The statue of a Georgian high-society mistress has her beauty restored at Knole House in Kent, and a traditional Lake District farmhouse undergoes a makeover, as two very different family stories are revealed in episode two.
In the rolling Kent downs just 20 miles from central London lies a sprawling Tudor palace - Knole House. For over 400 years Knole has been the ancestral seat of the influential Sackville family. Now several rare artefacts that tell this family’s story need essential conservation work to preserve them for the future.
The first is a risqué tribute to a Georgian playboy’s mistress: a life-size plaster statue depicting a naked and elegantly coiffed Italian ballet dancer, Giovana Zanerini, nicknamed ‘La Baccelli’, lying in a seductive pose. The piece was commissioned by her lover John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, and lay in pride of place at Knole for many years before being banished to the attics after he married the more socially acceptable Arabella Cope. Now La Baccelli is back on display, conservator Ana Logreira is attempting to slow the ageing process and restore her legendary looks.
Another heirloom that has spent years hidden away at Knole is a set of 400-year-old hand-painted ‘pedigrees’ - elaborately painted family trees. These are so delicate that they haven’t been unrolled for many years, and the job of carefully unravelling and preserving them falls to specialist paper conservator Graeme Gardiner. Meanwhile curator Eleanor Black investigates exactly why the Sackville family commissioned them and uncovers a story of lost fortunes and contested inheritances.
At the other end of the social scale is the traditional Lake District farmhouse, Townend. Yeoman farming family the Brownes lived there for 12 generations and left a hugely valuable archive, covering 400 years of the history of this remote corner of Cumbria. Now a key part of the archive needs saving: a bound volume letters from Ben Browne, who went to seek his fortune in London in the 18th century, written to his family.
Using traditional book binding skills conservator Ann-Marie Miller will attempt to save the letters for the future, while Townend’s house manager Emma Wright delves into the stories they hold - and discovers a Georgian family drama worthy of any soap opera.
Outside at Townend, scientific paint analysis has revealed the house’s original Victorian paint scheme. Father and son decorator team, David and Daniel Clegg, are restoring the paintwork to how it looked over 100 years ago - though not everyone is convinced by the Browne’s choice of colour…
Publicity contact: CB
