Furniture and ceramics expert Jeremy Lamond from Halls has been on the look-out for other items of Pugin furniture from Leighton Hall since selling a table for £180,000 in December, 1998. The table’s owners had no idea of its true value.
“Pugin was responsible for the whole scheme for Leighton Hall and this sideboard was made after his design,” said Mr Lamond.
Mr Lamond, who based a 10,000-word dissertation on the Pugin table and is now researching an academic paper on similar pieces of furniture, is convinced that there are still Gothic treasures from Leighton Hall to be found in the Welshpool area.
Much of the furniture that graced Leighton Hall was dispersed at a sale of the property in March 1968.
Pugin revival
Halls Fine Art of Shrewsbury discovered this ornate carved oak sideboard, valued at up to £35,000, at a home in the Welshpool area and will offer it at auction on September 24. The sideboard was commissioned by John Naylor for the dining room at Leighton Hall, near Welshpool and made by famous furniture makers J. D. Crace after a design by Pugin.