The search for Leighton's lost furniture

The tragedy of Leighton House

Following Leighton’s death in January 1896, his two sisters, Augusta and Alexandra, inherited his entire estate. Initially, they attempted to sell the house and contents intact as a permanent memorial to their brother. When no buyer was forthcoming and attempts to auction the house alone also failed, the sisters consigned virtually the entire contents to Christie, Manson & Woods. The auction took place at King Street, London over eight days from 8 July 1896. The sale made more than the sisters had originally asked for house and contents together, confirming the scale of the bargain that had been missed. The dispersal of Leighton’s fascinating and extensive collections of fine and decorative art remains the tragedy of Leighton House.

Recent research has established just how far the house was conceived around the display of particular works of art. Without its contents, the building no longer quite ‘makes sense’ in the way it once did. Occasionally items from Leighton’s collection do resurface. In 2006, a late fifteenth-century terracotta relief by the Florentine sculptor Rossellino was acquired at Sotheby’s and hangs once more in the Silk Room on the first floor. However, the greatest loss is perhaps the pieces of furniture specifically designed for the house by its architect, George Aitchison (1825-1910).

George Aitchison - friend, architect and designer

Leighton and Aitchison met as young men in Rome in the early 1850s. Having completed his formal training in Frankfurt, Leighton was working on the paintings with which he would launch his career. Aitchison, the son of an architect, was touring Italy at the time and went on to travel with fellow architect William Burges. Leighton remained in contact with Aitchison and when he decided to build his house on the edge of Holland Park in 1864, he engaged his ‘old friend’ as architect. Aitchison remained the only architect to work on the house through its many extensions and embellishments completed over the next thirty years. Leighton was clearly closely involved in all stages of the design and construction of the house and in several contemporary accounts, the furniture is attributed jointly to Aitchison and Leighton. Although we cannot be certain, it appears that all the furniture was designed and made as an integral part of the original conception of the house in 1864.

The exact number and type of the furniture they produced together is uncertain. In his biography of Leighton published ten years after his death, Edgcumbe Staley described how, ‘the suites of tables, cabinets, bookcases etc., which Aitchison had designed were worked out in common wood, stained black, with arabesques in white holly, varnished over until they produced the effect of ebony inlaid with ivory.’ However, the 1896 sale catalogue positively identifies only a single bookcase as being designed by Aitchison. Contemporary descriptions and articles on the interiors nevertheless confirm that two further bookcases and the dining room sideboard were also to his design, making a total of at least four items in all. Not every part of the house was photographed in Leighton’s day and the Christie’s catalogue is not entirely reliable, therefore it is possible that further Aitchison-designed furniture was located within these ‘blind spots’ around the house.

Bespoke designs

The four Aitchison pieces were sold as the final lots on the first day’s sale on Wednesday 8 July 1896. Lot 137 was described as ‘An Upright Ebonised Book-Case, inlaid with scrolls in ivory after a design by Aitchison, 6 ft long.’ The buyer is given as Aitchison himself at a price of £13.2.6. The following item, lot 138 was ‘A Massive Book-Case, with glass doors above, and doors enclosing drawers below, inlaid with ivory with bosses of lapis lazuli – 6 ft long’. Together with its companion, sold as lot 139, these were bought by ‘Murray’ at a cost of £24.3.0 each.

The three bookcases were all located at the east end of the studio on the first floor of the house. The two glazed bookcases sat in shallow niches on either side of the large studio screen. These were the most handsome of the pieces designed for the house, with inlaid decoration that repeated the motifs incised into the door architraves throughout the interiors and elaborate curvilinear scrollwork reminiscent of Aitchison’s designs for the mosaic floors in the staircase hall. The single bookcase sat close by against the north wall, to the right of the great north window.

Lot 140, the last of the group was described as ‘A Massive Ebonised Sideboard with folding doors at the side and three drawers, shelves above, inlaid with scrolls, &c in ivory and light wood, with bosses in lapis lazuli – 8 ft. 6 in. long, 8ft. 2 in. high and was purchased by ‘Morse’ for £19.8.6. This was evidently designed for the dining room and was positioned opposite the window. The interior was described by Mrs Haweis in her book ‘Beautiful Houses’ of 1886:

‘The colouring is warm, somewhat dark, consisting of a deep red wall, oak mantelpiece and chairs (the last covered with brown leather), and a big ebonized sideboard, designed by Mr Aitchison. The blackness of this latter is broken by a crowd of china on its shelves, blue Nankeen and old English and by a pretty little silver coffee service of Turkish work.’

Although the sideboard was sold in 1896, a photograph of the dining room dated 1902 when the house had already become a museum in Leighton’s honour, shows the sideboard still to be in position, its new owner perhaps daunted by the challenge of moving it. There is no indication of when it did finally leave the house.

The search for Leighton's furniture

The location of all these items remains a mystery. We would like to believe that some or all of them still survive, their owners simply unaware of the connection to Leighton House and that eventually they will be reunited with the interiors. Tantalisingly one piece did very nearly return. The museum archives contain a letter from the Council’s Chief Librarian, then responsible for Leighton House, dated October 1938 to a Mr R.G. Fox in which the offer of a single large bookcase ‘designed for Lord Leighton’ is declined on the grounds that ‘there is no available space and incidentally no practical use it could be put to.’ Presumably the unglazed piece bought by Aitchison at the sale, no such concerns would apply were it ever to be offered to the museum again!

To find out more about the missing furniture, or if you think you know their whereabouts, please contact us