Furniture commissioned by Coco Chanel for Scottish house to go under hammer
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Furniture commissioned by fashion designer Coco Chanel for the Sutherland home of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, will go under the hammer at auction next week.
Grosvenor, one of the wealthiest men in the world at the time, whiled away summers with Coco, his lover, at Rosehall House, in the 1920s.
Having found the house too gloomy, however, Chanel refurbished the mansion by wallpapering and commissioning new, lighter furniture which features in the Scottish Home sale at Bonhams in Edinburgh.
A limed oak Tuscan table, estimated at between £800 and £1200, was modelled on Sir Robert Lorimer’s designs for furniture at Balmenno Castle, Perthshire, along with a set of limed oak open armchairs, which are expected to fetch between £1500 and £2000.
In a similar style, a limed oak occasional table will also be going under the hammer.
Among the other items going on sale is an original masthead for The Scotsman newspaper, used from the launch in 1817 until 1835.
A painting by King Charles, entitled Balmoral and completed in 2001, has been estimated to fetch between £400 and £600.
First copies of The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals from 1939 will also be sold with one estimated to fetch up to £1500.
The sale will take place at Bonhams in Edinburgh on Thursday October 20.
Other rare pieces of Scottish jewellery and glassware will also go on sale, including a Jacobite twist glass thought to be from around 1760.
The bell bowl is decorated with a six-petalled rose with two buds, one partially open in reference to James VIII of Scotland, the Stuart claimant to the British crown and his two sons, Charles and Henry – all three of whom lived in Continental Europe.
James led the unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1715 and was followed by his son, Charles, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, in 1745.
The glass would have been used to toast the “King over the water” and is estimated at between £4,000 and 6,000.
Bonhams senior valuer Hamish Wilson said: “Bonhams Scottish Home sale is a wonderful offering of all things Scottish from the fascinating furniture commissioned by Coco Chanel for Rosehall House to Jilli Blackwood’s wonderful Millennium Kilt No 2 Philabeg and everything in between.
“With its carefully curated mixture of the useful and the decorative, the Scottish Home sale is designed to appeal to everyone.”
