English country house contents auctions

English country house contents auctions are usually held on site at the country house, and have been used to raise funds for their owners, usually before selling the house and estate. Such auctions include the sale of high quality antique paintings, furniture, objet d'art, tapestries, books and other household items.

The main auctioneers coordinating these sales are Sotheby's and Christie's, with other auctions conducted by Bonhams, Lawrence's and Lyon & Turnbull. A high quality auction catalog is also published, giving details and photographs of the lots, including provenance, technical descriptions and estimated sale price ranges. These catalogs can also become collectables in their own right.

The largest on-site contents auction todate, by proceeds value, is Viscount Leverhulme's Thornton Manor near Liverpool, raising over £9.5 million in 2001. However, in present day values, the largest is still probably the Earl of Rosebery's Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, which generated over £6 million in 1977. The Wentworth Woodhouse £15 million auction in 1998 is excluded because the items had not been in situ in the house prior to the auction, and they were not auctioned at the house, but rather in Christie’s London auction rooms. However, all these figures are occasionally eclipsed by the one-off sale of a special painting or drawing (not listed here), such as the private sale of Castle Howard's Sir Joshua Reynolds "Portrait of Omai" to the Tate Britain for £12.5 million in March 2003, and Alnwick Castle's sale of Raphael's "Madonna of the Pinks" to the National Gallery, London for £35 million in 2004.

Below is a list, in reverse chronology, of the most significant country house auctions, including those in Scotland, Wales and Ireland (if not specifically stated, the house is in England). Also listed are the number of days the auction took to complete (in brackets), the name of the auction house, the gross auction proceeds and the total number of sale lots, if the information is available.

Contents Auctions (in reverse chronology)

2007 Oct 08 – Oct 09 (2) — Newton Surmaville, Somerset (Lawrence's, about 900 lots)

2007 July 12 - July 13 (2) — Dumfries House, East Ayrshire, Scotland (Christie's, sold privately 2 weeks before auction, est. £12-£14m)

2007 June 01 – June 3 (3) — [http://www.loudhamhall.com Loudham Hall] , Suffolk (Lyon & Turnbull, £2.1m, about 2,000 lots, items only in situ post 1983)

2006 Oct 24 - Octo 24 (1) — Chanter’s House, Devon (& items from Fillongley Hall, Warwickshire) (Sotheby's, £1,488,334, 492 lots)

2006 Sep 19 - Sept 21 (3) — Shrubland Park, Suffolk (Sotheby's, £4,518,784, up to 1,776 lots)

2006 July 17 - July 18 (2) — [http://www.christies.com/presscenter/pdf/05252006/10458.pdf Gyrn Castle] , Wales (& items from Nantlys, Mostyn Hall, Capesthorne Hall) (Christie’s, £1m, over 800 lots)

2005 Jun 08 – June 08 (1) — [http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?action=search&intSaleID=20004#action=search&intSaleID=20004&sid=f281694a-cb2b-4fd9-88b8-6a2ec789b7fd Moundsmere] [http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article488486.ece Manor] , Hampshire (Christie's, £361,632, 254 lots, sold in London)

2005 May 17 - May 19 (3) — Easton Neston, Northamptonshire (Sotheby's, £8,727,964, up to 1,574 lots)

2005 May 04 – May 04 (1) — Pallinsburn House, Northumberland (& items from Sundrum Castle, Scotland) (Lyon & Turnbull)

2005 January - January (1) — Hampton Court, Isle of Man (Christie's, only in situ by David Style post 1978)

2004 Jun 21 - June 21 (1) — Chirk Castle, Wrexham, Wales (Christie's, £1.4 million, over 500 lots)

2003 July 21 - July 22 (2) — Wormington Manor, Gloucestershire (Christie's, £1,359,894, up to 919 lots)

2002 Oct 08 - Octo 09 (2) — Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire (Christie's, £1,390,606, up to 609 lots)

2002 May 28 - May 30 (3) — Barnwell Manor and Barnwell Castle, Northamptonshire (Sotheby's, £1,606,044, up to 1,493 lots)

2002 Apr 11 - Apr 11 (1) — Scawby Hall, Lincolnshire (Sotheby's, £685,109, 322 lots)

2001 Jun 26 - June 28 (3) — Thornton Manor, Merseyside (Sotheby's, £9,540,431, up to 1,287 lots)

2000 May 09 - May 11 (3) — Benacre Hall, Suffolk (Sotheby's, £8,290,106, up to 1,691 lots)

1999 Oct 19 - Octo 20 (2) — Margam Park, Glamorgan, Wales (Sotheby's, £1,168,806, up to 870 lots)

1999 Oct 05 - Octo 05 (1) — Stansted Park, Hampshire (Sotheby's, £1,294,544, 535 lots)

1998 July 08 - July 08 (1) — Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire (Christie’s, £15,327,125, 92 lots, items not in situ, sold in London)

1998 Apr 20 - April 22 (3) — Hackwood Park, Hampshire (Christie’s, £7,030,908, up to 1,681 lots)

1994 Sept 28 - Oct 01 (4) — Stokesay Court, Shropshire (Sotheby's, £4,219,755, up to 2,143 lots)

1984 June 04 – Jun 05 (2) — St Osyth's Priory, Essex (Christie’s, £581,547)

1978 May 31 – Jun 01 (2) — Wateringbury Place, Kent (Christie's, £1.37m, only in situ by David Style post 1945)

1977 May 18 - May 26 (9) — Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire (Sotheby's, over £6,000,000)

1968 June 04 - June 05 (2) — Pyrford Court, Surrey (Christie, Manson & Woods, 619 lots)

1921 Octo ?? - Octo ?? (18) — Stowe House, second "Great Sale", including the house (Jackson-Stops, over 3,700 lots) 1848 Aug 15 - Sep 30 (40) — Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, first "great sale" (Christie, Manson and Woods, £77,562)

ources

* [http://www.dicamillocompanion.com The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses]
* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0859551970 The Disintegration of a Heritage: Country Houses and Their Collections, 1979-92] by Michael Sayer, Michael Russell Publishing, 208 pages, ISBN-10: 0859551970, ISBN-13: 978-0859551977.

External Auctioneers links

* [http://www.bonhams.com Bonhams]
* [http://www.christies.com Christie's]
* [http://www.lawrences.co.uk Lawrence's]
* [http://www.lyonandturnbull.com Lyon & Turnbull]
* [http://www.sothebys.com Sotheby's]