the capital and set up trade in this important regional centre.'he as a cabinetmaker, upholsterer, house- main reason for this neglect is lack of painter, carver, gilder and decorator at relevant research material such as bills, Vine House, James Street, Harrogate. catalogues, drawings and business ar- A survey published in 1888 under the chives, it is therefore stimulating to record title 1ndustries of X'orkshire, summarises the the recent acquisition of a portfolio of history of the firm and provides a useful furniture designs dating from about 1880 account of William Hummerston's estab- associated with the long defunct firm of lishment: "The premises in No. 11 East Hummerston Bros., East Parade, Leeds. A Parade are very spacious and are composed useful framework of information about the of showrooms and workshops. On the firm is recorded in contemporary Trade ground floor is an extensive showroom Directories but this collection of drawings, where the goods are tastefully arranged, together with various recently discovered embracing all kinds of furniture for pieces bearing their trade label and remin- dining-rooms, drawing-rooms, parlours, iscences supplied by a direct descendant of breakfast-rooms and bedrooms, the latter the partners provides an unusually sharp in most beautiful suites, splendidly up- profile of the firm during the late Victorian holstered. In the warehouse above the period. ground floor is another varied stock of first- About 1839 two brothers, Joshua (1811— class cabinet-work some very richly up- 67) and John Hummerston (1814—95), holstered. The other parts of the building moved from Harewood village where their are used as workshops for William Hum- father was employed as a groom and merston's trade is mostly with the better established a house, sign and ornamental class of the people of Leeds, and he prefers painters'usiness at No. 11 Corn Exchange, to make his own goods so as the better to be Leeds. Ten years later they had moved to able to guarantee the quality. There are premises in Greens Court, and in 1857 thirty people in constant employment in were trading as 'painters, paper hangers, the workshops, Mr. William Hummerston gilders and general decorators'rom No. 68 taking particular care that only the best Albion Street, transferring again in 1869 class of men are employed. His business is to new premises at No. 11 East Parade, entirely a private one, but such is the where the business was extended to include amount of satisfaction he has given to his the trades of cabinetmaking and up- patrons that the radius of his business is holstery. At the time of the move to East yearly extending." Parade, John Hummerston's three sons It is significant that all William Hum- — James (1849 1918), William (1852—1934) merston's furniture was apparently made and Henry were taken into partnership on the premises since at this period many and on the fatljex's retirement in 1886, the provincial hrms supplemented their own business was divided, James directing the stock with goods purchased from wholesale decorating side while William took over manufacturers.s An advertisement of 1891 control of the cabinet-making and up- refers to bedroom suites costing between 20 1. Occasional table and chair .Made by Hunznzerston Bros., Leeds c. 1880 Eboni ed birch 1 'X f8 10s and $100; special dining-room fittings. Many sheets are stamped HUM- suites in pollard oak and carved black oak; MERTDN BRos DEcoRATQRs and the nzajori- drawing-room suits (cabinet, tables, chairs, ty clearly pre-date the division of the busi- etc.) in carved rosewood and records that ness in 1886. Two drawings inscribed May general household effects such as carpets, 1879 and Jan. 1880 provide a satisfactory curtains, linoleum, oilcloth, matting and date for the bulk of the collection. Al- bedding were supplied to order. The fact though the signatures of William and that Hummerston Bros. are known to have James Hummerston feature on designs for received commissions from the owners of interior embellishments sho~ing that both Temple Nev.sam and Harewood House brothers possessed artistic ability, none of provides confirmation that they were the forty-three neatly executed scale indeed "patronized by the better class of drawings for furniture are signed. the people of Leeds".s The portfolio reveals that Hummerston The firm was awarded medals at various Brothers specialized in high quality furni- Industrial and Fine Arts Exhibitions: ture conforming to the mainstream of London (1862); Wakefield (1865); Leeds fashionable taste. One sheet portrays (1875);York (1879) and Bradford (1882).4 chairs