Works of Art
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The son of artist/collector Thomas Gambier Parry [1816-1888] by his second wife, Ernest Gambier-Parry inherited his father's Highnam Court estate and art collection after the death in 1918 of his half-brother, Hubert Parry. Hubert had a penchant for music more than the visual arts, and had taken little interest in Highnam or his father's collections. Ernest, however, was highly enthusiastic about the estate and did his best to keep the collection intact, despite ponderous death duties which forced him to sell some of the pieces. Three important ivories were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum. A twelfth-century Limoges enamel Châsse went to Peter A.B. Widener (and is now in the NGA). Art historian Ellis Waterhouse recorded notes on his 1934 visit to the Gambier-Parry collection (Waterhouse Papers, Box 2, Folder 10, p. 136, Getty Research Institute). Ernest Gambier-Parry's second son, Mark (the eldest son Thomas predeceased his father), acquired Highnam and its contents by descent. Also threatened by the expense of death duties, Mark managed to preserve the collection, and bequeathed most of it [c. 1966, with a few pieces going to Mark's heir, Thomas Fenton] to the University of London for the Galleries of the Courtauld Institute.