FURNITURE
Thomas Hope: Regency Designer
21 March - 22 June 2008
Final Few Weeks
Exhibitions, Room 38
Thomas Hope's influential role as a designer, design reformer and collector in the early 19th century is explored in this exhibition. His extensive Grand Tour travels in Europe, Greece, Turkey and Egypt inspired his interest in antiquities as a source of designs for Regency interiors, furniture and metalwork. In 1799 he bought a house designed by Robert Adam in Duchess Street, Portland Place, London, which he remodelled with a series of themed interiors.
He published views of his house and his designs, with details of his sources, in a book, Household Furniture and Decoration (1807). As part of Hope's campaign to improve the taste of designers and craftsmen, the book had black and white illustrations, to reduce costs, and he included a scale for his furniture designs.
The scope of Hope's influence is shown in the exhibition through sculpture, painting, furniture, interior design, and silver. Also on display are copies of his books on design, architecture and costume. The exhibition includes partial recreations of three interiors from Duchess Street: the sombre Vase Room, the exotic Egyptian Room, and the elegant Aurora Room.
Hope's country house, The Deepdene, Surrey, was equally unconventional and distinctive. He remodelled the original Georgian house, adding a loggia-topped Italianate tower and a wing at right angles to the main front, with terraces and extensive gardens giving views across the surrounding hills. In the exhibition a series of watercolours show the assymetrical building and picturesque setting Hope created at Deepdene, with sculpture and furniture he bought for the house.
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Thomas Hope
Thomas Hope was a man with a vision. He was determined to reform contemporary taste by returning architecture and the arts, including interior design and furniture, to what he conceived as the spirit of classical purity.
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Duchess Street
The interiors created by Hope at his London house in Duchess Street, off Portland Place, were the fullest expression of his mission to transform modern British taste.
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Interior Decoration, The Deepdene & Influence
As part of his ambition to reform modern domestic interiors and furnishings, Hope published Household Furniture and Interior Decoration in 1807. He illustrated the book with his own designs and included measurements to help cabinet-makers and craftsmen make their own versions.
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Thomas Hope: Design a Room
Design your own room with this online activity which features Thomas Hope's own room designs from his 1807 book, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration.
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Thomas Hope: Tickets & Visitor Information
Find out exhibition opening time, visitor information and book tickets online.
This exhibition was organised by The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, New York, in cooperation with the V&A. Support for this project has been generously provided by: Hyde Park Antiques, Ltd.; the Leon Levy Foundation; Lord Rothschild; Mr. and Mrs. Raphael Bernstein, Dr. H. Woody Brock, and members of the Levy family, in honor of Wendy Levy; Mrs. Russell B. Aitken; Friends of the BADA Trust; Carlton Hobbs; and an anonymous donor.
The exhibition in London has been generously supported by:
Hotspur Ltd
Jeremy Ltd
John Keil Ltd
Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd
Pelham London and Paris
Ronald Phillips Ltd
With additional support from Bruno Schroder
With kind support from
