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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Castell Coch, William Burges’s extraordinary Victorian fantasy castle in South Wales, is now regarded as an iconic building of the Gothic Revival (Fig. 1). It was first seriously re-appraised in 1951, by the late Professor W. G. Howell in an article on the castle, shortly after it had been handed into the care of the Ministry of Works.
The article was illustrated by an architectural model of one of the castle’s most spectacular interiors, the Marchioness of Bute’s bedroom at the top of the Keep Tower. The model then disappeared from sight for fifty years, eluding those researchers who have since revived Burges’s reputation, and it was assumed that it had been destroyed. Last year, however, the model, still in excellent condition, emerged from storage at Dumfries House, an Adam mansion near Old Cumnock in Ayrshire, which has been a Bute family property since the early nineteenth century. Although the role of architectural models is a study in itself, the rediscovery of this example casts new light upon the role models played in commissions for Lord Bute, and at what stage they were used, and as such makes it worthy of study.
1 The Architectural Review, cix (September 1951), p. 46.
2 Most notably Read, Charles Handley in Victorian Architecture, ed. Ferriday, Peter (London, 1963)Google Scholar; and Crook, J. Mordaunt, William Burges and the High Victorian Dream (London, 1981)Google Scholar.
3 See design for Lord Bute’s bed, Burges drawings collection, Cardiff Castle, 21:66, inscribed ‘A very rough full size model to be made’. See also The Architect, 14 March 1874, p. 147, ‘Our rambler at Cardiff Castle’, which refers to rough models of the furniture in situ.
4 Cardiff Castle Inventory, March 1901, castle collections MSS 1995.52, pp. 89-90.
5 McLees, David, Castell Coch, (Cardiff, 1998), p. 10 Google Scholar.
6 The Castell Coch Report, Dept. of Art, National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff.
7 The Architect, 11 April 1874, p. 220.
8 Burges drawings collection, Cardiff Castle, Roll 32:47.
9 Ibid., Roll 32:48.
10 Estimates for the decoration of the Upper Hall date from 12 March 1878 (the estimate book of William Burges, National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum). Castell Coch as it stood at the time of William Burges’ death, including the now-demolished chapel in the Well Tower, is described by R. P. Pulían in the RIBA Transactions (1881-82), pp. 190-91.
11 Bute Archives, Mount Stuart House, BU/88 the Letter book of William Frame. Letter from Frame to Thomas Nicholls, sculptor, 18 July 1887: ‘Do you think Mr Burgess [sic] would have done it… I think a shield similar to his rough sketch had better be used’.
12 Ibid., Frame to Campbell, 9 June 1888, ‘Don’t delay C. Coch, whatever you do’.
13 Ibid., Frame to Campbell, 19 May 1887.
14 The lower walls of Lady Bute’s bedroom at Castell Coch were considerably overpainted during the 1970s, when the original decorating firm of Campbell and Smith was contracted to renovate the room. The 1887 finish can be seen behind the fitted washstand.
15 Burges drawings collection, op. cit., 32:15. Inscribed with a note in Burges’ hand.
16 Bute archives, op. cit. Frame to Campbell, 11 September 1887.
17 Ibid., Frame to Campbell, 13 September 1887.
18 Ibid., Frame to Nicholls, 14 April 1887: ‘Go on with the birds for the corbels at Castell Coch at once’.
19 Ibid., Campbell, Smith and Co. seem to have been paid £300 for decorating Lady Bute’s bedroom, £150 on 25 October 1887 and a further £150 on 13 February 1888.
20 Op. cit., J. Mordaunt Crook, p. 283.
21 Floud, Peter, Castell Coch (London, 1954), p. 17 Google Scholar.
22 SirBlair, David Hunter, John Patrick, third Marquess of Bute (London, 1921), p. 214 Google Scholar.
23 Bute archives, op. cit., BU/89/15/4, Letter from Gwendolen, third Marchioness of Bute to her sister Angela, Lady Herries, 8 August 1906.
