Lot Essay
The arms are those of Watson quartering Wentworth impaling Finch for Thomas, 1st Earl of Malton (d. 1750), created 1st Marquess of Rockingham in 1746, and his wife Mary, daughter of Daniel, 7th Earl of Winchilsea (d. 1729), whom he married in 1718.
The other tapestry-lined fire-screen illustrated above is in the collection of the Earl of Halifax. Its inscription and date are identical to that on the Wentworth Woodhouse fire-screen and the coat-of-arms is that of Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin of Temple Newsam, Yorkshire. Christopher Gilbert has convincingly associated it with a letter dated March 1745 to Lord Irwin from Sir Edward Gascoigne, a Catholic friend then living in Cambrai: 'I think ye Tapestry-work Chairs here do look very well, & even not unworthy of a place in handsommest Apartment in England, such as I think you are furnishing'.
At the time Lord Irwin was furnishing the Long Gallery at Temple Newsam, which he had completely redesigned between 1738 and 1745. The room was furnished in 1746 with a suite of giltwood seat-furniture by James Pascall (Gilbert, Temple Newsam, loc. cit.). This is still at Temple Newsam and is covered in English needlework. Given the evidence of the 1745 letter, there is clearly a connection between the Cambrai firescreen and Sir Edward Gascoigne (Gilbert, L.A.C., loc. cit).The frame for the Temple Newsam firescreen was supplied by Pascall slightly after the giltwood seat-furniture.
Christopher Gilbert has suggested it was a gift to advertise the quality of the tapestry made in Cambrai, where Sir Edward lived from 1743 until his death in 1750. A similar explanation is possible for the Wentworth Woodhouse firescreen although the scale of the building works in the 1740s means that it is more difficult to identify a single room in need of furniture at that moment, as with the Long Gallery at Temple Newsam. There must be a connection between the two men in this case as well because the 1st Marquess and Sir Edward were in many ways polar opposites: one a leading Whig and married into another great Whig family, the other a Catholic in exile in France. The only easily identifiable family connection between Rockingham and Gascoigne was a very ancient one: a mid-16th Century William Wentworth, owner of Wentworth Woodhouse, had married the daughter of Sir William Gascoigne, from whom therefore both Rockingham and Sir Edward descended.
A slightly plainer screen of this pattern remains in the Fitzwilliam family collection. It is fitted with a 19th Century needlework panel with the arms of Earl Fitzwilliam.
The other tapestry-lined fire-screen illustrated above is in the collection of the Earl of Halifax. Its inscription and date are identical to that on the Wentworth Woodhouse fire-screen and the coat-of-arms is that of Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin of Temple Newsam, Yorkshire. Christopher Gilbert has convincingly associated it with a letter dated March 1745 to Lord Irwin from Sir Edward Gascoigne, a Catholic friend then living in Cambrai: 'I think ye Tapestry-work Chairs here do look very well, & even not unworthy of a place in handsommest Apartment in England, such as I think you are furnishing'.
At the time Lord Irwin was furnishing the Long Gallery at Temple Newsam, which he had completely redesigned between 1738 and 1745. The room was furnished in 1746 with a suite of giltwood seat-furniture by James Pascall (Gilbert, Temple Newsam, loc. cit.). This is still at Temple Newsam and is covered in English needlework. Given the evidence of the 1745 letter, there is clearly a connection between the Cambrai firescreen and Sir Edward Gascoigne (Gilbert, L.A.C., loc. cit).The frame for the Temple Newsam firescreen was supplied by Pascall slightly after the giltwood seat-furniture.
Christopher Gilbert has suggested it was a gift to advertise the quality of the tapestry made in Cambrai, where Sir Edward lived from 1743 until his death in 1750. A similar explanation is possible for the Wentworth Woodhouse firescreen although the scale of the building works in the 1740s means that it is more difficult to identify a single room in need of furniture at that moment, as with the Long Gallery at Temple Newsam. There must be a connection between the two men in this case as well because the 1st Marquess and Sir Edward were in many ways polar opposites: one a leading Whig and married into another great Whig family, the other a Catholic in exile in France. The only easily identifiable family connection between Rockingham and Gascoigne was a very ancient one: a mid-16th Century William Wentworth, owner of Wentworth Woodhouse, had married the daughter of Sir William Gascoigne, from whom therefore both Rockingham and Sir Edward descended.
A slightly plainer screen of this pattern remains in the Fitzwilliam family collection. It is fitted with a 19th Century needlework panel with the arms of Earl Fitzwilliam.