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Lot 73 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.
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
Closed27 May 2010
Price Realised
GBP 13,750
More Information
Specialist note
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.