Panelling
[RESEARCH BY DAVID WEST - 1996]
Prinknash contents sold to pay Death Duties
The death duties were, however, so heavy in 1928 that the donor was forced to sell all the valuables in the house before handing it over to the community. The medieval heraldic glass was bought by public subscription and transfered to the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral; mantels and chimney pieces of value were also removed from some of the rooms; some hundreds of feet of oak panelling in six of the rooms was sold and re-erected in a historic period room, called the Prinknash Park Room, in the City Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Description of the Justices Room
In 1928 Robersons of London issued a booklet of items for sale and in stock, and the following is a quote from that booklet...
"This excellent example of late Elizabethan work, executed in finely figured oak, so characteristic of the period, was undoubtedly installed during the ownership of Sir. John Bridgeman, Chief Justice and Chancellor, who resided here during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and was responsible for many additions and improvements to the mansion. No doubt this room was used by him for the transacting of much of his business and for the meeting of his fellow Justices and officials in connection with his various offices. It is a charming room lighted by two mulliuon windows and enhanced by a fireplace, the lower part of which is stone and has a tudor arch opening, probably of earlier date, and the upper portion composed of three arched panels flanked by carved cariatides supporting leaf brackets and frieze of grotesque design similar to those carried around the room above the panelling; simple pilasters complete with entableture flank the mantel, windows and doorway. the latter comprising a pair of doors each containing carved panels in the form of arches and surmounted by a carved frieze, a pleasing contrast to the main frieze of the door.
"Unquestionably, the panelling in this room, as also in the other panelled rooms, was constructed in the house, as the sections are mostly too large to permit them being taken through the doorways, the exterior doors being particularly low, as was typical of the Tudor days. The lowness of the room prevents a relief on the ceiling being of large projection. The simple interlacing ribs forming a geometrical design is therefore most appropriate, coupled with simple motifs of crude design which occur at intervals.
"In addition to the Justices Room, there are also Abbot Parker's Oak Room and the Guest's Room, together with the Drawing Room, which is constructed in pine and of a later date, probably about 1725, during the long occupation of the Bridgeman family". [A picture of the room is on the opposite page of this booklet.]
Click here for a picture of the Justices Room 1928.
Letter to The City Art Museum of St. Louis, Missouri
Charles Roberson, of London, were the agents who sold the panelling and from their offices at 24 East 67th. Street, New York, they sent a letter to the Museum dated April 5th. 1929 in which they state....
"The oak room from the Justice's Room at Prinknash Park is still in stock, and I would very much recommend this room for your consideration. I think it is an excellent example of the period, and will look well in the Museum, as shown in the drawings I sent on to you. In regard to the quality of this room, it is very fine quality....."
" I am sure that the Prinknash Park panelling is worthy of a place in your museum".
Detail of Fireplace 1928.
Detail of Doors 1928.
Detail of Window 1 1928.
Detail of Window 2 1928.
Panelling and other items up for Auction
In 1929 the effects from Prinknash Park were auctioned and this is the detail from the Auction Brochure.....
"LOT 450. English Oak Panelling, first quarter of the 17th. Century, composed of six rows of panelling set into moulded frames, the upper row carved with stylized monsters with scrolling tails; also including a marble fireplace surround surmounted by an oak overmantle carved with caryatids flanking arches panels surrounded by guilloche carving; also including two winged doors incorporating four panels carved with stylizes flowers; further including oak floor. Approximate measurement, Height: 9ft. 3in. [282cms.]. Length: 18ft. 2in. [554cms.]. Width: 12ft. 10in. [391cms.].
"Provenance: Prinknash Park, Gloucester.
"Please note that this lot is to be offered in situ. Please contact the European Works of Art Department for inspection of the panels, now dismantled and further information and views of this room; detailed conservator's report and blueprints can be reviewed.
$12,000 - $18,000." [A picture of this room accompanied the text.]
Other items purchased by the Museum
In a Duplicate Account dated January 3rd., 1930 from Robersons of London to the City Art Museum of St. Louis, the following items are detailed.....
"Furniture, etc. in the Prinknash Park Oak Room
One pair of 16th. Century wrought iron and irons circa 1500-1550....$570.
