William Hogarth's Gate Post Urns In Valentine's Display

Pot Pourri in Chiswick use replica pieces in window

Pot Pourri in Chiswick High Road is supporting the William Hogarth Trust in raising funds for The Mulberry Garden project at Hogarth's House. A spectacular Valentine's window display has been coming together for the last 10 days, with red feathers and velvet drapes and lovers' flower-decked swings.

The display focuses on the love story between Hogarth's great friend, the celebrity actor David Garrick, and his beautiful wife, Eva Maria Veige, a famous Austrian dancer. Lady Burlington of Chiswick House is said to have introduced them and Lord Burlington gave Eva-Maria a substantial dowry of £6,000 which gave rise to gossip that she might be his love child!

The Trust is offering for sale replicas of the fabulous lead urns given by Garrick to William Hogarth for his second home in Chiswick the 1750s. The Trust is very grateful to Pot Pourri, where two replica urns can be seen in the lavish window display. Decorated with finely modelled swags of flowers and lions' heads, the urns are topped by pine cones. The flowers symbolise the fertility and pleasure of a garden, the pine cones are a classical symbol of eternal life.

The Trust commissioned the restoration/conservation of the urns in 2013. An exceptionally high quality mould was made and replicas created to place on the gate piers at Hogarth's House since the originals are too fragile and valuable to put back there. An skilled sculpture conservator has cast the replicas in Jesmonite, a modern, durable, flame-resistant compound, with a very high quality finish. They are lighter in weight than the lead urns (which are filled with mortar) but astonishingly close in appearance and finish to the originals. The colour is integral to the material and will not wear off.

The replicas will be made to order and cost £895, with all profits going to support the Mulberry Garden project. The project will see the creation of a new garden whose design and planting will provide an appropriate setting for the Grade I Listed House and the construction of a learning centre in an overgrown corner of the half-acre plot. The new hall will make possible a learning programme for all ages, activities and events and it will be possible to hire it for functions.

The aim is to engage new visitors and encourage return visits, to welcome schools (who rarely visit at present) and to provide a new income stream to support the House at a time when local authority funding is being cut back dramatically. Nearly £1 million is likely to come from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Hounslow Council has earmarked £150,000. Roughly £400,000 still has to be raised. The target is to complete the project by the end of 2017 to mark the 300th anniversary of Hogarth's House.

Donations to support the project and orders for urns can be arranged at Pot Pourri. They can also be sent to The William Hogarth Trust c/o 25 Hartington Road, London W4 3TL.

Val Bott

February 6, 2016