Firle Treasures

Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641)

This monumental group portrait of the Nassau-Siegen family is significantly dated 1634, when van Dyck made a brief visit to Brussels because of his guild. Count John (1583-1638) was a member of the family of the Princes of Orange, who led the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. However, around 1610 he changed sides (and religions) to become a general in the service of the Regents of the Spanish Netherlands.

At the time of this portrait, he was a leading figure in the court of the widowed Archduchess in Brussels, so this would have been a major commission for van Dyck. Count John proudly wears the order of the Golden Fleece, which he received for his services to the Spanish crown. With him are his wife, Ernestina Yolanda (1594-1668), daughter of the Prince de Ligne, whom he married in 1618, and their four children.

The picture was most likely painted for Siegen Castle in Brussels and it is unclear how it left the family’s possession, whether by sale or as a spoil of war. In 1741, it was bought back by another member of the family, Willem Maurits van Nassau d’Auverquerque (1679-1753), who was a distant cousin of the sitters.

Willem’s only son predeceased him and so the painting passed to his elder brother Henry (1673-1754), who had been created 1^st Earl of Grantham by King William III. Henry’s sole heir was his grandson, the 3^rd Earl Cowper, who was born in 1738, the son of his daughter Lady Henrietta Nassau d’Auverquerque (1712-1747) and William, 2^nd Earl Cowper (d. 1764). The painting has thence passed by descent through the Cowper family and is the only painting now at Firle Place with a Nassau d’Auverquerque provenance.

This sedan chair was purchased in 1792 by the Henry, 3^rd Viscount Gage (1761-1808) from Holmes and Griffin of Whitcomb Street, London, for £46 4s 0d. It was meant for use at his London townhouse, 17 Arlington Street, and records show that it was kept in the front hall. It bears the initials of the Viscount’s wife, Susanna, and was regularly used by her to visit her mother-in-law, Margaret, who lived nearby. It is decorated with fashionable ‘Etruscan’ motifs and is surmounted with a coronet, indicating the nobility of the person within to passers-by.

It also possesses the practical feature of a hinged roof, in order to facilitate access for a lady wearing her hair or a wig piled high.

This doorway is a rare survivor from the time of Sir John Gage (1479-1556), who first constructed Firle Place in the late 1530s. However, the doorway is actually significantly older than this and probably comes from the nearby Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras, Lewes, founded around 1080 and built in stages during the medieval period.

The Priory had been destroyed in 1537 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, thus Sir John Gage transported large quantities of Caen stone from the ruins and use it to build his new house. The doorway was adapted to its new setting through the addition of Sir John’s coat of arms (the Ram) and those of his wife, Philippa Guldeford (a burning flame) in each of the corners. The doorway may have originally led into the chapel at Firle, which was swept away as part of changes made in the eighteenth century.

This pair of gilded console tables, with mottled black Portor marble tops supported by foxes, are very rare and somewhat of a mystery. Another pair of the same design, but not gilded, are housed at Stourhead, in Wiltshire.

The dimensions of the table reflect they were not made for the room in which they now stand, so that it seems likely that they were brought to Firle from another property, possibly another family home such as Highmeadow, in Gloucestershire, which was demolished in 1805, or the London home at 17 Arlington Street. The latter was built by Maria Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (c. 1693-1754) and subsequently bequeathed to the 2^nd Viscount Gage. Surviving invoices in the Stoneyhurst archives show that carving work was carried out for the Duchess by John Boson (1720-1743), an associate of William Kent. Little of Boson’s work survives, but these tables imitate his style and sophistication.

The thirteen tiles in the Library fireplace, accompanied by nine in store, are all that remains of what was once possibly one of the most striking and sophisticated works of ceramic art in Tudor England. The tiles, made from tin-glazed earthenware (called Maiolica) are typical of those produced in Antwerp from the beginning of the sixteenth century, as a result of the immigration of Italian maiolica potters in 1508.

It is possible that it was Sir John who first brought them to the house and had them installed as part of a grand mural or pavement. The surviving tiles, one of which is dated 1546, indicate a large pictorial scheme (or schemes), showing scenes of the life of Moses from the Old Testament, surrounded by a decorative border. This is directly comparable to a surviving mural at the Vleehuis Museum in Antwerp, dated 1547 and showing The Conversion of St Saul. Given that the Antwerp mural has 98 tiles, it is likely that there were originally at least this many at Firle, making these few a precious survival.

