A quiet word from the List Mistress - Ivory Figures

The Carrick Hill volunteer guides regularly undertake personal research into specific objects or parts of the collection and this information is then shared with our visitors when they take a guided tour around the house.  This information is then routinely filed away and is usually only retrieved when individual researchers need.   Recently one of our guides, Wendy Laver, presented her research paper on a pair of small, highly detailed,  17^th century carved ivory figures.   The story behind the acquisition of these figures by Sir Edward and Lady Ursula Haywood is typical of the many unexpected objects that were acquired by them for their personal collection.

This pair of ivory figures were originally part of a vast art collection assembled by the Scottish engineer Robert Napier  (1791-1876) who made his fortune in shipbuilding.  Napier built himself a grand mansion named West Shandon, Dumbartonshire in the West central lowlands of Scotland.  The house was complete with a purpose built gallery to house paintings by English and European masters such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Rafael as well as his fine collections of bronzes and marble statues, carvings in wood and ivory, silver and decorative gold plate.  This collection became known as the Shandon Collection and in an 1865 catalogue these two figures were described as:

No. 1076

STATUETTE, in carved Ivory of a mendicant with a wooden leg fupporting himself on crutches;  on an ivory and ebony pedeftal.  Dutch 17^th or early 18^th century work.

No. 1077

COMPANION STATUETTE, of an old beggar woman.  Dutch 17^th or early 18^th century work

Height of each, including the pedeftals, 8¼in.

In 1877, the Shandon Collection of 3,541 lots was sold off at auction in London by Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods at their Great Rooms, 8, King Street, St James Square, London, these two figures (Lots 1643 & 1644) were sold together for 27 guineas or £28.70.0.  Details of the purchaser are brief  but it is possible that they were bought on behalf of Ursula Hawyard’s grandparents Robert and Johanna Barr Smith.  

Ursula’s maternal  family had strong links to Scotland and this clever piece of detective work has given these two small objects a new provenance that enhances their story and their place in the Carrick Hill house collection.  Full details of this research will be added to the collection database.