25 February 2025
Dr James Fox, Creative Director, Hugo Burge Foundation
Hugo Burge (1972-2023) always wanted to leave a ‘dent in the universe’: to create an impression that changed and improved the world.
He was one of the great entrepreneurs and philanthropists of his generation, a digital pioneer who at the same time had a lifelong passion for fine art and traditional craftsmanship. His extraordinary collection reflected his wide-ranging interests, from Old Masters to emerging artists, from 17th-century oak furniture to 21st-century ceramics.
From the moment he stepped inside Ernest Gimson’s great library at Bedales school, Hugo was captivated by the Arts and Crafts movement. The first thing he bought after graduating from Cambridge in 1994 was a set of six Gimson-designed rush-seated chairs that he cherished for the rest of his life. He became an avid collector of Arts and Crafts furniture and decorative objects, amassing one of the finest private collections in the country. Many such treasures, including two exceptional writing cabinets by Peter Waals and a large William Morris embroidery that once adorned his dining room, are offered for sale here.
Hugo’s dedication to the arts was only equalled by his love of nature. He spent countless hours hiking through the countryside of Scotland, taking particular delight in the many ancient trees around his home in the Scottish Borders. He planted trees all over his estate, commissioned a number of artists to make arboreal works and purchased many pictures of trees, spanning four hundred years of art history, which he hung together, like little vertical forests, on the walls of his sitting room. The highlight of this collection is undoubtedly Rembrandt’s 1643 etching The Three Trees, widely considered to be one of the artist’s greatest landscapes.
Much of Hugo’s collection was until recently displayed at Marchmont House, a splendid eighteenth-century mansion that had once been home to the great Scottish artist and musician Rory McEwen. When Hugo and his father Oliver purchased the property in 2005 it was in a state of disrepair, having recently served as a Sue Ryder care home. They spent the best part of a decade returning the house to its former glory, winning a prestigious Historic Houses Restoration Award in 2018. But Hugo couldn’t resist imposing his irreverent personality on the building. He filled the house and gardens with modern British sculpture, replacing stuffed stags’ heads with abstracted busts, and installing an imperious Antony Gormley on the roof.
Hugo also set to work transforming Marchmont’s dilapidated walled garden into a wonderland, now open to the public through the Hugo Burge Foundation. He restored and re-imagined the complex of Victorian glasshouses as an unforgettable Orientalist folly, which opened up onto a Zen-inspired rock garden. These light-filled spaces prompted the final phase in Hugo’s collecting odyssey. Over a period of a few productive years, he filled the glasshouses with an impressive array of Japanese objects, creating walkways with monumental Imari vases while hiding historic gongs and censers among the flowering plants.
Hugo came to think of Marchmont House as a ‘home for makers and creators’ – an engine for imaginative, sustainable enterprise and local regeneration. He opened its doors to artists and craftspeople, charities and community groups, hoping to inspire all who stepped inside. His final years were marked by increasingly generous acts of philanthropy, supporting dozens of artists and organisations. He transformed a number of rundown buildings on and around the Marchmont estate into affordable creative spaces, including artists’ studios, a pottery and a silversmithing workshop. In 2020 he even saved the Gimson furniture tradition, helping two apprentices establish a furniture workshop in a former garage on the estate.
Hugo was an astute businessman, an enlightened collector and a tireless evangelist for the arts – a man whose enthusiasm and generosity touched the lives of innumerable people and transformed the cultural landscape of the Scottish Borders. His philanthropic endeavours are now continued by the Hugo Burge Foundation, a charity that supports the arts, crafts and creative industries all over the United Kingdom. The proceeds from this sale will be used to advance its charitable work, securing the long-term legacy of an exceptional man.
Lead image: Hugo Burge in the Creative Spaces Common Room of the Hugo Burge Foundation - Image by Colin Hattersley; Interior Images by Alex Robson, Lyon & Turnbull
THE THREE TREES (B., HOLL. 212; NEW HOLL. 214; H. 205), 1643
'VINE AND ACANTHUS' EMBROIDERED PANEL, CIRCA 1890
SLIM BRONZE NO. 3, 1973 (LARGE VERSION OPUS 347)
BLUE TWIST, 2021
FRANCES, 2022
WRITING CABINET, 1931
SIDE TABLE, 1902
FACES VASE, 1884
