top of page

News from Athelhampton House & Gardens.

Search

Spot the Difference: Athelhampton House & Gardens and Max Gate

Visiting places like Athelhampton House & Gardens or Max Gate can be a wonderful way of seeing how fashions and tastes in domestic spaces have evolved over time. On a recent visit to Max Gate, we spotted all sorts of late Victorian things that make a nice comparison to things you can see at Athelhampton, both older and more modern.


Max Gate, a brick built late Victorian house with white sash windows and a slate roof. The front door is slightly left of the centre. At each corner is a sort of square tower with a pyramidal roof. a gravel drive leads up to it. Greenery and grey skies frame it in the background
Max Gate, home of author Thomas Hardy, regular visitor to Athelhampton House

In the dining-rooms, we're both late-Victorian but with the services laid out somewhat differently. At Max Gate, they've laid for a couple of courses along with soup and dessert...


A place setting at Max Gate. A large blue and white plate is set on a white embroidered tablecloth, framed by two forks, two knives, a soup spoon to the right, and a dessert spoon at the top. On the right of the setting is a smaller blue and white china plate with a white napkin folded on it.
The dining service at Max Gate

Whereas Athelhampton has been laid far more simply, likely just for tea. The table lacks a tablecloth, showing off the regency carpentry.


A place setting at Athelhampton, laid out on a wooden table with no cloth. One smaller plate is set on top of a larger one, framed by one knife, one fork, and a spoon. Above is a dessert spoon and fork. To the right is a cup and saucer, with a teaspoon. On the left is a smaller plate, laid with a bone handled knife.
The dining service at Athelhampton House

In the bedroom, a dressing table is a functional item of furniture that can reflect the owner's aesthetic, and the aesthetic of the time in which they lived. At Max Gate, the dressing table is solid and square, with little bits of ornamentation on the mirror stand, or around the edging of the drawers.


A dressing table at Max Gate. The warm wooden table has two small drawers on the top, framing a box containing hair brushes and a mirror. Over the top of the whole thing is a large oval mirror, reflecting a small wooden chest of drawers. The walls of the room are a sort of greenish beige.

At Athelhampton, Peggy Harmsworth's dressing table is clearly Art Deco, with all the fashion of the 1930s geometry and ornamentation through decisive shapes. They're clearly the same piece of furniture, though, with the central mirror and space for hair brushes, along with drawers on either side. The lights on Peggy Harmsworth's dressing table at Athelhampton reflect her electrification of the house in the 1930s.


The dressing table in Mrs Harmsworth's bedroom at Athelhampton House. It's in art deco style, with a large circular mirror framed by two circular sets of drawers. In between the drawers is a small side with a matching jade-handled mirror, hair brush, and hair box set. On each of the sets of drawers is a large, spherical light, and some plastic boxes reminiscent of the shape of sea shells in a golden brown colour, containing strings of pearls. A stool upholstered in cream and floral brocade sits in front of the dressing table. The mirror reflects an art deco bed with white sheets, and a door opening into another room. The walls are wood panelling painted cream.

Max Gate was designed and built by Thomas Hardy, using his early architect's training. As such, it all dates to a single period, with even things like the tiles around the fire places reflecting the aesthetic tastes and technological capabilities of the Victorians: by this point, tiles were being mass produced in factories.


A Victorian tile glazed in white with a brown and yellow floral design glazed onto it. It's symmetrical along horizontal and vertical central lines, as well as diagonally. At each corner. flowers outlined in brown. In the centre a yellow and brown roundel with stylised flower buds coming out of the top and sides.
Victorian tile at Max Gate

Many of the tiles in the fireplaces at Athelhampton are Dutch Delft tiles - tin glazed earthenware tiles, which from about 1625 tended towards being monochrome. Commonly they were blue and white, taking inspiration from Chinese pottery, but some of the sets of tiles at Athelhampton are in purple and white. These show biblical scenes, and date from somewhere between the mid C17th and 1800.


The designs on them were painted by hand, and at this point there was no way of mass producing them, though tile makers would speed up the process by pricking the design onto paper or card and then using "pounce," or chalk dust, to transfer the design onto multiple tiles.


Hand painted tile, purple on white background. Heavily cracked and worn. A circle, containing a man on the left hand side who's attacking an angel in the centre, with a tree on the right hand side. Likely Jacob wrestling with the angel.
Delft tile at Athelhampton House

Even the fireplaces themselves show differences in taste. At Max Gate, the fireplaces are smaller and more contained, with the mantle showing elegant and complex decoration.


White fireplace surround, with black fireplace in the centre. Black fireplace surrounded by mass produced white brown and yellow tiles in a floral pattern, five on each side. White surround decorated in a regency/neoclassical style, with a central oval, garlands, and geometric motifs. Wall behind is cream-beige, with white skirting board and dark wood floor
Fireplace at Max Gate

Many of the fireplaces at Athelhampton, even the smaller ones, have very simple, stone arches framing them, and are backed with stone or brick, and a metal fireback. In this fireplace, the fireback commemorates the defeat of the Spanish Armada.


Heavily worn fireplace with a stone arch. Dark metal fireback and fire dogs are raised up in it. On the hearth in front of it are white and purple painted delft tiles. The arch is surrounded by wood panelling, with a green curtain visible on the left hand side and the fire irons visible on the right.
Fireplace at Athelhampton House

At present, Max Gate is closed on Mondays and Fridays, but open all other days.


Athelhampton House & Gardens are open 7 days a week all year round, aside from a few days over Christmas.









bottom of page