075/06
23 May 2006
Culture Minister Defers Export Of Learned Norfolk Cleric William Gunn Who Officiated At The Illegal Marriage Of George III's Son Augustus
Culture Minister, David Lammy, has placed a temporary export bar on the archive of Reverend William Gunn. This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the archive in the United Kingdom.
The Minister's ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, run by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the archive is of outstanding significance for the study of history, art history and antiquarian scholarship in both a national and regional context.
The archive includes an extensive sequence of incoming letters from a variety of correspondents, volumes of Gunn's diary of his Grand Tour in France and Italy in 1792-3, and legal papers involving the claim of Augustus Frederick d'Este, son of Augustus Frederick and Lady Augusta Murray whom Gunn had married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act, to the Dukedom of Suffolk. The letters provide an exceptionally detailed picture of Norfolk society, ranging from comment on Norfolk neighbours Lord and Lady Nelson and the revolutionary atmosphere of the 1790s to gossip about marriage and property transactions. They shed light on a number of correspondents including fellow antiquarians of Gunn and sculptor and illustrator, John Flaxman. The diaries of the Grand Tour are of exceptional art historical and wider interest, reflecting Gunn's own extensive knowledge of art and architecture and illuminating a key period when Europe was descending into war. The papers relating to Gunn's involvement in the marriage of Augustus Frederick and Lady Augusta Murray will fascinate royal and court historians.
The decision on the export licence application for the archive will be deferred for a period ending on 22 July inclusive. This period may be extended until 22 October inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the archive at the recommended price of £83,050 is expressed.
Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the archive should contact the owner's agent through:
The Secretary,
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest,
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council,
Victoria House,
Southampton Row,
London, WC1B 4EA.
Notes to Editors
1. From April 2005, responsibility for administering the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) was passed by DCMS to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Media enquiries on the operation and casework arising from RCEWA and from the Acceptance in Lieu and Government Indemnity Schemes and the export licence system should go to Sharene Chatfield on 020 7273 1459, email sharene.chatfield@mla.gov.uk
2. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, run by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.
3. Pictures of these items can be downloaded free of charge from the MLA site on Pixmedia. Please go to: http://www.pixmedia.co.uk/25/image/3140
4. William Gunn (1750-1841) was a Church of England clergyman and antiquary: an archetypal scholar-parson of his period. The archive includes: (1) an extensive sequence of his incoming correspondence, with a few of his retained letters; over 1000 letters in all, dating between 1774 and the 1830s, most closely written over several pages and subsequently bound into nine volumes; (2) five volumes of his diaries and one of his wife's while they were travelling in Europe in 1792-3: and (3) legal papers arising from his having officiated at the clandestine marriage of Prince Augustus Frederick, 6th son of George III.
5. The archive provides an exceptionally detailed picture of Norfolk society during an extended period from the late 18th to the early 19th century, both in its local workings, and in illustrating the impact of larger events on the region. Of particular interest are the letters from Gunn's fellow Norfolk antiquaries, Sir John Fenn, the first editor of the Paston letters and his wife Ellinor (Frere), the children's author, and Antony Norris of Barton Hall and his wife Sarah. Letters from London include much literary and cultural comment: on Sir Peter Pindar, Samuel Johnson and his circle and Jane Austen's Emma, amongst others.
6. Gunn was a significant connoisseur, antiquary and writer on art and architecture in his own right. He was the editor in 1803 of extracts of 16th century state papers on matters relating to England from the Vatican, and of a 10th century manuscript of Nennius, `Historia Britonnum', which he also discovered in the Vatican Library and published in 1819, and author of An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture (1819), and of Cartonensia, or an Historical and Critical Account of the Tapestries in the Palace of the Vatican, copied from the Designs of Raphael (1831). His diaries contain descriptions of the works of art he encountered and of the researches in Italian libraries which resulted in his published works.
7. In addition there are many letters from local agents documenting Gunn's collecting of old master paintings, engravings and drawings, and giving news of wider events, including the progress of the Revolutionary armies in Italy and the tourist and artistic communities there. Of particular importance are two sequences of correspondence. The first consists of 38 letters from the sculptor and illustrator, John Flaxman, with accounts of his own activities in Rome, much architectural and artistic comment, illustrated with pen and ink sketches, and discussion of the St Paul's Cathedral naval monuments and other public commissions. The second consists of 60 letters from the botanist, antiquary and collector, Dawson Turner, and includes detailed discussion of the antiquarian and architectural interests he held in common with Gunn.
8. As a result of his involvement in the secret marriage of Augustus, younger son of George III, to Lady Augusta Murray in 1793, in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act, Gunn and his son in succession were appointed the Duke's chaplains in recognition of this personal service. The archive includes two volumes of printed and manuscript records, including letters from the Duke and his son, Augustus Frederick d'Este, concerning the claim of the latter to the Dukedom of Sussex, in which Gunn, at the age of 80, found himself called as a key witness.
9. Gunn's diaries and a small number of the letters were used by Michael Riviere in his article, `A Norfolk Parson on the Grand Tour', in Norfolk Archaeology, 1965, and this in turn has formed the basis for Gunn's inclusion in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and in J. Ingamells, Dictionary of English and Irish Travellers in Italy 1700-1800 (1997). But the bulk of the correspondence in this archive has not been included in any study of his career, or in those of his most important correspondents.
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