Collection: Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Fine Art Collection

  There is a collection of 328 oil paintings, which is strongest in its holdings of 19th century British artists including Sir Edwin Landseer, John William Waterhouse, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, and Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema. There are 49 works dating before 1900 by continental artists and these can be seen in the National Inventory of Continental European Paintings launched through Visual Arts Data Service. The most important of these is ‘Charles Towneley and friends in the Park St Gallery, Westminster’ by John Zoffany. The collection also includes over 330 watercolours, mostly British artists work from late 18th to c.1900, around 500 book illustrations from the period 1880-1920 (the James Hardcastle collection purchased in 1927) and over 330 prints. Sculpture comprises a small collection of 59 works, mainly 19th century. The present collection policy is to purchase works of local artists, local landscapes of historic interest and works related to the Towneley family. The collection of 314 oil paintings is strongest in its holdings of 19th century British artists including Sir Edwin Landseer, John William Waterhouse, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, and Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema. Works of particular note include the oil painting ‘Charles Towneley and friends in the Park St Gallery, Westminster’ by John Zoffany.

  The gallery at Towneley once contained an unbroken series of over 150 family portraits from 1600 to the end of the 19th century but the collection was dispersed when the family left in 1902. Subsequently 11 oil paintings, 1 pastel, 6 silhouettes and 7 marble portrait busts have returned into the museum’s collection. The museum also has records of the inventories of the portraits catalogued in 1844 and 1861 and auction catalogues relevant to the subsequent sales of the many of the portraits.

  Subjects

  Illustration; Portrait painting; Sculpture; Paintings; Fine Art

  Decorative and applied Art Collection

  Decorative arts includes the Henry Holroyd Collection of English Drinking glasses bequeathed in 1935 and various ceramics including Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian pottery (1897-1950), Chinese ceramics, commemorative pottery, Goss, Cliviger pottery and Contemporary studio pottery. Furniture includes items of backstairs furniture left in the Hall in 1903, 17th century oak purchased mainly in the 1930s and both Regency and Gothic pieces (e.g. the ‘Towneley Alterpiece’ – 15th century). There is also a collection of carved ivories from Europe, India, Asia, Africa and North America bequeathed in 1906 by George Eastwood and some additional pieces of ivory and hardwood turning by Lady Gertrude Eleanor Crawford. There is also some metalware comprising silver, trophies, cutlery, souvenir spoons, pewter and snuffboxes.

  Subjects

  Decorative and Applied Arts

  Personalia Collection

  Items associated with the Towneley family from the 16th-20th centuries and the Hall include paintings, prints, busts, archives, books and photographs.

  Subjects

  Personalia

  Numismatics Collection

  British and world coins, tokens and bank notes.

  Subjects

  Numismatics

  Costume and Textile Collection

  Costume includes flags, rugs, household textiles, Military uniforms, Victorian dresses and accessories, working clothes and Kashmiri embroideries and other textiles.

  Subjects

  Costume and Textile

  Ethnography Collection

  Mostly from Africa, India, North and South America and acquired in the early 20th century through a large donation by W T Taylor.

  Subjects

  Ethnography

  Medals Collection

  Medals (civil and military) and medallions connected with the East Lancashire Regiment and people of Burnley and also W.W.I plaques.

  Subjects

  Medals

  Social History Collection

  The local history collection is large and wide-ranging, reflecting Burnley’s social and industrial development during the 19th and 20th centuries.

  Subjects

  Social History

  Arms and Armour Collection

  The museum houses part of the collection related to the East Lancashire Regiment including guns and edged weapons and material associated with General Sir James Yorke Scarlett, a local hero of the Crimean War.

  Subjects

  Arms and Armour

  Archaeology Collection

  Includes both local archaeology (flints and ceramics) and some Egyptology (Alabaster, wood, ceramics, Model boat, a Mummy and two Mummy cases). Lady O’Hagan and Miss Holden donated the majority in the early 20th century and earliest finds are the pre dynastic Egyptian pottery. (c.4000BC).

  Subjects

  Archaeology

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds 414 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: coffins; faience vessels; furniture (head-rest); jewellery; metal figures; metal vessels; human remains (mummies); offering tables; pottery; relief sculpture; cosmetic palettes; shabtis; stelae (stone); stone figures; stone vessels; toilet articles; tomb models; tools/weapons; wooden figures. Objects are known to have come from the following locations in Egypt (with the name of the excavator/sponsor and year of excavation given where possible): Abydos (Garstang); Beni Hasan (Garstang – Liverpool University, 1902-1904); Esna (Garstang and Jones – Liverpool University, 1905-1906); Reqaqnah (Garstang – Egyptian Research Account, 1901-1902).

  Subjects

  Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; Archaeological excavations

  Science and Industry Collection

  Trades are represented such as basket-making, a blacksmith, carpenter, clogger, cooper, pattern maker, plumbing, saddlers, sign writer, wheelwright. There are also shop fittings e.g. a coffee shop and bakery, bottles/bar fittings and street furniture. Industries such as textiles, engineering, coal mining and brewing are also included, together with miscellaneous machinery.

  Subjects

  Science and Industry

  Photographic Collection

  The collection of photographs comprises photographic prints (cartes-de-visite to modern), glass negatives, postcards and photographic equipment.

  Subjects

  Photography

  Archives Collection

  Manuscripts and printed material associated with local history themes.

  Subjects

  Archives

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC