The Treasures of Sherborne

Word of The Macready Screen travelled quickly, and it was soon requested for display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, where it featured in the recent exhibition Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage.

Beautifully lit and sensitively presented, the screen became one of the exhibition’s unexpected highlights — its scale, imagination, and quiet power drawing visitors in. Today, it holds a special place within A Christmas Carol at The Sherborne, and we look ahead to 2026, when The Folke Resurrection will take its place in our exhibition programme alongside Thornhill’s Painted Stairwell, further deepening the story of this remarkable house.

Why did Macready undertake such an extraordinary creative endeavour? Fashion may have played its part, but it’s likely he also imagined it as an educational resource for his children — a way to spark curiosity and learning through images. In the hands of today’s teachers, it offers the same potential for schoolchildren visiting Sherborne.

The screen came to The Sherborne through the Friends of Sherborne House, after Sir Nevil Macready — a direct descendant of the renowned Victorian Shakespearean actor — generously offered it as a gift. It was an extraordinary gesture, gratefully and wholeheartedly accepted.