and tables plainly inspired by the At Leeds they displayed specimens of Anglo-Japanese style promoted by E. W. painted woods and marbles together with Godwin many of whose designs were pub- dining room wall woodwork and ceiling lished in William Watts Art Furniture trade decoration with medieval furniture en catalogue which appeared in 1877. A suite. neatly executed series of ink and wash The portfolio of Hummerston drawings drawings for dining furniture bears, in (Figs. 2 and 3) contains roughly a hundred addition to the firm's stamp, the inscription designs and miscellaneous photographs for "William Thorp, Architect, St. Andrew' furniture, chimney-pieces, doorcases, wall Chambers, Park Road, Leeds", indicating and ceiling decorations, friezes and church that the firm secured commissions for 21 architect design furniture. Their decorating cates that they were among the larger firms activities evidently involved collaboration in Leeds and the scale and ornamental with architects since another design for a elaboration of'certain pieces (one towering hall chimneypiece was supplied by G. T. sideboard is annotated f100) proves they Redmayne the Manchester architect. were capable of spectacular if rather The majority of drawings for bed, dining derivative work. It may be assumed that and drawing-room furniture are typical in common with most other art furnishers of the hybrid Victorian-Jacobean style the firm also executed orders for routine developed during the 1870s by B. J. furniture geared to the conservative tastes Talbert, T. E. Collcutt and others. It is of the middle class market. noteworthy that two of the former's A gateleg table with slender turned engraved designs and another by W. C. supports, bearing the label of William Brangwyn (from the Furniture Gazette, Hummerstons, has been traced in a local 14 May, 1875) are interspersed with the collection and a set of six dining chairs, Hummerston drawings. Many of the side- two armchairs and a couch with ebonized boards and cabinets may be conveniently frames displaying the trade label of Hum- classified as 'superior Art Furniture'ince merston Bros. have been located in Devon. turned supports, spindle galleries, lunette The lightly constructed ebonized beech friezes and panels of naturalistic carving chair and table (Fig. 1) are elegantly made abound. Several pieces feature painted and certainly reflect a greater degree of panels, while others were intended to be fashion awareness than the majority of ornamented with gilt metal mounts on an furniture being produced in Leeds during ebonized wood foundation. One sideboard the 1880's: it is probably only a matter of is conceived in the Puginesque Gothic time before some of the firms more impres- manner prevalent in the 1860's. sive work comes to light. The designs as a whole show that Hum- William Hummerston's side of the busi- merston Bros. specialized in high-grade Art ness was closed down in 1896 owing to furniture broadly comparable to the work increased competition from London, with- of firms such as Doveston, Bird and Hull of drawal of patronage by several of the Manchester or Collinson and Lock of wealthy county families and financial London. The fact that they employed mal-administration. thirty craftsmen in their workshops indi- CHRISTOPHER GILBERT l. Only two accounts of the furniture industry in 8. Other clients included such wealthy Leeds Leeds have appeared: W. G. Rimmer, 'Wood- families as the Tetleys, Kitsons and the owners working in Leeds', 7he Leeds 3ournal, vol. 29 of Fox Hill, Weetwood and Methley Hall, (in- (March 1958), pp. 93—9 and L. O.J. Boynton, formation from a direct descendant of the 'High Victorian Furniture: the Example of Hummerston Brothers). Marsh and Jones of Leeds', Furniture History, 4. These medals were presented to Temple New- vol. III (1967), pp. 54—91. Christopher Hut- sam together with the portfolio of Hummerston chinson has recently completed a detailed study drawings. of the furniture trade in Leeds 1700—1914, incor- 5. The label reads: FROM/ WILLIAM HUMMERSTON / porating a dictionary of makers. This B.A. Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer,(11, EAsT dissertation, prepared for the Fine Art Depart- PARADE> LEEDS. ment of Leeds University, is deposited at Temple 6. The label reads: HUMMERSTON BROS/LEEDS/No. Newsam. 6408/Workman's Name: G. E. Pearson". 2. The records of Christopher Pratt and Son Ltd., Bradford, reveal the extent Io which Yorkshire firms depended on buying stock from wholesale manufacturers. See C. Gilbert, Pratts of Brad- ford (exhibition catalogue Bradford City Art Gallery, 1969). 