A GEORGE I WHITE-METAL MOUNTED STAINED FIELD-MAPLE CASKET

THE ROLLASON COLLECTION (LOTS 151-185) MELVYN and BARBARA ROLLASON Mr. and Mrs. Melvyn Rollason were serious collectors during the pre- and post-war years and their passion was for English oak and walnut furniture and English clocks from the 'Golden Period'. They were true collectors indeed. In 1939, they moved to Ludstone Hall in South-East Shropshire, a spectacular example of a moated Jacobean manor house. They added an elegant George III pine panelled library to the house and cleverly redesigned the gardens, creating a shrub-filled woodland walk around a pool. Ludstone greatly influenced the direction which the Rollason's collection was to take during the next three decades. Arthur Oswald describes the glories of Ludstone in three Country Life articles during January 1952, in the third of which he writes 'Mr. Rollason's collection of furniture has been acquired with the ruling idea of buying what would look best in the house. How successful his principle has been applied the photographs of the rooms themselves show. At the same time he admits to a liking, very widely shared, for fine pieces of the age of walnut and clocks of the Tompion era have a special fascination for him'. Fine English 17th and early 18th Century oak and walnut furniture and clocks are discussed and illustrated in these articles and the Rollasons, by the time that they were written in the early fifties, had certainly more than measured up to the high standards which they had set themselves over the furnishing of Ludstone Hall. In 1970 they moved to North Rye House near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire and, of course, took their collection with them. They were avid collectors, always bent on upgrading and expanding, and they bought with knowledge and a discerning eye. Equally important, they were well advised and were regular visitors to Malletts, where Francis Egerton guided them in their choice of English early 18th Century furniture, walnut in particular, and also to Amyas Phillips of Phillips of Hitchin. H.W. Keil of Broadway advised them, in the main, over their oak purchases. Thirteen lots of oak and four of pewter from the collection will be offered at Christie's South Kensington in a specialised sale of oak and early metalwork on Wednesday, July 2nd, the day before this sale. Amongst these is an English early 17th Century credence-table and Charles I court-cupboard, dated 1632, both of which are illustrated in the last of Arthur Oswald's Country Life articles. The Rollasons were also keen purchasers at country-house sales in the early post-war years, where a mass of marvellous objects were flooding on the market. It was, however, the clocks that gave Melvyn the greatest pleasure. The collection contained examples of the finest British horology including examples from the Wetherfield Kekstein, Matthey and Iden Collections. From the latter there were no less than seven examples: but some of these are now with new owners having been sold in these rooms during the autumn of 1983. Such was Melvyn's fascination for these that a cake, iced in the form of a favourite Tompion clock, was baked to celebrate his 80th birthday. Within this sale are examples of such celebrated makers as Joseph Knibb, Edward East and Henry Jones and an ivory barometer by Daniel Quare. Two important Tompion clocks remain and will be offered here on November 26th. Melvyn and Barbara Rollason loved to share their collction with those who were truly interested and it was a marvellous experience and a great treat too, to be guided round it by them - their enthusiasm was just so infectious. However, by 1983, the house and garden were becoming too much of a reponsibility and they moved again to be nearer to their family. This necessitated a sale of a part of their collection and thus, fine walnut and gesso were offered here in our St. James's Rooms on 17th November 1983. English clocks were sold in the following week on November 24th. Sadly, Mr. and Mrs. Rollason are now both dead and the decision has been made to sell a selection of those pieces which were held back from the 1983 sale. Many of these, of course, were amongst the Rollason's favourites, for example the rare walnut cabinet (lot 170) which R.W. Symonds illustrated in Veneered Walnut Furniture (1946) when it was in the collection of Mrs. Geoffrey Hart. ANTHONY COLERIDGE and MICHAEL THOMPSON THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE MR. AND MRS. MELVYN ROLLASON (LOTS 151-185)

Details

A GEORGE I WHITE-METAL MOUNTED STAINED FIELD-MAPLE CASKET
Inlaid overall with ebonised lines, the domed rectangular hinged top with a shaped carrying-handle and engraved backplate with foliage, a cherub and a bird, the corners each with a foliate-engraved mount enclosing an ivory silk-lined fitted interior, the central cartouche-shaped escutcheon engraved with twisting foliage, on a moulded base, the hinges and locks replaced, losses to hinge mounts, originally with fitted interior, now silk-lined
10½ in. (26.5 cm.) wide; 3½ in. (9 cm.) high; 7½ in. (19 cm.) deep

Provenance

Percival D. Griffiths, Esq. (d. 1937), Sandridgebury, Hertfordshire.
Bought from Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd., London, April 1952.

Literature

G.W. Whiteman (ed.), 'Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire', The Antique Collector, London, December 1965-January 1966, p. 241 (shown in situ in the Library).

Lot Essay

The collection formed by Percival D. Griffiths under the wise counsel of R.W. Symonds is considered to be arguably the greatest collection of English Furniture formed this Century. Indeed, it was Griffiths' collection that provided the content for Symonds' seminal work English Furniture from Charles II to George II. The interiors at Sandridgebury are happily recalled in 'Percival Griffiths F.S.A.; a memoir on a great collector of English Furniture', published by Symonds in The Antique Collector, of November-December 1943, pp. 163-9.

More from Important English Furniture

View All