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Barbara Follett puts temporary export bar on watercolours of 19th century ‘medieval’ tournament of ‘outstanding significance’ to Scottish social history

120/09
15 September 2009

Culture Minister, Barbara Follett, has placed a temporary export bar on a set of twenty watercolours by James Henry Nixon depicting scenes from The Eglinton Tournament, an important event in nineteenth-century Scottish social history and British artistic taste. This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the watercolours 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, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the watercolours are so closely connected with our history and national life that their departure would be a misfortune, and that they are of outstanding significance for the study of Scottish social history and of the Gothic Revival in 19th-century Britain.

The Eglinton Tournament, which took place over three days in August 1839, was a remarkable manifestation of the nineteenth-century British fascination with all things medieval. Privately funded by Lord Eglinton at a cost of £40,000 and held in front of the castle on his Ayrshire estate, the spectacle included a procession, jousting by tilt and melée, a banquet and a ball. It was attended by 100,000 people who travelled from across Britain, Europe and even America on newly-built railways and steamships. The event captured the imagination of a public whose appetite for recreating the Age of Chivalry had been whetted by authors such as Horace Walpole and Sir Walter Scott. It drew attention to Scottish heritage and helped to fan the flames of the Gothic Revival.

Little is known about James Henry Nixon, except that he was artistic partner in a London stained-glass firm during the revival of stained-glass design and manufacture which flourished in the nineteenth century. He made the watercolours to be used by lithographers for a folio account of the Eglinton tournament which was published in 1843. They provide a comprehensive and detailed record of the event, and the published lithographs were accompanied by text identifying the people depicted and describing their costumes. The blue skies which appear in the background probably represent artistic licence because, in true British fashion, the first day of the tournament was deluged by torrential rain.

Pamela Robertson, Reviewing Committee member, said: “These remarkably detailed and lively watercolours document an important event in Scottish social history, and, in their published form, played a crucial role in popularising the Eglinton Tournament.”

The decision on the export licence application for the watercolours will be deferred for a period ending on 14 November inclusive. This period may be extended until 14 February inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the watercolours at the recommended price of £85,100.47 (including VAT) is expressed.

Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the watercolours 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
Wellcome Wolfson Building
165 Queen’s Gate
South Kensington
London
SW7 5HD

Telephone 020 7273 8270

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Notes to Editors

  1. Media enquiries on the operation of and casework arising from the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) should  be directed to Senior Media Relations Adviser,  Sunita Sharma, on 020 7273 8299, email: sunita.sharma@mla.gov.uk

  2. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced 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. The set of twenty watercolours by James Henry Nixon (1802-1857) depicting the Eglinton Tournament of 1839 were drawn in pencil on individual sheets, with watercolour, highlighted with gouache and touches of gold. They are in part unfinished, with decorative borders, as they were made to be used by the lithographers Day & Hague for a deluxe folio account of the tournament published by Colnaghi and Puckle in London 1843: A series of views representing the Tournament held at Eglinton Castle in the year 1839 from drawings made on the spot expressly for this work by J H Nixon with historical and descriptive notices by the Rev. John Richardson LLB. Most of the drawings are signed; some are dated 1840 or 1841; each measures approximately 34 x 50 cm.

  4. Further information about the event, the artist, and the watercolours, including images, be found at the Abbott and Holder website.

Press Enquiries: 020 7211 6052/6277
Out of hours telephone pager no: 07699 751153
Public Enquiries: 020 7211 6200

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