MID-19TH CENTURY

细节

A PAIR OF ITALIAN RENAISSANCE-REVIVAL CARVED WALNUT ARMCHAIRS
MID-19TH CENTURY
Carved throughout with flowers, foliage and strapwork scrolls, with foliate finials and scrolled arms headed by masks, a padded seat and square section legs joined by stretchers, the interlaced front stretchers centred by a carved figure of a reclining nude, each bearing an ivorine label 'WERNHER COLLECTION' and another '309' (2)

来源

Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt. (1850-1912), Bath House, London, and Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, by whom bequeathed, through his widow.
Alice, Lady Wernher, subsequently Lady Ludlow (1862-1945), to their son.
Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt., G.C.V.O. (1893-1973), Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, in the Blue Hall, and by descent.
Acquired directly fron the family.

注意事项

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拍品专文

Julius Wernher's fortune was built in the diamond mines of South Africa, initially in the employment of Paris-based dealer Jules Porgès, but the mid-1880's saw the merger of the Compagnie Française des Diamants du Cap de Bonne Espérance and De Beers. At this time Wernher was widely regarded as one of the richest men in the world.
In 1895 Wernher and his wife Alice Mankiewicz purchased Bath House, on the corner of Piccadilly and Bolton Street. It was amid these opulent interiors, with plaster and woodwork probably executed by Maison Leys of Paris, where most of Julius' collection, including Italian Renaissance bronzes and paintings by Titian and Watteau, was to be housed until it's sale in 1948.
One of these chairs is visible, in part, at the edge of a photograph of the Red Room, Bath House.