This week, Christie’s (St James’s) presents Wilton Crescent: A Robert Kime Interior, a striking private collection sale of approximately 230 lots spanning English and European furniture, tapestries, bold Eastern textiles, Chinese works of art and export furniture, Old Master paintings and drawings, prints and decorative furnishings.
These fascinating objects, owned by a private family, formed a stunning mise en scène in an early 19th century townhouse on Wilton Crescent in London’s Belgravia. The crescent has been home to many prominent British and foreign politicians and retains a coveted reputation as being one of the best examples of a late Georgian London terrace.
The interiors of the home were styled by the influential British interior designer, Robert Kime. Robert has an unparalleled international reputation and this collection is testament to his eponymous and unique style and approach. Today, his three strands of expertise as an antiques dealer, a textile and fabric collector/designer and an interior designer co-exist, and are very much illustrated by this sale – highlights of which include:
A Flemish ebony, ivory and pietra dura cabinet-on-stand, specifically made to display the collection of jewel-like coloured 17th-century pietre dure panels. The cabinet would certainly have been the pièce de résistance of the principal room in which it was placed, and the panels likely to have been collected on the Grand Tour by the patron who commissioned it (estimate £80,000-120,000);
Like pages from a traveller’s notebook, the Oriental rugs and carpets chosen by Kime for Wilton Crescent capture the colours and designs used by weavers along the silk route. Included is an Agra Rug from North India, circa 1880 (estimate £7,000-10,000);
A Louis XIV ebony, brass and red tortoiseshell ‘boulle marquetry’ bureau Mazarin. This late 17th century bureau has a gadrooned rectangular top inlaid with a panel of Bérainesque strapwork featuring exotic birds, beasts, monkeys and baskets of flowers, and was previously in The Collection of Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild (estimate GBP 30,000 – GBP 50,000).
Wilton Crescent: A Robert Kime Interior is now on view at Christie’s King Street. The auction takes place on 23 July.
Photo: A Flemish ebony, ivory and pietra dura cabinet-on-stand © Christie’s Images Ltd