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From Kiddal to the Bronx by Crate


Barwicker No.71
September 2003


In rector Colman's history of the parish there are several splendid illustration of the oriel window in Kiddal hall. The window bears the inscription in Latin "Orate pro bono Thome Elys et Anne uxoris sue qui ista' fenistra' fecurent Anno Dni MCCCCC" (Speak for the good of Thomas Ellis and Anne his wife who made this window AD 1500).

The society has a photograph taken about 1900 of a lady in a bonnet sitting sewing outside at the doorway of the hall in which the window can also be seen. Had it not been for Colman's detailed coverage of the window in his book, its disappearance might have gone unnoticed. The society established that it had been sold in the 1920's to either America or Scotland.



The opening of the society's web site in 1998 gave the opportunity to tell the world that the window had disappeared from the parish and to find out where it was now. The site has a page called "Where are they now?" on which the window and other items (books. pictures and maps) were listed. We heard nothing for four years. In August 2002 we had email from Or J. M. Merino de Caceres, a Professor of the History of Architecture in Madrid, saying that he knew something about the window if we cared to contact him.

We contacted him and found that he knew that the window and other artefacts were listed in 1941 among the possessions of William Randolph Hearst the Californian newspaper magnate. The list was held in a library in Long Island University. Within a week we had in our possession photocopies of all the items from the hall which were sold to Hearst. The items were acquired in 1927 from a Mr. William Permain, through Nash's Magazine (dated 12{l/27), by William Randolph Hearst. The objects acquired were listed as:

* the oriel window with its leaded lights and stained glass escutcheons
* an oak ceiling from the Great Hall
* carved oak plate and the interesting features of the gable ended bay
* the stone doorway and door,
* six stone mullioned double windows
* five stone mullioned triple windows
* a quantity of constructional timbers from other parts of the hall

Mr William Permain was an art consultant retained by Hearst to seek out and acquire items of antiquity. The items were shipped to New York where they were examined, listed and selected for their suitability for installation in Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle is a vast hispano-italian home built by Hearst on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean about half-way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Those items which were not suitable, like Kiddal Hall's artefacts, were stored in two large warehouses in the Bronx.

At the time of Hearst's death in 1941 the collection was catalogued in detail. This catalogue was the source of our photocopies. There was a sale contents in an auction held by the Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc. in December 1951 but Dr Merino de Caceres and Long Island University were unsure whether the items in the catalogue had been sold. Some of the items were purchased by the Burrill Collection in Glasgow but they confirmed that the Kiddal collection was not among their acquisitions. Approaches to the William Randolph Hearst Historical Society about the items were initially unsuccessful. However they contacted the society a few weeks later to say they had found a database with references to Kiddal. On reading the information it looked as if it is almost certain that the items were still in the warehouse in the Bronx.

An example of the reverse of the events at Kidall can be found not far away at Aldborough. Aldborough Hall has a fine Elizabethan staircase from a Scottish Castle, which had been shipped to the United States by Randolph Hearst and was unused by him. On his death the staircase was bought and installed by the owners of Aldborough Hall. The society has been in contact by phone and letter with the Hearst Foundation in New York several times since February this year to try to establish that they still have the Kiddal artefacts. However, we have had no reply from them. It is surprising that an organisation built upon communicating with the public fails on this particular matter. The society did not undertake this search in order to get the items returned to their original location. Our quest was purely one of curiosity so that maybe when the items were found we might know what they were like in their new location.

HAROLD SMITH


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