Having taken inspiration from the Grand Tourists, it is then perhaps no surprise that this collection constitutes such a fine survey of Regency-era craftsmanship. One only need glance at the apartment’s well-appointed library, lined floor to ceiling with every conceivable catalogue and monograph, to appreciate that each acquisition has been carefully researched, with several items originating in, or with connections to such notable collections as the Dukes of Newcastle at Clumber Park, the Viscounts Bearsted, Upton House, and the Earls of Rosse, Birr Castle.

The collection reveals a clear architectural sensibility, showing the powerful influence of contemporary architects/designers including Thomas Hope, Charles Heathcote Tatham and James Wyatt, and includes works attributed to several of the Regency period’s most celebrated furniture makers. Among the highlights is a brass-inlaid ebony and calamander breakfront bookcase (Lot 91), attributed to George Oakley, which incorporates many of the hallmarks of the Greek Revival style, including flanking columns and an alternating anthemion and patera design topped with gilded finials. Oakley worked on several major commissions, including Sir John Soane’s private residence, Pitzhanger Manor, as well as the Bank of England. His reputation would be enhanced through royal patronage, having been granted a Royal Warrant in 1799 and delivering subsequent designs for George IV’s residence, Carlton House.

The classical vocabulary is continued in a set of ebony-inlaid mahogany chairs attributed to the Edinburgh cabinet-maker William Trotter (Lot 94). Their tablet-form crest rails, anthemion ornament and reeded stiles exemplify the restrained elegance of the period, while their association with Trotter connects them to a distinguished body of work supplied to estates including Paxton, Balbirnie and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. A beautifully made satinwood cabinet (Lot 48), possibly by the prolific cabinet makers Seddon, borrows its frieze design directly from a marble fragment acquired from the Erectheion on the Acropolis hill and which was acquired by the British Museum in 1816.

Perhaps most explicit in its adoption of the Grecian style is a pair of mahogany bergère library armchairs following the ‘klismos’ archetype, attributed to Thomas Chippendale the Younger (Lot 28). This form, popularised in Britain by designers and collectors such as Thomas Hope, represented the culmination of the Neoclassical style, in part, as a consequence of the circulation of engraved views of archaeological discoveries throughout the Mediterranean.

The fascination with antiquity extends beyond the decorative arts. A pair of watercolours after the capriccio painter Antonio Joli (Lot 47), depicting the Bay of Naples, evoke the landscape that so captivated Grand Tourists in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With Vesuvius looming in the distance, such views carried a particular resonance in the aftermath of the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, whose discoveries transformed European taste and intensified the period’s engagement with theancient world. Another highlight is a Turkish capriccio by the Flemish artist Simon-Joseph-Alexandre-Clément Denis (Lot 52), who toured the Roman countryside extensively, capturing classically Arcadian scenes before finally settling in Naples as court painter to Joseph Bonaparte.

Elements of the Neo-Gothic also emerge from this group, including a superb pair of George III mahogany library armchairs (Lot 33) formerly in the remarkable collection at Plas Newydd, having belonged to the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’, whose relationship scandalised and charmed polite society in equal measure. These chairs were almost certainly designed by James Wyatt (and very likely executed by Gillows).

Wyatt is perhaps best known for designing the monumental Fonthill Abbey, the product of the romantic, albeit hubristic, imagination and ambition of William Beckford. A brass-inlaid ebony and parcel-gilt table stamped 'C. Lewis' (Lot 125) suggests another Beckford connection; the stamp is likely that of bookbinder Charles Lewis, who worked for William Beckford on the library at Fonthill and whose patrons also included the Duke of Devonshire, Sir Richard Colt Hoare and Lord Spencer.

The eclecticism of Regency taste is nowhere more apparent than in its embrace of influences from beyond Europe and a glance towards Asia. An exceptional late eighteenth-century Indian tea caddy (Lot 97), decorated with delicate ebony and ivory parquetry, speaks to Britain's growing appetite for the materials, commodities and visual language of the East. The expansion of British interests in the Indian subcontinent encouraged an enthusiasm for Indian decorative arts, finding architectural expression in such buildings as Sezincote House and, most notably, the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. The latter appears, with its unmistakable dome, through the parted curtains of a watercolour by John Strickland Goodall (Lot 46) included in the collection. The tea caddy therefore assumes a significance beyond its function: it embodies the period’s fascination with distant cultures and the increasingly global character of British taste.

The geological curiosity of the Grand Tour finds a similarly eloquent expression in the collection’s numerous examples of marble and semi-precious stone. Such sought-after materials represented the fragmentary remains of antiquity while also attesting to the far-flung distances travelled by their owner. From the colourful bands of blue, red and yellow fluorite in the pair of gilt-bronze-mounted Blue John urns (Lot 105) to the fissures of the septarian concretia nodule shell-shaped inkstand (Lot 29) and the speckled red porphyry of the obelisk-mounted mantel clock (Lot 25), these strikingly coloured and patterned surfaces would serve as contrast against the dark cabinet woods so favoured during the Regency period.

Yet the collection ultimately resists strict categorisation. Its strength lies precisely in the freedom with which objects from different periods and cultures have been brought together. An early nineteenth-century Sinhalese specimen table (Lot 11) sits comfortably alongside a sixth-century BCE Boeotian terracotta figure (Lot 111), while modern and contemporary art enters the conversation without disrupting the historical furnishings. Sydney Nolan’s fascination with the mythology of ancient Greece, particularly evident in his work of the late 1950s, finds an unexpected affinity with the classical vocabulary of Regency design. His composition of crouching figures (Lot 75) possesses an almost frieze-like quality, recalling the processional profiles familiar from ancient Greek sympotic vessels. Across the centuries, the same classical inheritance is repeatedly reinterpreted, its forms and narratives serving as a source of inspiration for artists and designers alike.

The collection is very much a portrait of its collector and illustrates his deep knowledge and fascination with fine furniture and the broader decorative arts. Seldom seen and known to only a few close confidants, the collection represents a rare opportunity to acquire items curated by a discerning eye as the owner embarks on a quieter life in the south of France.

Auction Highlights

View page turning catalogue

Auction Details

Wednesday 23 September, 10.30am BST
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

Browse the auction
Sign up to email alerts

VIEWING:

• Viewing at Dreweatts London (highlights): 16-17 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5LU
  • Monday 7 September: 10am-4pm
  • Tuesday 8 September: 10am-4pm
  • Wednesday 9 September: 10am-4pm
• Viewing at Dreweatts Newbury (full sale): Donnington Priory, RG14 2JE
  • Saturday 19 September: 10am-3pm
  • Sunday 20 September: 10am-3pm
  • Monday 21 September: 10am-4pm
  • Tuesday 22 September: 10am-4pm
  • Wednesday 23 September: 10am-4pm

Further Information: 
General enquiries: + 44 (0) 1635 553 553 | housesales@dreweatts.com
Press enquiries: press@dreweatts.com