museums and institutions:
Attributed works:
I. View of Gibside, Country Durham, from the south, by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). Water-colour, 26.5 by 43.2 cm. Purchased in 1983 with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund. Acc.no.1983.35. In the centre is Gibside Hall itself. On a hillock to the right is the Column of British Liberty erected by George Bowes, ancestor of John Bowes, of Streatlam Castle and Gibside; at the left is the domed family chapel by James Paine (1716-89). The chapel was placed in the care of the National Trust in 1967 by the 16th Earl of Strathmore, nephew of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Patron of the Friends of The Bowes Museum.
Attributed works:
II. A regatta on the Grand Canal, by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (1697-1768). Oil on canvas, 149.8 by 218.4 cm. Purchased in 1982 with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the Friends of The Bowes Museum and a National Public Appeal. Acc.no.1982.32.2. Like its companion painting The Bucintoro returning to the Molo on Ascension Day (Acc.no.1982.32.1), it was painted in the 1730s. The oarsmen in two of the principal ornamental craft wear a livery of blue and white, which may indicate that the painting dates from 1735-41, the period of office of Doge Alvise Pisano, whose coat of arms was also blue and white.
Attributed works:
IV. Panel of marquetry made in Paris c.1680, almost certainly in the workshop of André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) incorporated in cabinet on stand. English, c.1780. Veneered in ebony and ebonised wood on a carcase of oak, with marquetry of several woods, with some use of brass, 87 by 133 cm. (Panel only). Purchased with the aid of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, I. C. I. and the Friends of The Bowes Museum. FW.1979.63. This cabinet was recorded at Warwick Castle by 1811. It has been postulated that the carcase was made by Mayhew and Ince to display the earlier panel.
Attributed works:
IX. Figure of a dwarf. Vienna, c.1746. 10.8 cm. high. Cer. 1988.44. (Goldblatt Collection). The figure was modelled by Leopold Dannhauser, after a print by Jacques Callot (1592-1635).
Attributed works:
V. Dessert plate. Sèvres, 1788, painted by Buteux Fils. Soft-paste porcelain painted with enamel colours and gilt, 24 cm. diameter. Purchased with grants from the Museums and Galleries Commission (Victoria and Albert Museum) Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of The Bowes Museum. Cer. 1987.23. This plate is part of a service ordered by William Eden (1744-1814) of Windlestone Hall, Durham, who was special envoy to Paris in 1786 to negotiate a trade treaty. He was created Baron Auckland of West Auckland for his success.
Attributed works:
VI. Bowl. Venice, factory of Francesco and Giuseppe Vezzi, c.1725. Porcelain, painted in enamel colours, 17.2 cm. diameter. Cer. 1988.401. Part of a large collection of European porcelain formed by Enid Goldblatt, purchased with the help of the Museums and Galleries Commission (Victoria and Albert Museum) Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the Friends of The Bowes Museum and Durham County Council in 1988. The short-lived Vezzi factory in Venice was the third hard-paste porcelain factory to be set up in Europe, having obtained the secret of manufacture from Christoph Hunger of Meissen and Vienna. This bowl is painted with a scene of Cephalus and Aurora after Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) probably by the painter Ludovico Ortolani (information from Tracey Avery).
Attributed works:
VII. Figure of a Mushroom seller. Nymphenburg, Germany, c.1760. Porcelain, painted in enamel colours, 18.2 cm. high. Purchased with a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Friends of The Bowes Museum in 1980. Cer. 1980.22. This figure is one of a group of street sellers modelled by the great rococo modeller Franz Anton Bustelli (1723-63).
Attributed works:
VIII. Travelling coffee set for one. Sèvres porcelain and gold utensils in a Japanese lacquer box. The coffee pot bears the mark of Ambroise Nicolas Cousinet (c. 1745-88) and the Paris hallmark for 1775, the Sèvres porcelain date marks for 1776-77 and the painter's mark of Thévinet père. Coffee pot: 6.3 cm. high. Exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. Purchased with the aid of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the Friends of The Bowes Museum in 1981. Cer. 1981.33/1-6. The saucer still bears the Sèvres price label (9L for 9 livres).
Attributed works:
X. Figure of a river goddess. Vincennes, c. 1745-52. Soft-paste porcelain, 20.3 cm. long. Purchased with a grant from the Museums and Galleries Commission (Victoria and Albert Museum) Purchase Grant Fund and a bequest from Herbert Gibson, Esq. of Darlington. Cer. 1980.7. One of a group of rare undecorated figures made during the early years of the factory.
Attributed works:
XI. Firescreen, attributed to Georges Jacob (1739-1814). French, c.1780. Carved and gilded beechwood, with panel of tambour work embroidery on satin ground, 111 by 62 by 37 cm. Purchased with the aid of grant from the Museums and Galleries Commission (Victoria and Albert Museum) Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of The Bowes Museum. FW. 1990.15. The frame is stamped underneath with inventory marks indicating that it was in the Palais des Tuileries in the period of the Restauration.
Attributed works:
XII. Mirror, the figures modelled by Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-87). Dated ANNO 1867. The frame of gilt and silvered bronze, 208 by 133 cm. Exhibited by the French bronze-caster Ferdinand Barbédienne (1810-92) at the Paris International Exhibition of 1867, where it was bought by William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1818-25), a noted collector of French art. Purchased in 1992 with the help of the Museums and Galleries Commission (Victoria and Albert Museum) Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, The Friends of The Bowes Museum and the Esmé Fairbairn Charitable Trust. FW.1992.5. The mirror joins an extensive group of objects purchased by John and Josephine Bowes, founders of the Museum, at the same exhibition.
Attributed works:
XIII. The road to Calvary, by Jean-Robert Gambier (1702-after 1744). Signed and dated: J. R. Gambier 1730; also stamped twice on the obverse: J. G. Gilt-bronze, 28 by 38 cm. Purchased in 1981 with the assistance of the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of The Bowes Museum. M. 1981.62. The plaque is one of four said to have been made for a chapel of the Dukes of Orléans and dispersed at the time of the French Revolution. The scene it portrays is a close copy in reverse of a picture by Pierre Mignard, painted in 1684 and now in the Louvre.
Attributed works:
XIV. Rosewater dish. London, 1809, maker's mark of William Pitts (the central plaque possibly German, 17th century). Silver gilt, 39.7 cm. diameter. Part of a large collection of Regency silver from the estate of the 6th Marquess of Ormonde, accepted by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue in lieu of estate duty and transferred to The Bowes Museum in 1982. Sil. 1982.24.16/1.1.
Western art unattributed:
III. Table carpet. French, c.1600. Canvas work embroidery, wool and silk on linen, tent and cross stitch, 273 by 218 cm. Purchased in 1989 with help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Friends of The Bowes Museum and the Museums and Galleries Commission (Victoria and Albert Museum) Purchase Grant Fund. Tex. 1989.31. The nine medallions, divided by broad floral bands depict (from top left to right) God creating Paradise, the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, Adam and Eve and Serpent, Adam and Eve collecting leaves, the Expulsion from Paradise, Adam and Eve with Cain and Abel, the Rejection of Cain's sacrificial offering, and Cain slaying Abel. Table carpets had high status as furnishing textiles in the late-sixteenth century, before the general introduction of floor carpets. This one incorporates the monograms of the original owners: BM and EDM. The engraved sources for the Old Testament scenes have not been traced, but the centre one is very close to a woodcut by Bernard Salomon published in Lyon in 1553.
