Lot 73
73
A SET OF SIX GEORGE III CREAM-PAINTED ARMCHAIRS
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF NIEL RIMINGTON (1928-2009) OF FONTHILL OLD ABBEY ESTATE, WILTSHIRE (LOTS 73-77) The following 5 lots were originally at Fonthill, Wiltshire. There have been no less than five magnificent palaces built at Fonthill since 1745, perhaps none more remarkable than Fonthill Abbey, designed by James Wyatt (d.1813) and built by the aesthete and connoisseur William Beckford (d.1844). Loosely based on Gothic monastic architecture, with cruciform nave and central tower surmounting an octagonal chapel, Beckford's Fonthill Abbey was described as the 'most prodigious romantic folly in England'. In 1825, the great Gothic tower collapsed and destroyed the west arm of the house. It was not rebuilt - and only the north end remains along with fragments of the sanctuary and a tower. Instead, from 1856-59 a new Fonthill Abbey was built 500 metres South East of the old abbey for Richard, 2nd Marquess of Westminster (d.1869). Built in Scottish baronial style, the new Fonthill was subsequently inherited by his eighth child, Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart (née Grosvenor), who is known to have acquired a some of Beckford's original Fonthill works of art in the celebrated Hamilton Palace sale at Christie's in 1882. The works of art offered here have passed by direct descent from the Victorian Fonthill.
A SET OF SIX GEORGE III CREAM-PAINTED ARMCHAIRS

LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details
A SET OF SIX GEORGE III CREAM-PAINTED ARMCHAIRS
LATE 18TH CENTURY
Each with a curved padded toprail with half-paterae terminals above a rectangular pad between turned fluted uprights, the arms with scrolled foliate terminals and tapering fluted and faceted supports, above a padded seat on turned tapering fluted legs, three stamped 'M', one with paper label inscribed in ink '132', with batten carrying-holes
35 in. (89 cm.) high; 22½ in. (57 cm.) wide; 20 in. (51 cm.) deep (6)
Provenance
Richard, 2nd Marquess of Westminster (d. 1869) at Fonthill, Wiltshire. By descent to Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart, née Grosvenor (d. 1920) and then by direct descent.
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.

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Isobel Bradley
Isobel Bradley

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Lot Essay

A set of chairs of similar design with the top rails painted en grisaille, from Brocklesby, Lincolnshire, is illustrated in R.Edwards and P.Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol.I, p. 301, fig. 242.

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