AN ITALIAN STONE HERALDIC LION WITH SHIELD 16TH CENTURY 94cm high, 80cm deep, 31cm wide Provenance: The Simon Neal Collection, formerly at Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire This vibrant rampant lion would have likely guarded the entrance of a grand, English residence in the 16th century and would have no doubt borne the heraldic arms of its owners. More recently, it was purchased from Kirtlington Park in Oxfordshire, the Grade I listed, 18th century Palladian mansion, built for Sir James Dashwood (1715 - 1779), with its parkland designed by the great Capability Brown. There is portrait of Sir James Dashwood in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by Enoch Seeman the Younger, that has Kirtlington Park visible in the background. Dashwood himself went on the Grand Tour from 1732 and 1736 and devoted his fortune to the building and furnishing of Kirtlington Park. He became high sheriff for Oxfordshire in 1738 and was high steward at the University of Oxford from 1759 until his death in 1779.