23 An Alabaster of the Assumption and Related Tables Although a great number of alabasters finish of the table and its relationship have been published since the early years with the larger unit of the reredos.2 In of this century as a result of the impetus examining the Leeds table of the Assump- of the important exhibition of 1910', tion3 an attempt has been made to analyse little attempt has been made to study these drapery forms and physical features and sculptures stylistically. Our present ap- to find other tables which show the same proach is still based on Prior's four groups, traits of style. which relied largely on the shape and Alabaster tables were certainly not the finest production of the later middle ages, but perhaps we have tended to dismiss them too readily. Since the writings of Prior and Gardner in the early years of this century until relatively recently it was considered that after the Black Death there v as a terrific decline in quality in which was foreshadowed the decay art. N'riting of sculpture in generalof'othic at this period Prior and Gardner stated that, "It...became monotonously regular in expression 1'r something like a hundred and fifty years...."4 and Prior's attitude to the architecture was similarly deprecatory, a view which is nov recognised as inadequate. Even Stone, writing in 1955, refers to "the ruck of mid-century alabaster panels".5 The carving of these tables is not nearly so standardised as is commonly believed. A close examination of the iconography of a large number of tables of the Assump- tion revealed that no two are alike in all details, although the Assumption is a scene which engenders a more hieratic treatment than most other scenes: a fact which has caused some to confuse icono- graphy with style. In looking for tables which have stylistic links with the Leeds table three were found which are sufficiently related to suggest a common source, and several others show some affinity, and could be from the same workshop. The three I ..assumption On Loan to Temple Xetosarn House. 24 closely related tables are: a Virgin and Child with attendant angels, now cemented into the chancel wall of S. Michael at Stewkley in Buckinghamshire,' Trinity, A116—1946 in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 'nd an Assumption in the Archaeological Institute at Arlon in Belgium. Of these the last best retains its original finish, the result of its having been taken out of the country and cared for since the Reformation, and consequently spared the ravages to which most of the alabasters in England have been sub- jected. It has been suggested that a useful guide to workshop practice might be seen in the treatment of the reverse side of the tables: some are left quite flat while others are scooped out at the base, presumably to reduce the total weight of the reredos, which must have been con- siderable. The Leeds table and the Victoria and Albert Trinity table do have scooped out bases, but it has so far been impossible to ascertain the treatment of the other tables. Unfortunately it is not known what 2. Virgin and Child euilh Angels proportion of the alabasters are treated in ,S. Michael,,Sou.kley, Bucks. one way or the other, so that as a guide this is only of limited use. Among the drawn heavenwards: a reference to an tables which are secondarily related a apocryphal story attributed to Joseph of Pieta table in the Elvehjem Art Centre of Arimathaea. The whole effect of the the University of Wisconsin, a table of table, with the fluttering of the angels'ings S. Peter receiving souls, A177—1946, and and the lifted hands is one of con- a table of'. Thomas of'anterbury, siderable dynamism. A167—1946 in the Victoria and Albert are Hildburgh has suggested that some of similarly scooped-out, perhaps indicating the features found in alabasters can be they come from the same workshop. traced to the cycles of miracle plays Before comparing the four related certainly the curious pulpit-like pockets in tables it is necessary to closely examine which the upper angels stand, and the very and typify the iconography and style of substantial form of the Virgin's mandorla the Leeds table. The central figure is, of coupled with the straining attitudes of the course, the Virgin, who stands in a con- attendant angels might be redolent of the cave mandorla with hands upraised to the mechanics of stage production. benign figure of God the Father who raises The Virgin's kirtle is simply treated, the his hands in benediction. This figure is upper part closely fitting, but falling in enclosed by a second mandorla incised heavy thick folds beneath the waist which with rays of glory and bordered by a dove- break into trumpet-ended forms at the tail moulding. To either side of the Virgin foot of the mandorla. Her mantle is loosely are two angels, the lower pair kneeling on draped over shoulders and arms. The face tussocks of crumpled ground, the upper is doll-like, particularly since the large pair standing in pockets of cloud. At the eyes have lost their paint, and is sur- feet of the Virgin, to her right, is the kneel- rounded by stylised closely-curled hair ing figure of'. Thomas, who takes the drawn in at the neck. The hands are loosened girdle from her waist as she is summarily articulated and spatula shaped. 