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I started doing the conservation cleaning on a voluntary basis in February this year. We visited Fenton House several years ago and remembered the porcelain collection, needlework, and Benton Fletcher’s keyboard collection. We learnt that Fenton House was one of the earliest and largest country houses which had been built in Hampstead in the 17th century, and was resided in by various people, e.g. Mary Martin, widow of Admiral William Martin, James Fenton, George Careless Trewby, and Katherine Lady Binning in the past.
Having heard that 29th April 2011 would become the Bank Holiday due to the Royal Wedding Day, we thought it would be a good opportunity to look round Fenton House in the morning. I had carried out the cleaning duties between 9 and 11 o’clock.
Mark came to Fenton House at 11 o’clock. We started looking round the exhibition rooms on the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor is called an attic floor. There are seven rooms. Each of the rooms is named after the direction of the room, e.g. The North West Room, The North East Room, and The South West Room, and they were thought to be used as the bedrooms of the families or
servants between 18th and 19th century. These rooms are used to show oil paintings from Peter Barkworth Collection and a large part of the Benton Fletcher Collection of Instruments. The highlights of the music instruments included the 18th century double-manual harpsichord in the North West Room, the 17th century virginals which is the earliest music instrument kept in the North Room, and the single-strung Italian harpsichord in the South East room. The Italian harpsichord was unusually made of walnut and possessed vivid Italian landscapes, portraits and rich embellishments painted on the outer case. Most of the details of the paintings and decorations miraculously have survived from the early 17th century, when this instrument was first produced. We found the sign, saying “Visitors are welcome to access to the balcony and children should be accompanied by adults.” We went out to the balcony, overlooked the garden and Hampstead village. It was a little too hazy to see London’s skyline beyond.
Afterwards, we went down to the first floor. There were a number of large portraits and paintings displayed on the staircase.
The Drawing Room was furnished with satinwood furniture, e.g. a small secretaire-cabinet, a pair of sidetables painted with
floral garlands, two chests-of-drawers, and chairs. According to the guidebook, Lady Binning ordered the part of satinwood cabinets to display her china including the Meissen wares and the striking teapot which resembles a bearded Chinaman on a shell. As well as a large number of German porcelain collected by Mr George Salting (Lady Binning’s uncle) on the right cabinet. We noted some interesting artwork, e.g. watercolour paintings and the velvet Elizabethan sweet bag embroidered in silver, gold, and pearls.
Next, we looked round the Blue Porcelain Room. A wide variety of shaped blue-and-white porcelain were displayed on the cabinet fixed on the north side of the wall.
Lady Binning used the room as her bedroom. The double bed, a bedroom cabinet with her bibles and the 1940s telephone etc were displayed in the east centre of the room. There were two music instruments, i.e. the 18th century spinet with the decorative ivory strip on the ebony keys and the early 17th century Italian virginals displayed in the room.
We then moved to the Rockingham Room. As the name suggests, there were collections of English porcelain produced in Rockingham, Chelsea, and Bow displayed in the cabinet. There was a
wonderful collection of the 17th century embroidered pictures, many of which came from Mrs Salting House at 49 Berkeley Square in 1914. All of the needlework depicted the series of the stories from the Old Testament, e.g. “Jacob’s Dream”, “King Solomon”, and “the Queen of Sheba” and “Shepherd and Shepherdess”. We also found some masterpieces, e.g. “The view of Hampstead Heath” by John Constable and “The Sea Monster or the Rape of Amymone” by Albrecht Durer hanging on the wall. There were a couple of outstanding music instruments, e.g. a Shudi single manual harpsichord, which belonged to the pianist Fanny Davis, who was a pupil of Clara Schumann and the Marcus Siculus Virginals, the oldest signed and dated instrument displayed in the room.
The Green Room had a miscellany of porcelain and pottery, e.g. Staffordshire figures and wares displayed on the mantelpiece. There was a collection of the early 17th century tapestry, e.g. “The Adoration of the Magi”, which was woven in wool, silk, and gold, and silver thread, “Esther and Ahasuerus”, which showed the Jewish Queen, Esther, and “Portrait of a lady” with scenes from Ovid, displayed in the green panelled room.
We went down to the
ground floor. We popped in the Porcelain Room. The room was used for various purposes, e.g. Smoking Room, Study, Sitting Room, briefly used as a kitchen and Doctor’s surgery between the late 19th and early 20th century.
Two alcove cases side of the chimneybreast were displayed with decorative English and Meissen figures including pieces representing “Bristol set of the Rustic Seasons”, “The Imperial Shepherd and Shepherdess” all of which were produced in the 18th century. We admired a collection of Samuel Dixon’s pictures with birds and flowers, which involved embossing paper to create a relief effect and then colouring it in gouache. A floral decorated harpsichord was displayed at the Porcelain Room. The glorious-looking double-manual harpsichord has been on loan from Her Majesty the Queen, and was previously displayed at Windsor Castle.
We then entered the Oriental Room which houses a range of early Chinese ceramics including pieces from Song dynasty, Imperial yellow saucer dish and blue-and-white glaze ext displayed in the Chippendale style cabinet and several Dehua joss stick holders on the mantelpiece and Chinese snuff bottles. Lady Binning used the room as her Study and her armchair, writing desk, closet and bookcases were displayed as it was together with her personal belongings.
Finally, we looked round the Dining Room, which is furnished with Dining Table, carved mahogany dining-chairs dating from the 18th century, two of a set of lyre-back chairs, and a pair of console tables supported on a single foot, etc and decorated with paintings by William Nicholson, oil paintings, watercolours, engravings and Chinese ceramics.
The highlight of this room was the Shudi and Broadwood harpsichord, which was jointly produced by Burkat Shudi and John Broadwood in the 18th century and had both partners’ names on the board.
Mark found there have been several paintings added to Fenton House. It was due to the collection of Peter Barkworth who was an actor and a familiar figure of Hampstead, which was bequeathed to Fenton House on the event of his death in 2007. His collections included the ones “Flask Walk at night” and “Pond Street” displayed in the Hall. Many of his collections were hanging on the staircase and in the attic rooms.
We strolled through the garden. A lot of spring flowers, e.g. “forget-me-nots”, bluebells, wisterias, alliums, tulips, and cherry blossoms were blooming and thriving on the beds and climbing on the trellis and they decorated the lush ground surrounded by the brick walls. Numerous bunble bees were collecting nectar from the scented flowers and alliums.
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