Royal & Noble Including Jewels from an Important Noble Collection
Royal & Noble Including Jewels from an Important Noble Collection
Property of the Airlie Estates Heritage Trust
A German walnut marquetry bureau-cabinet, second quarter 18th century
Lot Closed
January 17, 02:43 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
decorated throughout with floral marquetry, the upper section with two doors centred by octagonal panels enclosing a coronet and a cypher opening onto two shelves, the lower section with a writing slope resting on two lopers enclosing an arrangement of one long and six short drawers, above three long drawers and bun feet
211cm high, 105cm wide, 55cm deep
This lot will be on view in our New Bond Street galleries on 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th and 17th January 2024.
Acquired in Italy 1907 by Mabell Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie (1866-1956);
thence by descent at Cortachy Castle, Angus, Scotland.
Mabell Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie (1866-1956) was a noblewoman, author and close confidante to Queen Mary, wife of George V. Her father was Arthur Gore, first 5th Earl of Arran and subsequently Baron Sudley in 1884, and in 1886 she married David Ogilvy, 11th Earl of Airlie. She was a lifelong friend to Queen Mary, first becoming her Lady of the Bedchamber when Mary was still Princess of Wales in 1901, and serving as one of her train-bearers at the Coronation in 1911 (see photo RCIN 2303506.a in the Royal Collection). For a photograph of Lady Mabell pictured together with Queen Mary visiting the Western Front in 1917, see RCIN 2303801.g. A photograph of a sketch of Lady Mabell by John Singer Sargent, the original now in a private collection, can be seen in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, NPG D7185. She penned several memoires and historical accounts of her family in the inter-war period, and her last book appeared posthumously in 1962 as Thatched with Gold: The Memoirs of Mabell, Countess of Airlie featuring her 1933 portrait by Philip Alexius de László on the cover (Dundee Art Galleries, 6-1933)