THE ATTINGHAM TRUST for the study of HISTORIC houses and collections NEWSLETTER 2012 • NUMBER 10 CHAIRMAN’S Foreword lthough it only seems like yesterday when Annabel furniture, textiles, silver and Old Master Drawings, I was AWestman, Giles Waterfield and myself were talking to sure that Attingham would live up to its reputation. Helen Lowenthal, Helena Hayward and Geoffrey Beard about the Summer School, this year we celebrate sixty And of course, in reality, it far exceeded expectations. The completed years of that course and I have little doubt that interdisciplinary study throughout the course is its greatest our founders would be proud of where The Attingham asset. Looking at silver alongside textiles or paintings Trust stands today. alongside porcelain, really hits home the relationship between objects and their surroundings; how they were This summer was full of activity. A highly successful Study purchased and arranged, how they were valued by their Programme was run in the US organised by our American owners and used, how they were regarded. I can now Friends. The Summer School was run to considerable look at objects as part of a wider whole and I am much acclaim by Helen Jacobsen, to whom we regretfully bid better equipped to consider numerous different adieu as she takes up her new position at the Wallace approaches and what signs to look for – what the original Collection, and Andrew Moore. As ever, the highly purpose of the room could have been, where the furniture successful Royal Collection Studies was led by Giles might have stood 100, 200 and 300 years ago, how the Waterfield. In addition, we have built up our core funds room would have been lit, how the table wares would over the years to provide income to support our relatively have been arranged. There truly is no substitute for new office and sought endowments and annual funding for physically visiting properties and I think this has hugely scholarships - an area in which we need constant help - increased my frame of reference for collections in context. from our supporters, among whom are many alumni. I have already started looking and thinking differently about some of the collections in the Museum and it has The importance of The Attingham Trust and the various certainly deepened my understanding of objects and how courses that it runs is becoming increasingly relevant as to interpret them…” university teaching moves away from historic house studies and decorative arts teaching towards what are We are all much looking forward to our sixtieth anniversary seen as more commercial areas, such as engineering and conference in October on country houses and house the sciences, in this time of financial austerity and museums in Britain, Ireland, the US and Australia. We look international competition. I am the fortunate recipient of forward to welcoming old friends and new from all over the numerous letters from students who find our courses life world. The international composition of Attingham’s changing and this is typically illustrated by the following members is reflected in the three continents from which we extract from a letter I received this year:- have drawn speakers to discuss the ‘Future of the Country House’. We also want to congratulate the American “Working in a Museum environment, objects more often Friends of Attingham, to whom we owe so much, on their than not stand in isolation – on shelves in stores according 50th Anniversary and welcome Lizzy Jamieson as the new to type or in glass display cases with labels; I wanted to co-director of the Summer School. learn more about the environment for which they were originally intended. As a result, from when I first laid eyes John Lewis on the packed and interdisciplinary itinerary of seminars on Chairman For further information about The Attingham Trust and the courses it runs please refer to website www.attinghamtrust.org or contact Rebecca Parker Tel: 0044 (0)20 7253 9057. E-mail [email protected] For American members contact Cheryl Hageman Tel 001 212 682 6840. E-mail [email protected] COMMENTARY • Sean Sawyer 012 marks the 36th consecutive year that The Royal recognition of Royal Oak in Attingham publications and 2Oak Foundation has provided scholarship support to websites enhances our stature among your alumni. American Friends of Attingham (AFA) for the Summer School. We are immensely proud of this. As the From Royal Oak’s perspective, Attingham alumni are a American partner of the National Trust of England, wonderfully diverse and strategically placed lot. When Wales, and Northern Ireland, we view our support of we hosted Simon Jenkins this April for a lecture tour Attingham as a core activity – just as the country house focused on the National Trust’s country houses two of and its collections are core interests of our members and the five venues were made possible by Attingham alums. supporters - and our relationship with the Attingham As we look at expanding our activities in the US and the Trust and AFA is one of our most important