'A cultivated eye for the antique': Charles Winn and the enrichment of Nostell Priory in the nineteenth century

Apollo, April, 2003 by Sophie Raikes

Nostell Priory, near Wakefield, is justly celebrated as an eighteenth-century house. With its fine neo-classical interiors by the architects James Paine (1717-89) and Robert Adam (1728-92), and one of the most important collections of Chippendale furniture in England, it is perhaps understandable if the involvement of later owners has been overlooked. However, recent research has revealed that many of the state rooms were left unfinished in the late eighteenth century, and that the majority of the paintings and books and a substantial proportion of the furniture and other objects which survive at Nostell today were introduced by Charles Winn in the nineteenth century. This article will re-examine his contribution to the interiors at Nostell and his antiquarian refurbishment of Wragby Church, and also investigate his multifarious collecting activities.

Charles Winn (1795-1874) (Fig. 1) was an unexpected heir to the Nostell estate. He was the second son of Esther, sister of Sir Rowland Winn, the 6th Baronet, who caused a scandal in the family by eloping to Manchester with the Nostell baker, John Williamson. (1) After Esther's death in 1803, her children--John, Charles and Louisa--were 'adopted' by the 6th Baronet, their uncle, and were educated under the watchful eye of the Winns' lawyer, Shepley Watson, at his house at Cold Hiendly, a few miles from Nostell. When the 6th Baronet died unmarried in 1805, his estates passed to John, then a boy of eleven, and he and his siblings changed their name to Winn. While John embarked on a Grand Tour of the Continent to complete his education, his younger brother Charles went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Charles was later to take holy orders and served as the Rector of Wragby Church, within the walls of the park. It was only in 1817, when John died suddenly--and tragically young--in Rome, that Charles succeeded to the family estates. Despite his new responsibilities, Charles continued as the Rector of Wragby until the mid-1830s, (2) spending much of the year on his estates in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. He appears to have socialised within a small, close circle, consisting mostly of family and local friends.

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In 1817, when Charles Winn inherited Nostell Priory, it was in rather a forlorn state. His grandfather, the 5th Baronet, had died leaving serious debts, so that all building and decorating work had been called to an abrupt halt in 1785, while his uncle, the 6th Baronet, known as 'a gay fox hunter', (3) showed little interest in the house. Robert Adam's Drawing Room and Vestibule were left as little more than empty shells and the Top Hall, which lacked its intended marble floor, was shut up as a store room. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that almost as soon as he inherited, Charles commissioned the decorator Thomas Ward to complete and redecorate many of the principal rooms on the first floor. (4) He started work on the family rooms, redecorating the late Lady Winn's dressing room as a private sitting room, and the Breakfast Room as an everyday dining room, with neo-grecian painted decoration. (5) Charles Winn went on to reinvent the Drawing Room as the Tapestry Room, with the present tapestry panels by Pierre van der Borcht (1545-1608); the Top Hall as a music room, with a large organ at one end (removed to Wragby Church in 1902); the grand Saloon as a comfortable sitting room; and the Vestibule as a Billiard Room, with the present bookcases by Gillow & Co (Fig. 7). The bookcases were part of a substantial Gillow's commission, ordered by Charles in the 1820s, (6) which included a suite of drawing room furniture (possibly intended for the Tapestry Room), the present Dining Room table, a pair of elaborate console tables, and a folio stand. All of these objects survive at Nostell today.

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With scholarly interests and what one of his friends described as an established 'taste for antiques', (7) Charles started to collect in the tradition of his eighteenth-century ancestors. One of his first acts was the acquisition of an important collection of ancient Etruscan vases 'for the moderate sum of 500 [pounds sterling]', which his brother, John, had found in Naples whilst on the Grand Tour. Described at that time as 'the second most substantial collection of Greek vases in this country which is still in private hands', (8) it was sold and dispersed in 1975. However, a few items have since been reacquired by the National Trust and are now displayed on the mantelpiece in the Billiard Room (Figs. 2 and 3).

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By 1819, Charles was also adding to the fine collection of old master paintings at Nostell, which had mostly been acquired by the 5th Baronet in the 1760s and 1770s. He started as an 'amateur' collector, relying heavily upon the advice of the picture dealer and restorer, Mr Jennings of Poland Street, London, and later on that of Edwin Holder of York. Without a particular direction to his taste, he sought out representative works by 'Masters' of all the principal European Schools 'in the particular subjects they painted' (9) and 'seldom purchase[d] modern pictures'. (10) Jennings advised him on 'the value of each master, as it respects price or merit' and stated that he 'took great pains in describing the difference between copies and originals'. (11) The family's London house had been sold to pay off debts in 1785, but Charles travelled to the capital at least once or twice a year to visit salerooms and art exhibitions, staying at Thompson's Hotel in Cavendish Square or the United Universities Club. He also corresponded with over twenty different picture dealers and purchased paintings from country house sales. By 1841, he was forced to admit to having 'more paintings at Nostell than I can hang up' and sometimes sold on or exchanged 'duplicate specimens'. (12) The family's finances had recovered somewhat by the early nineteenth century, but Charles did not have access to unlimited funds. The amount he paid for paintings varied considerably, from ten pounds to Mr Joseph Aked of London for a putative portrait of Lady Thornhill, then and still attributed to William Hogarth (1697-1764), (13) now on the North Staircase, to three hundred and fifty guineas to Elizabeth Sheridan Carey (an impoverished 'gentlewoman' turned dealer) for a portrait of a man holding a glove (now in the Crimson Room), seemingly signed by Rembrandt. (14) Unfortunately, like many of the works he acquired, the 'Rembrandt' turned out not to be an original, reflecting the uncertainty of earlier connoisseurship. It is now attributed to Ferdinand Bol (1616-80).