'The tinsel of fashion and the gewgaws of luxury': The Fonthill sale of 1801

Burlington Magazine

Volumn 150, Issue 1263, 2008, Pages 381-388

  Gemmett, Robert J ^a  

^a STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

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EID: 57749137914     PISSN: 00076287     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (40)

1. Clive Wainwright provides an excellent discussion of the Fonthill Abbey collection in The Romantic Interior. The British Collector at Home 1750-1850, New Haven 1989, pp.109-46.
2. For a discussion of the aborted sale of 1822 and the sale of 1823, see R.J. Gemmett: Beckford's Fonthill. The Rise of a Romantic Icon, Norwich 2003, pp.117-43.
3. 'Fonthill Auction', Morning Chronicle (25th August 1801), p.2.
4. see The Times (27th June 1801), p.3, and (17th October 1801), p.2. His agent, Nicholas Williams, sent a letter to him in Paris on 11th September 1801; see note 11 below.
5. K. Garlick and A. MacIntyre, eds.: The Diary of Joseph Farington, London and New Haven 1979, III, p.842. This is undoubtedly an inflated figure, but it contributed to the myth that Beckford helped to promote that he was, in fact, 'England's Wealthiest Son'.
6. Letter from Thomas Wildman to Beckford, 30th September 1794, quoted in P. Hewat-Jaboor: 'Fonthill House: "One of the Most Princely Edifices in the Kingdom'", in D.E. Ostergard, ed.: exh. cat. William Beckford, 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent, New York (Bard Graduate Center) and London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) 2001, p.61.
7. Garlick and MacIntyre, op. cit. (note 4), p.916.
8. For a discussion of Beckford's financial problems, see B. Alexander: England's Wealthiest Son, London 1962, pp.200-25.
9. Beckford's biographers do not mention the October sale, nor was I aware of it when I compiled a census of sales in 1972; see 'Catalogues of the Principal Sales of Books, Prints, Pictures, Furniture, Objets d'Art, and other Valuable Possessions of William Beckford of Fonthill', in R.J. Gemmett, ed.: Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons, London 1972, III, pp.6-8.
10. Further research has revealed that Sir Richard Colt Hoare recorded its existence, writing in The History of Modern Wiltshire, London 1828, p.26, that 'the second sale took place 7th October 1801, and continued for two days, consisting chiefly of furniture and eight fine marble chimney-pieces'. John Britton also mentions it;
11. see T.E. Jones: A Descriptive Account of the Literary Works of John Britton Being a Second Part of His Auto-Biography, London 1849, p.24.
12. L. Melville: The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill, New York 1910, p.263.
13. This article was repr. in other newspapers, including The Times on the following day (slightly revised) and The Gentleman's Magazine 71 (September 1801), pp.853-54.
14. and The Gentleman's Magazine, op. cit. (note 15), p.854.
15. It is difficult to identify many buyers at this sale but occasionally Phillips helps by specifying the name of the town where the individual resides. In these two cases Phillips lists 'Ames Hindon' followed immediately by 'Dr. Lambert D[itt]o'; see The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce and Manufacture, London 1791, III, p.274.
16. For this identification, see Salisbury and Winchester Journal (28th October 1805), p.2.
17. My thanks to Trevor Fawcett for providing information about William Evill; see also C. Woodward: 'William Beckford and Fonthill Splendens, Early Works by Soane and Goodridge', Apollo 147 (February 1998), pp.37-38.
18. J.H. Meistre: Letters Written During a Residence in England, London 1799, pp.306-07.
19. Melville, op. cit. (note 11), p.99.
20. Eric Darton suggested the possibility that Beckford bought a Stein harpsichord in his article 'William Beckford and Music. 4. The Harpsichord and Pianoforte', Beckford Newsletter (Spring 1988), p.5.
