Ceremonial home
Published Saturday November 14th, 2009
Government House, the residence of New Brunswick's lieutenant-governor, is also home to a bounty of treasures - antique furniture, crystal chandeliers, delicate china and exquisite artworks. These cherished objects, there for all to see, are a reminder of our storied past.
In an out-of-the-way alcove in Government House, a simple plate represents one of the greatest treasures on display in the historic and beautifully decorated residence of New Brunswick's lieutenant-governor.
The plate is small and unremarkable, but it represents a gift from the heart of an ordinary citizen to this province's ceremonial home.
A note below the plate states that it's a gift from Fredericton resident Mrs. Irene Jennings who received it when she graduated from high school in 1939. The plates were handed out to all graduates that year in honour of the first visit to New Brunswick, and Canada, by reigning monarchs - King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
The flowers painted on it, including purple violets, depict a bouquet of wildflowers Queen Elizabeth picked during a stop on the drive from Newcastle to Fredericton during the June, 1939, royal tour.
The plate sits below another gift from a Fredericton resident - a time-worn print of Queen Victoria.
Neither of these items has much monetary value, but they are curiously touching. In the midst of exquisite antique furniture, gorgeous crystal chandeliers, beautiful silver and lovely china, these humble pieces given by ordinary citizens remind visitors that Government House belongs to the people of New Brunswick.
"She (Jennings) kept this plate in her own collection and then felt that it should be here, that this is where it belonged," Tim Richardson, principal secretary to the lieutenant-governor, says during an interview and tour of Government House.
"Not everything here is of great monetary value. These items have important sentimental value."
There are other touches like that throughout the 183-year-old mansion on the banks of the St. John River - a treasure chest of New Brunswick antiques and objets d'art.
A photo someone snapped of the Queen as she accepted flowers in front of Government House during her visit eight years ago; books that have been donated in honour of the campaign to improve literacy in New Brunswick and hooked rugs and quilts - all of them depicting life in the province.
In the mansion's sunny library, dominated by a floor-to-ceiling bow window, a small pottery teapot sits on a shelf.
"The teapot was left here on our doorstep one day," Richardson says.
"It was a great gift. The note with it stated, 'Please make sure this is put on display.' So here it is."
Government House has gone through many transformations in its long history. Although it was originally built in 1826 as the residence for the vice-regal representative in New Brunswick, it stopped serving that function later in the 19th century and all of its furniture and fittings were auctioned off in the 1890s.
Following the First World War, it was a hospital for people during the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed millions around the world. It was also a school for the deaf, a military barracks and a military hospital. Many Fredericton residents remember that in the 1980s, it was the headquarters for the RCMP 'J' Division.
Richardson says it was former lieutenant-governor Margaret Norrie McCain who deserves much of the credit for restoring Government House to its current glory.
"It was Mrs. McCain who convinced the government during the last vacancy of Government House in the late 1980s and early 1990s that it was a worthwhile project, that this building did have a role to play and that it could be seen as a public treasure," he says of the $5 million restoration.
"It is to her credit that this place has been restored, and received, as well as it has been by members of the public. It's truly a resource for community groups and individuals. People come here and are amazed and really feel a sense of ownership. We had the official re-opening in 1999 and since that time we have had a tremendous response from people who feel they have a role to play and want to see things returned here."
It is not unreasonable to view the old mansion as kind of a large magnet - drawing back all of the treasures stripped from its rooms for that infamous auction in the 1890s.
Richardson's own great-grandmother bought a wardrobe at the auction that has since been returned and now sits across from his office.
Richardsons' great-grandfather, W.G. Clark, was lieutenant-governor during the war years in the 1940s.
His own family ties to the vice-regal office and his own sense of history make him feel very much at home in Government House. Richardson is often spotted at antique auctions where he always has an eye out for a piece that would augment the mansion's collection.
"At the auction in the 1890s, the newspaper of the day printed a record of what was sold and that still exists, and the family names are still recognizable around the province today," he says.
"We hear regularly from people who are cleaning out the houses of relatives who have passed away, or who are downsizing, and they have found things that may have come from Government House, or family lore says it was something from the 1890s auction. So things like that have come back here. Also things that people think should be on display come here as well. We have a lot of those things. Nineteenth-century New Brunswick had some of the best cabinetmakers in all of North America - names like Thomas Nisbet, Caswell, Lawrence - and their work is here."
One of the greatest gifts came when Olympic figure skater Barbara Ann Scott decided to downsize her home in Florida.
