Lost Treasures revisited – Two thirds of a Music Room

4 November 2015

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

2015 Update: The Dance of the Hours by Valdre which is discussed below has since returned to Stowe. See it in situ in the State Music Room.

15 June 2012

Throughout the summer the Stowe House Preservation Trust are restoring the remaining two-thirds of the State Music Room. But why hasn’t the room survived as a whole?

In 1922 Harry Shaw, who had bought the House the year before, completely gutted the interiors of anything that could be detached: fireplaces, chandeliers, doors, and artworks that were imbedded into the walls and ceilings. The State Music Room lost its original Valdre-designed fireplace, the original 1770s painting depicting the Dance of the Hours that was embedded into the ceiling and from which hung the chandelier. Even the plastered niche was listed in the auction catalogue! Thankfully, however, there was no way it could have been removed and the room has retained one of its central features.

The location of the ceiling canvas is not known: it can be traced up until 1978, when it was sold at auction by Christie’s from a house in Kent and almost certainly left the country. 

All is not completely lost in the Music Room, though. The original fireplace left Stowe for a number of years before it was recovered from Benham Valence in Berkshire and returned to the House in the 1980s. During its time away from Stowe the fireplace survived a collapsed roof and attacks by vandals.

Only this week features that were thought lost were rediscovered in the Music Room itself. For as long as anyone can remember this panel has been painted the same light green colour as the walls. As part of the restoration conservators removed the panel to consolidate the gilded mouldings around it, only to discover that the original panel painted by Vincenzo Valdre (the room’s designer) in the 1770s had been tucked behind the modern panel in the building void behind.

The State Music Room remains open for visitors to see during the restoration – hopefully we will make many more discoveries over the summer.