25 S. Thomas wears a fur-edged houpelande with the cylindrical sleeves which were fashionable about 1430 and with the long side vents which lost favour about 1440. The secular '~tC' garb gives more of the air of a donor holding a phylactery than an important s int recei;ing thc proof of the Virgin's last physical presence on earth. Like the figure of God his hair is long and curled; this was apparently not a real fashion but a pictorial mannerism widely used for the depiction of legendary figures." In these figures although the quality of carving is high the drapery is rather standardised; that of the four angel figures is more significant, if even more stylised. The alb-like robes are tightly drawn in at the waist, the upper parts falling over the belt in regularly looped tubular folds interspaced with shallow convex round-ended folds and with small triangular projections of drapery pro- truding between the loops. This drapery is the most characteristic motif of style, yet curiously it seems to be a form developed only in alabaster carving and is unrelated to contemporary free-stone sculpture. Perhaps its origins lie in earlier traditions of drawing rather than sculp- ture: similar motifs of drapery can be seen in English mid-thirteenth-century drawing, although treated more freely. Unfortunately the table has been sub- jected to barbaric treatment at some date by being coarsely overpainted and by having its upper corners cut away. However, enough remains beneath the present paint to gain some idea of the original colouring: the ground below the figures was painted a deep green and speckled with flowers of one red and five white dots, and the celestial area behind the figure of God was raised at regular intervals by gesso blobs and gilded over- all; most of the gesso has since fallen away. Both of these methods of decoration are very common. The Leeds table and the three tables which demonstrate the same style have 3. Trimly Victoria and Albert Museum, A 116-1946. 26 many features in common, but in particu- lar all the figures of angels have the characteristic looped pipe fold drapery. This motif is easily distinguishable and strongly suggests a common hand. Since this drapery is confined to the secondary figures in all the tables this could mean that one hand carved the main figures and another hand the secondary figures, yet if this is so it seems that the same two hands were engaged on all four tables, since the main figures also have strong affinities with each other. The tables which are secondarily related do not have this motif of drapery so clearly defined, and the general quality of the carving is not so high. A comparison of'etail in the tables bears out their relationship: the soft doll- like faces of the Leeds and Stewkley tables bear strong resemblance to each other, as do the faces, hands and hair of the God figures in the Leeds, Victoria and Albert, and Arlon tables. The heavily falling drapery of the Virgin's skirts in the Leeds and Stewkley tables is closely similar; in the Arlon table the mantle is drawn across the kirtle, masking the fall of drapery. Comparison of the attitudes of the chalice holding angels of the Victoria and Albert table with the upper angels of the Leeds table once more be- trays a similar approach and details such as the thurible chains depicted on the Victoria and Albert and Stewkley tables, are cut in exactly the same way and reduced to what looks like a double billet moulding. It seems possible that after being carved the alabasters were then passed onto the same workshop for paint- ing: the wings of the angels in three of the tables are painted with the colours and 4. rfssumption Crlon Archaeological Institute. eyes of the peacock's tail, a reference to the Apocalyptic vision. Perhaps this is an indication of how the Leeds angel's wings tion to this very important centre of pil- were originally painted. grimage since it depicts scenes from the life