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Lot 164 JAMES WYATT'S GOTHIC FITTINGS FOR LEE PRIORY, KENT
The following lots comprise the late 18th-century Gothic Revival bookcases and architectural fittings from the Ante-Chamber at Lee Priory, Kent, designed by the architect-designer James Wyatt (1746-1813) between 1783 and 1790 for Thomas Barrett (1744-1803). They are important relics from a house central to the late 18th-century Gothic Revival. The Gothic architecture of Lee Priory, and its interiors, was highly regarded in its day - as a worthy successor to Strawberry Hill, Twickenham (Horace Walpole), and a precursor to Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire (Wyatt) and Eaton Hall, Cheshire (William Porden).
Horace Walpole (1717-97), antiquarian, advocate of Gothick, collector and friend to Barrett, was significantly involved with the architecture and interiors at Lee Priory. Walpole’s praise for Lee Priory was effusive in both letters and in print; in October 1794, in a letter to his friend, Mary Berry, he reserved his highest praise for the Library, decorated similarly to the Ante-Chamber, noting: ‘to me it is the most perfect thing I ever saw, and has the air it was intended to have, that of an abbot’s library, supposing it could have been so exquisitely finished three hundred years ago…’.
The rectilinear Gothic Ante-Chamber was one of the principal rooms of the first floor at Lee Priory and led from the Staircase Hall to the octagonal Gothic Library, a reproduction of the Octagon Lantern Tower at Ely Cathedral. With its plaster imitation fan-vaulted ceiling centred by a glazed circular or rose panel to let in light, the Ante-Chamber complemented the ornamentation and fittings of the Library; it shared the same architectural character and likewise was lined with virtually identical bookcases (offered here). In each room, these had the same cresting and panelled doors below a diaper-encrusted dado only differing in the treatment of the upper shelves; in the Library they were open (two bookcases from the Library are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, W.51-1953) whereas the bookcases from the Ante-Chamber are entirely enclosed behind doors.
In 1953, prior to the demolition of Lee Priory, the bookcases and architectural fittings from the Ante-Chamber were dismantled, and sold to a notable collector and antiques dealer, Ian Phillips. Of the remaining fixtures and fittings of Lee Priory’s interiors only the ‘Strawberry Room’/Walpole Closet and two bookcases from the Library were further saved; both at the Victoria & Albert Museum, while a hexagonal red and gilt-decorated metal hall-lantern possibly designed for the entrance hall at Lee Priory was sold at Christie's, London, 6 June 1996, lot 36 (£4,370 including premium).
PROVENANCE FOR THE SUITE:
Designed by James Wyatt for Thomas Barrett (d.1803) for Lee Priory, Kent.
By descent at Lee Priory to his great-nephew Thomas Bridges Barrett.
Thence at Lee Priory to Mr. Philips
Acquired in 1953 prior to the demolition of Lee Priory by Ian Phillips Esq.
LITERATURE FOR THE SUITE:
H. Honour, 'A House of the Gothic Revival', Country Life, 30 May 1952, pp. 1665-1666.
J.M. Robinson, James Wyatt: Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 2011, pp. 220-223.
M.M. Reevie, P.N. Lindfield, 'A Child of Strawberry': Thomas Barrett and Lee Priory, Kent', The Burlington Magazine, December 2015, CLVII, pp. 836-842.
P.N. Lindfield, 'Rediscovering Lee Priory's Lost Library Ante-Chamber', The Georgian Group Journal, vol. XXV, 2017, pp. 207-212.
The following lots comprise the late 18th-century Gothic Revival bookcases and architectural fittings from the Ante-Chamber at Lee Priory, Kent, designed by the architect-designer James Wyatt (1746-1813) between 1783 and 1790 for Thomas Barrett (1744-1803). They are important relics from a house central to the late 18th-century Gothic Revival. The Gothic architecture of Lee Priory, and its interiors, was highly regarded in its day - as a worthy successor to Strawberry Hill, Twickenham (Horace Walpole), and a precursor to Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire (Wyatt) and Eaton Hall, Cheshire (William Porden).
Horace Walpole (1717-97), antiquarian, advocate of Gothick, collector and friend to Barrett, was significantly involved with the architecture and interiors at Lee Priory. Walpole’s praise for Lee Priory was effusive in both letters and in print; in October 1794, in a letter to his friend, Mary Berry, he reserved his highest praise for the Library, decorated similarly to the Ante-Chamber, noting: ‘to me it is the most perfect thing I ever saw, and has the air it was intended to have, that of an abbot’s library, supposing it could have been so exquisitely finished three hundred years ago…’.
The rectilinear Gothic Ante-Chamber was one of the principal rooms of the first floor at Lee Priory and led from the Staircase Hall to the octagonal Gothic Library, a reproduction of the Octagon Lantern Tower at Ely Cathedral. With its plaster imitation fan-vaulted ceiling centred by a glazed circular or rose panel to let in light, the Ante-Chamber complemented the ornamentation and fittings of the Library; it shared the same architectural character and likewise was lined with virtually identical bookcases (offered here). In each room, these had the same cresting and panelled doors below a diaper-encrusted dado only differing in the treatment of the upper shelves; in the Library they were open (two bookcases from the Library are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, W.51-1953) whereas the bookcases from the Ante-Chamber are entirely enclosed behind doors.
In 1953, prior to the demolition of Lee Priory, the bookcases and architectural fittings from the Ante-Chamber were dismantled, and sold to a notable collector and antiques dealer, Ian Phillips. Of the remaining fixtures and fittings of Lee Priory’s interiors only the ‘Strawberry Room’/Walpole Closet and two bookcases from the Library were further saved; both at the Victoria & Albert Museum, while a hexagonal red and gilt-decorated metal hall-lantern possibly designed for the entrance hall at Lee Priory was sold at Christie's, London, 6 June 1996, lot 36 (£4,370 including premium).
PROVENANCE FOR THE SUITE:
Designed by James Wyatt for Thomas Barrett (d.1803) for Lee Priory, Kent.
By descent at Lee Priory to his great-nephew Thomas Bridges Barrett.
Thence at Lee Priory to Mr. Philips
Acquired in 1953 prior to the demolition of Lee Priory by Ian Phillips Esq.
LITERATURE FOR THE SUITE:
H. Honour, 'A House of the Gothic Revival', Country Life, 30 May 1952, pp. 1665-1666.
J.M. Robinson, James Wyatt: Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 2011, pp. 220-223.
M.M. Reevie, P.N. Lindfield, 'A Child of Strawberry': Thomas Barrett and Lee Priory, Kent', The Burlington Magazine, December 2015, CLVII, pp. 836-842.
P.N. Lindfield, 'Rediscovering Lee Priory's Lost Library Ante-Chamber', The Georgian Group Journal, vol. XXV, 2017, pp. 207-212.
A GEORGE III POLYCHROME-PAINTED FITTED BREAKFRONT BOOKCASE
DESIGNED BY JAMES WYATT, CIRCA 1785-90
Closed12 November 2020
Price Realised
GBP 12,500