National Trust acquisitions 2003-2004: Christopher Rowell reviews a year which saw many major successes achieved by the National Trust's policy of acquiring indigenous contents for its houses��but also a few significant losses

2002-2003 was an annus mirabilis for acquisitions by the National Trust, including, most spectacularly, William Morris's Red House, Kent and Tyntesfield, Somerset, the latter acquired with numerous gifts and grants, including an unprecedented 17.25m [pounds sterling] from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and 8m [pounds sterling] from private donations. As the following pages show, 2003-2004 has also been rich in acquisitions of works of art, and comparatively few items have slipped through the net.

Although this survey concentrates on the highlights, the range of lesser additions has been considerable, helping to safeguard or enhance the historic context of many Trust properties.

The Trust remains particularly grateful to a host of private donors, including one notably generous anonymous benefactor, as well as to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the Resource/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. It also benefits greatly from the expert advice it receives on potential acquisitions from museums, individuals and dealers, who kindly provide this help without charge.

The method of acquisition is varied, ranging from purchases at auction and private-treaty sales to items accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax that are allocated to the Trust for display in its houses ('acceptance in lieu' or AIL).

The National Trust's collecting policy remains straightforward: it aims to preserve or 'repatriate' indigenous contents. These are often loaned works of art that have never left the Trust's houses, but the Trust also keeps watch for the reappearance on the international art market of objects once in its houses. Usually, their provenance is known, which increases the price.

Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire

Charles Bridgeman by Sir James Thornhill (1675-1734), c. 1730.

Pencil on paper, 20 x 19 cm. Inscribed with the artist's name and 'Old Master Charles/Bridgeman'. Purchased at Christie's, 5 June 2003, lot 1, for 1,600 [pounds sterling] with funds raised at Wimpole.

Photo: Christie's.

This portrait drawing by Thornhill of the landscape gardener Charles Bridgeman (d. 1738), formerly thought to depict his father, also called Charles, has been allocated to Wimpole Hall, where Bridgeman laid out great avenues in the park. This is an unusual purchase for the Trust, as the drawing is not indigenous to the house, but Bridgeman's work at Wimpole, Claremont, Stowe and other National Trust gardens or parks amply warranted the acquisition of this rare depiction of the renowned landscape gardener. Both Bridgeman and Thornhill were in the artistic circle of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, at Wimpole in the 1720s, a period from which few indigenous contents survive.

Tyntesfield, Somerset

The Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1426-1516) and studio, 1490s.

Oil on panel, 85 x 63.5 cm.

Photo: Christie's.

Due to its high value, the Tyntesfield Bellini was originally excluded from the Trust's acquisition of the house's principal contents in 2002. Fortunately, it was accepted by the Government in 2004 in lieu of inheritance tax from the estate of the 2nd Baron Wraxall. It has been temporarily loaned to Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, pending the Minister's decision on a permanent location for its future display. It is to be hoped that she will decide to allocate it to the Trust for preservation at Tyntesfield in accordance with the late Lord Wraxall's wishes.

The Madonna and Child with St John the Baptist is one of a group of Old Masters bought by Antony Gibbs (1841-1907), the artistic son of the deeply religious merchant William Gibbs (1790-1875), for whom Tyntesfield was rebuilt. The head of St John is by Bellini, but the group of the Madonna and Child is a repetition by an assistant, possibly Niccolo Rondinelli. Antony followed his father's lead in collecting pictures, an interest inherited by their descendants, including the late Lord Wraxall. Although some (including a major Turner) were sold in the twentieth century, and some have been re-attributed, enough remains to suggest the family's discrimination. The return of the Bellini will ensure that the family's picture collecting will be worthily represented at Tyntesfield. In its nineteenth-century heyday the house contained no fewer than sixteen depictions of the Madonna and Child: as the novelist Charlotte M. Yonge recalled, it was 'like a church in spirit'.

In compiling these notes, I owe a debt of gratitude to many colleagues, both within and without the Trust, for supplying information or providing other help. Tim Knox is the fulcrum of the Trust's efforts in contents acquisition, ably assisted by Jill McNaught-Davis and Lucy Porten. Thanks are also due to David Adshsad, Andrew Barber, Elizabeth Bibilo, Amanda Bradley, Jeremy Capadose, Richard Dean, Emile Debruijn, Jane Gallagher, St John Gore, Christopher Gibbs, Jonathan Harris, John Hartley, Chris Lacey, Alastair Laing, Gerry McQuillan, James Miller, Richard Peanington, Lucia Prosino, Catherine Ross, James Rothwell, Hugh Routh, Francis Russell, Stephen Somerville, Susan Strongs, Tessa Wild and Helen Wyld.

