James Harvey d'Egville's Art Collection

The Morning Chronicle 29 June 1820
The British Library Board

I apologise for the quality of the image; the left-hand side has been lost in the digitisation process. I haven't looked into why James might have moved out of Great Marlborough Street and sold at least part of his art collection.

It would be interesting to try and discover what became of some of these paintings and their provenance. The collection appears to contain some important pieces. For example, Gapard Dughet (1615-1675) was known as Gaspard Poussin because he was Nicolas Poussin's pupil and brother-in-law. His Italianate landscape with goat herders was sold by Sotheby's for £12,500 in 2010.

While being "Old Masters" they aren't the most desirable or most expensive in today's market. In 1820 they might have had greater relative value or, for all I know, have been used as tinder.

If "Aglio" is Agostino Aglio it is possible that he was part of James' circle. Aglio worked in the decoration of theatres, churches and country houses in England and Ireland. Jame's son, James, who became a watercolourist worked in the studio of Augustus Pugin. His home must have provided some inspiration and might have provided role models for his future career.

Mrs Samuel Dies At Her Newphew's Great Marlborough Street Home

The Gentleman's Magazine, April 1817

James' Great Marlborough Street Home

In James Hervey d'Egville's October 1814 letter to François Joseph Talma he gives his address as 49 Great Marlborough Street. The house was demolished in 1953 by which time it had become number 54. A desciption of the house has survived.

According to the ratebooks the occupants of thehouse included: Lady Winchilsea, widow of Charles Finch, the fourth Earl, 1716; Lord Compton, 1717–24 (? James, Baron Compton,later the fifth Earl of Northampton); the Duchessof Northumberland, 1726–8 (the 'Countess' in 1726); General Compton, 1729–40; CharlesCompton, 1741–55 (? the father of the seventh Earl of Northampton); Sir Piercy Brett, 1768–1781; Lady Brett, 1782–8; Mr. and Mrs.William Siddons, the actress and her husband,1790–1804.

No. 54 was demolished in 1953. It was a large house with a plan divided by internal walls into four compartments (fig. 52). The front room,three windows wide, was west of the staircase hall,two windows wide and two storeys high. Behind the front room was a room of similar size but having two windows and a corner fireplace. The top-lit service stair was at the back of the mains taircase, leaving space for a small back room, or closet. The front was four storeys high, the attic being an addition, and five windows wide. The originally plain brick face had been dressed with cement to provide a horizontally jointed face to the ground storey, and moulded architraves to the first- and second-floor windows. The cornice below the attic was probably original and was aligned with that on the fronts of Nos. 51–52. The finest internal feature was the staircase, which before alteration rose in three flights, short, long,short, round an oblong well to a gallery landing on the first floor (Plate 142a, fig. 53). In its general details the balustrade resembled others in the street, including No. 12 on the north side, inhaving fluted Corinthian column newels, turned and twisted balusters, and carved bracket stepends. Here, however, the balustrade of the shortfirst flight was swept out in a bold quadrant curve,and the face of the landing gallery was treated asan entablature, having an enriched architrave and an ogee-profiled frieze carved with scrolled foliage and, beneath the central newel, a draped female head. (ref. 107)

From: 'Great Marlborough Street Area', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 250-267. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41476  Date accessed: 19 April 2011.