Sir Richard Wallace was quite a
mysterious character and we don't really know that much about him. The rumour goes, that he was the illegitimate son of the young fourth Marquess. He grew up as a
private secretary to the fourth Marquess and together they collected the most
extraordinary collection of works of art, furniture, paintings, sculpture. They kept
it in their homes in Paris, but lo and behold in 1870 when the 4th Marquess died he left a whole collection to Richard Wallace. Rather than just sitting on it
and not doing anything with it, Richard Wallace was very keen to add to it. So he bought a collection of arms and armour, one of the greatest collections
you could possibly get at the time. He also bought works of art, sculpture, and
sometimes respecting his opposed father's taste but sometimes going in a
very different direction. This is quite a peculiar object at first sight it shows
an ostrich made out of silver holding a horseshoe in its beak. It's actually a
great example of 16th century Augsburg silversmith and it was acquired by
Richard Wallace. The concept of the ostrich holding a horseshoe actually goes
right back to the antique when it was believed that ostriches could digest
metal and what's interesting about this piece is that Richard Wallace acquired
it probably because of its sheer beauty - the way the feathers are captured,
the little claws, the neck. It's quite a grand looking piece. But when he
was made baronet by Queen Victoria in 1871 he decided to take up as his coat
of arms, the head of the ostrich holding a horseshoe - and in a way this is quite
a sort of biographical piece - yes he might have loved it as a very beautiful work
of art, but also he might have seen himself in that horseshoe These two, 18th century Chinese wine cups are hugely important. There are four in the world and we have two of them. They were used
by the Qianlong Emperor to celebrate the Chinese New Year during a sophisticated
and highly symbolic ceremony that took place in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The cups are very elaborate - one is made of gold the other one is made of a base
metal, and this is the prototype. They are both decorated with pearls and
gemstones and this beautiful vibrant blue color is of Kingfisher feathers. The
cups were bought by Sir Richard Wallace in Paris in 1872 and they are described
in the sale catalogue as coming from the summer palace - and I think Sir
Wallace was attracted to their artistic and decorative qualities and their exoticism. This is one of the most surprising pieces that Richard Wallace bought. It's a bell from the 11th century made in Ireland and it's known as the bell
of Saint Mura and that's because it came from a monastery in County Donegal. And
it was regarded as a divine object. The special part of it is the way it is
configured with this crucifix in the middle with the rock crystal as the body
of Christ and the red amber as the wounds of Christ - there would have been
amber here and here as well. An object like this - there's none like this in this
country, it's quite rare, and this is a unique piece - and it's astounding to
think that it's here at the Wallace Collection. Not many people know that the
Wallace Collection has a masterpiece of African art - a trophy head. It's a truly
spectacular object made of gold. It's an important artefact of the kingdom of
Asante, now Ghana which had control over the largest resources of gold in West
Africa. It probably depicts a high-status defeated enemy. We don't
really know when it was made - probably in the 19th century- but it could also be
earlier. The head was probably attached to a
ceremonial sword and we know it was in the Royal Palace in Kumasi, the capital
of the Asante Kingdom. Sir Richard Wallace bought it in London in 1874 and I think
he was attracted to its royal provenance and also its artistic values. I see this
one of the highlights of Sir Richard Wallace's collection and a great example
of his wide collecting interests. Sir Richard was was very keen to share
the collection with everybody, and proof of that is the Bethnal Green Museum
exhibition to which he lent the whole collection for two years and to which
five million visitors came. Throughout his lifetime people visited it - artists
composers, bankers, finances - all types of people. But deep down he knew that one
day this collection should become a public collection. It seems that he
instructed his wife to give the collection to the nation, which pretty
much marks it as the greatest ever give to the nation and today were very keen
to respect Richard Wallace's ethos. We remain free of charge anybody can
come in whenever they want between 10:00 and 5:00 we still cataloging the
collection - researching it. And the beauty of this collection is it is still relatively
virgin in terms of knowing it well, so our job has to maintain it, to preserve
it for future generations. We are celebrating Sir Richard Wallace's 200th anniversary and to celebrate the man we will be organising an exhibition, in our
newly refurbished spaces, dedicated to what he brought to the collection in
terms of works of art, arms and armour, and paintings. The exhibition runs from the
20 June 2018 and closes on the 6th of January 2019.
