The Golden Gift

By Gareth Williams, Curator to the Weston Park Foundation

A rare work of art, given by Britain’s richest man to the Victorian owners of Weston Park has returned home after undergoing urgent conservation work following the award of a grant by the Pilgrim Trust. The miniature bureau ivory bookcase was a gift from Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster to Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford and his wife the Hon. Selina Weld-Forester on the occasion of their Golden Wedding anniversary in 1894.

The Westminster Cabinet, as it became known, was given to the Earl and Countess to commemorate 50 years of marriage. It was also significant as their heir Viscount Newport and his wife were celebrating their Silver Wedding anniversary, as well as the coming of age of their son Orlando who would go on to be the 5th Earl.

Made in the late eighteenth century at Vizagapatam in India, the piece is entirely veneered in ivory and had developed cracks and lost adhesion to the carcass. Conservation of the piece has been at the top of the Weston Park Foundation’s conservation priority list for some time and thanks to the Pilgrim Trust’s grant it was sent to Richard Higgins Conservation Ltd in Shropshire, who has restored it to its former glory.

As Weston does not receive any government funding, as an educational and conservation charity we are indebted to the Pilgrim Trust – without their support we would not have been able to undertake this significant project.

The long term damage to the piece was largely caused by the introduction of central heating in the early twentieth century. Country houses were left largely unheated when the family were in London, the very dry heat from radiators would have come as a shock to delicate pieces such as the bureau, leading them to peel and crack.

Ivory veneered pieces were popular souvenirs brought back from travels through India, many finding their way back in the baggage of officials from the East India Company. Clive of India’s family collected similar pieces and there are related items in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The Duke of Westminster paid £60 for the bureau, which doesn’t seem a fortune in today’s money but we have explored what members of the Bradford household would have been paid at the time, for example Emma Hart, the Housekeeper in 1891 was paid £60 per year. 

The bureau is now on display in the Granary Art Gallery, where the exhibition explores issues around the sustainability of endangered species, since the cabinet is veneered in ivory, which wouldn’t be permitted today. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank the Pilgrim Trust - without their support the conservation work wouldn't have been possible. The Pilgrim Trust was founded in 1930 by the wealthy American philanthropist Edward Stephen Harkness. Inspired by his admiration and affection for Great Britain, Harkness endowed the trust with £2 milion pounds. Harkness didn't want the Trust named after him, so took the name to signify its link with the land of the Pilgrim Fathers. For more information on the Pilgrim Trust please click here.