William Beckford 1760-1844 the Treasures of Beckford’S Collection Beckford’S Tower & Museum

William Beckford 1760-1844 The Treasures of Beckford’s Collection Beckford’s Tower & Museum William Beckford was born in 1760 After he moved to Bath in 1822 Today the Tower is the only museum into a family of immense wealth and Beckford immediately began to create a in the world dedicated to the life of power. At just under ten years of age he garden that stretched from his home in William Beckford and is home to a inherited a huge fortune that made him Lansdown Crescent up to the top of collection of paintings, furniture and one of the richest men in Europe. Lansdown Hill, where in 1827 he built objects from his collection. Highlights Extremely intelligent and well educated, Lansdown Tower. Designed by H. E. include the original construction model as a young man Beckford developed a Goodridge, Lansdown Tower was for Fonthill Abbey; a monumental passion for collecting and his strong Beckford’s retreat, offering magnificent marble table designed for the Tower, ideas about literature, architecture, art views of the surrounding countryside and Beckford’s Objects of Vertu paintings. and nature became highly influential to and housing some of the most treasured the development of British aesthetics. items from his collection. Beckford spent his life creating what was one of the greatest collections of objects, paintings and furniture in Visitor information Europe. He built extravagant and Beckford’s Tower & Museum monumental buildings to display his Lansdown Road, Bath, BA1 9BH collection, but was extremely particular Tel: 01225 460705 about whom he allowed to see inside www.beckfordstower.org.uk them. After his death in 1844 the Open March – End of October collection was broken up and items Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays once owned by Beckford can now be 10.30am – 5.00pm found in some of the world’s greatest museums and galleries. The following pages list where in the United Kingdom some of Beckford’s collection can now be found. Tracing this trail of treasures offers an insight into a magnificent collection and the mind of an extraordinary collector. 3 London London Victoria and Albert Museum British Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum holds Examples of neo-classical French and The British Museum holds a small but the largest, most diverse and most English silver purchased by Beckford important collection owned by significant collection in London of and of superlative quality are also in the Beckford. Of special interest are the decorative arts owned by William museum. mounted ivory sleeve vases from Beckford. There is a self-contained Fonthill Abbey, on view in Room 46. section within the British Galleries Furniture designed in the historicising Beckford ceramics ranging from Greek devoted to the Beckford Collection style for Beckford can be found in the vases to French porcelain are also in the Visitor information (Room 120), while other Beckford museum, comprising early pieces such museum’s collection, and can be seen British Museum, Great Russell items can be found in the Gilbert as the Holbein Cabinet, designed for by appointment, as can a significant Street, London WC1B 3DG Gallery (Room 71). Beckford’s Fonthill Abbey, a pietre dure cabinet holding of prints and drawings related Tel: 020 7323 8000 furniture can be seen in Room 120, his designed by Franchi, and a coffer to Beckford. www.britishmuseum.org lacquer in the Japan Gallery (Room designed for Lansdown Tower. Lacquer 45), ceramics in Rooms 136 and 145, was a life-long passion of Beckford’s, and enamels in Room 63. and two renowned examples of his collection of high-quality lacquer, the The Wallace Collection The largest part of the Beckford ‘Van Diemen’ Box and the ‘Mazarin’ collection is the metalwork and chest, can also be seen. The Beckford items at the Wallace mounted pieces, ranging from a Collection are superb examples of their majestic silver-gilt salver engraved with Prints and drawings related to type. The elaborate 18th-century heraldic devices to mounted porcelains Beckford and Beckford items are also roll-top desk, purchased in Paris and an and hardstones, all produced by in the museum, and can be seen expression of Beckford’s Francophile specialist craftsmen to designs supplied by appointment. taste, is on view in the Oval Drawing by Beckford and Gregorio Franchi. Room. In contrast to this, Beckford commissioned two coffers in a Renaissance/Gothic style to correspond Visitor information to the interiors of Fonthill Abbey; these Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL are on view in the Sixteenth Century Tel: 020 7942 2000 Gallery. In the same gallery is an www.vam.ac.uk Augsburg iron cabinet of the late sixteenth century and an oil painting by Corneille de Lyon, both from Beckford’s collections. Visitor information The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN Tel: 020 7563 9500 www.wallacecollection.org 4 5 London London The National Gallery Sir John