THE COLLECTION OF RAINE, COUNTESS SPENCERThere are those who decorate to display their collections, others who collect to decorate, and then there are those who express their personalities through their collections. Lady Spencer falls neatly into the last category: she surrounded herself with the objects she collected because she truly loved them. She expressed her love of antiques eloquently in 1972 when, as Countess of Dartmouth, she opened the Northern Antiques Fair: ‘Every antique shop is to me a potential Aladdin’s cave. I love gazing at paintings, admiring rare bronzes or the patina of walnut and satinwood. ’ A reflection of these sentiments can be seen in both her elegant pair of George III satinwood card tables and her Regency mahogany desk, which echo her lifelong love (lots 51 & 148). They form an interesting foil to her ever-changing collection of French furniture and works of art, many of which were bought on the advice of experts such as Sir Francis Watson, one-time director of the Wallace Collection. Lady Spencer’s enthusiasm for the glamour of the Regency at its most exuberant was evidenced by the passion and knowledge she expressed whilst presenting a documentary on the Brighton Pavilion for the series One Foot in the Past in 1999. During the closing scenes, wearing a sumptuous Pierre Balmain gown of sea blue satin (lot 176), she vividly evokes the Regency balls once held at that palace of pleasure. A zeal for the fine arts underpinned Lady Spencer’s character, and some knowledge of her earlier life helps explain the range of the collection assembled at her last home, a neo-Georgian house with art moderne details near Sloane Square. Eventually, her experience, knowledge and artistic tastes were to be distilled, and the resulting connoisseurship enabled her to create the superb and considered collection of furniture, paintings and objects with which she brought her interiors to life. This precision of taste also extended to her careful yet striking choice of dress, accessories and jewellery, allowing her to forge a confident style which was unmistakably her own. Lady Spencer was as determined in her collecting as she was in politics. A formidable perfectionist, she possessed enviable organisational skills which, allied to a keen eye and an excellent memory, garnered her much respect during her years as an elected councillor on Westminster City Council and its successors from 1954. Apart from her successful membership of numerous committees, she became an acknowledged conservationist and was a leading figure in the successful campaign to save the portico of the Tate Gallery from demolition. Similarly, having reviewed the re-development plans for a proposed Neo-Brutalist scheme to erase most of Covent Garden, she resigned from her position as head of the committee in protest. Her very public loss of faith in the project helped the campaign to reverse the plans and preserve the Covent Garden piazza that we know today. Her endeavours were subsequently recognised when she was appointed UK Chair of the 1975 European Architectural Heritage Year with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as President. It is difficult for anyone under the age of fifty fully to appreciate the popularity and fame that she enjoyed as the young Mrs Gerald Legge and later as Vicountess Lewisham and then Countess of Dartmouth. Her glamorous appearance was deceptive, however, as the former Minister for Public Building and Works, Geoffrey Rippon, wrote: ‘Lady Dartmouth in the past has been too readily dismissed by some as an attractive but frivolous ornament of London local government. She is in reality an accomplished politician with a transcendent affection for the character of the capital and its people’.Feted by the press since her birth in 1929, Raine McCorquodale figured on a Tatler frontispiece in the arms of her mother, Mrs Alexander McCorquodale who, in the next decade, was to embark under her maiden name, Barbara Cartland, on a prolific career as a romantic novelist. The infant Raine was remarked upon by a young HRH Princess Elizabeth who, then aged about four, exclaimed: ‘Oh, what a lovely fat baby! What is her name?’ ‘Raine, Your Royal Highness.’ ‘What a funny, funny name,’ came the reply, duly recounted by the proud mother in various publications and subsequently her 1984 authorised biography. Baby Raine was often photographed with her nanny in Hyde Park, not least because her mother had designed the pram’s livery to echo the black and white paintwork of the McCorquodale Rolls-Royce. As a young girl Raine was guided towards a love of the arts by her mother who frequently took her to major galleries and private collections including that of her godfather, the 5th Duke of Sutherland, heir to one of the country’s finest collections of paintings. The wealth of information that she absorbed and the understanding that she gleaned from her intimate knowledge of important works of art undoubtedly helped to forge her connoisseurship and taste, which, once fully formed, were to result in her acquisition of important paintings, such as the Mediterranean Seaport by Claude-Joseph Vernet, one of the artist’s finest works, originally from the collection of Prince Aleksandr Andreyevich Bezborodko (1747-1799), Grand Chancellor of Russia (to be sold in the Old Masters Evening Sale Thursday 6 July 2017). Over the decades her knowledge deepened and matured. Her love of French 18th Century art and objects led her to acquire such works as Francois Boucher’s Le Soir: La Dame allant au Bal and two intriguing oils by Fragonard, Dawn and Three putti, one representing Folly – a modello, which are sketches for ceilings with well-documented provenances (all to be offered in the Old Masters Evening Sale on 6 July). By 1947, when she was presented as a debutante, Raine had grown to resemble one of her mother’s romantic heroines: her photogenic beauty and tiny waist were enhanced by a series of full-skirted evening gowns made to her mother’s design by a theatrical costumier. Raine McCorquodale was named Deb of the Year and, for her first Royal Ascot, she wore a pre-war Molyneux full-length lace dress which looked stunning amid the other girls’ short frocks. The contrast which this presented delighted the press, who saw in Raine’s style a return to pre-war standards. Raine’s mother wanted her daughter to meet as many eligible young men as possible. She was given three dances, including one at the Duke of Sutherland’s historic Tudor house, Sutton Place, Surrey. Over forty invitations to other girls’ parties ensued and, in due course, her engagement to the Hon. Gerald Legge was announced. Their marriage took place at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, where Raine had been christened. Among the flock of sixteen bridesmaids figured Lady Pamela Mountbatten who, the previous November, had acted as bridesmaid at the adjoining Westminster Abbey, when her cousin Prince Philip of Greece married the future Queen. The wedding reception was held in the palatial setting of Londonderry House, Park Lane, one of the last great aristocratic houses in London. The young couple moved into an apartment in South Street, Mayfair, which was featured in many magazines of the day. Colour photographs show a dining room with an Italian table and a set of French gilt and white chairs on a green carpet against fondant-pink walls. The Adam-green drawing room contains a collection of porcelain, and family portraits. Gilt sconces and mirrors predominate, including in the pink bedroom with its canopied and buttoned bed on a turquoise carpet. This style indicates the direction in which the twenty-two year old Mrs Legge wished to travel. Although modern design was not entirely to Raine Legge’s taste, she would nevertheless, as Lady Spencer, come to decorate her last dining room as an evocation of 1930’s sophisticated art moderne London (lots 80, 81, 97 & 98); this theme extends to the large collection of bronzes included in this sale, such as the striking 1920s figure by Ouline (lot 256). Twentieth century paintings of the pre-war period by British artists as diverse as Frank Dobson and Glyn Philpot (lots 83 & 84) are complemented by a part table-service that originally came from Claridge’s Hotel (lot 119). An Art Deco desk and chairs further illustrate this unexpected facet of her collection (lot 260), with the 1948 oil Jasmine by Domergue which extended her taste into the post-war period (lot 89) and on into the 1980s with a chrome, copper and brass gaming table and four chairs (lot 93). Art Nouveau lithographs and framed music covers dating from 1900 to the 1930s reflect Lady Spencer’s enthusiasm for stylised French graphic art (lots 241-245 & 251, 252). These lithographs lent piquancy to her much more serious collection of French furniture and objects. Notable among these pieces are a superb Louis XVI ormolu-mounted marquetry commode, attributed to Pierre-Antoine Foullet (lot 30), and an exquisite pair of Louis XVI ormolu-mounted agate vases (lot 23). In 1958 her husband became Viscount Lewisham, and, in 1962, the 9th Earl of Dartmouth. The family now lived in a large house in Hill Street, Mayfair, where fine paintings