21. This could possibly be James Penleaze who had bought the High Cliffe estate in Hampshire c.1800 from the 3rd Earl of Bute. The sale of the estate was prompted by the necessity of dismantling the mansion house due to erosion of the cliff on which it stood. Penleaze erected a new house elsewhere on the estate; see W. Page, ed.: 'Introduction, Castles and Manors', A History of the County of Hampshire, London 1912, p.5, note 25.
22. Holford's table passed through a number of owners and most recently was sold as part of Saul P. Steinberg's auction at Sotheby's, New York, 26th May 2000, lot 205, for the sum of $2,205,750, a world auction record for English furniture. The Steinberg catalogue describes the writing-cabinet as an 'important George III ormolu-mounted and brass-inlaid mahogany dressing and writing commode attributed to John Channon c.1765. The present commode [...] is one of the most richly conceived objects of case furniture surviving from this period. The strong serpentine form with its central recess mirrored at each side with further arches in the gothic manner is veneered in mahogany with an unusual lustrous figure which appears to shimmer as light plays across its surface. In flickering candlelight this must have resembled flowing water...'. The commode did not meet Sotheby's high estimate of $4 million. For attribution to the workshop of John Channon, see C. Gilbert and T. Murdoch: John Channon and Brass-Inlaid Furniture 1730-1760, New Haven 1993, pp.91 and 94.
23. Phillips lists 'Vidler Salisbury'. Joseph Vidler is listed in Universal British Directory, op. cit. (note 17), IV, p.562, as upholsterer and cabinet-maker (his name is misspelled 'Vilder'); by 1805 he was operating as an auctioneer in Salisbury. Various auction announcements appear in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal for that year carrying his name.
24. J. Britton: The Beauties of Wiltshire, London 1801, I, p.213-14.
25. Suggested by Hewat-Jaboor, op. cit. (note 5), p.61.
26. C. Redding, ed.: Memoirs of William Beckford of Fonthill, London 1859, II, p. 131.
27. M.I. Wilson: The Chamber Organ in Britain, 1600-1830, Aldershot 2001, p.128.
28. Wilson, op. cit. (note 35), p.29.
29. See P. Bishop: 'Settees from Fonthill Splendens', The Beckford Journal 1 (Spring 1995), pp.15-17.
30. One of these pairs was sold in the sale 'Important English Furniture and Carpets including The Kedleston Bookcase', Christie's, London, 9th June 2005, lot 270, for £232,000. According to the catalogue, the carved medallion back contains the Beckford heraldic crest of a heron with a fish in its beak. This set came by descent to Miss Edmée Southey, who sold them at Christie's, London, in November 1994. It is suggested in the catalogue that they came to the Southey family by way of the poet Robert Southey who was living in the Bristol area in 1801. Another pair discovered in St Andrew's Church in Trent was sold by Duke's of Dorchester on 17th April 2003 for £276,000 (lot 918).
31. R. Warner: Excursions from Bath, London 1801, p.121.
32. R. Gunnis: Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, London [1968], p.436.
33. D. Watkin: 'Beckford, Soane, and Hope. The Psychology of the Collector', in Ostergard, op. cit. (note 5), pp.39-41.
34. 'Mr. Cox's gardens and pleasure-grounds are deserving the attention of the curious traveller'; Universal British Directory, op. cit. (note 17), II, pp.274-75. Cox's son, Samuel Jr, was a sail-cloth manufacturer in the same town. Phillips identifies Cox in the catalogue as 'Cox Beaminster'.
35. available online at www.brlsi.org/collections/casali.htm. The banquet of the gods is repr. in J. Harris: 'Fonthill, Wiltshire I: Alderman Beckford's Houses', Country Life (24th November 1966), p.1372.
36. Hewat-Jaboor, op. cit. (note 5), p.56, describes this painting as 'Apollo with his harp, Fame her trumpet and the Muses with instruments of ancient and modern music'.
37. Britton, op. cit. (note 30), I, p.215.
38. Woodward, op. cit. (note 19), pp.38-39.
39. The Times (23rd October 1801), p.3.
40. W. Hazlitt: 'Fonthill Abbey', London Magazine (November 1822), repr. in P.P. Howe, ed.: The Complete Works of William Hazlitt, London 1933, XVIII, p.176.