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PROPERTY FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF THE MARQUESSES OF LONDONDERRY (LOTS 87-90)These four paintings are rare illustrations of the Londonderry family’s most important contribution to the North-East of England through the introduction of a harbour, railway, blast furnaces and colliery. On 28 November 1828 the foundation stone of Seaham Harbour was laid accompanied by a 34-gun salute and elaborate celebrations. This highly skilful feat of engineering had previously been regarded as impossible because of the solid cliff face from which the harbour was eventually created. Its remarkable success, which became apparent almost immediately, led to the subsequent opening of a colliery at Seaham, and a railway linking the port to the Sunderland line was begun in 1853. In 1821 the population of Seaham was listed as 138, but by 1860 it had risen to 10,000, proving the success of the Londonderrys’ labours. The opportunity for, and subsequent scale and success of this ambitious programme of industrialisation came about through a highly significant Londonderry marriage. In 1819 Charles William Vane, Lord Stewart, married Lady Frances Anne, only daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest of Wynyard and Longnewton. Subsequently Lord Stewart assumed the name of Vane. In 1821 the Seaham estate had been purchased by Lord and Lady Stewart from Sir Ralph Milbanke; the following year, on the death of his half-brother, Lord Stewart succeeded as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. Through her family Lady Frances Anne had inherited coal pits near Durham and in the Rainton and Pittington districts, contributing to over a quarter of the coal shipped from Sunderland at that time. After their marriage the Londonderrys developed their coal industry, and in 1827 were honoured by a visit to their collieries from the Duke of Wellington, who Lord Londonderry had fought with in the Iberian Peninsula. The first (lot 87) illustrates the laying of the foundation stone of Seaham Harbour by the 3rd Marquess on 28 November 1828. The Marquess can be seen wearing a blue coat sitting in a special railway carriage along with members of his family including his wife and son on his left. The Marchioness is wearing an elaborate red and white bonnet, and their young son, Lord Seaham, is standing beside them. The railway carriage used to transport Lord Londonderry’s party to the dockside, was mounted on four colliery wagon wheels. It was known as the ‘Wellington Car’ after its initial creation for the Duke of Wellington’s visit in 1827, but was often used afterwards by the Londonderrys for visiting the harbour and town. The foundation stone for the harbour, seen being lowered in the foreground of the painting, was a block of sandstone from the Penshaw Quarry which belonged to Lord Londonderry, and on its interment the Marquess was presented by his agent, Mr John Buddle of Wallsend, with a silver trowel, the handle of which was formed of polished Rainton coal. John Buddle can be seen in the painting standing on the raised platform holding the trowel. To his left stand William Chapman, the engineer of the harbour, who holds architectural plans, and John Dobson, the architect for the harbour and town, in a yellow waistcoat. The band that played throughout the ceremony was made from workmen from Rainton Collieries. After the laying of the harbour foundation stone, the party moved to the site of the new town where Lord Seaham, then only seven years old, laid the foundation stone of the first house, the trowel he would have used was engraved with the the letter V below an earl's coronet for George, 2nd Earl Vane (formerly Lord Seaham). The construction of the harbour lasted three years, finally being completed in 1831 and cost the Londonderrys a vast sum approaching £200,000. Models of many of the Londonderry ships, which would have sailed from the completed harbour, were displayed at Wynyard Park. The second (lot 88) illustrates Lord Londonderry digging the first turf for his Londonderry Seaham and Sunderland Railway on 8 February 1853 aged seventy-five. At the opening he made a speech concluding that “If I live to see this last project successfully accomplished, I shall cheerfully lay my head upon my pillow and resign life, conscious that, so far as concerns those who interests providence has committed to my care, I have, to the fullest extent of my means, discharged the duty which had developed upon me” (quoted by C.A. Smith, Sunderland Echo, 1 January 1965). Sadly he did not live to see the finalisation of the scheme or its subsequent success, as he died in March the following year. Seaham Hall is visible on the horizon in the upper left-hand corner of the painting, where the present and the proceeding painting are recorded as hanging in 1854. In the painting Lord Londonderry is depicted with a silver spade and a mahogany wheelbarrow, the Londonderrys had an antique Carolean flagon embellished and engraved to commemorate the occasion. The commemoration of the Crimean War in Seaham, illustrated in the third (lot 89) , took place on 31 July 1858. An article in The Illustrated London News, dated 28 August 1858, described the ceremony in which a 38-pound Russian cannon was erected on a stone