Cheffins will offer 104 lots of art, antiques and collectibles from Wood Hall in Hilgay, Norfolk at the firm's forthcoming Fine Sale to be held on 22nd and 23rd June at its Cambridge saleroom.
Wood Hall, Hilgay
Leading the collection is a 19th century statue of Mercury, after Giambologna, which, including its stand, reaches 2.7 meters high and carries an estimate of £8,000-12,000. Also included in the sale is a large view of San Giorgio Maggiore from the Bacino di San Marco by British artist, Jane Vivian (fl. 1869-1888) with an estimate of £4,000-6,000. Other highlights include a portrait of Mrs Mary Jane Stocks, a previous resident at Wood Hall, by the artist Rudolf Wilhelm Lehmann, dated 1879, which has an estimate of £1,500 - £2,500 and two paintings by Thomas Sidney Cooper, ‘A Summer Sunny Afternoon’, estimate £3,000 - £5,000, and ‘Cattle and Sheep by A Pond,’ estimate £1,500 - £2,500. These are offered alongside antique furniture, ceramics, statuary, clocks and various artworks.
Mercury, after Giambologna
Also amongst the collection are a number of items of militaria including a diary written by and medals awarded to Major Michael Stocks of the Royal Dragoons for action seen during the Crimean War at the battles of Sebastopol, Inkermann and Balaklava, estimated at £1,000-2,000. In addition, there is further group of Crimean medals awarded to Colonel Sir Richard George Ellison together with a forage cap complete with bullet hole obtained during his involvement at the Battle of Inkermann. This group with other items is estimated at £3,000-5,000.
The Grade II* listed Wood Hall is situated just outside the village of Hilgay in Norfolk. Built by Henry Hawe in 1579 on land granted to him by Henry VIII following the Dissolution, it subsequently passed through the Hawe family, its ancestors and other owners in the 17th and 18th centuries before being bought in the 19th century by William Lowton Jones. It was Jones who in 1807 instructed the landscape designer, Humphry Repton, to improve the parkland and rebuild large parts of the house which had been previously damaged in a fire. The estate was bought by the Stocks family of Upper Shibden Hall, Yorkshire in 1879 and has remained in the same family until recently, the last incumbents being the Charlesworth family, who inherited the house and land in 1974 from Major Eric Stocks.
Wood Hall, the interior
Nicolas Martineau, Director at Cheffins comments: “Wood Hall is a fine Norfolk country house, and we are delighted to have worked with the Charlesworth family to bring part of its contents collected by the many generations of the Stocks, Ellison and Charlesworth families over the last 140 years to market.”
Auction: The Fine Sale 2021 – 22nd and 23rd June
Location: Cheffins, Clifton House, 1-2 Clifton Road, Cambridge, UK, CB1 7EA
For further information contact the Fine Art Department on 01223 213343, fine.art@cheffins.co.uk