X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Hamilton Palace


Fonthill Vase

Its silver mounts were removed in the 19th century, and the vase reappeared in 1882 at a sale of Beckford's heirs at Hamilton Palace without its mount.

Hamilton Palace

According to Professor Tait in Burlington Magazine July 1983 the duke also sought alternative designs for the 1840s reconstruction by Charles Percier, Pierre François Léonard Fontaine and Giacomo Quarenghi.

These held much fine furniture and by the mid-19th century housed one of the best private collections of paintings in Scotland, including works by Peter Paul Rubens (see below), Titian, Anthony van Dyck, and other masters.

Philip IV in Brown and Silver

It was bought by the National Gallery for £6,300 at the 1882 Hamilton Palace Sale, a very high price for a Spanish painting at the time.

Tasziló Festetics

In 1880 Festetics married Lady Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton (11 December 1850, Hamilton Palace – 14 May 1922, Budapest), former wife of Albert I, Prince of Monaco.


The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries

Originally shown at Hamilton Palace, it was sold to Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery in 1882, from whom it was bought by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1954, which deposited it in Washington DC's National Gallery of Art, where it now hangs.


see also

Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton

Another of the Duchess's works was the building of a new school building to house the Grammar School of Hamilton (in 1848 renamed the Hamilton Academy) which had originally been endowed in 1588 by her great grandfather John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Hamilton and sited near the churchyard adjoining Hamilton Palace.

Carluke Tigers

The club plays their home games at Hamilton Palace, Hamilton, while training takes place at The Moor Park in Carluke.