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LINLEY HALL, SHROPSHIREPROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE SIR JASPER & LADY MORE“What do you intend to do” asked Sir Albert Richardson, who Jasper More had approached to mastermind the modernisation of Linley in 1950. “My husband thinks we could make a very comfortable house in the stable block…….” Clare More replied. “And the house?” “Oh, we’ll blow it up” Said half in jest but in the 1950’s many large houses had met their ends at the hands of demolitions squads. However it was not to happen here and four years later, the house which had been untouched since 1888 when it had to be let due to a combination of Jasper’s grandfather, Robert Jasper More’s fecklessness and the effects of the agricultural depression of the 1870’s and 1880’s, was thoroughly modernised, with electricity, numerous bathrooms, central heating and a lift.Theirs was an outwardly unlikely marriage in 1944 uniting two ancient Shropshire families. Jasper, born in 1907; tall, a scholar at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge and a qualified barrister and tax expert, with a dry sense of humour. Clare Hope-Edwardes, addicted to field sports, particularly hunting, fast cars and the theatre. She thought nothing of driving from her family house, Netley near Shrewsbury, to the West End for a musical and back again the same night in her newly acquired AC. With her came a tribe of notvery well house trained dachshunds to be succeeded over the years by other breeds, never completely continent. She had inherited Netley in late 1933 from her great aunts who in the mid 1920’s, fearing imminent financial doom, had been selling of large quantities of silver, porcelain and furniture inherited by their brother, Colonel Herbert Hope-Edwardes on the death of his cousin in 1900, Sir Henry Hope-Edwardes, an avid connoisseur and acquirer of fine French furniture, old master pictures, porcelain and books. Sir Henry had divided his time between his house on the family’s London estate in Marylebone and Wootton Hall, where he lived with his imperious mother, who insisted on being addressed as Lady Edwardes even after marrying her second husband, Colonel Martin. While “Uncle Herbert” devoted his time to sport and local affairs, his sisters devoted their time to writing novels and a long and convoluted family history. They tentatively traced the Edwardes family origins through Tudor Trevor and the princes of Powys to the first English named Edwardes, Hugh, who petitioned King Edward VI for a charter to found a grammar school in Shrewsbury. Thence to the first baronet, Sir Thomas, who had supported Charles I and for his trouble had acquired a baronetcy but at the expense of his family estates, sequestered in the Commonwealth.The More family could trace their origins with rather more certainty to the 13th century when Roger de la More was appointed a sergeant in arms with right to raise 200 foot soldiers to defend the King of England from the unruly Welsh. While Linley was the principle estate, they also owned land in other parts of Shropshire, at Shipton and Larden, which (like the Edwardes’) was sometimes united by the marriage of cousins. The most notorious of these was the union of Samuel More and his cousin Katherine. The marriage,arranged by their respective parents for dynastic reasons, was not happy. It ended in divorce but not before he, discovering thathe was not the real father of her four young children had arranged for them to be sent to America on the Mayfower. Three died en route or within the first year, leaving one brother, Richard More to continue the family name in the USA. A staunch Parliamentarian, Samuel is also famous for his defence of Hopton Castle against overwhelming royalist forces. Thirty one of his troops were massacred and he alone survived to write his account of the siege.On completion of the modernisation of Linley, Jasper and Clare had thedificult challenge of how to furnish the house. His father Mytton More hadmarried Lady Norah Browne from Westport, County Mayo, shortly after hisgrandfather’s death in 1903 but had no home to call his own and little prospectof salvaging the Linley estate from its creditors. During their marriage theyoccupied a succession of rented houses around the country until Mytton’sdeath and Jasper’s marriage, when Lady Norah moved into Clare’s house,Netley Hall. Undaunted by the lack of adequate accommodation, Lady Norahhad indulged a lifelong passion for acquisition in the belief that eventuallythey would repossess Linley. Spending her mornings combing the small adsof the Times and Daily Telegraph she bargained and bought huge quantities offurnishings, which she had stored in various depositories around the country,including the unoccupied stable block at Linley.Jasper and Clare had the task of sorting out and condensing the contents ofNetley, his mother’s collections and the original furnishings that had beenincluded in the tenancy. When the last tenant, Admiral Sir James Startin,died in 1948 Jasper found the house in a poor state of repair but with manyof the contents still intact. A handsome set of chairs with carved legs werediscovered dispersed about the house, one being used by the housekeeperto dry tea towels in front of the Victorian range in the old kitchen. Large oilpaintings with doubtful attribution to Rubens, or Van Dyke were hung in noparticular order and the library containing about 4,000 books and documentsremained intact but undusted for 50 years.Sales at the local auctioneers had raised suficient cash to start building