During the 20th-century Gerald Agar-Robartes, 7th Viscount Clifden, a very keen and competent gardener, made significant alterations to the formal gardens at Lanhydrock. In c.1925 he acquired five pairs of bronze urns that once formed part of Lord Hertford’s important collection at the Chateau de Bagatelle near Paris. These 19th-century copies, of 17th-century urns originally modelled by Claude Ballin goldsmith to Louis XIV for Versailles, were commissioned by the 4th Marquis of Hertford (1800-71) with permission of Napoleon III between 1858 and 1871.
By 1870, 46 copies were recorded as being situated in the gardens of the Chateaux de Bagatelle. The 4th Marquis was renown for having copies made of significant parts of his collection, most notably exceptional pieces of French furniture and parts of the French Imperial collections which now form part of the collections at the Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, London. Many similar urns are currently in the gardens atVersailles.
After Hertford’s death in 1871 some of the collection was bequeathed to Sir Richard Wallace who in turn left them to his secretary Sir John Murray Scott. Scott took them to Nether Swell, Gloucestershire, before being sold at auction in 1925.
During the winter of 2011/12 the urns were removed from their plinths and fully conserved by Cliveden Conservation. The old wax and excessive dirt was removed and repairs made to each urn – repairs that included the conglomeration of a split in the bronze, finials and handles that had fallen off over the years and, on the two largest urns, the base had broken away from the body. The urns were then rewaxed.
The results were amazing. No longer had we tired and dirty urns, they looked brand new.
The next phase was to get the urns back on their granite plinths which in the main part was easy enough but with the two larger urns we had to call in the Fire Service to help. We could not risk damaging the urns after conservation so the Fire Service deployed large A-frames and extensive rope and pully systems to raise the urns above their bases and lower gently.
Photo. Faye Rason
lanhydrock 