simonjkyte wrote @ June 15, 2025 at 10:49 am

LikeLike

  simonjkyte wrote @ June 17, 2025 at 4:14 am

In the 1860s, wealthy Yorkshireman, Joseph Whitaker – better known to his friends simply as ‘Pip’ – inherited part of a family business in Sicily: the Baglio Ingham – one of the largest producers of Marsala wine. He inherited this through his grandmother Mary Ingham, whose brother, Benjamin had gone into business in Sicily. Benjamin had no immediate heirs. In reality, Joseph was unlikely to need the financial security; his grandfather was to leave him a fortune in banking business interests. It fell to him anyway.In the second half of the 1880s, keeping a little distance from provincial life in Marsala, he moved to and developed the Villa Malfitano, an Art Nouveau (or ’Liberty Style’) structure on the western edge of Palermo, in Politeama. He gradually transformed this into a unique botanical and horticultural space incorporating trees imported from Sumatra, whilst also experimenting with agave cultivation. Locally, the Whitakers – alongside the competing but neighbouring Florio family – dominated Palermo.Whitaker’s wide variety of highly influential friends included King George V of England and Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, who had become King of ‘Italy’ (a smaller concept than currently) in 1861. It is also said that members of the immediate family can be identified in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel, ‘The Leopard’ (Il Gattopardo). It was hardly surprising: Whitaker’s wife, ‘Tina Whitaker’, although born in London had the surname, Scalia, the daughter of one of Garibaldi’s generals. Garibaldi’s ‘Expedition of the One Thousand’ had brought a swift end to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Bourbon artillery had been unable to fire on Marsala, thanks to the presence of the Royal Navy’s ‘Intrepid’ and ‘Argus’, which had been positioned to protect British ships entering and leaving for viticultural trade purposes. The Whitaker family had wanted to give Joseph’s property in Palermo to the British Consulate. The latter thought that the upkeep would have been too costly. As a result the Whitaker Foundation was established.Joseph’s interests were more than superficial; they were actually all-consuming. However, they were also wide-ranging and he built up a library at Villa Malfitano with in excess of seven thousand books. Amongst these interests was ornithology, making a particular study of the birds of Tunisia. Even today, his almost obsessive collection of stuffed sub-species of various birds forms a significant part of the Natural History Museum’s outpost at Tring in Hertfordshire, formerly a private museum of the Second Baron Rothschild.Whitaker’s financial and viticultural interests obviously meant he spent a lot of time in and around Marsala. It is believed that on a hunting trip around the lagoon, he became obsessed with the island of San Pantaleo, nestled behind Isola Grande, and decided to purchase the whole thing. This was a drawn-out process as different lots of the island were under different ownership. By this point in his life, his main interest had shifted to archaeology. Although the house there – which is still furnished -remains delightful, he opted for a relatively simple lifestyle, often sleeping in a little back room on his own. For him, it was almost a refuge where he could continue his studies uninterrupted.

LikeLike