Jane Austen's Writing Table.

Austen family tradition indicates that Jane wrote daily and that she wrote at this small table placed by a window for light. Jane wore spectacles and was known to have some trouble with her eyes so light would have been important. Writing with a quill and using ink which she may have made for herself using the recipe that survives in Martha Lloyd’s recipe book.

The table was returned to the museum in 1957.  Only the table top is original as noted on the handwritten note attached to its underside when it was given to the Jane Austen Society by Brigadier B C Bradford.  The note was written by Bradford’s great uncle, Montague G. Knight, and reads: “This table was bought by Montague G. Knight of Chawton House, from a grandson of James Goodchild, who lived in Chawton village in Jane Austen’s time.”  Goodchild’s brother-in-law, William Littleworth, had been a servant for Mrs Austen, Jane’s mother, and when he was too old for work she furnished a cottage for him.  Amongst the furniture was the little table at which Littleworth claimed he “often saw Jane Austen writing”. jane-austens-house-museum/41-objects

Jane Austen in 41 Objects.

200 years after her death, Jane Austen in 41 Objects is a celebration of Jane Austen’s life. Jane was only 41 years old when she died in 1817, and Jane Austen in 41 Objects tells the story of her life and legacy with reference to 41 different objects in the Jane Austen’s House Museum collection.

Jane Austen in 41 Objects takes the form of an evolving exhibition at the Museum from Friday 3 March alongside a series of online posts by guest writers published weekly throughout this bicentenary year. Each object and accompanying text explores a different aspect of Jane Austen’s life and work.

The story begins online at www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk on Friday 10 March and finishes on Friday 15 December, one day before Jane Austen’s birthday. 

Jane Austen Wallpaper.

Jane Austen's House Museum is launching its bicentenary commemorations with a reinterpretation of the house interior following discovery of wallpaper fragments.

Following the discovery of a number of fragments of Regency wallpapers in out-of-the-way corners of the house - dating from the early 19th century and the period in which Austen would have been living there with her mother and sister - the museum commissioned Hamilton Weston Wallpapers to reconstruct the patterns from these fragments and to create replica wallpapers.  Specialists in historic and reproduction wallpapers, Hamilton Weston have used the same hand block printing processes that would have been used during the 19th century to create the designs.    

A centre element of the trellis design on the fragments found in the Austen’s Family Room (right) initially proved a mystery to Hamilton Weston’s architectural historian, Robert Weston. After thought and research, he realised that the pin print motif on the design was actually the stem of a rose bud but with the bud print omitted. In addition, the wallpaper had been hung upside down, potentially to disguise the missing bud. It was printed incorrectly, perhaps by an early 19th century apprentice to the trade, and, as the household were not rich, one theory is that they purchased the design cheaply as a ‘second’ from the printers, as wallpaper was very expensive and heavily taxed from 1714 – 1836. 

Both replica wallpapers are now hanging in the rooms from which the corresponding fragments came - the “Chawton Vine” design in the Drawing Room and the “Apprentice Trellis” in the upstairs Family Room – for visitors to view when the house reopens on 3rd March.

Both designs, as well as a third, the “Chawton Rosebud Moiré” which features the rosebud believed to have been the intended outcome, are available for purchase via the museum shop. jane-austens-house-museum

Video on: bbc/england-hampshire