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CLUMBER The following two lots are from Clumber, Nottinghamshire. Clumber was built for Thomas Pelham-Clinton, second Duke of Newcastle (d. 1794) by Stephen Wright between 1767 and 1770. Set in a large park, designed in part by Capability Brown, it was a grand Palladian house near Worksop in Nottinghamshire. The fourth Duke inherited at the young age of eleven, and was a noted francophile and commissioned Sidney Smirke to add a new library in 1829. During the 1850s the house was further enlarged and embellished in the Italianate style by the fifth Duke, who also added the serpentine lake and a double avenue of lime trees over three miles in length. In the late nineteenth century a fire destroyed the whole centre section of the house, which was soon rebuilt. There was a further less serious fire in 1912. Upon the seventh Duke's death in 1928, Clumber passed to his nephew, Henry, sixteenth Earl of Lincoln & ninth Duke of Newcastle. He decided to demolish the house and replace it with a smaller one and there followed a series of sales including a major sale at Christie's in 1937. By the end of that year Clumber was empty, the contents sold, and the following year, the house was demolished. The intention was to build a new house on the site but the park was requisitioned by the War Department during the Second World War, and the rebuilding never took place. The park was purchased by the National Trust in 1946. However, much of the estate remains, including the outstanding Gothic Revival Chapel, Walled Garden and greenhouses, Stable yard and the estate village of Hardwick. THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTOR

A GEORGE III GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR

IN THE STYLE OF MATTHIAS LOCK, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Details

A GEORGE III GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR
IN THE STYLE OF MATTHIAS LOCK, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
The rectangular plate in a rockwork border headed by S-scrolls, the cresting with a central cartouche with confronted C-scrolls admist foliage on a trellis background and with C-scrolls at each corner, the sides with caryatids, on a trellis background with fruit and foliage, originally with eight border plates, regilt, later backboard, the plate 19th century, losses to cresting
107½ x 69¾ in. (273 x 177 cm.)

Provenance

Henry Pelham-Clinton (1720-1794), 2nd Duke of Newcastle & 9th Earl of Lincoln, Clumber, Nottinghamshire and by descent at Clumber until sold by
Henry, 16th Earl of Lincoln (1907-1988), Christie's, London, 9 June 1937, lot 222.
With Asprey's, London, 1994.
With Jonathan Harris.

Literature

M. Hall, The English Country House, London, 1994, p. 115.
Asprey's, Catalogue, London, 1994.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This flowered and trellised mirror is serpentined in the George II French picturesque manner. Its pattern, with arched temple pediment and busts of Arcadian nymphs on rustic truss-scrolled pillars, relates to designs for overmantel frames by the celebrated carver and pattern-book author Matthias Lock (d. 1765). Lock, in partnership with the silver engraver Henry Copland (d. 1753) published his designs in their New Book of Ornaments, 1752, in which plates 23 and 28, featuring caraytids and rockwork decorated with foliate festoons are similar to the current lot's design. The frame's whimsical trellis relates to Lock's designs featuring Chinese-railed ornament (pls. 6 and 27).
Two related George III giltwood overmantels, in the style of Matthias Lock were sold by Mr and Mrs Donald Davis, Charleville, Co. Wicklow, Christie's house sale, 23-24 January 1978, lot 99 (£6,000). These mirrors were adorned with closely styled caryatids. Interestingly these mirrors had border plates, similar to those originally on the present mirror.

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