A Large George III Giltwood and Painted Overmantel Mirror, Circa 1780

 Probably supplied to Henry Arundell, 8th Baron of Wardour (1740-1808), for New Wardour Castle, Wiltshire, or possibly his London house in Grosvenor Square, thence by descent;

L.W. Arnett, Wardour Castle, Tisbury, Wiltshire, Catalogue of the Eighteenth Century Furnishings, on the premises 10 September 1952, lot 80;

Sir Everard Henry Radcliffe, 6th Baronet (1910-1975), Rudding Park, Yorkshire;

Christie's on the Premises, The Remaining Contents of Rudding Park, Harrogate, Yorkshire, 16-17 October 1972, lot 100.

Although unmistakably English in design, this spectacular overmantel unusually incorporates a coronet of a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, a heraldic device not typically associated with the British peerage. This crown along with the wolves statant corresponds to the armorial of the Barons Arundell of Wardour in the county of Wiltshire, a title created in 1605 for Thomas Arundell (c.1560-1639), known as Thomas the Valiant. Scion of an ancient Cornwall family, Arundell was a staunch Catholic who in 1595 entered into the service of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II in Prague to fight against the Ottoman Turks and distinguished himself in battle at Gran (Esztergom) in Hungary, for which he was made a Count. On his return to England Queen Elizabeth refused to recognise the title and imprisoned him for a time, but Arundell returned to favour with the accession of James I who raised him to the baronetcy, and the family was able to retain its position of influence throughout succeeding generations.

This mirror was likely made for Henry Arundell, 8th Baron (1740-1808), who commissioned the construction of New Wardour Castle near Tisbury in Wiltshire to replace the family's medieval seat Old Wardour Castle nearby, left derelict since the Civil War. Built between 1769 and 1776, the house was designed in the Palladian style by the prolific architect James Paine (1717-1789) with later additions by the Italian neoclassical architect Giacomo Quarenghi, who worked extensively in St Petersburg, and is notable for its magnificent rotunda staircase. The 8th Baron also commissioned new furniture for the interiors, including elaborate giltwood pier glasses, some of which are illustrated in old Country Life articles on the Castle (22nd and 29th November 1930), and interestingly when this overmantel was last sold at auction in 1972 the catalogue description attributed its design to James Paine, without further elaboration. Following the death of John Francis Arundell, 16th Baron (1907-1944) during World War II without issue, the title became extinct, and his heirs sold New Wardour Castle to the Jesuit Order, who auctioned off most of the castle's contents in a sale on the premises in 1952. The property later became a school and in 1992 was converted into several flats by the architect John Pawson, with the principal apartment incorporating the Rotunda staircase inhabited from 2010-2020 by the designer Jasper Conran, who assembled a important collection of antique furniture and artworks sold at auction in 2021.

The 1952 auction catalogue had no photographs, but the overmantel appears to correspond to lot 80 in the sale, with a slight discrepancy in the dimensions and description of the outside frame. It next passed into the collection of Sir Joseph Benedict Everard Henry Radcliffe (1910-1975), 6th Baronet. The Radcliffes were also an ancient Catholic family originally from Lancashire and based at Milnsbridge near Huddersfield, Yorkshire, before the 2nd Baronet (d.1872) transferred their seat to a newly constructed Regency house, Rudding Park outside Harrogate, in 1824. The 6^th Baronet Everard Radcliffe spent nearly five years as a prisoner of war in Germany and upon his return to England took possession of Rudding which, according to James Lees-Milne, he proceeded to 'redecorate, refurnish and refurbish in the style of sumptuous opulence which we associate with the Prince Regent's apartments at Windsor Castle and Carlton House as depicted in the plates of Pyne's Royal Residences. He was all for density, baroque lusciousness and show...he was a forerunner of Alec Cobbe, who has done for the National Trust's Hatchlands what Everard, anticipating him, did at Rudding [...] every painting, every object had quality' (Fourteen Friends, 1996, p.186).

An idea of this interior grandeur is evoked by a 1956 watercolour of the Blue Drawing Room at Rudding Park painted by the artist Teddy Millington-Drake (1932-1994) [sold Christie’s London, 27 October 2010, lot 374], in which the overmantel can be discerned hanging above the fireplace. Also visible in the watercolour are three of a set of four George III giltwood armchairs formerly at Moor Park, Hertfordshire, and subsequently in the collections of Saul Steiberg and Tony Ingrao in New York (sold Sotheby’s New York, 20 October 2006, lots 81-82). Radcliffe reportedly liked to claim the majority of artworks in the house were ancestral heirlooms, but in reality much of the collection was acquired during his lifetime, and he was known to be a keen visitor to London salerooms and country house auctions, and he certainly would have appreciated an estate sale of a fellow recusant Catholic family like the Arundells of Wardour. Radcliffe’s appetite for acquisitions led to chronic financial constraints, and despite attempts by the National Trust to acquire Rudding Park the house was sold and its contents auctioned in 1972, after which Radcliffe relocated to Switzerland and died three years later. The property is now a country house hotel.