Shortlisted for the 2009 Sir Banister Fletcher Award presented by the Authors’ Club

Shortlisted for the 2008 William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History sponsored by the Berger Collection Educational Trust and the British Art Journal

The son of the wealthiest merchant bankers in Europe, Thomas Hope (1769-1831) was a major catalyst in the arts of Regency England. At the age of 18, he embarked on a Grand Tour to the Continent and started to assemble the remarkable art collection that he later installed in his Duchess Street house in central London. Hope’s remodeling and interior decoration of that house fostered what became known as the Regency.

This book is the most comprehensive study to date of Thomas Hope, focusing on his multifaceted role as designer and patron. The contributors examine his wide-ranging contribution to the arts as well as his extensive writings. Richly illustrated with new photographs, the volume presents a vast array of paintings, furniture, sculpture, and works of art, many of which have never been published before.



David Watkin is professor of the history of architecture at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of a previous book on Thomas Hope and of others on James “Athenian” Stuart, Sir John Soane, and King George III, as well as several architectural survey volumes.

Philip Hewat-Jaboor is an independent scholar, collector, and curator. Together with David Watkin and Daniella Ben Arie he is curator of the Thomas Hope exhibition.



Table of Contents
Foreword
Susan Weber

Introduction
David Watkin

Hope Family Tree and Chronology
Daniella Ben-Arie

Chapter 1: European Wealth and Ottoman Travel
Philip Mansel

Chapter 2: The Reform of Taste in London: Hope’s House in Duchess Street
David Watkin

Chapter 3: Critic and Historian: Hope’s Writings on Architecture, Furniture, and Interior Decoration
David Watkin

Chapter 4: Thomas Hope’s Furniture: “A delightful and varied significance of shape and embellishment”
Frances Collard

Chapter 5: Fashion a l’Antique: Thomas Hope and Regency Dress
Aileen Ribeiro

Chapter 6: Thomas Hope’s Metalwork for Duchess Stret: “Character, Pleasing Outline, and Appropriate Meaning”
Martin Chapman

Chapter 7: The Past as a Foreign Country: Thomas Hope’s Collection of Antiquities
Ian Jenkins

Chapter 8: Thomas Hope’s Modern Sculptures: “a zealous and liberal patronage of its contemporary professors”
David Bindman

Chapter 9: Thomas Hope’s Contemporary Picture Collection
Jeannie Chapel

Chapter 10: The Old Master Collection of John, Thomas, and Henry Philip Hope
Jeannie Chapel

Chapter 11: The Hope Family in London: Collecting and Patronage
Daniella Ben-Arie

Chapter 12: The Reform of Taste in the Country: The Deepdene
David Watkin

Chapter 13: The Tragic Mask of Anastasius/Selim: A New Introduction to Hope’s Novel
Jerry Nolan

Chapter 14: Hope’s Philosophical Excursus
Roger Scruton

Chapter 15: The Afterlife of Hope: Designers, Collectors, Historians
Frances Collard and David Watkin

Catalogue of the Exhibition

Theme 2: Greek and Roman Antiquities
Theme 3: Egyptian and Egyptianizing Sculpture
Theme 4: Classical Vases
Theme 5: Comtemporary Paintings and Sculpture
Theme 6: Furniture and Metalwork
Theme 7: The Deepdene
Theme 8: Books, Drawings, and Watercolors

Appendix
Pictures Inherited by Thomas Hope and Henry Thomas Hope
Jeannie Chapel

Bibliography
Compiled by Daniella Ben-Arie

Index