work,to be followed by sales of tenanted farms. By 1954 a solid core of the originalfurnishings remained and were redistributed. “I cannot eat another dinnerlooking at those paintings” Clare insisted, looking at the two large allegoricalpaintings depicting in minute detail birds attacking deer and feeding fsh topelicans (Peter Paillou pictures); they were promptly moved to the staircaseto be replaced by family portraits of Mores, Edwardes, Brookes and Myttons.Similarly three large copies of paintings by Van Dyke and one Rubens werehung on the staircase along with the portrait of Sir Isaac Newton by EnochSeeman, whose portrait of Robert More, the builder of the house, remainedin the dining room.Sales at the local auctioneers had raised suficient cash to start building work,to be followed by sales of tenanted farms. By 1954 a solid core of the originalfurnishings remained and were redistributed. “I cannot eat another dinnerlooking at those paintings” Clare insisted, looking at the two large allegoricalpaintings depicting in minute detail birds attacking deer and feeding fsh topelicans (Peter Paillou pictures); they were promptly moved to the staircaseto be replaced by family portraits of Mores, Edwardes, Brookes and Myttons.Similarly three large copies of paintings by Van Dyke and one Rubens werehung on the staircase along with the portrait of Sir Isaac Newton by EnochSeeman, whose portrait of Robert More, the builder of the house, remainedin the dining room.The house was completed in 1954 and after sales of excess furnishings, theMore’s moved back in, having disposed of the remaining collections andvowing never to keep anything which was surplus to requirements. Duringthe building process, their escape from dust and rubble had been to tourItaly and the Mediterranean, driven by Clare’s chaufeur from Netley. Thisresulted in two books commissioned by Batsfords The Land of Italy and TheMediterranean. In 1960 the MP for Ludlow died of a heart attack leaving theseat vacant, which Jasper secured to continue the family line of local MPs.Lacking political ambition but possessing great charm and tact soon securedhim a position in the Whips’ ofice and subsequently appointment as ViceChamberlain, which required him to report weekly on the proceedings ofParliament to HM the Queen. He also managed to write a short but evocativeaccount of his parents’ respective families and their mixed fortunes at Linleyand Westport, entitled A Tale of Two Houses privately published by Wildingsin Shrewsbury in 1978. On his retirement in 1979 he was knighted andrelinquished London life to devote time to reading and brashing (his favouriteoccupation - removing the lower branches of trees he had planted), while LadyMore avidly followed horse racing, Coronation Street and Celebrity Squares onthe newly acquired large Baird Television, strategically place by the fre in thesaloon at the centre of the house.Sir Jasper died in 1987 shortly after his 80th birthday to be survived by Clare,who on her death in 1994 left the house to me, her cousin and godson. Withina year of my occupation, builders were again called in to replace some of thefailing 1950’s building work. A new roof, new windows to replace rotten ones,new heating and rewiring. All furniture was put into store and I lived like ahermit in two rooms and a makeshift kitchen, while the works progressed andat times it seemed would never end. It all sounded very familiar as I re read ATale of Two Houses. I was thankful that unlike Jasper I did not also have rats tocontend with. I was also grateful that at the end of the work, I had the beautifulcontents to rearrange.Clare’s last wish for me was not that I should keep it as a museum to them butthat I would be as happy at Linley as she and Jasper had been. It is a beautifulhouse in a beautiful part of the country. I have had a wonderful time there withmy partner, Simon and I am happy that the house has found new owners totake it on and love it as much as I have.By Justin ColdwellLinley Hall – The Origins of the CollectionAs is almost universally the case with any country house collection, thesplendid contents of Linley Hall came to rest there not in a single moment oras part of some unified scheme. They were built up layer on layer, generationby generation, through a fascinating and intricate web of patronage, collectingand inheritance with roots stretching back beyond the origins of the presenthouse.In the case of Linley, the story of the collection is, perhaps, even more complexthan might be expected of a house which remained in the ownership of a singlefamily from the time it was built in the mid-18th century, on an estate whichthey possessed for more than four hundred years.The collection as we see it today is principally a hybrid of the taste of twoold Shropshire families, the Mores and the Hope Edwardes’, with many otherfamilies playing supporting roles. Little is known of the early collections ofthe More family, however, one tantalising survival to suggest the sumptuousmanner in which the earlier house at Linley may have been appointed, is themagnificent 17th crewel-work in the sale, said to have been worked by a lady ofthe More family and monogrammed M. It also seems likely that the grand suiteof mahogany seat furniture, with its distinctive oak-leaf carving, was probablycommissioned for the saloon when newly built in the mid-18th century. Anotherwonderful survival in the collection are the immense portraits purchased atauction in 1780, by Robert More, as recorded in the family archive.Much of the collection has also come through marriage and inheritance, inmany