The contents of a Norfolk country house will go under the hammer this week as part of a high-profile antiques sale - and Norfolk interior designer, Birdie Fortescue, has shown just how easy it is to style some of the items in a more modern space.
Cheffins Fine Art Auctioneers will offer 104 lots of art, antiques and collectibles from Wood Hall in Hilgay as part of its sale on June 22-23, including a 19th century statue of Mercury, estimated at £8,000-£12,000, and a previously unseen war diary from the Crimean War.
Wood Hall, which is Grade II star-listed is situated just outside the village of Hilgay in Norfolk. It was built by Henry Hawe in 1579 and subsequently passed through the Hawe family, its ancestors and other owners in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It was bought in the 19th century by William Lowton Jones and in 1807 he instructed the landscape designer, Humphry Repton, to improve the parkland and rebuild large parts of the house which had been previously damaged in a fire.
The estate was bought by the Stocks family of Upper Shibden Hall, Yorkshire, in 1879 and has remained in the same family until recently - the last incumbents being the Charlesworth family, who inherited the house and land in 1974 from Major Eric Stocks.
Nicolas Martineau, director at Cheffins, said: “Wood Hall is a fine Norfolk country house, and we are delighted to have worked with the Charlesworth family to bring part of its contents, collected by the many generations of the Stocks, Ellison and Charlesworth families over the last 140 years, to market.”
Also included in the sale is a large view of San Giorgio Maggiore from the Bacino di San Marco by British artist Jane Vivian (fl. 1869-1888) with an estimate of £4,000-6,000.
Other highlights include a portrait of Mrs Mary Jane Stocks, a previous resident at Wood Hall, by the artist Rudolf Wilhelm Lehmann, dated 1879, which has an estimate of £1,500-£2,500 and two paintings by Thomas Sidney Cooper.
These are offered alongside antique furniture, ceramics, statuary, clocks and various artworks, as well as a number of items of militaria including medals and a diary.
In the lead up to the sale, Cheffins has also teamed up with Norfolk interior designer Birdie Fortescue to help demonstrate how antiques can be displayed and styled for modern day living.
“Creating vignettes for this collaboration at home was an incredibly enjoyable exercise that gave us the chance to put together a completely fresh set of room schemes,” she says.
“The furniture we chose from the upcoming sale was very much in the spirit of the existing interiors but in a different vein to our own items.
“Much of the furniture here already is French and is a mix of polished and painted, so it was easy to slot in the new pieces and create some interesting juxtapositions.
“Working with lots of brown furniture was a great opportunity to show just how versatile it can be when styled with contemporary soft furnishings and accessories."
Director of Cheffins, Brett Tryner, hopes the collaboration will help buyers better visualise the items on offer. “In an auction environment, buyers can struggle to visualise how these pieces might look in their home, and by working with Birdie we were able to demonstrate the potential of these pieces,” he says.
“Many of the items featured in the shoot were consigned from Wood Hall, a large country house in Norfolk, and approximately a hundred items from the hall are now included in the June Fine Sale.”
He says that many of the items are typical of those found in English country house sales, including Georgian and Victorian furniture, Asian ceramics, ancestral portraits, and traditional 19th century paintings. “However, when mixed with the fresh fabrics and soft furnishings of Birdie’s spring/summer collection, they really came to life.
“This collaboration has allowed us to comprehensively illustrate how antiques can be used for modern living and styled to suit a variety of interior design schemes, whilst simultaneously being the most sustainable way to furnish a home.”
The sale will take place at Cheffins Cambridgeshire auction room on Wednesday, June 22-Thursday June 23.
To view the auction catalogue, visit www.cheffins.co.uk or contact the Cheffins Fine Art department on 01223 213343 or by email at fine.art@cheffins.co.uk
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