OXFORD.- A fascinating selection of early vernacular furniture and works of art is to go under the hammer at Bonhams Oxford, in ‘The Oak Interior: including the Collection of Roger Rosewell FSA of Yelford Manor, Oxfordshire’, on 21 January 2015.

An impressive oak and marquetry inlaid tester bed, dating to the late 16th/early 17th century and estimated at £8,000-12,000, is a highlight of the sale, and comes from a 130-strong collection of pieces from Yelford Manor, former property of the medievalist and writer Roger Rosewell.

Other items from Yelford Manor include:

• A rare and impressive James I oak panel-back open armchair, Somerset, circa 1625, £6,000-8,000

• A James I oak and inlaid court cupboard, circa 1620 and later, £3,000-5,000

• A large, finely cast and important Commonwealth leaded bronze mortar, dated 1659, made for Francis Keble of Burford, Mercer by Edward Neale of Burford, £8,000-12,000 (one of six named and dated 17th century English mortars in Mr. Rosewell’s collection)

• A rare Henry VIII oak boarded chest, circa 1520-40, £3,000-5,000

• A Charles I oak six-leg refectory table, possibly West Country, circa 1630-40 and later, £4,000-6,000

Yelford Manor is a timber-framed, late-15th-century, Grade II listed property that has only had five owners in 500-odd years. Practically derelict by the 1950s, it was sold to and rescued by Oxford professor Bernard Babington Smith OBE. Nowadays Yelford Manor has been extensively renovated by its recent owner, the medievalist and writer Roger Rosewell who, in 1984, heard that Professor Babington Smith was thinking of selling, went to see the house and bought it the very same day.

A staunch supporter of the SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) and its principles of ‘conservative repair’, Mr Rosewell spent the next 16 years gradually restoring the roof, removing modern partitions to open up the first floor, installing new plumbing and heating systems, and creating an enclosed courtyard with a cloister linking a 19th-century dairy block to the house. Mr Rosewell also laid out Yelford’s exquisite landscaped gardens.

As Mr. Rosewell writes in his introduction to the sale, one of his life’s great passions from a young age has been medieval art, including timber-framed houses and their interiors. Having purchased Yelford Manor, he writes:

“Over the next thirty years I scoured antiques shops finding pieces of sixteenth and seventeenth-century furniture which would complement the house and create a marvellously evocative and inspirational atmosphere in which I could write books about medieval wall paintings and stained glass, collect contemporary objects, such as mortars, and design intricate Elizabethan-style knot gardens and parterres.

Despite the age and rarity of many items, the house was always a home, not a museum. We ate at the refectory table daily; I told my children stories in the imposing four poster bed every morning before they went to school; coffers, such as the late medieval and almost sculptural, iron bound 'standard' chest housed our library of maps and Michelin guides.”

In the main body of the sale are a further 500-plus lots, ranging from furniture to metalware and textiles.

Two rare items dating to the reign of Elizabeth I are on offer; an oak joint stool, circa 1580-1600, is estimated at £7,000-10,000, and an oak livery cupboard, circa 1583 and later, carries an estimate of £4,000-6,000.

Further items include:

•A Charles II oak refectory table, circa 1660, £5,000-7,000

•An exceptionally large and rare 17th century reeded broad-rim pewter charger, English, circa 1670, £6,000-8,000

•A rare George II yew-wood Cwpwrdd tridarn from North Wales, circa 1730-60, £5,000-8,000

•A rare pair of James I carved and polychrome-decorated oak heraldic finials, circa 1610, £7,000-10,000

•A rare pair of Charles II oak joint stools, Lancashire, circa 1670-80, £5,000-8,000