The dating of alabasters is a consider- of S. James and is an iconographic rarity. able problem; the only piece for which we If comparisons are to be made with have a firm date is a reredos in the Cathe- monumental sculpture for the purpose of dral of Santiago de Compostela which was dating very great care has to be taken to given to the Cathedral in 1456 by John make allowances for difference of scale Gudguer, the rector of Chale in the Ise of and medium. Alabaster is a soft easily- Wight". Presumably it was made shortly worked stone which hardens considerably before this date specifically for presenta- after exposure to the atmosphere. At this 27 period great numbers of tombs in this fifteenth century, probably in the 30's material were produced, although it or 40's, a date borne out by compar- seems probable that they came from other ison with other sculpture. Interestingly workshops, but perhaps links can be seen the Victoria and Albert Trinity has between the heavily falling drapery of at the top the remains of the fretted vault- the Leeds table, and its related tables, ing of an attached canopy, which, accord- and the figures on the tomb of Lord and ing to Prior's dating divisions, should place Lady Ferrers at Merevale in Warwick- it in the period 1460—1500, whereas he shire of about 1440.'s The rich but places the Leeds Assumption in the period formalised drapery of Lady 1420—60. It is possible that the Trinity Ferrers'kirts falls in thick lines which break over is marginally later, but the stylistic evi- her feet in a similar pattern to that of the dence points to the time lag being a brief Leeds and Stewkley Virgins. Even more one. The table most closely related to the convincing is a comparison with the angel Leeds Assumption is the Stewkley Virgin 'weepers'n the sides of this tomb where and Child, and the two are probably very there are the curious trumpet-ended folds close in date. The Victoria and Albert of drapery. Perhaps links might also be Trinity and the Arlon Assumption could seen with free-stone sculpture such as the be slightly later, but a great difference in figure of Edward the Confessor on the date is unlikely because of the links tomb of Henry V, who died in 1422, but between the former and the Stewkley whose tomb was not finished until 1441. table. The costume of the Leeds Assumption suggests a date in the second quarter of the RICHARD FAWCETT 1. Exhibition of English Mediaeval Alabaster 8. Mr. F. W. Cheetham, op. cit. Work, Society of Antiquaries, 1910. 9. Mr. R. James "Apocryphal New Testament", 2. Mr. F. W. Cheetham suggests a usefully re- 1924, p. 67. vised system in "English Mediaeval Alabaster 10. W. L. Hildburgh, "English Alabaster Carving altarpieces with special reference to Notting- or Records of the Mediaeval Religious Drama", ham", "Museums Journal", Vol. 61, no. 4. "Archaeologia", Vol. XCIII, 1949. 8. Presently on long term loan from Leeds City 11. C. W. and P. Cunnington, "Handbook of Museum. My thanks to Mr. C. M. Mitchell English Mediaeval Costume", 1952. for permission to publish this article. 12. W. L. Hildburgh, "A Datable English Alabas- 4. E. S. Prior and A. Gardner, "An account of ter Altar-piece at Santiago de Compostela", figure sculpture in England", 1912. "Antiquaries Journal", Vol. VI, 1926. 5. L. Stone, "Sculpture in Britain: the Middle 15. A. Gardner, "Alabaster Tombs of the Pre- Ages", 1955. Reformation Period in England", 1940, pls. 6. My thanks to the Rev. J. P. Drake for answer- 21, 170. ing my questions and providing photographs. 7. My thanks to Mr. C. H. T. Avery for supplying photographs and information on alabasters in the Hildburgh collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Published in Leeds by the Amenities Committeejointly toith the Leeds Art Collections Fund ana' contribution from the 2 orkshire Arts Association. Designed and Printed by E.j Arnold O'on Limited at their Broadtoay Factory, Leeds 11. Half-tone blocks by Gilchrist Bros. Limited, Leeds 2. Park Square Gallery 57 St. Paul's Street, Leeds z Telephone Leeds z64z r Monday to Friday zo.oo a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday ro.oo a.m. to r p.m. PRINTS by Keith Milow and Mark Lancaster 7tfl 30tll J-rtly 1971 MIXED EXHIBITION yth-27th August 1971 SCULPTURE by Margaret Lovell 8th-3oth SePtember 1971 The gallery will be closed from 27th August until 7th September ESTABLISHED IS67 REMOVERS STORERS PACKERS SHIPPERS 287 ROUNDHAY ROAD, LEEDS 8 Phones 629282-3 P9~c~"'91qip 1'Saw" cd-PqqieSq 50 qE.S cpu ~ES O',C~ ~f 9 "1i&G Sic% q9 I+ ~94> Oq.b >PO 1'~S Sp ><~i8'S C9 „>hei 'is o~~g gin n'in'we j(id» PaPer eaoh