10 9th June 2012
london selection Congreve cashes in on its country house cachet
■ Private buyers sign up for a piece of old world charm
Gabriel Berner reports
A TWO-PART sale assembled jointly by Christie’s and Mealy’s (25/20/12% buyer's premium) of Kilkenny to dispose of art and antiques from Mount Congreve in Ireland got under way in London on May 23.
The smaller of the two sales, The
London Sale offered at Christie’s King Street, in association with Mealy’s, comprised around 120 lots of furniture, paintings, silver and Chinese and European porcelain. The collection was formed over six decades, beginning in 1942, and was still being added to in the 21st century. Situated above the River Suir, not far from the city of Waterford in the south east corner of Ireland, Mount Congreve, the neoclassical house which formed the focus of the collection, was built in the 1760s by architect John
Right: the top lot in part one of the Mount Congreve house sale held at Christie’s (in association with Mealy’s) was this George III silver épergne by Thomas Pitts, London – £285,000.
Right: one of a pair of George III pier tables designed by Robert Adam – £260,000 the pair.
Roberts. The estate is best known for its world-renowned gardens, planted by Ambrose Congreve, who died last year, aged 104. Hopes of £2.5m for the sale were
easily realised, the final total of £2.8m reflecting a success rate of 78% by lot and 91% by value. House sales such as this tend to pull in
some trade activity, but the driving force is private buyers drawn to the charm of a country house provenance and bidding from across the world. Christie’s specialist Amelia Elborne said: “The success of the collection had much to do with the provenance and condition of many of the pieces, with buyers responding particularly well to works that had been purchased from post-War English country house sales.” This was the case for a George II
giltwood overmantel mirror made in 1759 by William Linnell and purchased for Mount Congreve at the 1948 auction of furniture from the Earl of Coventry’s mansion at Croome Court in Worcestershire. Measuring 7ft 8in (2.34m) high, the mirror had been bought for the 6th Earl of Coventry’s first wife, Maria Gunning, a famous London beauty and society hostess. Elaborately carved and in exceptional condition, it was contested by several bidders, selling to the UK trade for £260,000. The mirror was accompanied at Mount
Congreve by two similar-sized pairs of George II giltwood pier glass mirrors from Studley Royal in Yorkshire, a house
Left: one of a pair of Louis XV ormolu-mounted encoignures by Joseph Baumauer – £100,000.
demolished in the late 1940s, and bought for Mount Congreve through Christie’s in 1965. Individually estimated at £120,000- 180,000, the pair found buyers at £100,000 and £110,000, one of them again secured by the UK trade. The highest bidding on the day was
seen for a George III silver épergne with the mark of Thomas Pitts, London, 1763, which adorned one of the tables at Mount Congreve. Purchased for the house through London dealers Partridge, it displayed the crest of the Hampden family, where it was almost certainly made for Robert Hampden, 4th Baron Trevor (1701- 83). Measuring 2ft ½in (62.3cm) and weighing 364oz, the piece was estimated at £80,000-120,000, a guide Christie’s based on a similar épergne by Pitts which sold at Sotheby’s in 2012 for £95,000 (see ATG No 2022). Slightly larger and more
elaborately worked, this example sold for substantially more to an anonymous buyer for £285,000. This price contributed to an extensive silver section comprising almost 40 lots, of which three-quarters sold to total around £730,000. Another highlight here was the 11
“The highest bidding on the day was seen for a George III silver épergne with the mark of Thomas Pitts, London, 1763, which adorned one of the tables at Mount Congreve”
lots from the collection of John Smith (1655-1723), a Whig politician and twice Chancellor of the Exchequer at the beginning of the 18th century. Comprising three large cutlery sets and several entrée, meat
and sideboard dishes, the collection with its alluring provenance had just the one unsold lot and totalled over £100,000. A further star lot at the sale was a pair
of tables designed by Robert Adam for the London home of banker Robert Child in 1770. Christie’s attributed the scagliola
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