W. G. Rogers

2021 marked the tercentenary of the death of the Baroque artist, Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721). Belton hosts several woodcarvings attributed to him. William Gibbs Rogers (1792–1875) an authority on Gibbons saved Belton’s masterpieces from woodworm destruction (larvae of the beetle Anobium punctatum).

The pendant of an overmantle of flowers & game in Belton's Marble Hall is brought to life by rays from the winter sun passing through glass (limewood carving stylistically attributed to Gibbons in the absence of a contemporary invoice, Esterly 2021).

This article draws on a degree dissertation by Sutton-Vane 2001 (opens pdf).

Viscountess Marion Alford managed Belton House for the owner, her young son, 2nd Earl Brownlow. In September 1855, her secretary, wrote to Rogers,

Sir

There is some fine carving here (Lord Brownlow's) by Gibbons but it is in a bad state. Lady Marion Afford is anxious to have your opinion on it as to its preservation and wishes to know if you could come down to see it. It is much worm eaten. The Great Northern is direct here and it is only 2 miles from the Grantham Station.

Yours

C.T. Dickens

Anobium Punctatum, the common furniture beetle flight holes in a Gibbon's carving at Petworth, Sussex. It is the larvae that riddle the limewood internally.

G. A. Lowe, Belton’s clerk of works wrote how beetle-bore dust would lay thick on the chimney shelves and floor.

Adults of the common furniture beetle do not feed, just reproduce. The female lays her eggs in wood cracks or old exit holes. The eggs hatch after three weeks, producing a 1 mm long, creamy white, larva. For three to four years the larvae bore through timber, eating the starchy part of the wood grain, growing up to 7 mm. They excavate spaces just under the wood surface when ready to pupate. Between May and August, the beetles break through the surface, making 1 to 1.5 mm flight holes spilling dust, the first visible signs of an infestation.

By December 1855, Rogers had removed and photographed the carvings to aid correct re-assembly. Could these be the first photos of Belton?

The Clerk of Works 1855 report reads, All the Gibbons carving taken down, repaired preserved and refixed.

Dismantled, overmantle from the west wall of the Saloon photographed by Rogers 1855. Right-hand image, the same limewood carving today.

Overmantle on the west wall of the saloon photographed 2021. Note the delicate ribbon rosette. Gibbons could reduce the limewood down to 1 mm thickness achieved by undercutting.

W. G. Rogers (British Museum)

The carvings went to Rogers’ Soho workshop for conservation. The limewood was honeycombed with burrows filled with yellowish dust. The surface so thinned that it could not withstand moderate pressure.

Gibbons would leave his carvings the pale creamy colour of natural limewood. This accentuated them against darker panelling. He also applied limewater, calcium hydroxide, a bleaching agent to reduce natural darkening over time. Rogers noted a white bloom on Belton’s pieces possibly from limewater. Jonathan Ritson painted Petworth's carvings with lime to achieve that effect in the early 19th century.

While others boiled carvings to kill larvae or drilled holes to infuse chemicals, Rogers immersed Belton’s own in mercuric chloride insecticide. This highly toxic chemical, he would have used for his photographs in the collodion process. The insecticide darkened the wood which he bleached with ammonia and then hydrochloric acid. To strengthen the limewood, he injected gum Arabic and gelatine into the beetle flight holes (The Morning Advertiser 1864). Nowadays, diseased carvings are consolidated with poly vinyl butyral in ethanol also use to laminate car windscreens.

Lowe reported in 1863 that cleaning revealed no worm dust and surfaces strong to the touch. He wrote,

It is a very good thing the destruction is stopped so such beautiful pieces of work may be left for years to come.

Morning Advertiser (1864)

Woodworm-free remains the case in 2021.

Overmantle around 'Old' Sir John Brownlow, dated to circa 1680s, as after that time Gibbons dropped the hanging game motif (Esterly 2021).

Overmantle around Old Sir John Brownlow detail. Roger's 1855 photograph of the same, removed & rotated slightly clockwise, below.

The Tankerdale workshop cleaned the Marble Hall carvings in 1987. They found no active woodworm and painstakingly filled flight holes with miniature limewood dowels. Tankerdale confirmed that the finished carvings had been left as bare limewood.

Esterly (2021), a 21st century Gibbons pundit, referring to the Marble Hall carving around 'Old' Sir John Brownlow’s portrait, declared,

Recently cleaned to something like the paleness of unfinished lime, it is now of all the overmantels in Britain, the most faithful to the original tonal effect of Gibbons’ carving. The effect is spectacular. With their frothy whiteness sharply contrasting to the dark shadows, the forms read with preternatural clarity.

Another of Rogers' photographs of his own carving, to replace damaged Gibbons' carvings in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1868.

Tercentenary events

Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park: Centuries in the Making 25 September – 30 January 2022

V&A: Grinling Gibbons & the Story of Carving conference 24-25 June 2022

Grinling Gibbons in 3D a small portion of the overmantle surround from the Marble Hall, Belton House.

Header photograph of Rogers from V&A
Sutton-Vane A. (2001) W G Rogers and the Restoration of the Great House Carvings: Did he Help or Hinder their Survival? LONDON GUILDHALL UNIVERSITY May 2001. Link opens pdf.
The Morning Advertiser Tuesday November 1 1864 column 4.
Esterly D. Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving. V&A Publishing 2021 pages 97 to 99.

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