Last week it was announced that Savills will offer the house and estate and Christie’s will auction the contents this summer. The auction, at the London King Street rooms on July 12 and 13, will be a highlight of the summer season. Estimated to fetch in the region of £12m, it will probably rewrite the record books for English furniture values.
Dumfries House and its furnishings were commissioned by William 5th Earl of Dumfries (1699-1768) in the 1750s and it remains an extraordinarily rare time capsule from that period, fully documented from an inventory taken in 1803. The Earl’s descendant John Bute first signalled his intention to sell the celebrated mansion in 2004. Proceedings were put on hold while an attempt was made through Christie’s and Savills to organise a private treaty sale of the house and contents to the National Trust for Scotland, but negotiations fell through in late 2004.
Now, more than two years on, following some complex decision making on fixtures and fittings and a further window of opportunity for the NTS to come up with an acceptable offer, the house will go on the market and the contents will go to the London saleroom.
John Bute said he had decided to sell in order to re-structure family finances and to “devolve modern assets to the next generation”.
The 5th Earl used the cream of London and Edinburgh cabinetmakers to furnish his Scottish home and the house has the most important collection of Chippendale in private hands. The existence of original bills and inventories also makes it one of the best documented. In a sale stuffed with furnishing superlatives, highlights include a parcel-gilt, rosewood, padouk and sabicu breakfront bookcase. Delivered in 1759 at the then huge price of £47 5s, Christie’s have estimated it at £2m-4m, a level at which it will break the current record for English furniture, the £1.6m paid for the Anglesey desk in 1993.
There is also a slew of documented Chippendale giltwood mirrors and a palm-decorated mahogany four poster that was the most expensive piece of Chippendale’s 1759 commission at £90-16s 11/2d. This summer it will be estimated at £300,000-500,000.
High points from Scottish makers include a pair of giltwood pier glasses by William Mathie of Edinburgh, celebrating Lord Dumfries’ elevation to the Order of the Thistle, that is guided at £300,000-500,000.
By Anne Crane
Christie’s to hold landmark Dumfries House sale in July
After months of speculation, the fate of Dumfries House, the Adam-designed and Chippendale-furnished Scottish Palladian house and estate in Ayrshire looks to be sealed.
