Redlynch House
6th September 2022
A selection of paintings from a house connected to Lord Nelson are to be sold in Salisbury on 14th September.
Redlynch House on the edge of the New Forest as bought sometime before 1833 by Horatio Nelson’s elder brother, the Reverend William Nelson, 1st Earl Nelson. Subsequently owned by a succession of titled gentlemen and retired military officers, the estate changed hands in 2021 for the first time since 1968 – prompting the current dispersal.
Included among the artworks on offer is a portrait of Etheldreda Townshend (née Harrison) attributed to Enoch Seeman (lot 1334). Townshend was the only surviving child of Frances and Edward Harrison of Balls Park in Hertfordshire. Neglected by her husband, who had taken their servant as a mistress, Townshend became known as “a frolicsome dame” following the couple’s separation in 1740. She had a series of relationships with powerful men including Thomas Winnington, William Boyd and Henry Fox (father of the notorious MP Charles Fox).
A pair of Italian landscapes depict the Rialto Bridge and the Entrance to the Cannaregio in Venice and are expected to make up to £8,000 (lot 1343). They were previously attributed to Francesco Zanin but are now believed to be by a follower of Michele Marieschi. Scenes of this type were regularly commissioned by Grand Tourists as a memento of their time spent in Europe.
Also of interest is a portrait of Jane Loftus, Marchioness of Ely, painted in 1845 by Cavaliere Alessandro Capalti (lot 1365). Jane Loftus was a Lady of the Bedchamber and a close friend of Queen Victoria who said on her death, “God knows what an awful loss she is to me”.
The thirty six paintings and miniatures come under the hammer at Woolley and Wallis on 14th September as part of the Old Masters, British and European Paintings sale, and are expected to fetch in the region of £50,000.
