Exbury House: Le Goût Rothschild 

Exbury House: ‘Le Goût Rothschild’

CLICK HERE FOR A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE SALE 

We are delighted to be offering selected contents of Exbury House, Hampshire. Exbury, a seat of the Rothschilds from 1919, was previously the estate of the historian William Mitford and then Lord Forster, a one-time Governor-General of Australia, but by the time Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1882-1942) acquired Exbury, the 18th century house was all but derelict and he had it remodelled in the late 1920s. The legacy of its military occupation throughout the war meant that both house and gardens had to be restored once more, this time under the direction of Lionel’s son, Edmund (1916-2009), who opened the magnificent gardens to the public in 1950.

Edmund was also an art collector, but it is to another Rothschild that the majority of the notable highlights from the forthcoming sale may be attributed. These heirlooms from Exbury entered the family via Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918) who was considered alongside his cousin, Ferdinand de Rothschild, as one of the greatest art collectors of his day. In 1879 on the death of his father, Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild,  Alfred inherited the 1,400-acre Halton estate in Buckinghamshire, where he promptly built a palatial house in the style of a French château. It was here, as well as his London home at Seamore Place, where his dazzling collections of furniture, paintings and works of art were displayed in sumptuous interiors.

The Exbury House sale will take place on the 5^th October and will include fine Continental furniture, works of art, lighting, carpets, silver, objects of vertu and even a Victorian country house knife sharpener! Highlights of the collection include: a wonderful micromosaic and Siena marble centre table attributed to the Roman mosaicist Giacomo Raffaelli who went on to work for Napoleon,  a rare 19^th century Italian barrel on stand carved from porphyry, a fine pair of Louis XV encoignures by Jean-Pierre Latz, a North Italian ‘armourers’ cabinet inset with damascened iron panels and a fabulous pair of ormolu and lapis lazuli figural tazze.

For more information with regards the sale please contact:

Mark Yuan-Richards +44 (0) 1722 411854

myr@woolleyandwallis.co.uk