Stonor Manor Discover The House

Art

Overview


Like most very old manor houses, the contents of Stonor illustrate a wide range of taste. The complete collection of family portraits dates from the 16th century until the 20th century. Original furniture from Stonor include a beautiful William and Mary bed, a Gillow furntiure, the desk in the library, an 18th century pair of cabinets in the drawing room and the hat stand that all our visitors greatly enjoy.

Stonor also contains the very fine art collection of Francis Stonor, cousin of the current Lord Camoys, which he largely collected between the end of the war in 1945 and his death in 1968. Amongst other things the collection includes old Master Drawings and Pictures, a pair of Venetian globes, French wallpaper of Paris, bronze and wooden sculptures, rugs and an extraordinary and unique shell bed.

Additionally, some very fine medieval and 18th Century stained glass adorns the Hall staircase and Drawing Room and there are interesting early Nepalese bronzes in the library. 18th and 19th Century American furniture as well as charts of Rhode Island are placed in the Long Gallery, as are the tapestries together with contemporary ceramics from Europe and Asia.

The Chapel has important late 18th Century painted and stained glass as well as 16th and 17th Century statues and Gothic Revival chairs. The ante-chapel contains a very fine 20th Century carved wooden Stations of the Cross given by Graham Greene.

Art Collection


American Furnishings

Nadine Pepys and Noreen Drexel, sisters of the late Lord Camoys who both lived in America have greatly supported Stonor. As a consequence, visitors can see 18th Century chairs from New York, a set of centennial chairs made in 1875, as well as a pair of Federal wall lights, 19th Century table glass, important 18th Century charts of Newport, Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island, the home in the 1630s of our American ancestors. On the staircase, there stands a bust of the current Lord Camoys’ great grandfather William Watts Sherman.

Nepalese Works of Art & Contemporary Ceramics

Another cousin, Charles Stonor, who lived en famille at Stonor with my parents, and then with us, left a small but fine collection of Nepalese bronzes and wooden sculpture, to which the current family have added some Nepalese contemporary wooden carvings from their frequent visits to that beautiful country.

We have also formed a collection of contemporary ceramics from England, Denmark, Korea and Japan.

Stained Glass

Both the house and chapel have important stained glass: in the house itself English armorial glass from the 17th Century, German 16th Century panels in the hall and Flemish 15th-16th Century glass in the drawing room and by the stone staircase.

The Chapel glass is English and was commissioned from Francis Eginton in the 1790s.