Coughton Court, Warwickshire

Lady Mary Herbert, Viscountess Montagu, as Diana by Francois De Troy (1646-1730), c. 1692.

Oil on canvas, 125 x 98.5 cm. Purchased 2004 by private treaty from the Throckmorton family, with the help of an anonymous benefactor and a 45,000 [pounds sterling] grant from the National Art Collections Fund. Photo: National Trust Picture Library/John Hammond.

Robert Throckmorton by Pompeo Batoni (1708-87).

Oil on canvas, signed and dated, Rome 1772. Oil on canvas, 76 x 62.2 cm. Purchased 2004 by private treaty from the Throckmorton family with funds given by an anonymous benefactor. Photo: Christie's.

The purchase of Francois De Troy's portrait of Lady Mary Herbert, Viscountess Montagu (1645-1744/45) safeguards a component of the most exciting aspect of the Coughton collection: the superb French portraits, which include two by Nicolas Largillierre in magnificent French Rococo frames of about 1729.

This superb image of a late-seventeenth-century noblewoman in the fashionable guise of the huntress Diana, goddess of the moon and of chastity, was probably commissioned by the sitter's father, the 1st Marquess of Powis. It came to Coughton through the marriage of her niece Lady Theresa Herbert to Sir Robert Throckmorton, 4th Baronet. In 1729, Sir Robert--then in Paris--commissioned four remarkable portraits from Largillierre, two of which remain at Coughton. His own flamboyant portrait was purchased by the Ministry of Works in 1964; the other--Anne Throckmorton as a nun--was bought in 1991 with the aid of a grant of 25,000 [pounds sterling] from the National Art Collections Fund.

The purchase of the De Troy also maintains a link with another recusant and Jacobite line, the Herbert Marquesses of Powis, whose dukedom, bestowed at St Germain-en-Laye, outside Paris, by the exiled James II, was never recognised in England. At Powis too, there are French portraits (including another De Troy of Lady Mary Herbert, Viscountess Montagu) that are the product of the family's exile in France. These two portraits of her by De Troy reveal an intriguing aspect of the Trust's curatorship of its properties: the maintenance--centuries afterwards--of interrelated family connections between its houses.

The acquisition of Batoni's portrait of Sir Robert's eldest grandson, Robert Throckmorton (1730-79), painted in Rome in 1772, is another indication of the Throckmorton family's cosmopolitanism. The sitter holds a rolled-up drawing of the Pantheon, which--appropriately, given his Catholic faith--was also the Catholic church of S Maria ad Martyres. Both pictures bear later inscriptions recording their presence--until their nineteenth-century transfer to Coughton--at Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire, another family seat.

Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire Pier glass. c 1736-37.

Giltwood, 231 x 129.5 cm. Purchased at Christie's 10 July 2003, lot 47, for 73,747.50, [pounds sterling] with the aid of an anonymous benefactor and a grant of 24,000 [pounds sterling] from the Resource/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. Photo: National Trust Photographic Library, 2004/Robert Thrift.

Having been sold from Sudbury Hall for 135 [pounds sterling] in 1967 by the 10th Lord Vernon, this impressive pier glass reemerged at Christie's in 2003. This time the price was much higher, and the Trust is indebted to an anonymous benefactor and the Resource/V&A Purchase Grant Fund for making its acquisition possible. It is an enigmatic piece that warrants further investigation, but it may well have been made for the overmantel of the Saloon when that 1670s room was being altered around 1736/37 by the future 1st Lord Vernon (1709-80) to house the first of a set of full-length portraits. This is suggested by the style of the Gibbons-esque mantling and garlands, which relate to Edward Pierce's 1670s carvings in the Saloon but are carved in a flatter and more pedestrian manner.

The overall style of the mirror, and particularly its attenuated oval glass, suggests the 1730s rather than the 1690s (the date given to it by Christie's). It also corresponds stylistically to a pair of Kentian giltwood marble topped sidetables in the Long Gallery. It was perhaps these 'two marble Tables' that were seen in the Saloon (then used as a dining room) by the Duchess of Beaufort in 1751 and this further relates the group to the Saloon. It should be said, however, that elements of both the mirror and tables suggest the possibility of early-nineteenth-century revivalism. The tables have been in the Long Gallery since 1874, and the installation of the mirror in the Velvet Bedroom also dates from the mid nineteenth century, when Anthony Salvin was making extensive alterations to Sudbury.

