Il September 19 Christie's presents “Visions a of Collecting: Royal and Aristocratic, An Important Private Collection”. The auction is made up of 350 lots, this collection reflects the allure of both royal provenance – with objects from British and other European royal families – as well as great British country houses. Furniture, paintings, ceramics, sculptures, tapestries, silver, objects and works of art, lighting and soft furnishings, are united by their romantic and historical past, which have been skillfully and imaginatively woven into a kaleidoscopic, royal and aristocratic, grandiose vision and exotic, ornamental and practical, to be enjoyed and valued anew.
The wealth of works featuring Royal Provenance ranges from a tidy pair of mahogany stools from George III's Windsor Castle (estimate: £6.000-10.000), to a majestic bronze statuette of eldest son George IV by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell (estimate: £15.000-25.000), and the descendants of his fifth son, the Princes of Hanover are represented by a portrait of a previous Electress, Princess Sophie (estimate: £30.000-50.000). Pictures, furniture and objects associated with the great European royal dynasties are the threads that weave inside and out: the Austrian Habsburgs with a pair of Finely executed oval medallions of the Holy Roman Emperor and Empress, Marie Antoinette's brother Joseph I and his wife Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (estimate: £15.000-25.000); the electors Wettin of Saxony with a richly decorated Meissen armory plate from the coronation service of Augustus III (estimate: £8.000-12.000); and the Roman tsars of Russia with the bust of Empress Elisabeth Alekseevna, née a princess of Baden (estimate: £15.000-25.000).
Many of the works have provenances that link them to great British country houses, including a striking view of Tottenham Park, Wiltshire (estimate: £30.000-50.000); splendid chairs by Ditchley, who became an icon of Anglo-American taste in the 30.000th century (estimate: £50.000-1816). From Seating Furniture by Ince & Mayhew of Clivemont of India, Claremont, which was acquired by the Crown in 15.000 for the use of George IV's only daughter, Princess Charlotte and remained a royal residence throughout the 25.000th century (a pair of armchairs: £10.000-15.000 and a sofa: £40.000-60.000); a superb pair of glass candlesticks attributed to William Parker from the now lost Clumber Park of the Duke of Newcastle (estimate: £4.000-6.000); to the ceiling moldings and doors probably carved by John Linnell for the Robert Adam-designed 'new drawing room' from the demolished Big House in Bowood (estimate: £30.000-50.000). Other examples include a William IV antiques central open bookcase with sumptuous 10.000th-century Florentine pietra dura paneling of the Winter Queen's Ashdown House (estimate: £20.000-2.000), an intriguing glass pier of Park House, Elmley Castle with the Regency trading label of the Worcester firm of Anderson & Perry dating from the mid-3.000th century (estimate: £XNUMX-XNUMX); to Deborah, garden armchairs of the Duchess of Devonshire (estimate: £XNUMX-XNUMX).
