Lost Treasures revisited – Stowe & the Grand Tour

28 October 2015

We continue our look back at the Lost Treasures of Stowe campaign. 

25 May 2012

Many of the items in Stowe’s former collection was gathered by the 1st Marquess and the first two Dukes whilst they were in Europe undertaking their Grand Tour, essentially a jolly around the Continent that was justified as part of a young gentleman’s education.

Whilst George Grenville, nephew of Stowe’s great builder, Earl Temple, was in Italy and Austria in 1774 he was under strict instructions to send back furniture and art works to fill the new rooms in Stowe House. Bearing in mine Grenville knew he was sure to inherit soon, no doubt the items he brought back reflected his personal taste.

Amongst the things he brought back were two pier tables from Rome. These tables are now in the Wallace Collection, where they remain on public display, together with several other items from Stowe.

Another item of note brought back from the Continent by the young men in the family was the famous Marine Venus.

This antique statue was excavated at the Baths of Agrippa in Rome by the young future 3rd Duke whilst Marquess of Chandos. Queen Victoria admired this statue so much when she was at Stowe in 1845 that she sent an agent to buy it for Prince Albert as a birthday present. It now survives at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

Although some of the more famous souvenirs from the various Grand Tours undertaken by the young men in the Temple-Grenville family have survived in the custody of various museum collections, the vast majority of the items once in the collection at Stowe have disappeared into private collections or overseas.