TEN REGENCY, EARLY 19TH CENTURY, EIGHT 20TH CENTURY

Details

A SET OF EIGHTEEN BLACK AND GREY-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT ARMCHAIRS
TEN REGENCY, EARLY 19TH CENTURY, EIGHT 20TH CENTURY
Each with Greek-key pattern scrolled tablet toprail above a vertical splat of eight bars between uprights enclosing three gilt balls with down-swept arms, above a caned seat, with Greek-key pattern seatrail on ring-turned slightly splayed tapering legs, redecorated, three chairs with one replaced rail, one chair slightly reduced in height, with eighteen cream patterned squab cushions, eighteen alternative green leatherette squab cushions and one green material covered squab cushion (18)

Provenance

Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere (d.1978), Daylesford House, Gloucestershire.
Almost certainly acquired through John Fowler.

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

Daylesford

Daylesford, acquired by the 2nd Viscount Rothermere in 1946 underwent major restoration in the early 1960s with the advice of John Fowler. It must have been one of the most interesting projects of its time, and one of the jobs on which John Fowler "pulled out all the stops" as he used to say. Lord Rothermere wanted to restore the house to its former glory, dating from when Warren Hastings, the then- Govenor-General of Bengal, in India, had been responsible for Daylesford's late 18th century transformation. Lord Rothermere was intent not only upon restoring the house, but also had both the means and the enthusiasm to track down furnishings that either pertained to the house, or that fitted with the mental image of it in Warren Hastings' day as conveyed by contemporary documents.
Lord Rothermere was 47 when he bought Daylesford, having experienced the growing enthusiasm for Georgian houses that gathered pace after the first World War. Throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s there seemed to be an interminable choice of wonderful furnishings on the market to fill them, making the task that Lord Rothermere and John Fowler had set themselves a deeply enjoyable challenge.

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