LONDON.- On 3 December 2014 Christie’s will present a one-off auction at South Kensington: Fire and Light. The sale encapsulates the opulent winter interior and is centred on a collection of fireplaces, fire grates and hearthside items from renowned Pimlico Road dealer Nicholas Gifford-Mead. Gifford-Mead has been sourcing and dealing in architectural antiques for over thirty-five years, from a shop within The Furniture Cave on Chelsea’s Kings Road and then from his shop on the Pimlico Road, since the early 1990s. His sharpness of eye, depth of knowledge, and underlying ethos of the importance of originality and provenance has affirmed his reputation among interior designers, private clients and museums alike. The auction represents a scaling down of Gifford-Mead’s business following his decision to leave his Pimlico Road premises after twenty successful years, to relocate to new premises.

The auction will also feature a fascinating variety of chandeliers, lanterns, mirrors, candlesticks, lamps and candelabra from the 18th to 20th century with estimates ranging from £600 to £50,000. Highlights include twenty four lots of lighting from the Luton Hoo mansion in Bedfordshire. The interior of Luton Hoo was redesigned in 1903 by Charles Mewès and Arthur Davis, the architects of the Ritz Hotel in London, in collaboration with French designer Georges Hoentschel. The resulting creation was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as the finest of its date and style anywhere in England. Bespoke lighting manufactured by Mewès and Davis is offered in this sale, notably a pair of large and impressive French thirty-light chandeliers (estimate: £25,000-35,000).

Further highlights include two monumental Edwardian gilt-bronze and patinated-metal chandeliers removed from the Baltic Exchange, London, in the early 1990s (estimate: £15,000-25,000 each); a Gallé cameo glass table lamp (estimate: £4,000-6,000); a Metropolitan Police lantern (estimate: £1,500-2,000); a Murano glass chandelier (estimate: £4,000- 6,000), a large and unique aluminium illuminated scale model of the Chrysler Building (estimate: £35,000-45,000).