Editing Wallace Collection (section)

==Building==
===Hertford House, Cannon Row===
The 16th- and 17th-century Hertford House was the [[Townhouse (Great Britain)#Secular houses|London townhouse]]  of [[Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford]] (1539–1621) and was in a different location: [[Cannon Row]] in Westminster. His father [[Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset]] (executed 1552), brother of Queen [[Jane Seymour]], had started building the palatial [[Somerset House]] on the [[Strand, London|Strand]] as his townhouse, but did not live to see its completion. 

===Hertford House, Manchester Square===
[[File:Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, circa 1812.png|thumb|Hertford House, Manchester Square, circa 1812]]
[[File:Wallace Collection Londres.jpg|thumb|Hertford House, Manchester Square, in 2018, showing the alterations made by Sir Richard Wallace 1872-82]]
The present House in Manchester Square was the townhouse of a later junior branch of the family. It was built in 1776 by [[George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester]] who owned and developed the surrounding estate.<ref>Listed building text[https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101239252-hertford-house-marylebone-high-street-ward]</ref> It dominates the north side of the Square, where it occupies an island site, and was originally named "Manchester House".<ref>See Richard Horwoods map of London (1792-99) showing "Manchester House" [[:File:Manchester Square 1799 edited.jpg]]</ref> After being used as the Spanish Embassy 1791–1795 (evidenced by "Spanish Place" the street to the east of the building<ref>Present name, dating from Richard Horwoods map of London (1792-99) [[:File:Manchester Square 1799 edited.jpg]]</ref>) the lease was acquired in 1797 by [[Francis Ingram-Seymour-Conway, 2nd Marquess of Hertford]] (1743–1822), who in 1814 held there the Allied Sovereigns' Ball after the first defeat of Napoleon in 1814.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.buildington.co.uk/buildings/798/london-w1/manchester-square/hertford-house |title=Hertford House - Building - Marylebone, London W1U }}</ref> [[Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford]] (1777–1842), the family's first great art collector,<ref>"Although some important works of art now in the Wallace Collection were acquired in the eighteenth century by the 1st and 2nd Marquesses of Hertford (for example some paintings by Canaletto, Reynolds and Gainsborough), the first member of the family to show a real interest in art was the 3rd Marquess" (www.wallacecollection.org [https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/collection/history-collection/])</ref> lived mainly at his other London residences, [[Dorchester House]] in Mayfair and [[Winfield House|St Dunstan’s Villa]] in Regents Park,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/collection/history-collection/ |title=History of the Collection }}</ref> now the site of the residence of the US Ambassador. Between 1836-51 Hertford House was let for use as the French Embassy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.buildington.co.uk/buildings/798/london-w1/manchester-square/hertford-house |title=Hertford House - Building - Marylebone, London W1U }}</ref> His son [[Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford]] (1800–1870), who expanded his father's art collection,<ref>"It was, however, his son the 4th Marquess, one of the greatest collectors of the nineteenth century, who determined the essential character of the Wallace Collection we see today." (www.wallacecollection.org [https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/collection/history-collection/])</ref> lived most of his life in Paris, and rarely visited Hertford House, used "largely as a store for his ever-expanding art collection".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/collection/history-collection/ |title=History of the Collection}}</ref> He is said never to have visited his principal English country seat of [[Ragley Hall]] in Warwickshire.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ragley.co.uk/the-estate/ |title=The Estate}}</ref> The 4th Marquess died in 1870, aged 70 in Paris, unmarried and without legitimate issue, and his titles and entailed estates, including the lease of Hertford House, passed to his distant cousin [[Francis Seymour, 5th Marquess of Hertford]] (1812–1884).

The 4th Marquess's illegitimate son and heir of his unentailed estate, [[Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet]] (1818–1890), inherited his art collection, French and Irish estates, and re-purchased Sudbourne Hall in Suffolk and, in 1871, the lease of Hertford House from the 5th Marquess,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/collection/history-collection/ |title=History of the Collection }}</ref> and returned from Paris with much of the art collection to take up residence in England, following the unstable political climate in France following the Prussian [[Siege of Paris (1870–1871)|Siege of Paris]] (1870–1871). Wallace in turn expanded the art collection, adding medieval and Renaissance objects and European arms and armour.<ref>www.wallacecollection.org [https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/collection/history-collection/]</ref>

Between 1872–1882 the house was much altered by Sir Richard Wallace, who added a rear extension to house his art collection<ref>Listed building text[https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101239252-hertford-house-marylebone-high-street-ward]</ref> with a smoking room lined with Minton tiles in Turkish style. Under the architect Thomas Ambler a new front portico was added in the form of a [[porte-cochère]], with large Doric pilasters, storeys were added to both wings and the stables and coach house were converted to galleries by the addition of top-lit roofs. The whole building was given a red brick facade and the windows were altered.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.buildington.co.uk/buildings/798/london-w1/manchester-square/hertford-house |title=Hertford House - Building - Marylebone, London W1U }}</ref> Wallace bequeathed all his assets to his wife, who in turn, and most probably according to his wishes,<ref>Higgott</ref> bequeathed the main part of her husband's art collection to the nation, thus forming the "Wallace Collection", the rest, including the French properties and Hertford House, going to the couple's secretary [[Sir John Murray Scott, 1st Baronet]]. Scott sold the lease of Hertford House to the UK Government,<ref>Wallace Collection, Reference GB 1807 MURR [https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/2ccb34eb-0772-3a3c-b966-0ec3258eabdc]</ref> as a suitable home for the Wallace Collection, after which he was rewarded with a baronetcy, and the Government acquired the freehold from the [[Portman Estate]].<ref>Higgott, Suzanne (Wallace Collection), “Unmasking an Enigma: Who Was Lady Wallace and What Did She Achieve?”, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2021[https://19.bbk.ac.uk/article/id/3006/]</ref> Hertford House first opened as a museum on 22 June 1900.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.buildington.co.uk/buildings/798/london-w1/manchester-square/hertford-house |title=Hertford House - Building - Marylebone, London W1U}}</ref>

In 2000, the inner courtyard was given a glass roof and a restaurant was opened named "Cafe Bagatelle" after the [[Château de Bagatelle]] in Paris purchased in 1835 by [[Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford]], later part of Scott's inheritance. The museum display does not aim to reconstruct the state of the house when Sir Richard and Lady Wallace lived here.