By Georgina Adam
LONDON. A last-ditch attempt launched by the action group SAVE Britain’s Heritage is underway to prevent


the sale of historic Dumfries House and its unique collection of 18th-century furniture this summer.

Last month, Christie’s announced that the contents of the house will be dispersed on 12 and 13 July. Over 600 lots of furnishings and works of art, many specifically commissioned for the house by the Earl of Dumfries from Thomas Chippendale, will come under the hammer. The sale is expected to fetch over £12m ($24m).

The Palladian mansion, along with 1,940 acres of land, has already been put on the market at £6.75m ($13.5m), through the estate agent Savills. The house is being sold by Dumfries’s descendant, John Bute, the seventh Marquess, who prefers not to use the title. He lives in London and at the family’s principal seat, Mount Stuart on the isle of Bute.

News of the sale, which comes at the end of a three-year campaign to save the house and its unique set of furnishings, has caused dismay among Scottish and English heritage bodies.

But SAVE has stepped in with a proposal to vest Dumfries House in an independent charitable trust, which would preserve the contents intact and open both house and estate to the public. The strategy is based on advice from the architect Kit Martin, who has rescued ten major country houses, and Ayrshire surveyor Mark Gibson who has saved a neighbouring house and estate. Their feasibility study shows that income from rents, visitors and related events would make the trust self-financing.

James Knox, an Ayrshire member of the steering committee set up to save the house and the managing director of The Art Newspaper, said: “The breakup of Dumfries House will be a tragedy of epic proportions, not just for its cultural importance, but for the future of East Ayrshire, an area of social deprivation, where the opening up of house and estate would act as an engine for regeneration.”

The house is an early masterpiece by Robert Adam, designed in 1754 with the assistance of his brothers John and James. All of its furniture has survived intact since it was commissioned, not only from Chippendale but also from the three pre-eminent Edinburgh cabinet-makers of the day, William Mathie, Alexander Peter and Francis Brodie. Surviving invoices and inventories record the acquisitions.

Scottish art historian, Professor David Walker, says: “It is of crucial importance that the furniture is kept together and in the setting it was designed for. The ensemble at Dumfries House is of international rather than UK importance.”

Mr Bute is sympathetic to attempts to save the house, but after negotiations with the National Trust broke down, said he felt obliged to go ahead with the sale, “to restructure family finances”, saying that “Dumfries Estate is not central to Bute family heritage”.

The Art Newspaper understands that there have been informal talks with the National Heritage Memorial Fund, which recognises the importance of the house and contents. SAVE is seeking to raise £25m ($50m) to cover acquisition of the estate, house and contents as well as an endowment. Mr Knox says: “We are convinced, based on our feasibility study, that saviours can be found.”