A table celebrating a marriage torn apart by a Conservative politician and Venetian lamps that lit the workings of a Pre-Raphaelite artist – both with strong Scottish connections – are two of the notable items looking for new homes when Woolley & Wallis, the UK’s leading regional salesrooms holds its a sale of Furniture, Works of Art & Clocks on October 2.
In their own right, they are exceptional examples of their type, but it is the stories behind them which makes them truly interesting.
The items played a role in the lives of two Scottish women, caught up in romantic intrigue and high-profile scandals in Victorian Britain when they fled unhappy marriages to find love elsewhere – one with a painter, one with a politician.
“Provenance is always a key factor when we put any item up for auction,” said Furniture Specialist Mark Yuan-Richards. “Some of the pieces in this sale have quite remarkable stories to tell which really brings them to life. The individual stories behind these two particular lots which are linked to romantic intrigue and scandal which rocked Victorian society makes fascinating reading.”
Born in Perth in 1828, the story of Effie Gray continues to fascinate almost two centuries later, kept alive through plays, an opera and most recently in the 2014 film Effie Gray, written by actor Emma Thompson and starring Thompson, Dakota Fanning, James Fox, Julie Walters and Robbie Coltrane.
First married to writer John Ruskin, Effie was trapped in what became a famously unhappy marriage with a husband who apparently found her so unattractive, he refused to consummate the marriage.
Things improved for Effie five years later when she met Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais. They because close and fell in love when he went to the family home in Scotland with Effie and Ruskin to paint Ruskin’s portrait.
Leaving Ruskin for the artist and the subsequent annulment of the marriage on the grounds of her husband’s “incurable impotency” caused a major public scandal. Effie however finally found happiness when she married Millais the following year and the couple went on to have eight children.
The pair of Italian Venetian giltwood lanterns, which are valued at between £1,500-£2,00 are thought to have been bought by Effie when she was visiting Venice with Ruskin soon after they married and have been in the Millais family ever since.
The William IV birds-eye marriage table, which has a pre-auction estimate of £6,000-£8,000, is thought to have been made to celebrate the marriage of Henry Pelham-Clinton, the Duke of Newcastle to the beautiful and stylish Scottish aristocrat Lady Susan Hamilton in 1832.
Despite producing five children, it was also an unhappy marriage and Lady Susan started a disastrous and short-lived affair with the Tory politician Sir Horatio Walpole, eloping with him and giving birth to his illegitimate son, also named Horatio.
The furious Duke began divorce proceedings, citing Walpole as co-respondent in a writ and setting off a bitter and drawn out process which was only resolved 10 years later, shortly before his death. Susan remarried an untitled Belgian commoner in Naples, Italy in 1970.
The auction at Woolley & Wallis on October 2nd will offer almost 800 lots for sale. For information on how to register for online bidding, email enquiries@woolleyandwallis.co.uk or call 01722 424500.