The town of St. Andrews presented Scott with an 84-piece set of china in 1949, a year after her Olympic gold medal performance. Scott had trained in St. Andrews for a month and the town decided to give her the china set used during the 1939 royal visit by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Each piece in the set carries a note about the royal visit. The china bears the New Brunswick coat of arms and the royal initials, GR. The pieces, made by Royal Doulton, are generously adorned with gold.
"She called me about five years ago out of the blue and said 'I may have something you want'," Richardson says.
"She had this setting of 84 dishes, place settings for 12, dripping in gold and each tells the story of the history of the dishes and why they were used. She said, 'I think you would like to have these.' She just wanted to downsize and so she sent them to us from her home in Florida. They're on display here and we use them for important functions. They may not have been here originally, but it is certainly appropriate to have them here now."
Known as "Canada's Sweetheart," Scott, now in her 80s, said at the time she was delighted to return the china to New Brunswick.
"I only hope that the people of New Brunswick know how much I have treasured this china," she said in an interview in 2006, when she presented the gift. "It has been used only a handful of times since I received the gift so many years ago. I believe it deserves to be seen and appreciated at Government House."
Other important pieces of New Brunswick history have made their way back to the mansion and still more are being given to this day.
New Brunswick officials have spent the past 30 years trying to restore as much of the original furniture as possible, much of it handmade by Saint John craftsman Thomas Nisbet.
The mansion has one of the largest collections of Nisbet furniture in one place. A Nisbet piece is highly prized by antique collectors today and they can fetch thousands of dollars when they come up for sale.
Richardson says the dining room set in Government House - a long, three-section table of peacock mahogany by Nisbet as well as a beautifully-carved sideboard, are easily worth more than $200,000. He says the dining room chairs are owned by a Fredericton family that wants to keep them, so reproduction chairs were made in Saint John to match the set.
In the mansion's music room, next to an ancient spinnet, one of the most prized Nisbet pieces is in use. The "dolphin sofa" has elaborately carved dolphins supporting the sofa's arms and massive claw feet. It is easily worth in excess of $30,000.
"It's probably one of the most valuable pieces in the house, behind the dining room table," Richardson says.
"I will never sit on it."
Hanging in the library are the two standards, or ceremonial flags, of the Royal New Brunswick Regiment. Recently retired, the standards were presented to the regiment 50 years ago by Lord Beaverbrook on behalf of the Queen.
"They're supposed to hang until they disintegrate and can't hang any longer," Richardson says.
Donated artworks include five Audubon prints that were hand-tinted by the renowned artist. John James Audubon stayed at Government House for a couple of weeks in the 1830s.
As well, there are five paintings donated by railway magnate William Van Horne. Most are forest scenes from his summer mansion at Minister's Island near St. Andrews.
Van Horne signed his paintings by spelling his name backward - 'enroh nav.' The paintings are very dark.
"The joke is that he painted at night," Richardson says.
A new acquisition is a small watercolour donated by an Ontario physician who watches for items that would fit with the Government House collection.
He spotted the early painting of Government House at an auction in southern Ontario. It's a side view of the mansion from the river's edge. The St. John River appears much narrower than it is today, but the landscape looks much the same.
"A note on the back dates it to the 1840s," Richardson says.
"He bought it and said 'You have to have this' and gave it to us. He is someone with whom we have an ongoing connection. He is a collector and he has given us a great number of things - pieces of Nisbet furniture, wonderful paintings and the hand-tinted prints from Audubon."
Other treasures in the mansion include a Fredericton grandfather clock that dates from the early 1800s, around the time Government House was constructed. Again, although it was not a piece of original furniture in the mansion, Richadson says it's appropriate to have it the main drawing room now.
The library also has a large globe, attributed to a Saint John craftsman who trained under Nisbet.
Richardson says the most wonderful thing about Government House is that it is not a stuffy museum where the treasures are kept off limits, under lock and key.
He says about 40,000 people a year visit Government House, the vast majority for various community functions. While they are in the mansion, they can sit on the Nisbet sofas, sip tea from royal cups and enjoy a buffet set out on the mahogany Nisbet dining table.
Nothing is off limits.
"We want people to walk on the carpets and sit on the chairs and drink from the tea cups and use the dishes because it's not a museum," Richardson says.
"We call it New Brunswick's ceremonial home so the people who come here should feel good about coming here."
Chris Morris is the provincial bureau chief of the Telegraph-Journal.
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