An Early English fireback panel in cast iron circa 1500-1550...........$265.
A 16th. Century design wrought iron chandelier etched with gold.....$194.
A Jacobean carved oak wainscot chair circa 1600-1630.................$360.
To cost of importing from England, packing, freight, insurance and delivery charges from New York in connection with various items of furniture sent to the Museum, including the above items........$360."
[The fireback panel in cast iron is still in the Museum's collection.]
Back to Prinknash?
In an internal letter at the Museum dated June 28th. 1978, it was suggested........
"Prinknash Park Panelling: What do you think about offering [at the price we paid for it] all of the panelling from Prinknash Park back to Prinknash Park Abbey? That's the small Jacobean Room that we removed adjacent to sculpture hall. In our research we discovered that it had never been panelling from a single room, but rather elements from throughout the House. Because so much of it is pastiche, I feel strongly that it is not anything we would want to exhibit. Perhaps the PR would be useful to us. Please let me know your thoughts."
There appears to be no other documentation regarding the outcome of this internal letter.
Up for Auction again!
Another internal memorandum, dated 1st. April 1986, is more positive about the panelling from the room...
"Re: Deaccession/English Period Rooms.
"After careful consideration, I believe we should proceed with the deaccession of the rooms from Prinknash Park and Wingerworth hall currently in our collection. The room from prinknash Park is allegedly Jacobean and dating from around 1620."......."We have had a number of people tell us that Prinknash Park is pastiche of elements, and I see no reason to doubt that".....
...."I suggest that we sell these two rooms at public auction through Sotheby's in New York. They indicated an interest in selling them [Christies did not], and I believe they have been fairly successful in the past with this type of material. Attached you will find two outside opinions concerning the rooms".
Report No. 1.....
"Observations made by Geoffrey Beard, 12th. May 1986 on seeing the record card and photographs of the disassembled period room:
"-doesn't think the pilasters on either side of the mantle have anything to do with the period of the room.
"-capitals very strange.
"-overmantle unacceptable in any recognised sense".
Report No. 2.....
"Prinknash Park Room.
"The panelling is not from a single room: there is no Justices Room at Prinknash Park which has been stripped of its panelling, doorways and fireplace". [Where did he obtain this information from?]
"The panelling was removed from several areas of the house.
"In a storage area of the St. Louis Museum is a crate filled with panelling left over from this installation. Even if the panelling had come from a single room, so much of it was not used that historical authenticity would have been lost.
"According to correspondance, this room, along with the others were moved back and forth, cut into and added onto in order to accomodate the installation of all the period rooms into the space allocated.
"Conclusion.
"The gallery is an assemblance of sixteenth or seventeenth century elements worked into a twentieth century museum situation. The installation represents a twentieth century idea of an early seventeenth century room rather than a scholarly statement of a particular architectural arrangement at a particular time.
"SOURCES: Tour of Prinknash Park Priory. September, 1972."[?1972]
Guide Books. Document File.
Another new home
And so the panelling was sold in 1987 and it came back, not to Prinknash, but to Sutton Place, near Guildford, Surrey. To the world at large it is well known as the private retreat of the millionaires who have owned it this century, notably J. P. Getty. To historians, it is celebrated as a pioneer of the Renaissance in England, an early Tudor house which is innovative for the symmetry of its design and its Italiante terracotta decoration.
In 1986, Sutton Place was purchased by the American collector Frederich Koch. He has devoted the past decade to the repair of the building and the remodelling of its interiors to form a home for his art collections and a new scholarly foundation.
A full account of his work appeared in "Country Life" magazine on June 13th. 1996 taking up some six pages in its report and on the last page is quoted....
"At the south end of the galleries, a 17th. Century panelled room once at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire has been installed; it was aquired by Mr. Koch when it was deaccessioned by the City Art Museum of St. Louis in 1987".
"To this country's considerable debts to Mr. Koch - he largely paid for the Swan Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon, for example - must now be added the restoration of Sutton Place, which for the first time this century has interiors worthy of its architectural importance. Thanks to Mr. Koch, it is a house of mystery no longer, but one regularly opened to visitors interested in its architecture, gardens and collections, who are made welcome as never before".