MANUSCRIPT ESTATE INVENTORY AND VALUATION FOR BURNTWOOD HALL, BARNSLEY, YORKSHIRE

Original typed manuscript, 127pp. with text on rectos only. Small folio. Handsomely bound in full green morocco with decorative borders in blind and titles in gilt to the upper board. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Gillows embossed stamp to the foot of each page "Waring & Gillow Ltd, Valuers, 181 Oxford Street, W." Occasional contemporary annotations in pencil. Condition is very good, the binding with the odd scuff, a little rubbing to the extremities and minor wear to the corners. The contents with some faint scattered foxing to the preliminary pages are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout.

An inventory and valuation book for Burntwood Hall, Great Houghton, Barnsley, extensively detailing the "furniture, linen, lace, wines, consumable stores, china, glass, gold, silver, Sheffield plate, plated items, cutlery, ornamental items, decorative china, books, pictures, jewellery, lepidoptera, natural history objects, outside effects, carriages, harnesses, sporting items, and household equipment". The book describes everything from a Breeches Bible and a collection of Charles Dickens first editions, to diamond broaches, numerous oil paintings, Chien-lung dynasty china, asparagus tongs and a "massive French bedstead", with values declared alongside each item (the total estate being estimated at £11,228). Originally a modest farmhouse, Burntwood Hall was greatly expanded by the influential Marsden family during the course of the eighteenth century, creating a grand house which mixed classical and Gothic revival architecture. The present inventory was commissioned by John Dymond, manager of the Barnsley Main Colliery Company, whose family occupied the house from around 1868 until 1961. A splendid example of an estate inventory book, providing an incredibly detailed insight into a wealthy South Yorkshire household at the dawn of the twentieth century.