Saltram

Saltram is one of Britain’s best preserved early Georgian mansions. The building itself has Tudor origins which were disguised in the 1740s by symmetrical Palladian façades for the Parker family. In 1768-72, Robert Adam created a new saloon and library; in 1779-82 he converted the library to a dining room. His client was John Parker, later Lord Boringdon, a discerning art collector and close friend of Joshua Reynolds. In 1818-20 John Foulston created a new library and added the entrance porch for Lord Boringdon’s son, the 1st Earl of Morley. Many of Adam’s preferred artists and craftsmen worked on the interior of the house: there are plasterwork ceilings decorated by Joseph Rose, carpets by Thomas Whitty, chimneypieces by Thomas Carter the Younger and decorative paintings by Antoni Zucchi. There is also a fine early example of Chinese wallpaper in the Chinese dressing room.

Saltram, Devon

This collection has 9,487 items online

There is a magnificent collection of paintings (mostly acquired by John Parker, 1st Lord Boringdon) including works by Reynolds, Angelica Kauffman and copies of Italian, Dutch and Flemish masters; carved giltwood suite attributed to Chippendale; original Adam designed carpet in the Saloon and bluejohn candelabra with ormolu mounts by Matthew Boulton. There is also a magnificent library of the Earls of Morley, mostly working books of the period 1730-1830, but with a number of remarkable treasures, including fine and embroidered bindings, a splendid copy of Catesby's hand-coloured Natural History of the Carolinas (1731), a Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) once in the abbey of St Emmeran in Regensburg, as well as many local and ephemeral books and pamphlets. Just over 3000 titles, two-thirds pre-1801.

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