Castle Howard with Atlas Fountain
Copyright ® Mike Kipling
TREASURES from the collections of Castle Howard, one of Britain’s greatest and most beautiful country houses, will be offered at Sotheby’s in London this summer. Familiar the world over as the backdrop to the TV drama Brideshead Revisited and Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, the grandeur of the house is echoed by the magnificent collections of antiquities, paintings, furniture and works of art that have graced its interiors for nearly three centuries. A range of periods and media, from Roman antiquities to Old Master paintings and 17th-century Italian furniture, will be offered at the Old Masters and Treasures sales in London on July 8. The combined estimate is more than £10 million.
The Hon. Nicholas Howard said: “I am privileged to be able to say that Castle Howard is my family’s heritage and has been since it was built over 300 years ago. With that privilege comes the responsibility of ownership, and the Trustees’ unanimous decision to hold this sale is the exercise of that responsibility. If the sale helps to secure that heritage as the house moves into its fourth century then it will have achieved its goal. To this end, we have selected for sale at Sotheby’s a small number of works which, while of great intrinsic interest, have been carefully chosen so as not to detract from the overall integrity of the collection.”
The Hon. Simon Howard added: “Running Castle Howard for the last 30 years has been an immense privilege. Now, as a new chapter in its history opens, the sales that we are planning at Sotheby’s will make an important contribution to the long term future of the Castle Howard estate and collections.”
Henry Wyndham, Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe commented: “The collections at Castle Howard chart two millennia of history and 300 years of collecting, and rank among the finest private art collections in the world. The carefully selected group of works to be auctioned this summer is testament to the taste of a series of enlightened art patrons, starting with the visionary 3rd Earl of Carlisle, and continuing through his Romanophile son, Henry, collector of antiquities and Venetian vedute, to his diplomat grandson Frederick, 5th Earl of Carlisle, who is thought by many to have been the most refined English collector of the period around 1800.”
A pair of Italian pietre dure and ormolu-mounted ebony cabinets, roman, early 17th century, on a pair of regency rosewood and parcel gilt stands (£700,000-1,000,000).
A monumental granite vase with graceful leaf-shaped handle terminals, from Roman Egypt, circa 1st Century B.C., said to have been found in the Baths of Augustus in Rome and acquired by Frederick Howard in 1801 at the sale of the Bessborough Collection
(£400,000 – 600,000)
BERNARDO BELLOTTO
(Venice 1722–1780 Warsaw)
Venice, a view of the Grand Canal looking south from the Palazzo Foscari and Palazzo Morolin towards the
Church of Santa Maria Della Carita, with numerous gondolas and barges (£2.5-3.5 MILLION).
Studio of Hans Holbein
Portrait of Henry VIII
Three quarter length , wearing a wide velvet surcoat, holding a stick
Bears initials and dated 1542
(£800,000-1,200,000)
