The Year of the Dealer at Temple Newsam House

The Year of the Dealer, a collaboration between Temple Newsam and the University of Leeds, with the Bowes Museum, the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Preston Park, Temple Newsam and the V&A Museum, has sought to lift the lid on the role of antiques dealers in the development of the museums’ collections. Led by Mark Westgarth, Professor of History of the Art Market at the University of Leeds the collaboration has resulted in the creation of innovative digital film trails focused on a selection of ten objects at each museum, revealing their hidden histories as ‘antiques’.  The project has been funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, one of the leading academic research funding bodies in the UK and is part of a much larger ongoing research project focused on the history of antique dealing in Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries based at the University of Leeds.

Each of the ten objects at Temple Newsam, introduced by Temple Newsam front-of-house staff, illuminate the fascinating – and sometimes dramatic – stories behind the objects coming to the house, and reveal the personalities behind them.

You can watch all ten films of objects at Temple Newsam via weblinks below and at the Year of the Dealer project website, where there is also information on how you can see all the other films at the other museums in the Year of the Dealer. Many of the dealers highlighted in the digital trail at Temple Newsam also sold objects to the other museums featured in the Year of the Dealer trails, so do check out their stories too in the Year of the Dealer project website.  There are 50 museum objects in focus across all five museums and more than 40 antique dealer histories to explore.

The role of the antiques dealer at Temple Newsam has largely been unseen by visitors, but has been crucial in creating the world class collection that can be enjoyed today. Coupled to this, whilst the historical and artistic facets of collection objects are naturally the main focus for curators, scholars and visitors alike, the stories behind their acquisition and journeys though the art market and the role of antiques dealers in bringing them to Temple Newsam are themselves fascinating human stories worthy of greater attention. More broadly, if one is to understand the nature of Temple Newsam today, then it is essential to track the events of the 20th century and the people involved. The relationships between curators and antiques dealers is a key component of this.

This story begins in earnest in 1922. It was in this year that the last private owner of Temple Newsam, Edward Wood (Lord Irwin, later the 1st Earl of Halifax), sold the estate to the City of Leeds for £35,000. Tradition dictates that he offered the collections of the house for a further £10,000, but this was declined. Whether the latter is true or not, the result was that virtually all the contents of the house were either removed by Wood, or sold during a 7-day auction in July/August 1922. The house opened to the public in October 1923, but was a very large, denuded shell. It remained this way until 1937, when the new and enterprising Director of Leeds City Art Gallery, Philip Hendy, took over the management of the house with the inspired vision of using the building to create a museum of decorative arts.

These two images show how relatively empty Temple Newsam was when it opened to the public in 1923 – now furnished with just a few pictures and objects loaned from Edward Wood – compared to its latter days as a private house.

In the following decades, a vast new public collection has been formed, which commentators have said to be the best British decorative arts collection in the UK other than the V&A. The furniture collection is particularly celebrated. The house has been once again filled with wonderful objects and brought back to life, the collection in many respects far superior to the original contents. Many objects have been generous gifts or bequests, but a large number have also been purchases from the antiques trade, including some of the most significant treasures to be seen today. In some instances, the relationships and respect built between dealers and curators has even resulted in large gifts from the dealers.

Discover the digital trail

By Adam Toole, Curator – Temple Newsam and Mark Westgarth, Professor of History of the Art Market, University of Leeds