STUDY PROGRAMMES AT ARDGOWAN
2012
A forty-minute drive west of Glasgow, Ardgowan House was built between 1797 and 1801 for Sir John Shaw Stewart, the 4th baronet.
Set in a tranquil 400-acre park at the mouth of the River Clyde, today Ardgowan is home to Lady Shaw Stewart and her son, Sir Ludovic, the 12th baronet.
Accommodation at Ardgowan is in sumptuously appointed bedrooms, many of which retain their original mahogany and satinwood furniture by Gillows of Lancaster.
The house contains Napoleonic memorabilia acquired by Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, the 6th baronet, as well as a good collection of Old Masters and family
portraits which were arranged a few years ago by Alec Cobbe in an authentic recreation of an eighteenth-century "hang".
The dining room has an important group of works by Sir Henry Raeburn as well as a portrait of the builder of the house by Pompeo Batoni.
You will be sure of a warm welcome from Cindy Shaw Stewart and her staff as you settle in to enjoy entertaining and informative lectures
and study sessions with leading experts.
The Hamilton Collections: Mary, Queen of Scots, Napoleon and William Beckford The Dukes of Hamilton were prodigious collectors. This course studies Hamilton Palace, demolished in the 1920s. Works of art and interiors
from the palace, which was the most important house in Scotland, are scattered among collections in Britain and the US, and a recently launched project will
recreate the palace on an interactive website. The programme includes visits to some of the remaining Hamilton houses including Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran,
followed by lunch at a Hamilton shooting lodge on the island. Works of art to be studied include the French sixteenth-century silver casket reputed to
have contained the letters that incriminated Mary Queen of Scots, the Lennoxlove toilet service made in the 1660s and treasures amassed by the eccentric aesthete
William Beckford. Speakers include Bet Macleod, co-curator of the exhibition, William Beckford, an Eye for the Magnificent, Godfrey Evans, Principal
Curator of European Applied Art at National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, Caroline Knight, Lady Shaw Stewart and Christopher Hartop. Participants in the programme
will meet in Edinburgh in the morning on the first day and have lunch at Lennoxlove, one of the seats of the present Duke of Hamilton, before travelling to the site
of Hamilton Palace, the mausoleum built by the 10th Duke, and Châtelhéraut, the exquisite rococo hunting lodge built by the 5th Duke (1703–1743),
arriving at Ardgowan in time for dinner. The programme concludes after lunch on the third day, with a coach transfer back to Edinburgh. Transfers to Glasgow or
Prestwick airport can be arranged at extra cost.
Price per person £1,440 incl. VAT
Collecting Antique Silver: Secrets of the Experts Join experts Christopher Hartop and Juliet Nusser for a two-night, three-day course including hands-on practical sessions on many
aspects of silver connoisseurship. The sessions will help you to identify English, Scottish and Irish silver marks, to "read" a coat of arms
engraved on silver and to spot fakes and forgeries. A practical look at trends in styles and techniques through the centuries, together with lots of
opportunities to examine and handle silver, are included. A highlight will be a visit to Mount Stuart on the nearby Isle of Bute with a study session
devoted to the Bute Collection, one of the most important collections of English, Scottish and Irish silver in private hands. The course starts at Ardgowan
with lunch on the first day, and concludes after lunch on the third day.
Price per person: £960 incl. VAT
Lecturers for 2012 Godfrey Evans is the Principal Curator of European Applied Art at National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, and the author of a highly acclaimed PhD on
Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767–1852), as a patron and collector. He has built up an important collection of items relating to the Dukes of Hamilton and
William Beckford at the national museum in Edinburgh, which includes the travelling service of Napoleon’s sister Princess Pauline Borghese, half of the Emperor
Napoleon’s stupendous 1810 marriage service and the Hamilton-Rothschild tazza. Dr Evans is currently working with staff at the University of Glasgow on a number
of Hamilton-related projects and preparing articles and a book on the later Dukes of Hamilton. Christopher Hartop FSA is a well-known author and lecturer on silver and the history of dining. His books include The Huguenot
Legacy: English Silver 1680–1760 (1996), Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell & Bridge (2005), British and Irish Silver in the Fogg Art Museum,
Harvard University Art Museums (2006), A Noble Feast (2007), and The Classical Ideal: English Silver 1760–1840 (2010). He was Executive
Vice President of Christie’s New York until 1999, and Chairman of the Silver Society 2002–3 and 2009–11. Caroline Knight FSA is an independent lecturer in British architectural history, specialising in the 16th to 18th century. She leads a
course at the Victoria and Albert Museum, "The Visual Arts in Europe: High Renaissance to Baroque, 1500–1720". She has written a history of Kensington Palace and
London’s Country Houses, published in 2009, on the architectural and social history of 16th–18th century villas round London and has contributed to
two books on architectural and social history. Bet McLeod FSA is currently undertaking research for her PhD on the European Ceramics in the Collections of the Dukes of Hamilton.
She has previously worked as a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum and at the British Museum. Bet has researched, lectured and published widely on the
collections of Horace Walpole and William Beckford. She was a co-curator of the William Beckford exhibition in New York and London (2000-1) and is editor
of the Beckford Journal. Juliet Nusser is the co-author of Miller’s Guide to Collecting Silver (1998) and The Art of Drinking, a Victoria and
Albert Museum book published in 2006. She was head of the silver department at Christie’s East in New York from 1989 to 1999. Cindy Shaw Stewart DL has lectured widely on the history of country houses and their interiors and furniture. When her marriage to
the late Sir Houston Shaw Stewart brought her to Ardgowan, she joined the Executive of the National Trust for Scotland, and later served as a Trustee of the
Royal Collection Trust. She is currently a Sir William Burrell Trustee (Burrell Collection), and is also a trustee of the Chatsworth House Trust and
Chairman of the Textile Conservation Centre in Glasgow. In 2008 she was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Renfrewshire. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
SALLY GIBSON
TEL: +44 (0)1475 521656
e-mail: info@ardgowan.co.uk
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