Through the keyhole

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (196) uses auctioneers’ advertisements for house contents to learn about the taste exhibited by the resort’s residents. For identified residents, analysis of their domestic interiors adds texture to knowledge about their lives and of others occupying similar social positions.

Victorian Bournemouth (196): gentle taste

Wealth

The auctioneer flagged his advertisement as the ‘magnificent furniture and contents of this important mansion’: Manor Lodge, 10 Manor Road, on Bournemouth’s exclusive East Cliff. In 1881, John Foster (1833-1910), member of the well-known woollen manufacturing company, had occupied this house. Foster left an estate worth £100,000. By the late 1880s, Henry Morden Bennett, a member of Bournemouth’s leading religious dynasty, lived there. A man of leisure, he would leave an estate almost as big as Foster’s. This house attracted very wealthy individuals. The contents belonging to an unknown, perhaps Mrs Metcalfe Smith, there in 1885, advertised that status. The auctioneer mentioned many Turkish and Persian rugs, Brussels tapestries, several pieces of medieval furniture and Chesterfield couches. Furthermore, the house contained two pianos, one an antique Broadwood piano, a make used by Beethoven and Mozart. For leisure, the occupants would have used the Chippendale ‘table de jeu’, fitted for backgammon.

Position

Emily Massingberd Langton (1847-1897) came to Bournemouth by 1871, living in Sea Grove, then Eastwood by the time of her husband’s death (1875). Later, she built the Red House, also East Cliff, but left by 1887. She returned to Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire, home of her distinguished family. In widowhood, she became known as a champion of Temperance and women’s rights. The auctioneer’s inventory, ‘articles of taste’, included noticeable items: Sevres ‘very choice’ china; a Karn organ (built in Canada), fine oak chests. In addition, Mrs Langton owned an ‘old porter’s chair from Windsor Castle’, and a ‘valuable and rare old cabinet, dated 1748’. The porter’s chair appears to create linkage between the Massingberd Langtons and royalty, while the old cabinet supports the claim of ‘valuable antique furniture’. Potential customers might have wanted evidence for the latter two claims, but, perhaps, the family’s reputation provided sufficient credibility.

Victorian Bournemouth (196): new technology

Savoy dream

1 Durley Gardens, a freehold mansion, ‘situated in the best part of the West Cliff’, came for auction by order of the mortgagees. This may refer to the Gainsborough, which stood at the entry to Durley Gardens. Photos show its exterior as similar to the lodging-houses and hotels that comprised the street. From the advertisement, the property consisted of a basement and three floors. On the ground floor, a vestibule and entrance hall welcomed the visitor. Four ‘richly decorated’ reception rooms stood waiting. The higher floors contained four bedrooms each. Designed in a ‘superior manner’, the house had gas and running water, hot and cold. Furthermore, the property had both lifts from basement upwards and speaking tubes. These items featured at London’s new luxury hotel: the Savoy. Thus, visitors to Bournemouth could share in the Savoy’s dream of sophistication. A postcard for a nearby establishment depicts that aspirational fantasy.

Reproduction art and a washing machine

Mr Gale decided to leave Bournemouth during 1887. He sold his house, ‘Inglesant’, located on Drummond Road. He also offered the house’s contents for sale. Inspection of the list published by the auctioneer suggests that the contents of this house differed in style to those already discussed. The walls bore ‘valuable old oil paintings, prints, and engravings’. The contents, however, included several artistic works produced by The Arundel Society. Its purpose lay in preserving old Italian frescoes and other works through copying and publication. It operated in the period 1848-1897, after which photography and other forms of reproduction rendered it obsolete. The house occupant thus satisfied his artistic appetite through both original and copied images. In addition, the house included 150 books. Against this scholastic and aesthetic background, however, the household contained a combined washing-machine and wringer. Thus, the lifestyle experienced within this house combined modernity with traditionalism.

Victorian Bournemouth (196): imperial connections

Woolloomooloo

Amongst a list of properties offered at auction, the name ‘Woolloomooloo’ perhaps caught the eye. An early suburb of Sydney, Woolloomooloo at one point had contained houses of the well-to-do. This house stood in East Cliff area, also inhabited by prosperous people. In 1891, the census listed the property’s occupant as Eliza Wentworth, then 49, living on a private income. She gave her birthplace as Sydney. In 1871, she had lived on Exeter Road together with her family. Involvement of mortgagees in 1887 would suggest hardship, but by 1891, Eliza had perhaps reclaimed the house. Her father had left a fortune and she had money. She may have wanted to flourish her Australian identity. Her father, William Charles Wentworth, had strode across the history of New South Wales. He played an instrumental role in the emancipation of the colonies. Though divisive, many saw him as a hero.

Horns of Africa

Albert Ames Dance (1855-1932) occupied Argyle Lodge, Surrey Road, Westbourne, around 1883-1887. Here, he and his wife, baptised three sons. Dance described himself as a ‘gentleman’. Earlier, however, both he and his father had travelled as hawkers. Other evidence suggests that they travelled in cloth. Dance had married in Durban, 1877, his wife the daughter of an impoverished schoolteacher and a gentleman’s daughter, they having emigrated to Africa. Late in 1887, the Dances may have left Bournemouth at short notice, Argyle Lodge remaining unoccupied until 1891. They headed for Australia, Dance later listed as a traveller in Tasmania (1919). Behind them, amongst their house contents listed for sale, lay clues to their lifestyle. Argyle contained much oak furniture, ‘highly superior’ drawing room fixtures, and a ‘rich Wilton’ carpet. Perhaps most prominent, however, featured ‘a valuable collection of antelope horns’ (at least seven types) and ‘a number of assegais’.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (196) has demonstrated how close attention to inventories included within auctioneers’ advertisements can deliver a rich harvest. Setting certain household items and artefacts against the social position of identified inhabitants adds accent and colour to cultural history.

References

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