Soane’s Museum The collecting of paintings was one of In 1787 John Soane visited Fonthill the Soane collection is Hogarth’s The Beckford’s greatest passions. In having been commissioned by Beckford Rake’s Progress, originally in the particular he collected Old Masters and to undertake some alterations to his collection of Beckford’s father, Alderman was a pioneer in the collecting of early father’s house and design a new picture William Beckford. Soane purchased the Italian Renaissance pictures. The gallery. Soane’s designs for the gallery paintings in 1802 when Beckford sold National Gallery has twenty-five and for an elaborate state bed for many paintings from his father’s paintings that were once in Beckford’s Fonthill are in the collection of collection. A visit to the museum also collection including Nicolas Lancret’s drawings at the museum and can be provides an insight into the mind of one Four Ages of Man series and the full viewed by booked appointment. Also in of Beckford’s contemporary collectors. length Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver by Velazquez. In the final years of his life Beckford sold five pictures Visitor information Visitor information directly to the Gallery, including two of The National Gallery Sir John Soane’s Museum his most significant worksThe Doge Trafalgar Square, London 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, Leonardo Loredan by Giovanni Bellini WC2N 5DN WC2A 3BP and possibly the most treasured Tel: 020 7747 2885 Tel: 020 7405 2107 painting in his collection, Raphael’s www.nationalgallery.org.uk www.soane.org Saint Catherine of Alexandria. National Portrait Tate Britain Gallery In 1799 J. M. W. Turner spent three weeks at Fonthill recording the The National Portrait Gallery is home construction of Fonthill Abbey and to one of the greatest representations of producing a series of watercolours William Beckford, the portrait by Sir depicting the Abbey from different Joshua Reynolds. Painted in 1782, not parts of the estate and at different times long after Beckford’s twenty-first of day. The Turner sketches from birthday and following his return from Fonthill can be viewed by appointment Europe, the portrait remained in or by searching the Turner Worldwide Beckford’s ownership until his death. database on the Tate’s website. The pose and background give it a romantic appearance and it was this image of himself that Beckford Visitor information reproduced in 1835 when he published Visitor information his Recollections of an Excursion to the Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG. National Portrait Gallery Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha. Tel: 020 7887 8888 St Martin’s Place, London www.tate.org.uk/britain C2H 0HE Tel: 020 7306 0055 6 www.npg.org.uk 7 Charlecote Park (The National Trust) Upton House In the September of 1823 George (The National Trust) Hammond Lucy of Charlecote Park in The full-length portrait of Beckford Warwickshire attended the Fonthill painted by George Romney in 1781 Abbey sale and purchased over fifty can be seen at Upton House, depicting lots, spending £3,431.10.6d on items the twenty-one year old Beckford with from Beckford’s collection. The all the arrogance of a young man soon Charlecote Park collection includes fine to take control of his immense fortune. examples of Beckford’s taste in oriental porcelain as well as Japanese lacquer. The state bed from the Lancaster State Visitor Information Bedroom at Fonthill Abbey made from the panels of a 17th century Indian Upton House (The National Trust) near Banbury, Warwickshire OX15 6HT settee can be seen upstairs at Tel: 01295 670266 Charlecote, and a set of side tables www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-uptonhouse made for the King Edward’s Gallery are in the main hall. Of most note is the collection of pietre dure, including an The Barber Institute Fitzwilliam Museum ebony cabinet inlaid with pietre dure Visitor information panels and a casket said to have been Charlecote Park (The National Trust) of Fine Arts The Fitzwilliam collection includes from the Pitti Palace in Florence. Wellesbourne, Warwick, the 1538 triptych The Lamentation Warwickshire CV35 9ER At the Barber Institute can be found a with the Prophet Daniel and St Peter The highlight of the Charlecote Tel: 01789 470277 fine example of Beckford’s interest in by Pierre Reymond of a quality and collection is the Borghese Table, one of www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ mounted hard stones, the heliotrope High Renaissance style that typified Beckford’s most famous pieces of main/w-charlecotepark jasper bowl on a silver gilt mount Beckford’s taste. The museum also furniture. The large 16th century pietre designed by Paul Storr. Also in the has a painting of an Italian Landscape dure tabletop was said to have collection is a gold teapot and stand by Karel Dujardin once in Beckford’s originated from the Borghese Palace engraved with Beckford’s heraldry.

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