Pending further discoveries, the mirror has been returned to the overmantel in the Velvet Bedroom. Paint analysis showed that it was originally wholly gilded. At Tankerdale Conservation and Restoration, modern white paint was removed, revealing areas of original water-gilding and making the widespread punching of the gesso more evident. A missing shell beneath the cresting, clearly shown in a 1905 Country Life photograph, has been reinstated, as has the bevelled glass (to replace the previous modern unsilvered glass sheet). This work was generously funded by the Kensington & Chelsea National Trust Association.

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Dunham Massey, Cheshire Ewer by David Willaume II (1692-c. 1761), 1742.

Silver, ht 26.8 cm. Bought at Christie's, New York, 21 October 2003, lot 402, for $220,300 (138,512 [pounds sterling]), including transport and other costs, with a grant of 75,000 [pounds sterling] from the Whiteley Trust, 29,522 [pounds sterling] from the National Art Collections Fund, and 11,875 [pounds sterling] from the Resource/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. Photo: Christie's.

Dunham Massey, Cheshire, the princely bequest of the 10th and last Earl of Stamford (1896-1976), contains the finest collection of Huguenot silver in a British country house. It was amassed in the early eighteenth century by the 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758), a fabled collector, whose purchases (amounting to 26,000 ounces) were meticulously listed in his own hand in a notebook entitled 'The Particulars of My Plate'. A descendant, the 10th Earl of Stamford, was assiduous in tracking down and buying back silver from the 2nd Earl's collection, which bad been partly dispersed by other branches of his family. In assuming the 10th Earl's collecting mantle, the Trust has had considerable success, thanks to numerous grants and donations, despite the desirability to collectors of any piece bearing the 2nd Earl's arms.

The latest acquisition is a magnificent ewer by David Willaume II. It was one of seven of the 2nd Earl's 'Ewers for the Rooms', of which three now belong to the Trust. It is reunited with the rest of the 2nd Earl's remarkable plate in A newly designed display on the first floor at Dunham, near the original plate-room. An illustrated scholarly catalogue of the Dunham silver is in preparation by James Lomax, curator of decorative arts at Temple Newsam, Yorkshire, and James Rothwell, the Trust's regional curator responsible for Dunham. It will be published by the National Trust in 2005.

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Penrhyn Castle, North Wales The Holy Family by Benvenuto Tisi, known as 'II Garofalo' (c. 1476-1559), c 1520-50.

Oil on panel, 46 x 32 cm. Accepted in 2004 by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Penrbyn Castle. Photo: National Trust Picture Library/Richard Pennington 2004.

In 2004 another major tranche of the loaned contents of Penrhyn Castle was accepted by the Government in lieu of inheritance tax, and allocated to the National Trust for display there. This followed the death of Lady Janet Douglas Pennant (1923-97), who had so generously transformed the display of the castle by numerous important loans. Garofalo's beautiful Holy Family (not previously on view in the castle) is this year's star acquisition among sixty three works of art that have passed to the Trust, including pictures by Teniers and Reynolds as well as neo-Norman and continental furniture. The last includes two Louis XV marquetry commodes and an outstanding Louis XIV bureau plat with floral marquetry in pewter and various woods. This testifies to the continuing cooperation between the Trust, the Douglas Pennant family and the Penrhyn Estate trustees.

The Garofalo was purchased--like all Penrhyn's Old Masters--by Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Lord Penrhyn (1800-86). He was charged with the formation of a picture collection by his father-in-law, for whom the extraordinary neo-Norman pile was built. The Old Masters, the finest collection in Wales outside the National Museum and Gallery in Cardiff, are, therefore, intrinsically hound up with the castle's history. This makes it especially sad when a picture is lost to Penrhyn. The family's sale this year of Jan Steen's famous so-called Burgomaster of Delft for 11.9m [euro] (approximately 8.5m [pounds sterling]) to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, is a great loss to both the collection and the nation. It had been on loan to the Trust at Penrhyn since 1985, and before that was lent to the National Museum and Gallery of Wales. Such a colossal price made its purchase by either impossible.

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Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk One of a pair of mid nineteenth-century antiquarian buffets, incorporating seventeenth-century Flemish carvings.

Oak and birch, 219 x 146 cm. 6,028 [pounds sterling] for the pair. This and seven other lots were acquired by the National Trust for a total of 26,463 [pounds sterling], provided by an anonymous benefactor and funds raised by the National Trust at Oxburgh. Photo: Bonham's.

