An exceptional late 18th, early 19th century Chinese Gold laquered, eight panel room screen.
Almost certainly aquired by William Beckford during his stewardship of the estate.
The black lacquered timber panels are painted and gilt depicting a sprawling rural landscape, numerous figures, temples, animals meandering amongst pagodas and waterways within a border of trailing vines, amongst a myriad of exotic birds and butterflies.
Provenance: Fonthill Estate, Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Height of each single panel 7ft 1in (206cm).
Width of each single panel 21.75in (55cm).
Splendens’ was built near the site of the old house, and this was the property inherited by his son, the notorious William Beckford, in 1770. He was the author of “Vathek”, builder of Fonthill Abbey and called by Lord Byron “England’s wealthiest son”. He developed the Park, extended the Lake and built the grottoes, the boathouse and a walled kitchen garden.
William Beckford decided to build Fonthill Abbey on high ground a mile south-west of Fonthill House in deep woodland and away from public roads. He demolished large parts of Splendens to provide building materials for his new Abbey, set in 524 acres surrounded with a wall 12 feet high.
He commissioned James Wyatt to build the Abbey in 1796 and it took many years to complete, housing his superb collection of furniture and antiquities.
In 1823, William Beckford sold the estate to John Farquhar, a gunpowder contractor from Bengal, India. Within 2 years of this sale Fonthill Abbey fell down and Farquhar tried to sell all his land but died in 1826 intestate.
Farquhar had given the Pavilion, the only remains of ‘Splendens’, to his nephew George Mortimer who enlarged the house, built a new stable block and a woollen mill at the southern end of the lake. Mortimer tried to sell this ‘Fonthill Park’ estate in 1829. The sale particulars described the estate in glowing terms: “If Elysium can be contemplated on earth, the claims of Fonthill will be irresistible.” The landscape of the estate is still considered an “Arcadian idyll”.
In the summer of 1829, the Pavilion was rented to James Morrison and his growing family. The holiday was a great success and he bought the property from Farquhar’s heirs – the Mortimers – after protracted legal difficulties.
James Morrison had by this time become a very successful haberdasher and entrepreneur in London with a house in Harley Street and a seat in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Ipswich and later the Inverness Burghs. He was described at the time as the “Napoleon of Shopkeepers”. He improved his parkland, repairing Beckford’s grottoes and building some cottages. In 1837 his agent wrote to him that visitors to Fonthill went on to Stourhead, then, on returning, ‘told me that Stourhead was not worthy to be compared to Fonthill.’
By 1844, the Fonthill Park estate had ceased to be his main country home. He had bought Basildon Park in Berkshire (now National Trust). His commitments as MP, investment banker and haberdasher “extraordinaire” were extensive and he had found Fonthill too distant from London, the coach taking 11 hours.
Morrison gave Fonthill to his second son Alfred, who lived in it all his life with Mabel his wife and family. The house was enlarged in 1846-48 by David Brandon, who raised it by one storey and added an Italianate tower. Alfred engaged Owen Jones to design the interior and added three galleries to house his growing collection of paintings, sculpture, china, medals and manuscripts. Alfred also built a number of cottages on the estate and, in 1875, bought Great Ridge Wood from Edmund Fane of Boyton.
Much of the western part of Beckford’s estate, including the site of the Abbey, was not acquired by James Morrison. It was eventually bought by the Marquess of Westminster, who by 1859 had built what was then called Fonthill Abbey, 500 metres south-east of Beckford’s fallen folly. This house designed by William Burn in Scottish baronial style was demolished in 1955.
Alfred Morrison’s son Hugh inherited in 1897 but Alfred’s widow Mabel continued to live in the old Fonthill House/ Pavilion. Hugh consequently built a new house called Little Ridge, on land on the other side of the lake, in the Parish of Chilmark. It was designed by Detmar Blow who moved the semi-ruined 17th century manor house of Berwick St Leonard, stone by stone, to the new site to form the centre of the house. Wings were added just before and after the First World War, then, in 1921, the old Fonthill House/ Pavilion was demolished, and Little Ridge was renamed Fonthill House.
This Fonthill house was mostly demolished in 1971, by Hugh’s eldest son John Morrison, lst Lord Margadale. He replaced it in 1972 with a smaller, more economical house, in classical style, designed by Trenwith, Wills and built on the centre block of its predecessor.
The estate first bought by James Morrison in 1830 consisted of 1200 acres. It is now 9000 acres. It descended from Alfred (died 1897) to Hugh, MP for Salisbury (died 1931), then John, MP for Salisbury, made Lord Margadale in 1964. His eldest son James, 2nd Lord Margadale, inherited in 1996 and died in 2003. It is now owned by his eldest son Alastair, 3rd Lord Margadale.
Refrence material, Fonthill Estate.
