Included in our Fine Interiors sale, 29 & 30 June, will be a select group of pieces from the Grade II*-listed Rivenhall Place, near Witham, Essex. Set in 70 acres of Humphry Repton parkland, the house was purchased by the present owner in 2000 and has been meticulously restored to its former glory, with original shuttered windows, decorative cornicing, exposed and painted panelling and fine fireplaces.
Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as belonging to Earl Eustance of Boulogne, the estate passed through several families before it was purchased by Thomas Western, a wealthy ironfounder and contractor to Charles II’s navy, in 1692. The house itself has been added to over many centuries and now comprises Tudor, early-Georgian, and late 18th-century elements within its walls.
Rivenhall has been graced with the presence of many artists over the years, including William Hogarth (1697-1764), who spent several periods of time at the house and painted the Western family in a conversation piece there in 1738 (now in the National Gallery of Ireland). In homage to this connection, a set of prints by Richard Earlom after William Hogarth from Rivenhall will be included in our upcoming sale. Based on Hogarth’s six-part series of paintings, Marriage A-la Mode (now in the National Gallery, London), the works tell the story of an ill-fated arranged marriage and are a satirical comment on the lives and morals of 18th-century aristocracy.