In March, the Trust acquired several pieces for Oxburgh that were 'sleepers' in the sale of the contents of The Old Rectory, Banningham, Norfolk, their provenance forgotten. This pair of buffets will be returned to their original positions on the piers of the recently redecorated Saloon. This acquisition has led to a reassessment of the presentation of the interiors of this romantic fifteenth-century moated manor house, altered and decorated in the nineteenth century by J.C. Buckler, A.W.N. Pugin and J.D. Crace. The rooms were seriously denuded by a sale in 1951, a year before the gift of the house by Sybil, Lady Bedingfeld (1883-1985). This coup underlines the value of curatorial research, which allows such items to be identified.

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Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire St Christina of Bolsena by Carlo Dolci (1616--86), c. 1650-55.

Oil on panel, diam 28.5 cm. Purchased in 2004 by private treaty from the Kedleston Estate Trustees for 240,000 [pounds sterling] with the aid of an anonymous benefactor and a grant of 30,000 [pounds sterling] from the National Art Collections Fund. Photo: Christie's

According to The Golden Legend, St Christina was a 'very noble' Roman convert (hence the coronet in Dolci's picture), who was finally' shot to death with arrows after many more gruesome attempts to kill her. Dolci was deeply religious, laboriously painting biblical subjects with porcellaneous precision. Around 1650, when this picture was painted, he was interested in Fra Angelico. The panel is highly unusual for the seventeenth century in having an integral frame in quattrocento style.

Dolci's exquisite tondo has been at Kedleston since its purchase in February 1758, but has not previously been on show to the public there. This was one of the first Old Masters acquired by Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Lord Scarsdale (1726-1804), for whom the magnificent Adam house was built after he succeeded to the estate in November 1757. It will probably he placed in Adam's palatial drawing room (left), where the most prominent positions are held by vast seicento religious, historical and literary subject pictures, including a pair on the end walls by another Florentine, Benedetto Luti. Smaller pictures will be hung beneath or on either side, as they were from 1769 until the 1970s.

In 2003, the room's unauthentic 1970s silk was replaced with acccurate copies, by Richard Humphries, of the blue silk and-wool damask wall coverings of about 1765. Plasterwork, gilding and architectural woodwork have been cleaned. The most dramatic change has been Peter Thuring's conservation, cleaning and recovering of Linnell's famous water gilded sculptural sofas, delivered in 1765. Inspired by Italian precedent, they are related in their nautical imagery to George III's Bernini-esque state coach in the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace. The next phase of major work being planned for Kedleston is the revival of Adam's state apartment, in memory of John Cornforth (1937-2004).

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Chirk Castle, North Wales A pair of andirons for the Bow Drawing Room, 1846.

Designed by A.W.N. Pugin (1812-52) and made by J. Hardman & Co., Birmingham, whose Day Book records their completion on 5 December 1846. Cast iron and brass, ht 66 cm. Purchased at Christie's, 21 June 2004 (lot 55) for 19,666 [pounds sterling]. Photo: Christie's.

Mrs Elizabeth Myddelton in the manner of Katherine Read (1723-78), c. 1760.

Pastel on paper, 60 x 48 cm. Purchased at Christie's, 21 June 2004 (lot 81) for 6,145.63 [pounds sterling]. Photo: Christie's.

Col. Robert Myddelton-Biddulph by the Hon. Henry Graves (1818-82). sighted and dated 1869.

Oil on canvas, 139.8 x 99 cm. Purchased at Christie's, 21 June 2004 (lot 135) for 9,833 [pounds sterling]. Photo: Christie's.

The biggest challenge of 2004 was Christie's house sale at Chirk, on behalf of the Myddelton family, which included most of the contents of the private rooms. The eighteenth-century interiors of the east range of the castle quadrangle, where the Myddeltons have always had their domestic quarters, were transformed in the 1840s--as were several of the state rooms for Colonel Robert Myddelton-Biddulph under the direction of A.W.N. Pugin and J.G. Crace. The sale included not only much Pugin-designed and antiquarian furniture and furnishings, but also the finest Welsh country-house library in private hands. The Trust was not given a chance to acquire items by private treaty before the sale, but it managed to acquire the majority of the most historic lots at the auction, paying 442,209 [pounds sterling] in all, including 211,251 [pounds sterling] for 90 per cent of the library. Of the 656 lots, the Trust acquired 108 (including two bought later from buyers at the sale). This was made possible by considerable support from a variety of sources, including an anonymous benefactor, 200,000 [pounds sterling] from the L.J. Bateman Bequest, 46,000 [pounds sterling] from the Miss H.M. Ellis Bequest and 30,000 [pounds sterling] from the Pilgrim Trust towards the library. An anonymous donation has generously covered the cost of conservation, now in progress. Among the works acquired were a charming pastel portrait, in its original English rococo frame, of Elizabeth Myddelton (c. 1730-72), wife of Richard Myddelton (1726-95), who greatly improved the castle and park. The Pugin items included andirons bearing the Myddelton crest in brass, made by John Hardman & Co. of Birmingham, Pugin's favoured metalworkers, for the Bow Drawing Room, where Pugin's battlemented chimneypiece and armorial tiles are still in situ. Also acquired was a portrait by the Hon. Henry Graves of Pugin's client at Chirk, Col. Robert Myddelton-Biddulph. He gave Pugin a deal of trouble, prompting the architect to write: 'I could make a church as easy as a grate ... such a job as Chirk is enough to drive any man mad. All little things are as difficult to get properly done as the greatest. It is worse than the House of Lords'.

