Lot Essay
The Clumber fender, serpentined in the George IV French fashion then called 'Louis Quatorze', formed part of the refurbishment of Clumber Park carried out in the late 1820s under the architect Sydney Smirke (d. 1877) for Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, K.G., 4th Duke of Newcastle (d. 1851). Its 'picturesque' acanthus scrolls display a garlanded and antique-fretted shell cartouche wreathed with a ribbon bearing the Clinton family motto 'LOYAULTE N'A HONTE'; while more shells support the fire-iron rests. A similarly fashioned fender, in Clumber's State Drawing Room, is illustrated in situ in 1908 ('Clumber-I', Country Life, 12 September 1908, p. 357).