{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1783793"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1783793/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PE4418/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PE4418/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PE4418","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4484","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4476","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4420","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4424","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4475","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4441","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4419","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4474","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4443","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4442","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4440","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PE4422","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1783793/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1783793","accessionNumber":"W.3-2025","objectType":"Relief","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Rectangular, high-relief carving in vertical format, in the form of an escutcheon, lobed at top and bottom and bearing the arms of the Dutton and Hatton families quartered on our relief, supported by a pair of heraldic gryphons. In the upper half, above the escutcheon, is a plumed tournament helmet (facing left) with leafy mantling, which is surmounted by the torsos of two angels holding an arching scroll or banner, are carved in high relief on the upper register of the armorial. The heraldic shield is painted in white/red, blue/yellow, apparently with some overpainting over early colours; the rest of the show surfaces are now bare wood, having been mechanically stripped (probably after 1800, to present a more unified ‘oak’ appearance), but traces of whitish ground indicate that it was previously fully painted.\n\r\nThe integral backing (approx. 1” thick) has straight edges, is plain and displays tool marks where the surface has been roughly finished. It contains two, centrally positioned rectangular mortices. Inset through each mortice and running horizontally (to both edges of the carving), is a round hole containing a loose dowel (apparently of recent date). Two modern, round-headed screws and a small hole (top edge, centred) have served by which to hang the relief to a wall.\n\r\nThe relief is carved in the solid from a single block of fast-growth oak. Small areas of high relief carving have been lost (notably the arm of  the left angel and the end of the scroll, the arm of the right gryphon, the uppermost detail of the helmet ‘skirt’,  previously built up with an added layer). There are numerous small abrasions to the surface. A waxy surface finish has been applied to the bare oak. \n\n","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak, carved and painted","categories":[{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Heraldry","id":"THES257728"},{"text":"Medieval and renaissance","id":"THES271264"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2025PE4418","2025PE4484","2025PE4476","2025PE4420","2025PE4424","2025PE4475","2025PE4441","2025PE4419","2025PE4474","2025PE4443","2025PE4442","2025PE4440","2025PE4422"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"58D","id":"THES49234"},"free":"","case":"CA1","shelf":"","box":"6"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Relief","id":"AAT53622"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Chester","id":"x32689"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Probably made in Cheshire, the carver unidentified"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1539 - 1542","earliest":"1539-01-01","latest":"1542-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with support from the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts, Mark Storey and Dr Paul Williamson OBE","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"94","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"42","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"18","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"22.5","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased with support from the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts, Mark Storey and Dr Paul Williamson OBE (registered file 2024/261). Purchased from Sam Fogg Fine Art Ltd, London.