Another rare example of similar tiles in England can be found in the chapel at the Vyne, in Hampshire.

Domenico Puligo (1492-1527)

Domenico Puligo was an Italian Renaissance artist who worked mainly in Florence.  Although the exact identity of the sitter in this portrait is unknown, it is thought to represent the Keeper (or Fattore) of the Dominican church and convent of San Marco, Florence. Considered one of Puligo’s finest portraits, it was bought by George, 3^rd Earl Cowper (1738-1789), a direct ancestor of Imogen Grenfell, wife of Henry, 6^th Viscount Gage. The 3^rd Earl Cowper (known as Viscount Fordwich prior to his father’s death in 1764) inherited at the age of sixteen a vast fortune and art collection from his maternal grandfather.

A few years later, in 1757, he embarked upon a Grand Tour, arriving in Florence in July 1759. He decided to remain there permanently, becoming not only a prominent figure in British-Florentine society, but one of the great art collectors and patrons of his day. His taste appears to have favoured the second generation of northern Italian Renaissance artists, such as Domenico Puligo.

This elaborate 80-piece dessert service was commissioned by Peniston, 1^st Viscount Melbourne, from the Sèvres porcelain factory in France. It was delivered through his Paris agent on 20 March, 1771 and cost 5,197 livres and 19 sous (about £1 million today). It would have created a sensation upon its arrival, being only the second service to be directly ordered from Sèvres by an English patron. Its decoration, comprising of a turquoise-blue ground with scattered white circles, was also new and had been first used only six months previously on a service for Louis XV’s mistress, Madame du Barry.

The painted cartouches on the service focus on the themes of art, music and love; one in particular shows a putto with an open copy of Hamlet, a clear indication of the Sèvres artists endeavouring to please their patron. Given the pristine condition of this service, as well as its expense, it was probably very rarely used and mainly intended for display.

The service was admired and recorded in Queen Victoria’s diary during a visit to her Prime Minister, William Lamb, the 2^nd Viscount Melbourne, at his country home, Brocket Hall, in Hertfordshire.

Pierre Daneau (1673-1735)

This pair of French commodes are remarkable for the fact that they have remained together. This is particularly unusual for French furniture due to the Napoleonic Code, adopted in France in 1804, which discontinued the practice of primogeniture and established a system whereby estates are divided among heirs.

The commodes, made in 1733, are typical of the ‘Régence’ period of French decoration, which foreshadowed the more exuberant Rococo of the mid-eighteenth century. Their most exciting and unusual feature is that one of the commodes bears two labels glued to the inner carcass that read ‘Daneau a Paris 1733’. In France, it only became compulsory for ébénistes (cabinet makers) to stamp their furniture after 1743, meaning that before this it is often difficult to precisely identify the maker and date.

Pierre Daneau, the son of a wine merchant, was born in Paris in 1673 and active as an ébéniste from around 1700 until 1735.

David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690)

This picture vividly depicts a wine harvest in progress. The process unfolds from left to right, beginning with the fresh grapes being tipped from a basket and ending with the wine being joyfully consumed.

The last stage is depicted in the form of a procession, which leads up a hill to where Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, is seated inside a temple on a hillside. It is an unusually large canvas by Teniers, who specialised in genre scenes depicting peasant life, placed in both interior and landscape settings.

The picture was purchased by Peniston, 1^st Viscount Melbourne and hung in the dining room of the family seat in Hertfordshire, Brocket Hall. His daughter, Emily Lamb (1787-1869), married the 5^th Earl Cowper (1778-1837) and came to inherit all the Lamb family property, which she in turn bequeathed to her grandson, the 7^thEarl Cowper (1834-1905). The 7^th Earl decided to let the Brocket Estate in 1869 and brought almost all the valuable paintings, porcelain and furniture over to the Cowper family seat at Panshanger.

Because the 7^th Earl was childless, Panshanger was reserved for his favourite niece, Ethel ‘Ettie’ Fane (1867-1952), who in 1887 married William Grenfell (1855-1945), later Lord Desborough. Two of their sons, Julian and Billie, were killed during World War I, and their son, Ivo, lost his life in a road accident. Therefore, upon Ettie Desborough’s death in 1952, Panshanger was demolished, the estate was sold and the works of art were divided between her two daughters, Monica Salmond (1893-1972) and Imogen Gage (1905-69), mother of the present Viscount Gage.