L454: Strawberry Hill Catalogue
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© The Holburne Museum of Art, Bath
| Museum number | L454 |
| Title | Strawberry Hill Catalogue |
| Object type | In category: Library and Archive » Book » Printed |
| Date | 1842 |
| People |
Robins, George (English auctioneer) (known) - Author(s) Smith and Robins (Printers, King Street, Long Acre, London) (known) - Printer(s) |
| Place of origin | Europe » Northern Europe » British Isles » Great Britain » England » Bath |
| Condition |
Fair |
| Dimensions |
23.7 cm width Whole 27.4 cm height Whole |
| Materials & techniques |
In categories: Animal material » Leather Book/Document » Medium » Ink Pictures: Medium » Ink Pictures: Support » Card Pictures: Support » Paper |
| Description |
Sale catalogue of the contents of Strawberry Hill, 25 April – 23 June, 1842 |
| Notes | The renowned collection of Horace Walpole (1717-1797) at Strawberry Hill in Middlesex was sold by his great-great-nephew, George 7th Earl of Waldegrave (1816-1844) in 1842. The collection was huge and the sale lasted for 32 days in all. Sir William Holburne's 1867 catalogue of pictures records that the portrait 'Lord Nugent', then thought to be by Hoppner (A64), was from Horace Walpole's collection. It is not, however, listed in the sale catalogue. Thus far, no pieces in Holburne's collection have been identified in the catalogue.
From the Grove Dictionary of Art: Walpole, Horace, 4th Earl of Oxford 1717–1797). English writer and connoisseur. Walpole undertook a Grand Tour of France and Italy, 1739–41, with his Etonian schoolfellow the poet Thomas Gray (1716–71). At Florence he met Sir Horace Mann (1706–86), the English consul, and their subsequent, voluminous, correspondence provides an unrivalled portrait of contemporary Florentine life. In 1747 he purchased a villa at Twickenham, Strawberry Hill, and proceeded to Gothicize it using a combination of accurate research and his own Rococo whimsy. Here he assembled a large but indifferent collection of objects of virtu, prints, and curiosities, several of which were purchased in Italy by Mann, which attracted fashionable attention. In 1757 he established his own press which published, inter alia, his Anecdotes of Painting in England (3 vols., 1762–5), based on the notebooks of the engraver George Vertue and his own assiduous attendance at exhibitions. In both Strawberry Hill and his novel The Castle of Otranto (1764) he pioneered the Romantic Gothic style which reached its literal pinnacle in Fonthill Abbey (Wilts.) (1796–1807), the gigantic folly of William Beckford (1760–1844). |
| Literature |
Clive Wainwright, The Romantic Interior, New Haven and London, 1989, pp. 71-107 |
| Muse theme | The Art of Collecting |
| Muse chapter |
The History of the Holburne Collection » Sir William Holburne and his Collection » Building the Collection
The History of the Holburne Collection » The Collection » Library and Archive |
| Method of acquisition | Bequest |
| Provenance | Sir T. W. Holburne (1793-1874); by whom bequeathed to Mary Anne Barbara Holburne (1802-1882); by whom bequeathed to the Museum |
| Exhibition history |
Title of exhibition: Town House Treasures: Sir Thomas William Holburne of Bath |
