A house of treasures
In the house at Paxton you will see the possessions and taste of the Home family, acquired over several centuries from the 1550s to the 1980s. The height of their fortune was in the 18th century and so the house allows us a remarkable view into the life and taste of a wealthy Georgian family living on the Border between Scotland and England and their connections with plantations in the Caribbean. Paxton House is particularly celebrated for its two Nationally Recognised collections of furniture, its outstanding costume collection and its art collection, on loan from National Galleries Scotland.
Only the best
Paxton House is home to two pre-eminent nationally important collections of furniture. The first commissioned from England’s most celebrated cabinetmaker, Thomas Chippendale and his son, by Ninian Home from 1774-91, and the second, commissioned from Scotland’s premier cabinetmaker, William Trotter, by George Home and Nancy Stephens in the Regency period. Today you can see the original furniture in the rooms for which it was designed.
Thomas Chippendale
Ninian Home commissioned Chippendale, Haig and Co. to decorate and furnish his home ‘in a neat but not expensive manner’ between 1774- 1791. Thomas Chippendale and his prestigious firm of cabinet makers, Chippendale, Haig and Co, furnished the house with a wide variety of exquisitely made chairs, cabinets, desks, beds, clothes presses, tables as well as soft furnishings at a time when he and his son were at the height of their success. The Chippendale firm undertook a complete interior design scheme for the Dining Room and Drawing Room, supplying hand-painted wallpaper and enormous pier glass mirrors from Paris.
William Trotter
William Trotter is Scotland’s most outstanding cabinetmaker of all time. A crucial figure in the Edinburgh New Town, he had showrooms on Princes Street. His furniture was typically made to be hired out to clients renting houses in the New Town of Edinburgh.
Paxton was Trotter’s largest country house commission with 40 fully documented pieces made for the new wing added by George Home in 1812-15, of which 30 remain in situ. His furniture at Paxton, mostly in rosewood, is the world’s largest publicly accessible collection of his work.
Grand Tour collection
Patrick Home, the builder of Paxton, was sent abroad in 1748, shortly after the Jacobite Uprising, by his mother at the age of 20 to broaden his education. After university in Leipzig, he headed for Berlin and later for Italy and France, particularly Paris. This fashionable adventure for young men was known as the Grand Tour, a bit like a modern gap year. Patrick undertook travels in Europe again, especially in the 1770s. While travelling Patrick acquired a large number of paintings, marbles, and souvenirs including an outstanding 16th century ebony and bone cabinet made in Naples for the Albertoni family. Several old master paintings and landscapes in the house were also collected in Europe including Rosalba Carriera’s portrait of Frederick the Great. These were shipped back to Britain and mostly remained in storage until being unpacked after his death.
The Picture Gallery
The opulent Picture Gallery is filled with a superb collection of paintings on loan from the National Galleries of Scotland. Works by celebrated 18th and 19th century Scottish artists Sir Henry Raeburn, William McTaggart and Sir William Allan can be enjoyed alongside 20th century paintings by the renowned Scottish colourists Samuel John Peploe and George Leslie Hunter, and artists with local connections to the Borders, Anne Redpath and Sir William Gillies.
Contemporary local artists are invited to show in a series of changing exhibitions in the Hayloft Gallery and in the Regency Gallery by the gift shop.
The Scottish artist, Allan Ramsay’s earliest oil painting, several works by Sir Henry Raeburn and works by British and European artists, including Rosalba Carriera, David Martin, William Shiels, Alexander Nasmyth, Francesco Fidanza, and Antonia del Massaro da Viterbo are displayed throughout Paxton House.
Patrick Home's Wardrobe
Paxton House is also home to a world class collection of nearly 400 items of historic costume. The core of the collection is 18th century men’s costume, much of it found locked in a trunk 240 years after Patrick Home returned from abroad. These clothes were worn when he was a favourite of the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia between 1749-1751. In these stunning outfits he courted his great love, Sophie de Brandt and took part in daily life at the King’s palaces. Of international importance is the exquisitely detailed fancy dress costume, embroidered with gold and silver thread, that Patrick wore for the 1750 Berlin Court Carousel, including the regalia for his horse. This is the only surviving costume from the cast of 4000 in a huge four-day spectacle, staged to welcome Frederick the Great’s sister. Other highlights of the collection include 19th century military uniforms, early 20th century ladies’ evening dress and an Elizabethan nightcap. For conservation reasons, not all costume items are on display at one time.
Library
Patrick Home, who commissioned Paxton House, acquired over 4000 rare, antiquarian, and 18th century books which are housed in the bookcases designed for them by William Trotter in the Library at Paxton. The Library forms an important historical collection supplemented by Patrick’s nephew, George Home and his descendants. Its titles illustrate the wide range of interests of the educated Georgian gentry.