LONDON.- Christie’s announces Julians Park and Six Private Collections, comprising a wide variety of works of fine and decorative art from across seven English country houses, to be offered in a two-part sale. Julians Park and Six Private Collections: Live comprising 277 lots, will take place on 8 June at Christie’s King Street, and Julians Park and Six Private Collections: Online comprising 185 lots, will be live online from 25 May to 15 June. Estimates across the two sales range from £150 to £250,000.

The sales comprise works of art from Julians Park, Hertfordshire; the Desmond Heyward Collection, from Haseley Court, Oxfordshire; Property from an East Anglian Country House; Works of Art from the Collection of Hugh and Marion Sassoon; Property from Meonstoke House, Hampshire; Works of art from the Collection of Mr and Mrs David Wheeler; and items formerly in the collection of Leontine, Lady Sassoon. The Live and Online sales include an array of fine art including Impressionist Paintings, Old Master Paintings and Modern British Art in addition to a strong representation of English and European Furniture, Chinese works of art, English and European ceramics, sculpture, objects of virtue, jewellery, silver and gold boxes, photography and books.




The seven collections are led by Julians Park, Hertfordshire, the collection of Audrey Pleydell-Bouverie (1902-1968). Born Audrey James, she was a renowned beauty and prominent member of transatlantic society in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Romantically linked to the future Edward VIII and engaged to Lord Louis Mountbatten, she was married three times, firstly to Captain Muir Dudley Coats (d. 1927) between 1922-1927, then to Marshall Field III, the Chicago department store heir, from 1930-1934 and finally to the Hon. Peter Pleydell-Bouverie, from 1938-1946. The ‘Vogue Regency’ interiors that she created just before the Second World War with Stéphane Boudin of Maison Jansen at The Holme, Regent’s Park, in a delicate palette of white, cream, gold, grey and pink, were designed to harmonise with her Impressionist art collection. During The Second World War her collection was moved to Julians Park, where again she worked with Boudin to adapt the Georgian interiors to suit her paintings and furniture, to great effect. The interiors at both the Holme and Julians were published in Country Life, in 1939-40 and 1947, and these, along with the photograph albums and scrapbooks she created, tell the story of a life lived in the glittering artistic, aristocratic and royal circles of society in England, America and on the continent.

The Desmond Heyward Collection comprises approximately 80 lots from an impressive collection of art and antiques assembled by the late Desmond Hayward (illustrated above left, the Drawing Room of Haseley Court). The works were collected over a period of more than forty years and acquired based on both their intrinsic merit and also on how they would fit within the interiors at Haseley Court, a quintessential English country house. Interesting provenance adds to the appeal of objects, such as the pair of George II rococo girandoles from the collection of the Earls Spencer at Althorp, purchased at Christie’s in 2010 (lot 127) and the pair of George II mahogany chairs commissioned from Vile & Cobb circa 1753 for The Vyne, Hampshire (lot 143). The predominantly early 18th century house was saved following wartime requisition by the great decorator Nancy Lancaster (who later in 1944 went on to own Colefax and Fowler). It was her last great home; on leaving Haseley itself she converted the medieval stables into a home and so was, for many years, a neighbour and close friend of the Heywards. The sale includes a notable focus on 18th century British portraiture with works by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney and Allan Ramsay (lots 135, 116 & 120).

The Julians Park and Six Private Collections sales also include 120 lots from The Collection of Hugh and Marion Sassoon, from their Belgravia flat and country home, Woodend House, near Marlow, Buckinghamshire. The Sassoons skillfully blended items they had inherited, particularly from the collection of Hugh’s mother Mrs. Doris Herschorn, who notably bequeathed her collection of Hilliard and Oliver miniatures to the Victoria & Albert Museum, with items they themselves purchased throughout their marriage. Alongside Sèvres porcelain, Chinese jades and objects of virtue – including two very rare rediscovered Marlborough gems – they displayed modern paintings by the likes of Paul Nash and Sidney Nolan, and contemporary ceramics by Dame Lucie Rie and the Leach family, creating their own unique aesthetic.