We live in an era when house sales tend to be gleaned from the contents of town houses or city penthouses, rather than from historic homes in deeply rural and remote English counties. The sale of property from the collection of the late Sir Jasper and Lady More of Linley Hall, Shropshire, is, therefore, a rarity.
The Linley Hall sale on 9 March at Christie’s London celebrates the intricate relationships of two great Shropshire families, the Mores of Linley Hall and the Hope-Edwardes of Netley Hall, and offers choice discoveries from over five centuries of dedicated collecting.
The artworks and objects arranged with such love and care in this Palladian-gem of a house can teach us much about the lives and relationships of these two families — as well as about English society over the last 500 years. Here, Christie's Magazine editor Meredith Etherington-Smith selects her 11 favourite lots from the sale.
A portrait of Louis XIV’s children?
Philippe Vignon (1638-1701), Group portrait signed and dated Vignon. FT. 1690. Oil on canvas 38 ½ x 51 ½ in. (97.7 x 130.8 cm.). Estimate: £15,000-25,000. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
18th-century charm is personified in this triple portrait by Philippe Vignon, signed and dated 1690 on the stone ledge to the left. Traditionally, the work has been held to represent three of the four surviving illegitimate children of the Marquise de Montespan — mistress of Louis XIV; the pair had seven children together, of whom four survived. The carved and gilded oak leaf frame is original.
A rediscovered commission
A set of four George III giltwood open armchairs by Mayhew & Ince, 1774. Estimate: £15,000-25,000. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
At the time that Thomas Chippendale’s business was flourishing in St. Martin’s Lane in London, another firm of cabinet-makers, John Mayhew and William Ince, were active in nearby Golden Square. Mayhew & Ince produced these four giltwood open armchairs and one of the two giltwood stools (the other being made in the 20th Century to match) for Sir Thomas Edwardes who lived in Edward Street, Portman Square.
Until now, this was a completely unknown commission, the chairs proving to have directly descended in the Edwardes family down to Lady More (nee Hope-Edwardes) of Netley Hall and later Linley.
The missing link in a celebrated series?
Enoch Seeman (circa 1694-1744) and Studio, Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, Kt. (1642-1727), three-quarter-length, in a white cravat and green cloak, seated at a table with a copy of The Principia and an astrological globe. Oil on canvas, 49 7/8 x 52 in. (126.7 x 132.1 cm.). Estimate: £25,000-40,000. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
This portrait of Sir Isaac Newton is by Enoch Seeman and studio, though there is a school of thought that maintains that it is the prime work in a series of portraits, with other examples held in London’s National Portrait Gallery, and in the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College. It has also been considered that all these portraits were painted posthumously and derive from a bust-length portrait by Seeman dated 1726, also preserved in the collection of Trinity College.
Adultery and the New World
Circle of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680). Portrait of Colonel Samuel More (?1594-1662), M.P. for Shropshire. Oil on canvas, 29 7/8 x 25 ¼ in. (75.9 x 64.1 cm.). Estimate: £1,500-2,500.. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
Colonel Samuel More, a parliamentarian who became an M.P., was unhappily married to his cousin Katherine, who was condemned for adultery. The Colonel sent all four illegitimate offspring on the Mayflower — the ship that transported the first Pilgrims from Plymouth to the New World; only one survived. He also commanded the ill-fated defence of Hopton Castle, where Royalist forces massacred his troops, leaving only him to write the account of the siege.
A memento mori ring
An early 17th century memento mori ring. Estimate: £5,000-8,000. . This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
Mourning jewellery became very fashionable in the 16th and 17th centuries. This early 17th-century memento mori ring features a central, white enamel skull, on a polished gold bezel, with the black enamel motto ‘watch thy houre cometh’ raised on tapering shoulders. The piece was originally bought in 1864 by Sir Henry Hope Edwardes.
From King Charles I’s library
Charles I (1600-1649) — Tasso, Torquato (1544-1695). Godrey of Boulogne or The Recoverie of Jerusalem. London: [Eliot’s Court Press for] John Bill, 1624. Estimate: £50,000-80,000. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: A Selection from the Library of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
King Charles I gave his dedicated copy of the second edition of Tasso’s Godfrey of Boulogne to his Parliamentarian attendant, Thomas Herbert, during his captivity at Carisbrook Castle on the Isle of Wight.