\n\n\n\n<u>Provenance</u>\nCarved for the entry porch of Dutton Hall, Cheshire during Piers Dutton’s rebuilding, 1539-1542;\r\nIn-situ until the hall was dismantled and relocated to East Grinstead, Sussex, by John Dewar, 2nd Baron Forteviout (1885-1947) c. 1933; \r\nBy inheritance to his wife, Mrs John Dewar;\r\nHer sale, Sotheby’s London, 24-25 June 1957, lot 238, where acquired by Herman Baer (1898-1977), Jermyn Street, London;\r\nPrivate collection, USA;\r\nTheir sale, Sotheby’s London, 4th July 2023, lot 1\nSam Fogg Fine Art Ltd, London\r\n\nThis armorial carving can be closely associated with a specific individual and building commission in early Tudor England. It formed part of an ensemble of carved woodwork in the entrance porch to Dutton Hall in Cheshire, a moated timber frame house built 1539-42 by Sir Piers Dutton (c1480-1545) and his second wife Juliana (m.1521- d. after 1550), and regarded as one of the most important Tudor buildings of NW England. The building project celebrated (and was facilitated by) Dutton’s success in a long-running lawsuit to establish his inheritance of Dutton Hall and associated lands. This reinforced Dutton's considerable wealth and position as the largest landowner in Cheshire, then a semi-autonomous and relatively unregulated, ‘County Palatinate’. Dutton Hall was run with a retinue of fifty servants; it had a great hall with imposing fireplace, a richly carved minstrels’ gallery, and further coats of arms in timber and in stained glass.\n\nHaving served three times as Mayor of Chester, in the 1520s Piers Dutton (no portrait identified) became a courtier with personal access to Henry VIII. A close relationship with Thomas Cromwell, and his own, apparently Protestant, religious sympathies led in 1534 to his being appointed High Sheriff of Cheshire for the first time, and in 1536 commissioner for the assessment and liquidation of monastic properties in Cheshire. This effectively made Dutton a key figure in implementing the first phase of the dissolution of the monasteries. The broader story of his career portrays a brutal defender of his own interests and an unscrupulous enforcer for his allies, routinely using gangs of his own men to intimidate opponents, damage or seize property, and on occasions, have murdered those who got in his way. His hereditary right to license all minstrels in Cheshire reinforced his power by using them in strongarm evictions, and by manipulating public opinion since their ballads about political events and important news made them the journalists and star performers of the day. \n\nSir Piers Dutton died at Dutton Hall August 17th 1545, reportedly as a Roman Catholic (Dutton, 2015 p.104). 'There is no suriving record of Dutton's funeral but, as it cost £100, it must have been a very lavish affair. [note548, S.C.P., Henry VIII, Vol. xiii., fo. 173] Although the Manor of Dutton was bequeathed to his grandson and heir, John Dutton, a royal ward, the house was attacked 31st August 1545 and stripped of most of its valuables by Ralph Dutton, second (and surviving) son of Piers. Juliana left Cheshire and returned to Essex where she lived with her son Thomas Patmore.\n\n<u>Heraldry</u>\nThe arms of the Dutton family, in quadrants I and IV [Blazon: <i>Quarterly Argent and Gules, in the 2nd and 3rd a fret Or</i>], are quartered by fields Argent (white fields) and Gules saltires fretted Argent (white interlocking diagonal crosses on a red field, emulating a fishing net), indicating a family associated with fishing. The arms of the Hatton family, located in quadrants II and III [Blazon: <i>Azure a chevron between three garbs Or</i>], show Azure, three garbs divided by a chevron (three sheaves of wheat on a blue field separated by a chevron band, indicating an agricultural background.  \n\nThe shield and feathered helm with gryphon supporters sits below two angels with a scroll that probably bore the family motto <i>Who thanketh God of all</i>. It would originally have been fully painted, and retains some original colour on the coat of arms. \n\r\n<u>Literature</u>\r\nAnon. Memorials of the Duttons of Dutton in Cheshire; with Notes Respecting the Sherborne Branch of the Family. 1901. England: H. Sotheran & co. 1901.\r\n\r\nEdward Dutton, <i>The Ruler of Cheshire – Sir Piers Dutton, Tudor Gangland and the Violent politics of the Palatine</i> (2015)\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Oak, carved and painted, with arms of Dutton and Hatton of Cheshire. England c1539-42","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"CARVED RELIEF  \r\nwith the arms of Sir Piers Dutton\r\n1539–42\r\nThis carving adorned the grand entrance porch of Dutton Hall, Cheshire (right), rebuilt in 1542 by Sir Piers Dutton \n(about 1480–1545) and his wife Juliana. The design of angels holding a scroll, probably once bearing the family motto, recalls contemporary religious sculpture. Dutton was the largest landowner in Cheshire and notorious for getting away with corruption and the use of gang violence.\n\nOak, carved and painted\r\nProbably made in Chester\r\nPurchased with support from the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts, Mark Storey and Dr Paul Williamson \nMuseum no. W.3-2025","date":{"text":"26/11/2025","earliest":"2025-11-26","latest":"2025-11-26"}}],"partNumbers":["W.3-2025"],"accessionNumberNum":"3","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":2025,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2025PF6890"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-07-31","recordCreationDate":"2024-07-07","availableToBook":false}}