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Lot Essay
These superb columns were acquired at the sale of the collection of the Earls of Rosebery at Mentmore, Buckinghamshire. They were recorded in the Gilt Bedroom; further pairs were in the White Drawing Room, where they flanked the five pairs of double doors and supported Louis XVI candelabra (Mentmore, privately printed catalogue, vol. I, Edinburgh, 1884, p. 121).
Mentmore was one of the most celebrated collection sales of the 20th Century, it epitomized the opulence of the goût Rothschild, with royal French ébénisterie accompanied by a spectacular array of tapestries, palatial Italian, Russian and German pieces, paintings and works of art. The collection was formed by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (d. 1874), who had commissioned the architect Joseph Paxton to create his astonishing recreation of an Elizabethan prodigy house at Mentmore. It was later added to significantly by his son-in-law the fifth Earl of Rosebery, who in 1878 married Baron Mayer's only daughter Hannah, who had become the richest heiress in England following her father's death.
Mentmore was one of the most celebrated collection sales of the 20th Century, it epitomized the opulence of the goût Rothschild, with royal French ébénisterie accompanied by a spectacular array of tapestries, palatial Italian, Russian and German pieces, paintings and works of art. The collection was formed by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (d. 1874), who had commissioned the architect Joseph Paxton to create his astonishing recreation of an Elizabethan prodigy house at Mentmore. It was later added to significantly by his son-in-law the fifth Earl of Rosebery, who in 1878 married Baron Mayer's only daughter Hannah, who had become the richest heiress in England following her father's death.