Saltram

On the banks of the River Plym, on the outskirts of Plymouth, lies Saltram House and Gardens, a National Trust property. It was home to the Parker family from 1743 when an earlier mansion was remodeled to to reflect the family’s increasingly prominent position. It's magnificently decorated, with original contents including Chinese wallpapers and an exceptional collection of paintings. It also has a superb country house library and Robert Adam’s Neo-classical Saloon.

The exterior of the house is rather plain, belying the extravagant interiors.

The entrance hall of the house is magnificent with ornate plasterwork everywhere.

The opulence you see was the work of Theresa Parker, second wife of John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon. She was the goddaughter of the Hapsburg Empress Maria Theresa and was named in her honor. While John Parker's interests included drinking and gambling, Theresa, along with her sister Alice and brothers Frederick and Thomas, took an interest in decorating. She is credited with making Saltram a "showpiece of South West England."

To quote Wikipedia,

The six years until Theresa's death at the age of 30 are considered Saltram's golden age. The house owns ten portraits by Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds, who was her friend, spent two years trying to complete a profile picture of her. Robert Adam was commissioned in 1768 to create the saloon and the library (the library is now the dining room). Adam created everything from the door handles to the huge plasterwork ceiling. Thomas Chippendale made the furniture and Matthew Boulton made the four candelabras. She and her husband spent £10,000 on the saloon

That figure is the modern equivalent of 2.5 million pounds. Theresa directed the design of the gardens and designed the orangerie. Sadly, in 1775 she had a miscarriage and died of the resulting complications.

In an interesting coincidence, there is a celebration at the house this year of the artist Angelica Kauffman, one of the woman artists featured at the Tate Britain exhibition I visited a couple of weeks ago. Kauffman was a dear friend of Joshua Reynolds, not only posing for him, but also painting his portrait. It was unusual for woman artists to be taken seriously in the 1700s and even more unusual for them to be included in exhibitions of the Royal Academy. Kauffman's talent was such that she was an exception. It also helped that she had powerful friends in high places. It was through Joshua Reynolds that she met the Parkers. A number of her paintings are on display at Saltram.

From the Entrance Hall, the tour route starts in the Red Room, a room filled with portraits and another smashing ceiling.

The ceiling panel indicates that this room was originally used as a music room. The portrait over the fireplace is that of John Parker II and his sister Theresa by Joshua Reynolds. The docent said that the children posed for this painting for a total of 96 hours, mostly in one-hour sessions. He said that rather than hugging his sister, he was probably propping her up from exhaustion.

Also in the Red Room is this exquisite painting by Francesco Bartolozzi,

a casual portrait of John Parker by Joshua Reynolds,

and a portrait of Vincenzo II Gonzaga, 7th Duke of Mantua, by Peter Paul Rubens, most likely acquired on a "grand tour" of Europe.

On to the Velvet Drawing Room. Over the fireplace hangs another Joshua Reynolds portrait, this of Theresa Parker.

Originally the portrait showed Mrs. Parker in a yellow dress, but Theresa didn't like it, probably because the styles had changed and yellow was no longer a popular color. A few years later she convinced Reynolds to repaint it to change the color of the dress, and to add her son. You can tell that the boy was added later because there is no connection between the two of them in the painting. Theresa gazes into the distance; her son, John, looks ahead.

The far end of the room was designed by Robert Adam, a leading architect of the time.

Theresa and her mother-in-law, Lady Catherine, were central to the commissioning of artists, architects and craftspeople at Saltram, including Adam. The rare and beautiful Saltram Bureau was made in Paris. It is veneered with polychrome "Boulle" marquetry in brass, tin, copper, colored paper-backed horn, mother of pearl, turtle shell, and ebony.

Also in the Velvet room is another painting by Angelica Kauffman, "Miss Meyer as Hebe."

The next incredible room, the Saloon, is also the work of Robert Adam.

The carpet is a rewoven Axminster carpet based on the original carpet in the room. (They showed a fascinating film in the cafe about the reweaving process.) The chandeliers are not an original part of the room; they were added in the Victorian era. Originally, light would have been provided by candelabra placed in front of the mirrors to reflect light into the room.

The ceiling is glorious, with highly detailed plaster work and original paintings on paper.

The docent pointed out her favorite painting in the room, "Six Men" painted by Passeroti. She said she enjoys imagining what's going on and what they're thinking. You can really make up a good story.

The last room in the main part of the lower floor is the Dining Room, designed by Robert Adam.

