The Principal Contents of Alderley House
We will recreate the feel of the remarkable Gloucestershire country house when The Principal Contents of Alderley House are sold on July 23, with the stand-alone sale featuring more than 500 lots.
Sworders will recreate the feel of a remarkable Gloucestershire country house when The Principal Contents of Alderley House are sold on July 23. The stand-alone sale in the auctioneers award-winning Stansted Mountfitchet headquarters will feature more than 500 lots.
The present day Alderley House is a mid 19th century Grade II listed country house designed by the English architect Lewis Vulliamy and built for Robert Blagden Hale in the small village of Alderley, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire. It was built on the site of The Lower House, Sir Matthew Hale’s original 17th century Manor House. During the build, many original materials were retained, including the 17th century Jacobean cellars and the beautiful sweeping staircase.
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Rose Hill School was evacuated to the house from Banstead in Surrey until 2009 when the property became a family residence once again.
| In 2010, as the Day family decided to bottle their own water on the estate, they invited the Internationally acclaimed water diviner, George Applegate, to Alderley House, who had discovered Natural Spring Water at Highgrove. George confirmed that there was an underground aquafer in the walled garden, which lead to the formation of Alderley Cotswold Natural Spring Water. During the tenure of the Day family, the house was impeccably furnished in the English country house style with ample quantities of Georgian and Victorian furniture, Brussels tapestries, English and French mantel clocks, giltwood mirrors, Chesterfield sofas, sets of hunting prints and Persian carpets. Every one of the 14 bedrooms plus reception rooms including the drawing, dining room, sitting room, study and a library (with over 1300 leather bound volumes) were decorated with English and French period and period-style furnishings. The dining room was the centre of the family home: a Regency mahogany dining table with five leaves accompanied by two sets of 12 chairs, a pair of William IV gilt wood pier mirrors and two Sheraton style sideboards. Covering the oak-boarded floor was a large Tabriz carpet, one of many near-eastern carpets, rugs and runners in the sale. |   |
| The kitchen with its Cotswold flagstones, assumed a more vernacular style. Alongside two oak George III dressers and a set of beech ladder back chairs were a series of oak wainscot occasional chairs. When the house was sold in 2017 the furnishing and chattels were placed in storage. They will now be sold as the Day family are relocating to the United States. The July 23 sale will be remarkable for the sheer quantity of good quality period furnishings: more than 66 container loads of art and antiques formerly at Alderley House are coming to Sworders. Estimates will range from £100 for a Victorian wall clock to £5,000 for an early 18th century Flemish tapestry. The Principal Contents of Alderley House is the latest in a series of successful single-owner country house contents sales conducted in Stansted Mountfitchet. The auction house sold the principal contents of North Mymms Park, Hertfordshire sold in April last year for £1.75m. |
About the VendorVictoria Grace Day is a well-known figure in the polo-playing community. A member of the England Ladies Polo Squad (she has represented England internationally since she was 17 years old) she was also vice-chairman of the International Women’s Polo Association and co-founder with her father Peter Grace of the Ascot Park Polo Club where so many polo players have honed their craft. Victoria has taught royalty and celebrities to play polo. Royalty include King and Queen of Sweden and HRH Prince Talal of Jordan. Celebrities include comedians Jack Dee for ‘Jack Dee’s Happy Hour’ and Hale and Pace in their series “Jobs for the Boys” and presenters Matt Baker and Mike Bushell to name but a few. Victoria’s two children both play polo, continuing on with the family tradition. |  |
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The auction of The Principal Contents of Alderley House will be held on Tuesday 23 July at the Stansted Mountfitchet Auction Rooms
For more information about the sale please contact
auctions@sworder.co.uk | 01279 817778
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