A pair of Gothic Revival cream painted, parcel giltwood and crimson upholstered salon chairs, circa 1854, the backs and open arms above the seat, the turned and facetted legs on castor feet, with tracery spandrels, each 91cm high Provenance: The 6th Earl of Rosebery, Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, sold Sotheby's house sale, Mentmore, 18-27 May 1977, lot 1242. 'Property from the collection of the late Jane, Lady Abdy', Christie's, South Kensington, 26 April 2017, lot 461 This pair of neo-Gothic fauteuil armchairs was in the magnificent collection of the Rothschild/Rosebery family at Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, a grand country estate built in 1852-54 by Joseph Paxton (best known for designing The Crystal Palace) for Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1818-74), the son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836), founder of the London Rothschild business. Lord Rothschild was a passionate and knowledgeable collector, who spent a large part of his remaining years sourcing appropriate furnishings for Mentmore including boiseries from the hôtel de Villars, Paris, and a chimneypiece from Ruben's house in Antwerp. In 1872, Lady Eastlake, wrote of her visit to Mentmore: 'It was like fairyland when I entered the great palace, and got at once into the great hall - 40 ft by 50, and about 100 ft high - hung with tapestries, floored with parquet and Persian carpets: an open arcade above runs round and looks down through arches into the hall, branches off lobbies floored with white marble; then three splendid drawing rooms, two libraries, billiard room - every place almost crammed with precious articles in enamel, bronze, gold, silver, amber, jewels &c. The house is a museum of everything and not least of furniture, which is all in marquetry, or pietra dura, or vermeille. I don't believe the Medici were so lodged in the height of their glory' (J. Allibone, 'Escaping the City: The Rothschilds in the Vale of Aylesbury-I', Country Life, 16 February 1989, p. 82). In 1877, the house was left to Rothschild's daughter and one of England's wealthiest heiresses, Hannah (1851-90), who married Philip Archibald (Archie) Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery on 20 March 1878; she was given away by the then Prime Minister and family friend, Benjamin Disraeli. To commemorate her father's achievement, Hannah meticulously catalogued the collections at Mentmore - privately printed in 1883. Lord Rosebery added considerably to the works of art assembled by his father-in-law. In 1973, following the death of the 6th Earl of Rosebery, the Rosebery family were faced with huge death duties running into millions of pounds. Initially, the contents of Mentmore were offered to the nation in lieu of inheritance taxes but when this was not accepted the executors of the estate sold the contents by public auction in one of the major sales of the century, and the vast collection was dispersed in 1977. Condition Report: Marks, knocks, scratches, abrasions consistent with age and use, The painted surface refreshed overall and in some areas not as refined as probably originally, Some old splits and cracks, signs of filler and composition to some of these areas especially around the arms The upholstery later, Overall the frames appear solid and stable Condition Report Disclaimer