Herbert began his service as an attendant to the captive Charles I in 1647 — an episode that only ended with the execution of the King two years later, on 30 January 1649. One of the few parliamentarians whom Charles I was willing to have wait on him, Herbert was so important to the King that he gave his faithful attendant the gift of a gold watch. It is related how the monarch also ‘gave Mr Herbert the charge of his books, of which the King had a catalogue, and from time to time had brought unto him, such as he was pleased to call for.’
It was also said that in many of these books the King delighted himself with the motto Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I hope) which, with great pathos, he wrote frequently as the emblem of his hopes for a happy agreement with his Parliament.
A bear-baiting jug
A Staffordshire white saltglaze stoneware bear-baiting jug and cover. Mid-18th century. 8 5/8in. (21.8cm.) high. Estimate: £600-900. . This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
This statue of a chained bear, covered in fine chippings, is in fact a jug and cover. It is most unusual, recalling the vicious sport of bear-baiting in Staffordshire in white saltglaze stoneware.
Nothing to be sniffed at
A Neopolitan mother-of-pearl inlaid tortoiseshell ‘Pique’ scent box, mid-18th century. 3 in. (7.5 cm.) high; 4 ¾ in. (12 cm.) wide; 3 ½ in. (9 cm.) deep. Estimate: £8,000-12,000. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
This wonderful mid-18th century Neapolitan mother-of-pearl inlaid tortoiseshell ‘pique’ scent box encloses six crystal scent bottles. Richly curlicued, it is quite possibly the most glamorous and elaborate dressing table piece.
A fantasy scene
Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712), A view of a town square, with a procession during the Feast of Corpus Christi and figures kneeling before the Host. Oil on canvas, 8 5/8 x 10 7/8 in. (21.9 x 27.6 cm.) Estimate: £40,000-60,000. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
It is possible that Van der Heyden’s charming townscape shows Amsterdam, but this inventor/painter was equally likely to have painted an idealised or fantasy scene. Here, for instance, he shows a procession during the Feast of Corpus Christi, with figures kneeling before the host in an otherwise empty village square.
A Renaissance notepad
A gilt-brass and felt note-pad inset with horizontal. Ulrich Klieber, 1592. 3½ x 2¾ x 1 in. (8.5 x 7 x 2.5 cm.). Estimate: £8,000-12,000 . This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: Property from the Collection of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
This gilt-brass and felt note-pad by Ulrich Klieber, 1592, is quite literally a box of tricks. The top central panel lifts off to reveal a silvered horizontal dial and compass needle, an inner and outer circle for latitudes and a useful note-pad with printed latitudes for 36 cities. What’s more, there is even a secret compartment to the reverse.
The original Pocahontas
Smith, John, Capt. (1580-1631). The Generall History of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: with the names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from their first beginning An°. 1584 to this present 1626.London: by J[ohn] D[awson] and J[ohn] H[aviland] for Edward Blackmore, 1632. Estimate: £30,000-50,000. This lot is offered in Linley Hall, Shropshire: A Selection from the Library of the Late Sir Jasper & Lady More on 9 March at Christie’s in London
A renowned explorer, Captain John Smith made meticulous records of his voyages to America, describing early settlements, as well as the country and its Indian inhabitants. Divided into six books, this rare first edition is a compilation of all of his previous works on America, with abstracts from other writers.
The most famous episode in Smith’s narrative occurs after he has set out to discover the source of the River Chickahominey and been captured by Indians; he is only saved from execution by the intervention of Pocahontas, ‘the king’s dearest daughter, [who] when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his face to save him from death.’
Tyler, in his History of American Literature (I, 37-38), praises Smith’s narrative for ‘clearness, force, vividness, picturesque and dramatic energy, a diction racy and crisp’. Indeed, Tyler took the view that American literature owed much to Smith’s writing, claiming: ‘during the first two decades of the seventeenth century he did more than any other Englishman to make an American nation and an American literature possible.’
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