cases originally along with the house or estate from which they came.Often the exact origin of objects in old collections is obscured by the passageof time. There are, however, significant exceptions in the case of Linley,such as the crisply carved mahogany serving table attributed to Mayhewand Ince, which came from the Mytton estate at Cleobury North, whichcame to the More family through marriage and subsequent inheritance asdid another Mytton estate at Shipton. Sir Jasper’s grandmother, recognisedthe quality of the furniture which remained unmoved at Cleobury whenshe occupied it briefly in the late 19th century and had the foresight to retainsome of the ’outstanding’ Georgian furniture - almost certainly including theafore mentioned table and possibly other lots such as the exquisite pair of‘Chippendale’ card tables. Then there are other more recent additions to thecollection such as the miniatures relating to Browne’s of Westport House, Co.Mayo, which came via Sir Jasper’s mother, Lady Norah Browne, daughter ofthe 5th Marquess of Sligo.It is ironic perhaps that the marriage of the last More heir of Linley (JasperMore) should be the union which would bring the largest identifiable andperhaps, the most distinctive, additions to the collection. The bride, ClareHope Edwardes, was born Coldwell, but changed her name to Hope Edwardesin order to inherit Netley Hall along with its rather splendid contents. Many ofwhich had been inherited by an earlier occupant, Lt. Col. Herbert James HopeEdwardes, who would so enrich the collections at Netley through a bequestfrom his cousin Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, of Wootton Hall, Derbyshire – the10th and last of the Edwardes Baronets of Shrewsbury.Sir Henry, a keen yachtsman and member of the circle of HM King EdwardVII, was an inveterate collector with an exceptional eye. A fact attested to notonly by the significant works of art which it has been possible to trace to hiscollection amongst the works offered here, but also by those simultaneouslyrecorded in the extensive surviving bills and correspondence about theiracquisition which remains in the family archive and through the records ofthe four day sale of works of art and pictures held at Christie’s following hisdeath in 1900 (24-27 April 1901). The collection sold included works acquiredfrom some of the greatest sales of the 19th Century, including the 1882 saleof the contents of Hamilton Palace. Furthermore it is interesting to note thatthe second highest price amongst the pictures, sold on the 4th day, was for awork by van der Hayden, which must have been subsequently purchased backby a member of the family as it found its way back into the collection and isoffered in this sale.Reputed to have assisted the then Prince Of Wales in the choice of works ofart for his new home, Sandringham House, the documentation of Sir Henry’srelationships with the renowned dealers and cabinet makers, such as Annoot,Blake, Durlacher and Gillow, to name but a few is signifcant. It reveals hisvoracious collecting pattern, focusing primarily on sumptuous 18th-CenturyFrench works of art and the finest contemporary evocations of them whichmoney could buy. Collecting primarily during the 1860s and 70s he wasprepared to spend vast sums when he felt the work merited it, such as £220on a ‘LXVI ormolu clock’, almost certainly the magnifcent clock by Robin withcase by Osmond in this sale. Whilst extensive, the archive is far from complete,however a particular treasure recently found lurking amongst it, dating toan altogether earlier time, was a previously undiscovered invoice dated 1774made out to Sir Thomas Edwardes Bt., by the renowned Golden Squarecabinet makers John Mayhew and William Ince. This important discovery notonly offers a tantalising glimpse of the long forgotten interior of a sumptuousLondon townhouse but also confirms the authorship of the splendid suite ofdelicate gilded seat furniture offered here.The survival of archive photographs of the interior of Netley along with adetailed 1917 inventory of the house and corresponding labels printed withthe initials ‘H.J.H.E’ (Herbert James Hope Edwardes) applied to many objectsin this sale, have allowed identification with a degree of certainty many of theitems from this notable bequest of Sir Henry Hope Edwardes as well as thoseinherited from his forbears amongst the treasures at Linley.AHS
A NEAR PAIR OF CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE JARS AND COVERS
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
Details
A NEAR PAIR OF CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE JARS AND COVERS
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
Each painted with clusters of flowers and foliage between blue-ground lappets, the domed covers with similar flowers, one with an artemesia leaf to the underside
11 ¼ in. (28.5 cm.) high
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
Each painted with clusters of flowers and foliage between blue-ground lappets, the domed covers with similar flowers, one with an artemesia leaf to the underside
11 ¼ in. (28.5 cm.) high
Provenance
Lt. Col. Herbert James Hope-Edwardes, Netley Hall and by descent to
Lady More (née Hope-Edwardes, formerly, Coldwell) at Netley Hall, and subsequently Linley Hall, Shropshire, and by descent.
Lady More (née Hope-Edwardes, formerly, Coldwell) at Netley Hall, and subsequently Linley Hall, Shropshire, and by descent.
Literature
Illustrated in situ in a photograph of the drawing room, Netley Hall, Shropshire, circa 1905.
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Katharine Cooke