THE ANNUAL SOANE LECTURE

MOVING ROOMS
THE TRADE IN ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGES

by

JOHN HARRIS

Wednesday 21 November 2007 at 6.30pm

At the Royal College of Surgeons, 35 - 43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2

Since at least Tudor times there have been architectural salvages: panelling, chimney pieces, doorways, or any fixtures and fittings might be removed from an old interior to be replaced by more fashionable ones. Not surprisingly, a trade developed and architects, builders, masons and sculptors sought out these salvages. By 1820, there was a growing profession of brokers and dealers in London and a century later antique shops were commonplace throughout England.

In England salvages are not only native in origin - as a consequence of the French Revolution a mass of panelling and carved woodwork poured into the London auction rooms, much of it from religious desecrations. However, during the period following the First World War, hundreds of country houses in this country fell to the demolisher's pickaxes, and this coincided with the fashion for Period Rooms in American museums. It was the age of Moving Rooms.

In this lecture, which celebrates the publication of his Moving Rooms: The Trade in Architectural Salvages (Yale University Press), John Harris will not only speak about this phenomenon, but about the hundred thousand salvages bought by William Randolph Hearst for his houses and castles in New York, California, Long Island, and St Donat's Castle in Wales, and the duplicity of dealers such as Charles Roberson of the Knightsbridge Rooms in the invention of rooms to suit the demands of hungry museum directors.

John Harris is Curator Emeritus of the RIBA's Drawings Collection. His many publications include the recent Badminton: The Duke of Beaufort his House; and the exhibition catalogue to the Soane exhibition A Passion for Building: the Amateur Architect in England 1650-1850 jointly with Robert Hradsky.

The lecture will be followed by drinks at the Museum. Tickets cost £10.00 (£5.00 to students) and can be purchased on the door (subject to availability), or booked in advance by completing the form below. Please post your booking slip to Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP

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Name …………………………………………………….....................................................................................................

Address…………………………………………................................................................................................................

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………………………………

I would like ……..ticket(s) for 'Moving Rooms' at 6.30 on 21 November at the Royal College of Surgeons and enclose a

cheque for £………..payable to Sir John Soane's Museum and a stamped, addressed envelope marked 'Annual Lecture'.

For more information or to be added to the Museum's email mailing list please contact
Bethany Kingston on 020 7440 4254. Email