Gnomes & Rare Books

Lampy insured for £1 million.

‘Lampy’ the First Garden Gnome

Lampy, the original garden gnome is the oldest garden gnome in the world. Lampy is insured for £1 million. He lives at Lamport Hall,¹ Northampton, England, home of the Isham family from 1560 until 1976² when it was gifted to the public under the management of a private Trust. This was the beginning of the garden gnome phenomenon in England.³

Less known than the Garden Gnomes is the library and especially rare books that were found in an attic in 1867.⁴ These included first editions bound in sheepskin by John Milton of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.⁵ Many were sold and reprints produced of the rare editions.⁶

1. Lamport Hall and Gardens.

2. Lamport Hall.

3. Way, Twigs (2009). Garden Gnomes: A History. Shire Library. 487. United Kingdom: Shire Publications.

4. Hallam, H.A.N. (1967). "Lamport Hall Revisted." The Book Collector. 16 no 4 (Winter): 439-449.

5. Gordon, Douglas. “The Book-Collecting Ishams of Northamptonshire and Their Bookish Virginia Cousins.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 77, no. 2, Virginia Historical Society, 1969, pp. 174–79.

6. Edmonds, Charles, and Charles Isham. A Lamport garland from the library of Sir Charles Edmund Isham, Bart.: comprising four unique works hitherto unknown. London: J.B. Nichols and Sons, 1881.