Ibbetson at Kenwood

Ibbetson at Kenwood

During the 1790s, Julius Caesar Ibbetson was ‘employed by the late Lord Mansfield, to make designs for the embellishment of a magnificent apartment at Caen Wood.’, which you can see here. The designs’ appearance were neatly summarised by Norris J. Brewer in 1816: 

 … various operations of agriculture, fancifully represented… interspersed are views in North Wales, delicately executed.

 

View of Caernarvon Castle

J. Ibbetson,  1794–1797

 Oil on Paper

Photo credit: Historic England Archive

With the vocabulary of the picturesque as a guide, viewing had become a form of leisure, and visitors to the room would have been treated to their own mini version of Ibbetson’s 1792 tour of Wales, without having to stray too far from London.

 

The Bardic Museum, of primitive British Literature. By Edward Jones. 

London: Printed by A. Strahan, Printer-Street, for the Author; 1802. (Price 1/. 5s.) Entered at Stationer's Hall.

With hand coloured etched frontispiece by Rowlandson after Ibbetson and J. Smith.

[Ref: 10521]   £500.00   

Perhaps after dinner, Kenwood's Lady Mansfield would have retired to the music room (while the men moved through to the library). Much of the music room’s decoration therefore emphasised virtuous feminine activity, such as music-playing or involvement in the estate’s pleasure dairy. 

[Gentlemen and Milk Maids.]
J. Ibbetson fec.t May 1816.
Etching. Plate: 215 x 150mm (8½ x 6"). Small margins.
A scene in which a gentleman dismounts in order to talk to two milkmaids, his companion remains mounted. From 'Etchings of Figures in Eight Plates'.
[Ref: 44260]   £85.00   (£102.00 incl.VAT)

Some interesting context for Wales’s place in this moral equation is provided by two volumes of vers de société poetry, collected by Lady Sophia Burrell in 1793 and dedicated to Lord Mansfield. One example, An Epistle from Miss Biddy Ap-Owen, takes the form of a letter from an innocent protagonist: 

Enraptur’d I gaze on a new scene of action,   

Tho’ fashion is folly, and pleasure distraction.

Such sights I have seen! And such stories have heard!

Well! London’s an excellent place, on my word!

Oh! think what a great alteration I prove!

Our mountains are left for the city of love.

Our leeks, and our butter-milk, now I despise,

For I live upon turtle, and perigord pies

Peasants of the Vale of Llangollen.
H.W. Bunbury Esq.r del.t. J. Baldrey Sculp.t.
London, Pub'd Nov.r. 2; 1783, by W. Dickinson, Engraver & Printseller No. 158 New Bond Street.
Pair of stipple engravings, both sheets 285 x 280mm (11¼ x 11"). Both trimmed to platemark. 

[Ref: 37969]   £320.00 

 The Bosom Friends.
Published by S.W. Fores May 28th 1786 at his Caracature Ware-House Piccadilly.
Coloured etching, scarce. Sheet 220 x 250mm (8½ x 6"). Trimmed and mounted in album paper, hole repaired.
Three women, each with large, gauze-covered bosoms, inflated 'derrieres' and huge hair. Two carry large muffs.
BM Satire 7112. Ex Collection of the Hon Christopher Lennox-Boyd.
[Ref: 31743]   £320.00  

As the reader continues, however, fashionable society grows more and more farcical. The poem describes a ‘pert Frenchman’ and his attempts to ‘metamorphose’ her aunt into ‘a young creature’. 

Anglois jaloux, ne craignés rien; / Vous vous apercevés sans doute bien./ Qu'avec leurs ceffures. Ces deux amours ne finement jamais leurs tourmens
[French, c.1775.]
Etching, rare with very large margins. 290 x 190mm (11½ x 7½"). Paper lightly toned, folds in margins.
[Ref: 31748]   £320.00   

It becomes clear that the real distinction is between the fashion of a frenchified London and the backwardness, yet ultimate moral superiority, of Wales: 

But as soon as we got in the midst of the throng,

They trod on my gown, and then push’d me along.

Thought I, these fine Londoners make very free -

I suppose they behave in this manner to me

Because they believe country girls will submit

To be batter’d, and bruis’d, as the people think fit.

I own that I always in Wales understood,

A woman of fashion shou’d never be rude;

But surely by what I experience to-night,

These high-bred fine ladies are far less polite

Than those, who reside on the mountains of Wales,

Where innocent freedom, and friendship, prevails.

 Five in the Morning. Iam Allm_o_st do_n_e up_Dam_me.
[after Robert Dighton.]
London, Published 18 June 1795, by Haines & Son, No 19 Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane.
Mezzotint. 350 x 250mm (13¾ x 9¾"). Heavily restored, with mss. fill.
A scene in the arcade of Covent Garden: a drunken dandy in shocking condition is poured into a sedan chair by two members of the Watch. At their feet is an advert for 'The Road to Ruin' at the Theatre Royal. From a set of Times of Day.
Not in BM Satires; ex collection of the Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd.
[Ref: 37584]   £120.00   (£144.00 incl.VAT)

Ibbetson left for Liverpool in 1798, with the scheme unfinished. It remained in situ until the 1920s, when it was taken down and partially destroyed to make way for the Iveagh Bequest. Nevertheless, some of the panels are still on view in Kenwood’s music room.

For more 19th Century Prints and Photographs please visit our website!

                                                     

 www.grosvenorprints.com