Originally this room was the library but was converted to a dining room when a fire in the laundry, which was close by, convinced the Parkers to build a separate building for the laundry and locate the kitchen nearby. Now, I would have thought that having a kitchen nearby would also be fire hazard, but it was designed so cleverly (as you will see in a minute) that the decision was sound. The original room only had art over the doorways, the rest of the walls being covered by bookshelves. Adam took charge of the change to the room and commissioned the same artist who had painted those paintings over the door to paint more panels for the dining room. Once again, the ceiling is outstanding.

Because it was intended for the library, the subject matter on the ceiling is scholars of ancient Greece. The additional paintings are of ancient bachanals and more food and drink-related subjects.

There are two plinths in the room.

One was heated and would have held dishes. The other was where the bowls for "relieving oneself" were stored. Dinner in those days could last for hours, so screens were erected in the corners of the rooms where the ladies could go, accompanied by their maidservants. The maid would hold a boat-shaped bowl up to the lady's privates to collect the urine, which would then be deposited into a larger bowl in the plinth. The gentlemen would simply urinate in the corner with their backs to the table. Charming.

Saltram house was built around an older building which was converted first to the laundry, then to the kitchen. This conversion included state of the art technology for the 18th century. The cast iron range made by Flavel & Co was installed in the center of the room. It has an underground flue that carried smoke from the range to the chimney. It was piped close to the wall, enabling it to heat pans of water in which the fish was cooked.

Behind it was a fire over which meat would be turned on a giant skewer. Under that skewer would sit a pan of potatoes. As the grease dripped off the meat, it would cook the potatoes.

From there, you walk back into the main part of the house to the stairway, under which is a sedan chair which John Parker used to ship to London for his personal use. It being difficult sometimes to find an available chair to take one through the dirty streets, Parker wanted to take no chances.

In the stairwell is another collection of fine paintings,

including one of Angelica Kauffman by Joshua Reynolds

and one of Joshua Reynolds by Angelica Kauffman.

Upstairs you come to the Chinese Tea Room. In the 1700s, the only city in China where westerners were (relatively) welcome, was Canton. If a westerner went further into the country they were killed. Chinese products were, then, very difficult to get and highly prized. The wallpaper in the area visitors pass is behind perspex to protect it. In the closed off section you can see this very unusual wallpaper.

Past that is the Chinese bedroom, also featuring Chinese wallpaper made for the Chinese trade, not for export. It was block printed then hand painted and tells the story of the tea trade.

The bed was made for the Parkers by Thomas Chippendale, who was also a friend.

The sitting room contains more portraits and, unusually, is one in which visitors are invited to sit and to even play the piano (just as long as you don't play chopsticks.) (Photo from Karen Tam website.)

Portrait of Edmund Parker, 2nd Earl of Morley by Frederick Richard Say:

Also in the room is a matching pair of turtle-shell inlaid cabinets.

The Garden Room was originally a billiards room. It looks out onto the garden and would allow anyone in the room to see who was coming up from the river. There is a painting that shows Theresa coming to Saltram for the first time.

The docent in the room shone the light on several parts of the painting (necessary in the low light, if you want to see the details). Men and ladies waiting to greet Theresa are shown, along with a man firing a cannon to welcome her and two French horn players serenading.

Apparently in the early 1700s, the French horn was THE instrument and anyone looking to impress would hire a French horn player to play for his parties. They were, as the docent said, the rock stars of the day.

The next room was the Mirror Room. In addition to Chinese mirrors,

the Mirror Room holds and impressive collection of early fine porcelain, including Meissen.

I particularly liked the strange looking cats.

The last room was the Library. Words almost fail.

The door, when shut, blends into the room seamlessly. It is opened by pushing down on a hidden latch.

There are seven portraits by Gilbert Stuart in the library. They are in incredible shape because the National Trust loaned them to the National Gallery in Washington for an exhibition of his work and the restoration was paid for by the National Gallery.

There are several pieces of metamorphic furniture in the room. The first, a chair with "cut-outs so that when a man wanted to read a heavy book, he could turn around and straddle the back. The shelf that holds the book could also slide around to the side so that a woman could sit "sidesaddle."

Another is a table with two concealed ladders.

and a set of library steps that converts into a chair.

There are volumes in the library that date to the 1400s, shortly after books were first being printed.

Exiting the library, you find yourself back in the Entrance Hall. I was really sad to see this tour of Saltram House end. It's a magnificent place and all the volunteers are so knowledgeable.

Once outside, you come upon the National Trust tea room (I don't know what its original purpose was) and the orangerie which contained lots of clivias, sadly, not in bloom. The orange trees were outside in pots and there's even an orange grove. I never would have thought that the climate would support citrus trees, but there are lots of palm trees in Devon, so I guess it's mild enough.

There were lovely paths through the gardens, which are immense.

Lots of people had brought their dogs, some had brought picnic baskets, also available in the cafe. It's a heavenly place and I would happily return.