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Erddig, North Wales Centrepiece by Benjamin Smith II, (1764-1823). London. 1823.

Silver-gilt, ht 28.9 cm. Purchased at Christie's, New York, 30 April 2003 (lot 224) for $13,200 by Mr and Mrs Don Dulton, who presented it to the National Trust for display at Erddig and defrayed the cost of transport. Photo: Christie's.

Thanks to the generosity of Mr and Mrs Don Dutton, long-standing volunteers at Erddig, it proved possible to return this silver-gilt centrepiece by Benjamin Smith II to Erddig after an absence of 170 years. Commissioned by Simon Yorke II (1771-1834) of Erddig, it is engraved with his arms impaling those of his wife, Margaret Holland (1778-1848), the daughter of a local squire. In 1826-27, Yorke remodelled Erddig's dining room. Thomas Hopper (1776/77-1856), the architect of neo-Norman Penrhyn, provided a more traditional essay in the Doric mode, and the centrepiece has returned to its natural position on the mahogany dining table. The twenty-two dining chairs made by Gillow's of Lancaster for Margaret Yorke's brother, John Holland, were presented to her in 1827. On the death of her husband in 1834, the widowed Margaret left Erddig to live elsewhere, and it is possible that this centrepiece remained with her descendants.

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Powis Castle, North Wales Huqqa set, made in Lucknow, India c. 1765.

Silver and gold, enamelled in blue and green and set with sapphires and rubies. Five pieces, ht of base 16.9 cm. Sold at Christies, London, 27 April 2004 (lot 160) for 94,850 [pounds sterling]. Photo: National Trust Picture Library/Erik Pelham.

Escalating prices for works of art are hampering the Trust's ability to retain its loaned collections intact. This was spectacularly underlined this summer when Christie's advertised what was cleverly dubbed the 'Clive of India Treasure'. Four of these five objects from the rich hoard amassed in the eighteenth century by Clive of india had been on loan from the late Mrs Derek (Vida) Schreiber (Viscountess Clive) to Powis Castle, since the establishment of the Clive Museum there in 1986. The fifth--a unique early-seventeenth century bejewelled jade flask, probably from the Mughal imperial treasury--had been on loan from Mrs Schreiber to the Victoria and Albert Museum since 1963. In about 1800 all five bad been transferred to Powis with the rest of Clive of India's great collection of European and Oriental art.

After exhibition across the world, the sale made nearly 5m [pounds sterling]. This magnificent huqqa set, probably commissioned by Clive to emphasise his status if a his dealings with Indian princes, made 94,850 [pounds sterling]. The flask realised 2,917,250 [pounds sterling] and an early. eighteenth century hardstone flywhisk handle set with diamonds and rubies rocketed from the pre-sale estimate of 5-8,000 [pounds sterling] to 901,250 [pounds sterling]. The Minister announced her decision to export stop these items on 13 October, and the Trust is seeking the 94,850 [pounds sterling] to acquire the huqqa. It is to be hoped that the V&A will be able to raise the 2,917,250 [pounds sterling] for the jade flask, which was awarded a starred rating by the Export Review Committee 'meaning that every effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it in the country'.

When a superb pair of marine landscapes by Claude Joseph Vernet (1714-89) was offered by the same descendant of Clive at Sotheby's on 10 July 2004 (lot 65) and fetched 2,402,000 [pounds sterling], the Trust could not even be a bidder. Purchased from Vernet in Rome in 1773 by Clive, and later hung at Powis Castle, it is to be hoped that they will be saved from export by the National Gallery, London.

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