pedestal in the centre of the town in front of two thousand inhabitants. In the viewing platform Lady Londonderry (in blue and white) was accompanied by the Earl and Countess Vane, Lord Ravensworth, Lord Adolphus Vane Tempest, the Countess of Portarlington and the Misses Longley. After the official uncovering of the gun, Lady Londonderry gave a speech in which she commented that 'It is encouraging and cheering to find my humble efforts to improve this place have been appreciated: and it is most satisfactory to watch its increased prosperity and importance during my care and tenancy. While I thankfully acknowledge the progress and contemplate the rise with pride and pleasure, believe me I take no merit for any little share I may have had in this, for it is my happiness as well as my duty to direct my best energies to the welfare of a place which I have watched from its commencement, thirty years ago, and received as a sacred legacy from its founder, to whose name it remains as a touching monument that all connected with him may well feel proud of.' In the background of the painting can be seen the lighthouse, clock tower and offices which still stand. Earl Vane was Colonel Commandant of the 2nd Durham Seaham Artillery Brigade, whose men presented him with a magnificent silver gilt cup and cover in 1872 '... in Testimony of their high regard for him...'. The opening of the blast furnaces at Seaham is illustrated in the final picture (lot 90). On 12 December 1859 the Marchioness of Londonderry laid the foundation stone for the Seaham Harbour Blast Furnaces at a site near Dawdon Hill Farm, and by 1862 it was a fully functioning site. Lady Londonderry was presented with a silver trowel, in commemoration of this momentous occasion, which may well be the trowel she used. The furnaces were supplied with coal from Seaham Colliery and iron ore from Cleveland which was brought by rail on the Londonderry Seaham and Sunderland railway which lead straight into the furnaces. The Londonderry Bottleworks can be seen in the background of the painting, where bottles were made and sent to London every week. In 1861 Benjamin Disraeli visited the site and commented: ‘This is a remarkable place, and our hostess a remarkable woman. Twenty miles hence she has a palace [Wynyard] in a vast park…But she prefers living in a hall on the shores of the German Ocean [North Sea], surrounded by her collieries, and her blast-furnaces, and her railroads, and unceasing telegraphs, with a port hewn out of the solid rock, screw steamers and four thousand pitmen under her control. One day she dined the whole 4,000 in one of the factories. In the town of Seaham Harbour, a mile off, she has a regular office, a fine stone building with her name and arms in front, and her flag flying above; and here she transacts, with innumerable agents, immense business – and I remember her five-and twenty years ago, a mere fine lady; nay, the finest in London! But one must find excitement if one has brains’ (Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry (ed.), Letters from Benjamin Disraeli to Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry, 1837–1861, London, 1938, p. 268.) Little is known about the artists of the four paintings. Robert Mackreth was a tax inspector and amateur artist, who moved to Newcastle from Kent in 1823. Three oil sketches of the construction of Seaham Harbour were on loan to the Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery from 1956 until 1997. Following the Museums Act in 1846 the Sunderland Corporation was one of the first local authorities outside London to establish a museum, and one of their first acquisitions was a commission from Mark Thompson, another local artist, who recorded on canvas the opening of the new South Dock at Seaham in 1850, for which he was paid thirty guineas. The painting is still in the collection alongside other works by Thompson including two other views of the South Dock dated 1853 and 1856.
Robert Mackreth (1766-1860)
The laying of the foundation stone of Seaham Harbour, Co. Durham
Details
Robert Mackreth (1766-1860)
The laying of the foundation stone of Seaham Harbour, Co. Durham
indistinctly signed, inscribed and dated '...STONE LAID Nov 28 1828/ Robt Mackreth' (lower centre)
oil on canvas
36 x 60 in. (91.5 x 152.5 cm.)
The laying of the foundation stone of Seaham Harbour, Co. Durham
indistinctly signed, inscribed and dated '...STONE LAID Nov 28 1828/ Robt Mackreth' (lower centre)
oil on canvas
36 x 60 in. (91.5 x 152.5 cm.)
Provenance
Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (1778-1854) and Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry (1800-1865), and by descent until
The Raglan Collection and Works of Art from the Collection of the Marquesses of Londonderry; Christie’s, London, 22-23 May 2014, lot 534, where purchased by the present owner.
The Raglan Collection and Works of Art from the Collection of the Marquesses of Londonderry; Christie’s, London, 22-23 May 2014, lot 534, where purchased by the present owner.
Literature
Seaham Hall inventory, 1854, dining room, ‘A painting representing the laying of the foundation stone of the harbour of Seaham’.
Wynyard Park inventory, 1965, vol. ii, p. 116.
Wynyard Park inventory, 1965, vol. ii, p. 116.
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