Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

imagination will reveal the hidden order in the chaos, as a magnet draws iron filings into a
pattern.
Interiors like this were not absolutely new in the late eighteenth century, but like every
other aspect of antiquarianism in the period they grew in number and developed as a theme in
polite culture. As the enthusiasm for the past extended from objets de vertu to ‘curiosities’ it was
no longer necessary to be as rich as Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill or William Beckford at
Fonthill to use the artefacts of the past to create a home expressive of its owner’s personality. By
the same token for those who were rich the great influx of looted (or salvaged) antiquities from
the Continent offered unprecedented opportunities for purchase and display. As Clive
Wainwright writes: ‘In 1780 [romantic interiors] were unusual and by 1850 so many existed that
they constituted a major strand of taste in interior decoration.’ 7 By 1835, when Cooke painted
The Antiquary’s Cell, the scene was instantly recognisable and popular with the public, while
Soho in general and Wardour Street in particular had become synonymous with a lively antiques
trade. 8
The principal source for the image was, undoubtedly, Scott’s The Antiquary. Jonathan
Oldbuck’s lair is clearly the inspiration for Cooke’s picture, it would have been in the minds of
his audience and it resonated through the work of other artists and writers. The details are so
exact that it is worth quoting the whole paragraph in which Scott introduces the reader to
Oldbuck’s study, and thereby to much that is essential to his character. Lovel sees it for the first
time through a haze of dust, the chambermaid having taken advantage of Oldbuck’s absence to
attempt, much to his annoyance, to clean it.
It was, indeed, some time before Lovel could, through the thick atmosphere, perceive in what sort of den his friend
had constructed his retreat. It was a lofty room of middling size, obscurely lighted by high narrow lattice windows.
One end was entirely occupied by book-shelves, greatly too limited in space for the number of volumes placed upon
them, which were, therefore, drawn up in ranks of two or three files deep, while numberless others littered the floor
and the tables, amid a chaos of maps, engravings, scraps of parchment, bundles of papers, pieces of old armour,
swords, dirks, helmets and Highland targets. Behind Mr Oldbuck’s seat (which was an ancient leathern-covered
7
Wainwright, Romantic Interior, p.25.
8
See Wainwright, Romantic Interior, and Harris, Moving Rooms, passim for the development of the antiques trade.
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