A Cork Model of Hengrave Hall Suffolk

A late 18th-Early 19th century cased architectural cork model of Hengrave Hall Suffolk, the 16th century Tudor mansion.

Unknown maker but possibly by Richard Du Bourg or a follower of.

Cased in approximately 1860.

There are similarities with the lead roof in a later model of an English Church by Cornelius Daniel Ward of Norwich Circa 1900, maybe he took his inspiration from this model or similar, and he was based fairly local to the Hall, but this definitely has the feel and construction of an earlier period of the practice, the overall condition and the fact it was cased in the 19th century do lead to an earlier manufacture, maybe it was put in the case more recently?, possibly but the shadow marks, wear to the baize and the bespoke size of the case once again lead to an earlier attribution.

Hengrave Hall was built by Sir Thomas Kytson between 1525 and 1538 at a cost of £3,000. The building was constructed of stone from the Ixworth Priory ruins and white bricks baked at Woolpit. It is one of the last examples of a house built around an enclosed courtyard with a great hall

In the 19th century, the estate was sold to Sir John Wood who restored the church (did he commission the model?).

Later, it was acquired by the Community of the Sisters of the Assumption, who used it as a school. The Sisters closed the school in 1974 and eventually sold the estate.

Commencing in the late 1760s, cork models of classical monuments in Italy were purchased by wealthy British collectors while on their Grand Tour. Initially commissioned by tourists with specific antiquarian and architectural interests, the models were an expression of the collector's knowledge of classical history and of their Neoclassical sensibility. Models soon appeared in the Society of Antiquaries of London and the British Museum, in the private displays of Charles Townley and John Stuart, Earl of Bute, and in George III's royal collection. In the early 1800s, architect John Soane began purchasing models from the secondary market for his house, museum. Interest in cork architectural models waned during the Nineteenth Century. Descendants of the original owners transferred them to public institutions, while museums that had at first enthusiastically welcomed the donations or made their own purchases, relegated the models to storage. In the twentieth century the majority of the models were discarded or lost.