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PUBLIC LECTURE: STOWE, THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE HOUSE

Jeremy Howard with the Vice-Chancellor

Thursday 22 July 2010

The first of this term's public lectures was given by Jeremy Howard, Director of Buckingham's MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors. He showed how Stowe, now noted for its house and landscape gardens, once contained an important collection of paintings, china, sculpture and antiquities.

Mr Howard began by explaining how the Stowe estate came to bankruptcy. Lavish entertainment and over-enthusiastic collecting vastly exceeded income, and borrowing money to buy land ceased to make economic sense. The extravagant lifestyles of the first two Dukes of Buckingham culminated in Queen Victoria's visit in 1845, when a year's income was spent on revamping the house. Debts reached nearly £1 million and forced the sale of the house's contents.

The public auction of 1848 was regarded as particularly demeaning. Country house sales later became common, but the scale of Stowe's was unprecedented. The 2nd Duke was severely criticised in The Times and elsewhere. The sale lasted for 40 days and raised only £75,000 - a considerable disappointment. Among the main purchasers was the 4th Marquess of Hertford, whose collection subsequently became the Wallace Collection, where the MA in Decorative Arts is based.

The 3rd Duke was able to revive Stowe's fortunes a little, and repatriated some of the treasures. However, the effects of death duties and the First World War meant that the estate was no longer viable, although this time no-one was blamed. In 1921-2, the house and grounds were sold for £50,000 and the contents again sold by public auction.

Report by the Web Team