Beschreibung:

Decorative Arts.- Stowe.- [Sale Catalogue] Catalogue of the Contents of Stowe House, near Buckingham, lithographed frontispiece and 2 plates (lightly foxed), some prices and buyers' names supplied in manuscript, names in ink and pencil on title, original roan-backed blue glazed boards, broken and worn, spine defective, covers detached, Christie & Manson, 1848; [Sale Catalogue] The Ducal Estate of Stowe...Contents of the Mansion, catalogue no.805 for "Albert Amor Esq.", plates, 4 colour plans, 2 folding, 1921; Particulars of Stowe House...and the Remaining Portions of the Estate, pictorial title, folding colour plan, plates, some items marked "sold" in pencil, 1922, together 2 vol. in 1, bound in green morocco, gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, g.e., original upper wrappers bound in (both with date in manuscript, the first rubbed), Jackson Stops, 4to & folio (2) ⁂ The majority of the great art collection at Stowe was sold in 1848 following the bankruptcy of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, who was rumoured to have left for the Continent with debts exceeding £1,000,000. The first sale of the contents totalled £75,562 4s 6d over 35 days. It included the famous "Chandos Portrait" of Shakespeare which sold to the Earl of Ellesmere for £372 15s. and in 1856 became the first donation to the newly-created National Portrait Gallery. The first of the later sales comprised 3955 lots including the mansion and estate on the first day, followed by eighteen days of the remaining contents; at the second the house was bought to establish the famous school. Provenance: The Partridge Fine Arts Research Library