LONDON.- On the 19 September, Christie’s will offer Visions of Collecting: Royal and Aristocratic, An Important Private Collection. Comprising 350 lots, this collection reflects a fascination with both Royal provenance – with objects from the British and other European Royal families – and Britain’s great country houses. The breadth of furniture, paintings, ceramics, sculpture, tapestries, silver, objects and works of art, lighting and soft furnishings, are united by their romantic and historic past, which have been skilfully and imaginatively woven into a kaleidoscopic vision, Royal and aristocratic, grand and exotic, ornamental and practical, to be enjoyed and treasured again. Leading the sale is Corso auf dem Monte Pincio, 1911 by Max Liebermann, which was owned by Paul Cassirer, the influential modern art dealer and publisher (estimate: £200,000-300,000). The Collection is expected to realise in excess of £2 million.

Charles Cator, Deputy Chairman, Christie’s International: “There is always a vision behind any collection, a desire to create, to improve, to beautify. So it was with this intriguing and diverse group of works of art, assembled with an eclectic but immensely discerning eye over more than thirty years. If there is one theme that stands out, the leitmotif linking all these objects together, it is provenance. Where things come from, where they are going – these objects are on their journey just as we are. Their past life, who has owned and enjoyed them, the palaces and great houses they have adorned, is all part of their story and their appeal - the romance of objects.”

Royal Provenance
The wealth of works with Royal Provenance range from a neat pair of mahogany stools from George III’s Windsor Castle (estimate: £6,000-10,000), to a majestic bronze statuette of his eldest son George IV by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell (estimate: £15,000-25,000), and his fifth son’s descendants, the Princes of Hanover are represented by a portrait of an earlier Electress, Princess Sophie (estimate: £30,000-50,000). Pictures, furniture and objects with associations to the great European Royal dynasties are the threads that weave in and out: the Austrian Hapsburgs with a pair of finely executed oval medallions of the Holy Roman Emperor and Empress, Marie-Antoinette’s brother, Joseph I and his wife Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick- Lüneburg (estimate: £15,000-25,000); the Wettin Electors of Saxony with a richly decorated armorial Meissen dish from Augustus III’s Coronation Service (estimate: £8,000-12,000); and the Romanov Czars of Russia with the bust of Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna, born a Princess of Baden (estimate: £15,000-25,000)

Britain’s Great Country Houses
Many works have provenance tying them to Britain’s great country houses, including an atmospheric view of Tottenham Park, Wiltshire (estimate: £30,000-50,000); splendid chairs from Ditchley, which in the 20th century became such an icon of Anglo-American taste (estimate: £30,000-50,000). From seat furniture by Ince & Mayhew from Clive of India’s Claremont, which was acquired by the Crown in 1816 for the use of George IV’s only daughter, Princess Charlotte and remained a royal residence throughout the 19th century (a pair of armchairs: £15,000-25,000 and a sofa: £10,000 – 15,000); a superb pair of glass candelabra attributed to William Parker from the Duke of Newcastle’s now lost Clumber Park (estimate: £40,00060,000); to ceiling mouldings and doorcases probably carved by John Linnell for the ‘new drawing room’ designed by Robert Adam from the demolished Big House at Bowood (estimate: £4,000-6,000). Further examples include a William IV antiquarian central open bookcase set with sumptuous Florentine 17th century pietra dura panels from the Winter Queen’s Ashdown House (estimate: £30,000-50,000), an intriguing pierglass from Park House, Elmley Castle with the Regency trade label of the Worcester firm of Anderson & Perry which looks back to the mid-18th Century (estimate: £10,000-20,000); to Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire’s garden armchairs (estimate: £2,000-3,000).