The contents of Athelhampton House in Dorset come up for sale at Duke’s on October 9. The sale will be held on the premises with the 500 lots estimated to bring over £1m.
Athelhampton, a Tudor manor house on a 29-acre estate in Puddletown, was bought in 1957 by Robert Victor Cooke, an eminent Bristol surgeon, to accommodate his growing assemblage of 16th and 17th century paintings, furniture and works of art. Following the recent sale of the property, the contents are being sold by his grandson Patrick Cooke.
Much of the furniture – a mix of early oak and vernacular pieces and fine Georgian cabinetmaking – was acquired in the 1930s-50s from leading dealers of the period.
This pair of George II side chairs c.1755 (one shown above) in the manner of William Vile or the so-called St Martins Lane Syndicate was pictured in The Works of Thomas Chippendale and his Contemporaries in the Rococo Style by Anthony Coleridge (1968).
Similar to the celebrated suite of furniture supplied to St Giles House for the Earl of Shaftesbury, according to old references they were made for Captain Townsend MP, for Raynham Hall, Norfolk. The estimate is £15,000-25,000.
Guy Schwinge of Duke’s said: “Good old-fashioned country house auctions are a rarity these days and it is a privilege to organise one against such an historic backdrop.”
dukes-auctions.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
