Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors

Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 494. A PAIR OF LATE GEORGE III PARCEL-GILT WHITE-PAINTED POLE SCREENS, CIRCA 1800.

A PAIR OF LATE GEORGE III PARCEL-GILT WHITE-PAINTED POLE SCREENS, CIRCA 1800

Auction Closed

January 25, 03:59 AM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

A PAIR OF LATE GEORGE III PARCEL-GILT WHITE-PAINTED POLE SCREENS, CIRCA 1800


the screens painted with floral sprays on a dark ground

height 58 in.

147.3 cm

The Collection of Nancy Lancaster, Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire

Christie's London, 21 November 1974, lot 36

The form of the tripod base is related to designs for 'Tripod Fire-Screens' in plate 38 of Thomas Sheraton's Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book (1793).


In 1926 Nancy Lancaster and Ronald Tree settled in Northamptonshire, where Ronald had been offered joint mastership of the Pytchley Hunt, and the couple took a lease on Kelmarsh Hall from Colonel Claude Lancaster, Nancy's future third husband. Kelmarsh Hall, outside Market Harborough, had been built for William Hanbury in 1732 after a design by the architect James Gibbs in a typical Palladian style, with a central pavilion flanked by two wings joined with curved galleries. Nancy immediately undertook the renovation of the house by engaging the architects William Delano and Paul Phipps, her uncle by marriage, adding central heating, electric lighting and additional bathrooms, and fully refurnished the rooms with the help of Mrs Bethell (the Hon. Mrs Guy Bethell, c.1865-1932), a partner of Elden in Grosvenor Square, described by Lancaster as 'by far the best decorator I have ever known'. Kelmarsh became an important vehicle for the Trees' attempts to anchor their position in English society and launch Ronald's political career, and as their son Michael recalled, the house was 'always overflowing with guests'.


Nancy's own bedroom at Kelmarsh was regarded as particularly successful, and the offered lot is visible flanking the fireplace in a Country Life photograph. The predominant theme was white, with the walls covered in off-white silk and curtains, a white carpet and painted furniture and grey marble fireplace, accented with a giltwood mirror and gilt finials and silver embroidery on the bed hangings adding reflections to create an effect described by Nancy as 'like ice with a glint of gold'. The room was completed by 1927, making it directly contemporary with Syrie Maugham's celebrated white drawing room in her house in the King's Road, Chelsea, first published in 1929