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THE PROPERTY OF THE EARL OF HAREWOOD, K.B.E. The Lascelles family's connection with Harewood - that great Treasure house of the North - began in 1738 when Henry Lascelles bought the Gawthorpe Hall estate near Leeds. An old-fashioned, medieval manor house, Gawthorpe was razed to the ground in 1754 by his son and heir, Edwin, who embarked on an ambitious building programme to erect a new Harewood, commensurate with his vast inheritance acquired from the family's sugar plantations in Barbados. Initially turning to the local architect John Carr of York, the latter was subsequently succeeded by the young and ambitious Scot Robert Adam. Their great Palladian collusion was largely complete on the outside by 1765, when it was depicted on an ice-pail made by Wedgwood for the service of Catherine the Great of Russia. Adam's palatial interiors, embellished with plasterwork by Joseph Rose and decorative paintings by Antonio Zucchi and Angelica Kauffmann, took more than three decades to reach their zenith but provided the perfect backdrop for Chippendale's most important commission. Born only a few miles away at Otley, Thomas Chippendale Senior (d.1778) and, subsequently his son, Thomas Junior worked at Harewood between 1767 and 1797. A multiplicity of chairs, sofas, stools, tables, beds, commodes, looking glasses and upholstery were made for not only the State Rooms, but also for the family apartments, basements and servant's quarters, to create 'one of the best and compleatest Houses in the Kingdom'. Subsequent Earls of Harewood have expanded the collections at Harewood dramatically, both through acquisition - notably by Edward 'Beau', Viscount Lascelles, a Francophile who took full advantage of the Peace of Amiens in 1802-03 to acquire superlative French furniture, works of art and ormolu-mounted porcelain in Paris - and inheritance. Most notably, in the early 20th Century Harewood's collections were immeasurably enriched by treasures from Goldsborough Hall, Yorkshire, which had been built for Daniel Lascelles and furnished by Chippendale between 1771-1776, as well as heirlooms from the Marquess of Clanricarde. Like so many great houses, Harewood has been remodelled on numerous occasions, most dramatically between 1843-50 under the direction of Sir Charles Barry. During these alterations, all the State Rooms and some of the minor rooms were subjected to radical change and other rooms swept away altogether. These changes, allied with later acquisitions and inheritances inevitably resulted in many of the larger pieces being placed into store in and around the estate. Since the mid-1980's, the Harewood Charitable Trust has embarked on a comprehensive restoration program of all the major pieces in store, which has resulted in the re-instatement of almost all of Adam and Chippendale's original decorative schemes. In tribute to, and recognition of this ongoing programme of restoration, Harewood House has been awarded Museum status.

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY BUREAU

THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY ALTERED FROM A BUREAU/BED

Details

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY BUREAU
THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY ALTERED FROM A BUREAU/BED
With hinged slope enclosing a Regency fitment of fourteen small drawers, above four simulated drawers fronting a hinged door enclosing a sliding shelf, on a later plinth base, one interior drawer inscribed in pencil, 'Joseph Taylor/August the 15 1817', previously but not originally fitted
54¼ in. (138 cm.) high; 45¼ in. (115 cm.) wide; 28¾ in. (73 cm.) deep

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

Lot Essay

In the 1795 Inventories, a 'mahogany Buroe Bedstead' is listed in the Butler's Pantry at Harewood House, Portman Street, whilst a 'Mahogany Desk Bed' is recorded in the House Maid's Closet at Harewood.

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