partnerships. UK, we can depend on Attingham alums to be in all the right places and their expertise to be indispensible. It is a partnership that we would like to expand upon. While Attingham scholarships are the pillar of our Certainly, the connective tissue between Attingham and fellowships program and AFA’s promotion of our lecture Royal Oak is extraordinarily strong at the moment. One series here in the States is greatly appreciated, we of our newest Directors, Prof. Sir David Cannadine, is believe that we could collaborate more closely on both also a Patron of the Trust and will give AFA’s Annual Fall sides of the Atlantic and be more effective in raising Lecture in October. He also served as a principal mutually beneficial awareness and support. advisor for my dissertation on Soane and the Palace of Westminster at Columbia. Having been raised a For instance, this year’s increased scholarship grant was Vermont socialist, I resisted the call of Attingham and made possible through the proceeds of the “paddle” the country house through graduate school. Seven portion of the live auction at our 2011 Timeless Design years as director of a historic house in Brooklyn Gala. Attingham alum Thomas Jayne introduced this expanded my horizons and I was thrilled to be a Royal innovation at the 2010 gala when we honored the Trust Oak Scholar in the Summer School Class of 2002. This with our inaugural Heritage Award. As the auction was is just one of many ways that becoming Royal Oak’s ending he heroically seized the podium and appealed for Executive Director has knit together the strands of my bids of $1,000 or $500 to support Royal Oak’s academic and professional lives. I am honored to be scholarships. We plan to continue this practice, as we speaking at 60th Anniversary Conference, along with did in 2011, but this will be more successful if AFA helps Royal Oak’s 2012 Timeless Design Award recipient, promote the gala so that more of the bodies in seats are Julian Fellowes. Six degrees of separation? More like Attinghamites. For our part, we are developing a long- one and a half! overdue Fellowships webpage that will include a dedicated Attingham section to raise awareness among Sean E. Sawyer is Executive Director of The Royal Oak our digital visitors. On the flip side, more prominent Foundation THE ATTINGHAM TRUST 2012 Trustees: John Lewis OBE (Chairman), Martin Drury CBE, FSA, Lady Goodison FSA, Rosemary Council: Lomax-Simpson, Caroline Rimell, Rosalind Savill DBE, FBA, FSA David Adshead FSA Diana Berry Patrons: HM Ambassador to Washington, The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE,DL, Errol Clark Professor Sir David Cannadine, FSA, Sir Timothy Clifford, The Lord Crathorne, The Lord Dalmeny Duke of Devonshire, KCVO,CBE, The Hon. Desmond Guinness, John Harris, OBE, Sara Heaton (Administrator RCS) FSA, The Marquis of Lansdowne, LVO, DL, Sir Hugh Roberts, GCVO, FSA, The Lord Sir Robert Hildyard Rothschild, OM, GBE, Coral Samuel, CBE James Hughes-Hallett, CMG Tim Knox, FSA Officers: Chairman: John Lewis OBE Jonathan Marsden, LVO Vice-Chairman: Martin Drury CBE, FSA Sarah Medlam Executive Director: Annabel Westman, FSA Andrew Renton (Chairman, Scholarship Treasurer: Kate Morgan Committee) Assistant to Executive Director: Rebecca Parker Dr Christopher Ridgway, FSA Director (Summer School): Dr Helen Jacobsen E. Clothier Tepper (President of the Director (Summer School): Dr Andrew Moore American Friends of Attingham) Director (Royal Collection Studies): Giles Waterfield, FSA Nick Way 2 Attingham Trust Newsletter 2012 • Number 10 The Attingham Study Programme • 7th – 16th June 2012 - Annabel Westman o celebrate sixty completed of later nineteenth styles at Olana, Tyears of The Attingham belonging to the influential painter, Trust and fifty years of the Frederic Edwin Church. founding of the American Friends of Attingham, New York Against a background of informative and the Hudson River Valley lectures, the country homes of some of was the perfect destination for the major family dynasties and the twenty-sixth Study industrial and political leaders were Programme. It was the first time visited from the comfortable Beekman Attingham had ventured Arms in historic Rhinebeck and the final westwards and judging from the base at Tarrytown. The charming international mix of the group – secluded retreats of the Roosevelts at American, British, Dutch, Val-Kill and Top Cottage formed an Czech, Estonian, Polish, interesting comparison to some of the Canadian, Indian, Australian ‘Gilded Age’ properties, including the and New Zealanders – it was a eclectic Italianate villa of Wilderstein, venue long overdue. Mills Mansion, the Livingston/Ogden Mills home transformed by the Planned by the American View of the Hudson River from Olana architectural firm of McKim, Mead and Friends in close association with White, and the lavish extravagance of The Attingham Trust, the the Rockefellers at Kykuit where excellent co-ordinator and leader of the Study informative tours were given on the rich collections.