Kenilworth Castle gatehouse was built in grand style by Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester and the long-time favourite of Elizabeth I, for a visit by
Gloriana in 1575. But by 2005, when Tori Reeve, a curator for English
Heritage, first saw it, it had been an office-cum-dumping ground for
decades. Only its carved wood wall panelling and the towering alabaster
fireplace in one room hinted that it had once been designed to impress a
queen.
The gatehouse hadn’t been lived in since the 1930s, when it had been kitted
out in full Tudor style by its then owner.
Reeve’s task was to restore the interior to the way it had been then. It was a
huge job, but she had a tool to help her that its last resident could never
have dreamed of: the internet.
“When I took on the project, I only had a few small fading black-and-white
pictures in a guidebook to go on,” says Reeve, “but I knew there were more.
So I typed Kenilworth into eBay, and came up with a lot of rubbish, as you
might expect, but there were also a lot of postcard collectors who buy and
sell on the site. I found a full set of six 1930s cards of the gatehouse
almost straight- away. It cost me £10 for the lot, and that was the
beginning of all this.”
Reeve casts her eye proudly around the newly transformed gatehouse, which is
no longer a residence, but is open to the public. At the entrance to each
room is a poster-sized print of a corresponding postcard; visitors can
compare what is seen on that with the refurnished room beyond.
The master bedroom’s ornately carved Elizabethan tester bed, built about 1580
and an extremely rare item, is almost a mirror image of one depicted on that
room’s postcard, and again, the internet was responsible. Rapidly trawling
through dozens of websites, Reeve found a dealer in the Cotswolds with a
four-poster for sale. He sent digital pictures of the bed, then in several
pieces, via e-mail, and she bought it on the strength of them: “I hadn’t
laid eyes on it properly before it arrived, but I already knew it was
perfect.”
Without the internet, the rapid transformation of the gatehouse, would have
been impossible. “We could never have done it before, certainly not in six
months. You might have schlepped all the way to Gloucestershire to visit an
antiques dealer and not found anything you liked. Now you can look first and
save a lot of unnecessary travelling.”
It’s not just stately homes that can benefit. The internet has made the
antiques business more accessible to those restoring far lowlier abodes.
Those who may once have been intimidated by antiques shops and auction rooms
can now research from home and make bids over the telephone or online.
“There has been a burst in the past two to three years of dealers and auction
houses putting their stock on the web,” says Reeve. “The smaller ones have
realised they need to use the web in order to survive and, increasingly,
dealers are finding the internet is the only shop window they need. It has
cut their overheads because they don’t need to keep a shop open all the
time, and if you can take a photo of everything as it comes in, you don’t
need to give everything shop space.”
Reeve began her search by typing “country oak furniture” into the Google
search engine. “That brought up a lot of pine warehouses,” she laughs.
“‘Tudor oak furniture’ got me closer to what I was looking for. You soon
learn the right key words.”
The internet makes any period restoration project, be it Elizabethan or
Georgian, Victorian or art deco, much more feasible, even for those with
little specialist knowledge. Organisations such as the Victorian Society and
the Georgian Group have websites where you can learn the basics of period
interior decoration and research your home’s history. ()
“The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers (Lapada) is a useful
first port of call,” advises Reeve. “It vets all its members so you know you
are dealing with reputable dealers, and you can access members’ websites
direct from its site.” The British Antique Dealers’ Association offers a
similar service. The big London auction houses — Christie’s, Sotheby’s and
Bonhams all now have websites including online catalogues for forthcoming
auctions.
“You can look in advance on the internet to see what will be on sale and don’t
even have to go along. You can register to make a telephone bid, which means
that at the time of the sale, someone from the auction house will call and
talk you through the sale. My only word of caution would be that it’s best
to have a firm idea of how much you are willing to spend and then stick to
it.”
Of course, eBay operates entirely online and everything from a cup of tea to a
bra belonging to Jordan, the glamour model, has been sold on it, but don’t
be put off. “There is an arts and antiques section and you can then break it
down into which century you’re looking for, and that often leads you to some
dealers who have an eBay ‘shop’, which means they put all their stock on the
site.”
Reeve says it’s important to build up a network of contacts either in person,
by phone or via e-mail, as one dealer can often put you in touch with
another until you find what you are after.
“But there is also an element of luck. I found a dealer who specialised in
good quality upholstered furniture and bought a couple of pieces, then
happened to be browsing through his website when I saw a miniature wooden
boxwood carriage, identical to one in the Kenilworth postcards. It is likely
to be the same one, which is just incredible.”
The more sites you visit, the better an idea you will have of what’s out there
and how much things are worth. “Often, the flashiest websites belong to
high-end dealers,” says Reeve. “They may have only a very slow turnover of
stock, whereas others — those who deal with house clearances, for example —
have much more movement, so it’s worth revisiting their websites more
frequently.”
Having purchased most of the furnishings for the revamped gatehouse rooms
without ever having seen them apart from as images on a screen, Reeve
suffered only one disappointment. “There was a pair of red-velvet
upholstered wing chairs that I bought at auction over the phone, having seen
them on the auction house’s website. I thought they would be a deep, sombre
red, but when they arrived they were ketchup-coloured velvet. I did think,
‘What have I done?’ when I first saw them, but they work very well.”
By summer, Reeve had transformed six ground and first-floor rooms (the top
floor is an exhibition space) for £100,000. The gatehouse bedroom, which at
the start of the year was bare but for a blocked-up fireplace, is now a
fairy-tale fantasy. As Reeve turns to leave, a little girl exclaims to her
friend: “I definitely want to sleep here!” Reeve smiles. Not everything is
quite what it seems: “That’s an MDF mattress,” she whispers, careful not to
break the spell. “It would be really, really uncomfortable.”
Kenilworth Castle and gatehouse are open to the public. Contact English
Heritage for opening times and prices on 01926 852 078, or visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/kenilworthcastle
Antiques on the intern
www.lapada.co.uk The Association
of Art & Antiques Dealers, includes links to websites of hundreds of
members, all of whom must meet Lapada’s standards for quality of stock and
knowledge of their subject
www.bada.org The British
Antique Dealers’ Association, a trade association founded in 1918 for the
UK’s leading antique dealers. Website includes links to members’ websites
and a search engine to trawl through their stock
www.conservationregister.com Icon, the Institute of Conservation, provides detailed information
on conservation/restoration practices in the UK and Ireland and guidelines
on choosing and working with a conservator
www.christies.com Online
access to auction catalogues of the prestigious London auction house; its
LotFinder service will notify you by e-mail when something in your
particular area of interest comes up for sale
www.sothebys.com One of
the world’s oldest international auction houses has regular sales of
affordable furniture at its Olympia site
www.bonhams.com With sale
rooms throughout the UK, it holds regular auctions of good-quality,
affordable furniture, with online catalogues
www.rupert-toovey.co.uk Toovey’s, a West Sussex auction house, is not as exclusive as Christie’s
or Sotheby’s, and has more affordable pieces
www.victorian-society.org.uk The Victorian Society’s website should be the first port of call for
anyone planning a faithful restoration of a Victorian home
www.salvo.co.uk Architectural
salvage, antiques and reclaimed building materials from across the UK are
available via Salvo’s online directory
