Lady Mary Eleanor Bowes' botanical cabinet

Lady Mary Eleanor Bowes was John Bowes' grandmother. She married John Lyon, 9th Earl of Strathmore, in 1767. Her descendants are the present earls of Strathmore. In adult life Mary Eleanor was a keen amateur botanist. She maintained hothouses at Gibside, Northumberland, and at her London house, Stanley House, Chelsea, close to the Chelsea Physick Garden. In the 1770s, Mary Eleanor Bowes commissioned William Paterson, a Scottish botanist, to collect exotic plants for her during his expeditions to the Cape of Good Hope between 1777 and 1779. This unusual cabinet was commissioned around 1780 to house her collection of botanical plants. Inside the cabinet's legs are hidden lead pipes and taps. These were possibly designed to regulate temperature and humidity in the cabinet. The cabinet itself contained part of Mary Eleanor's collection of dried plants until the 1850s, including plants acquired from the Cape, but the plants were probably destroyed when the cabinet was sold from Streatlam Castle in the 1920s. The Castle was demolished a decade later. Purchased with the assistance of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Art Fund and the Friends of the Bowes Museum. Height: 136 cm.

Collection

Bowes Museum

Inventory Number

1576194

Title

Lady Mary Eleanor Bowes' botanical cabinet

Object Type

Image

Measurements

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