A La Ronde’s travelling trunks come home ready for display after careful conservation brings them back to life

Three historically important travelling trunks, which are believed to date from before 1796, have recently been away for conservation repair and have returned ready for display to help tell the story of this unique sixteen-sided house.  

The trunks are an important part of A La Ronde’s history. They are thought to have gone on the Grand Tour of Europe with Jane and Mary Parminter in the 1780s. It was following this Tour that the cousins returned and began creating their home in Exmouth by building A la Ronde around 1796, influenced by what they had seen.  

Unfortunately, the trunks had deteriorated somewhat as they succumbed to unavoidable environmental factors such as being too dry, too damp, being handled, getting dusty and general wear and tear over the past 250 years. The National Trust sent them for careful repair work in order to conserve and re-display these significant pieces of the collection.  

Jane Birdsall, Senior House and Collections Officer says: ‘In some ways the trunks begin the story of A la Ronde. Creating the house and estate is what Jane and Mary did when they returned, and what kept them busy for the rest of their lives, as well as thinking beyond that so that their estate, house and collection were looked after well into the future.  Something that we continue to do today’.  

Jane continues: ‘It is probable, but not proven, that these trunks went with the Parminter cousins on their Tour. They date from the right time and at least one was made by John Harrington who was working in London from 1760s – 1790s, as it has the makers label in it’. We know that the family had property and regularly stayed in London. 

‘I like to think of the cousins having the trunks as a form of hand luggage – they are small, light and elegant enough to be carried by ladies, with the majority of their belongings going in larger trunks’. 

The varying materials that make up the trunks have reacted in different ways to changes in temperature and humidity.  The leather and the underlying wood, as well as the metal and the glue, have expanded and contracted at different rates, causing cracking and stretching, and ultimately breaking.  

Theo Sturge from Sturge Conservation Studio who worked on the trunks over the last few months says: ‘These were three wonderful little trunks to work on, I loved the little numbers made with small nails. They were very sad when they came to me and it was a pleasure to bring them back to life by inserting new archival quality leather behind the original to bring them back together.’ 

The trunks had significant areas of the leather missing and much of the remainder was loose, but the skilled conservator replaced the missing parts and coloured to match. Friable original leather was consolidated, repaired and cleaned, and treated to improve its condition. The paper and material inside was reattached.  

A la Ronde re-opens for the season on 13 April with the travelling trunks proudly on display. Tickets can be booked at nationaltrust.org.uk/a-la/ronde