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Lot Essay
A collection of architectural drawings was sold in these Rooms on 30 November 1983 (lots 162-187) relating to the Freeman family's houses at Fawley Court, near Henley, and Chute Lodge, near Andover. Taylor was employed to rebuild Chute Lodge for John Freeman, following his move there after Freeman's marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Strickland of Boynton. Other drawings by Taylor for Chute in the collection comprised two ceiling designs and a door case inscribed 'if this should not please then Mr Taylor desires Mr Freeman will please to write'.
The family papers record the interest the Freemans evidently took in the architecture of their properties: Sambrooke Freeman, John's elder brother employed James Wyatt at Fawley to refit the house and added the island temple that still stands today on the island in Henley Reach.
Taylor was apprenticed to the sculptor Sir Henry Cheere at the age of eighteen and became one of the most successful architects of his time specialising in country house architecture designed to appeal to his clientele of rich merchants and bankers, building compact houses on new sites without large estates to support them.
The family papers record the interest the Freemans evidently took in the architecture of their properties: Sambrooke Freeman, John's elder brother employed James Wyatt at Fawley to refit the house and added the island temple that still stands today on the island in Henley Reach.
Taylor was apprenticed to the sculptor Sir Henry Cheere at the age of eighteen and became one of the most successful architects of his time specialising in country house architecture designed to appeal to his clientele of rich merchants and bankers, building compact houses on new sites without large estates to support them.