A PIEDMONTESE GILTWOOD FAUTEUIL

This fauteuil and pair of chairs en suite (lot 22) formed part of the celebrated collections at North Mymms Park in Hertfordshire. Having had a succession of owners dating back to Sir Ralph Coningsby, Sheriff of Hertfordshire, in 1590, North Mymms was purchased by Mr. Walter Hayes Burns, brother-in-law of J. Pierpont Morgan, in 1893. In the 1890s considerable internal modifications and enlargements were carried out by the fashionable London architect Sir Ernest George to accommodate Mr. and Mrs. Burns' growing collection of works of art, furniture and pictures, many of which were gifts from J. Pierpont Morgan's personal collections. The contents of the house were dispersed in a three-day sale held by Christie's on the premises in 1979, where this private collector acquired several pieces of furniture and objets d'art, including an important group of Chinese reverse-painted mirror pictures, some of which are offered here (lots 6, 21, 22, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 103, 200, 203, 204, 216 & 217).