A FRENCH SCULPTOR IN WILTSHIRE: HENRI DE TRIQUETI AT TEFFONT EVIAS 



37 



The South Kensington Museum (now the 

 Victoria and Albert Museum), for example, bought 

 the panel representing The Visitation of Mary to 

 Elizabeth (Fig. 2) from the exhibition for the sum 

 of £130." It was originally located in the Museum 

 of Construction and Building Materials - a part of 

 the South Kensington Museum which contained 

 examples of materials for buildings and their 

 decoration. 14 Triqueti's novel process of wall 

 decoration would have been of particular interest 

 to the museum at this date when an extensive 

 programme of internal decoration (in which mosaic 

 work was to figure prominently) was being 

 initiated. 15 



The Visitation panel has a solid marble ground 

 but the range of marbles used is limited and, indeed, 

 some sections appear painted rather than of 

 different stones. 1 " However, both black and red 

 cement was used for the engraved decoration. The 

 panel is now in rather poor condition: some of the 

 cement has fallen out which suggests that Triqueti 

 had not yet mastered the shaping and roughening 

 of the grooves which kept the cements in place. 17 



It was also in the early 1 860s that Triqueti's work 

 was considered for the decoration of St. Paul's 



Fig. 3. Joseph Edgar Boehm : Emily Fane De Salis, bronze 

 statuette 1871. Private Collection. 



Cathedral and for the dining hall of The Temple 

 (although nothing was to come of either proposal) 18 

 and that he was commissioned to execute the panel 

 forTeffont Evias church (Fig. 1). 



The panel was commissioned by Emily 

 Harriette (1822-1896: Fig. 3), the eldest daughter 

 and heiress of John Thomas Mayne (1792-1843) 

 ofTeffont Manor. 19 The Mayne family had owned 

 the manor, and been patrons of the church atTeffont 

 Evias, from 1692 until 1802 when the estate was 

 sold to William Wyndham. It was bought back for 

 the family in 1813 by John Thomas Mayne who 

 shortly afterwards made additions (in picturesque 

 embattled style) to the exterior of the manor house 

 and also initiated extensive repairs and alterations 

 to the church. Most of the work on the church (the 

 origins of which date back at least to the 13th 

 century) was carried out by the architect Charles 

 Fowler (1791-1867) from 1821, but the tower was 

 completed and a spire added by the young George 

 Gilbert Scott (18 11-1 878) between 1830 and 1843 

 (Fig. 4).=" 



Emily Harriette inherited the estate in 1852, 

 and in 1859 she married William Fane De Salis 

 (1812-1896) of Dawley Court, Middlesex.William, 

 the third son of Jerome, 4th Count De Salis, 

 belonged to the Soglio branch of the De Salis family 

 which was descended from Peter, 1st Count and 

 Envoy of the Grisons to Queen Anne. 21 Educated 

 at Eton and Oriel College, William travelled 

 extensively on business to Australia and the Far East 

 in the 1 840s, and he was subsequently director of 

 several Australian companies and of the P. & O. 

 Company (185 1-1 895), of which he was Chairman 

 between 1878 and 1881." 



There were no children from this late 

 marriage. 23 The couple involved themselves in 

 charitable works, notably the building of a cottage 

 hospital to serve Harlington, Harmondsworth and 

 Cranford in Middlesex (opened in 1885) which 

 Emily visited regularly. 24 AtTeffont, they were 

 responsible for the construction of a pair of 

 almshouses (1884-5) and the Manor School in 

 addition to providing a supply of fresh drinking 

 water for every house there. 25 Emily was also a 

 frequent traveller to the continent, recording her 

 visits in sketches. 26 



On their marriage, William and Emily made 

 Dawley Court their principal residence, but the 

 couple spent several months each summer at 

 Teffont. Here, they made a number of 

 improvements to the manor 27 and to the church. 

 William paid for a new roof for the north aisle while 



