MID-18TH CENTURY

Details

A GEORGE II WALNUT SOFA
MID-18TH CENTURY
With rounded rectangular padded back, arms and seat cushion covered in associated late 18th century floral needlework on a quilted ground, on cabriole legs headed by scrolls, with scrolled feet, restorations to the needlework
39½ in. (100.5 cm.) high; 66 in. (168 cm.) wide; 22 in. (56 cm.) depth of seat

Provenance

Sir Philip Sassoon, 3rd Bt. (1888-1939), Trent Park, Hertfordshire, (recorded in the Large Drawing-Room in July 1939), and by descent.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Further details

END OF MORNING SESSION
(AFTERNOON SESSION BEGINS AT 2.00 P.M.)

Lot Essay

Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939) was one of the most remarkable Englishmen of his day. A Member of Parliament from the age of twenty-three, he also served as Private Secretary to General Haig (1915-19) and to Lloyd George (1920-22), Secretary of State for Air (from 1924) and Commissioner of Works (1937), as well as Chairman of The Trustees of the National Gallery and a Trustee of the Tate Gallery and the Wallace Collection. The fortune which he inherited in his twenties from his father and Rothschild grandparents also permitted him to deploy his considerable energies as a host, aviator and patron of the arts. He completely remodelled the two houses which he had inherited, 25 Park Lane, London, and Trent Park, Hertfordshire (where this sofa is recorded in 1939) and built from scratch a third, Port Lympne, Kent, begun by Sir Herbert Baker in about 1912 and completed by Philip Tilden in 1918-21. It provided a suitable setting for the house parties that were held there and is now recognized as one of the great English country houses of the century.

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