and ancestral Dartmouth portraits were enhanced by important furniture. It is from this interior that the unusual pair of parcel-gilt demi-lune side tables with decorative specimen marble tops come, which were to remain in Raine’s collection until the end of her life (lot 14). In 1951 Mrs Legge had travelled to Paris to view the latest collections by Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain, the latter of whom would go on to create some of her most beautiful dresses. Sketches produced for her by the House of Balmain, with accompanying fabric swatches (a remarkable survival), provide a fascinating record of her patronage, as does a completed dress which matches one of the designs (lots 183 & 184). In 1985 Raine was to recall her affinity with Pierre Balmain: ”I remember Pierre once said to me in Morocco: ‘I love this country. Perhaps it is the clear light, the fusion of desert and town, the timelessness, the mystery of the souk. I can dream, reflect, create‘. Some months later, when I asked Pierre for a dress for an important musical celebration at the royal Albert Hall I was rewarded by a simple shift of white faille, the top and sleeves dramatised with turquoise and aubergine appliquéd in classical designs which echo the Moorish tiles in Rabat and Tangier. . . . looking back over the years, recalling glamorous parties in Paris, London, Washington or Rio de Janeiro, at embassies, private house or palaces. . . I remember with pleasure and the deepest gratitude my wonderful Balmain outfits. . . the gentian blue crepe for Diana’s wedding; and currently my wonderful Winterhalter ball-dress in white pleated taffeta overlaid with cobweb-thin black Chantilly lace” (lot 185). Meanwhile, in London, she favoured Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies both of whom bore Royal Warrants and some of whose work for her is represented here (lot 269 and lots 176, 185, 190, 265, 270, 297, 298 & 301 respectively). During this period, her taste in clothes remained attuned to the prevailing fashions, albeit more forcefully adapted to suit her personality. In 1976, having parted from Lord Dartmouth, Raine, in what her mother described as an irresistible ‘coup de foudre’, married John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and created a whole new life for herself. However, she was to face unexpected difficulties, such as her husband’s ailing health, and challenges to a monumental restoration scheme at Althorp which, though criticised in certain quarters, was also praised by experts such as Sir Roy Strong. After the death of Lord Spencer in 1992, and her brief marriage to the comte de Chambrun, Lady Spencer returned to London, where her talents and abilities were further recognised. She was invited to become a director of Harrods, a post which she held for the remainder of her life. As a part of her role she attended many in-house events, and the red and white dress in this sale (lot 178) was worn with appropriate green accessories for the launch of an Italian Week at the store in 2004. In these years Lady Spencer continued to collect and refine her collection, as the provenance of several major lots makes plain. Notable among these are the paintings by Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-le Brun (Portrait of Anne Charlotte of Lorraine, Mademoiselle de Brionne as Diana – lot 31); Charles Amedee Philippe Van Loo (Hymen and Cupid – lot 33) and the winter scene by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (View of the Munttoren on the frozen Anstel, Amsterdam, with figures skating - lot 39). Lady Spencer would no doubt be delighted to think that this sale gives other collectors the chance to derive the same pleasure as she did from the works of art which meant so much to her. MICHAEL PICK FRSA Michael Pick FRSA formerly a director of antique dealers Stair & Company Ltd (London & New York) and subsequently Partridge Fine Arts plc. , is the author of eight books including The English Room, The English Country Room, BE DAZZLED!: Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amies and Rayne: Shoes for Stars. He was a founder of the UK national preservation society, The Twentieth Century Society.
A PAIR OF CHINESE GREEN CELADON PORCELAIN VASE LAMPS
20TH CENTURY
Details
A PAIR OF CHINESE GREEN CELADON PORCELAIN VASE LAMPS
20TH CENTURY
Each with cream silk pleated shade, fitted for electricity
14 ¼ in. (36 cm.) high, excluding fitments
20TH CENTURY
Each with cream silk pleated shade, fitted for electricity
14 ¼ in. (36 cm.) high, excluding fitments
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