Party On: Christie's to auction pieces from Lord Berners' Faringdon House

Where the doves are dyed in every colour of the rainbow, and the dogs would wear pearls for the parties: Faringdon House in Oxfordshire is a place steeped in legend. Now its intrigue, eccentricity and flamboyance are on display and set to attract and inspire a new generation, as the focal point of Christie’s London next Interiors Sale.

Once the country home of eccentric Lord Berners, the composer, artist and writer immortalised in Nancy Mitford's novel The Pursuit of Love as the whimsical Lord Merlin, Faringdon House was originally built in 1780 for the poet laureate Henry James Pye.

It was only 200 years later, however, when Lord Berners inherited the estate and moved in with his companion, Robert ‘Mad Boy’ Heber-Percy (nearly 30 years his junior), that this aesthetes paradise would truly come alive – with an elegant flair for European classicism and lawns full of tropical flowers.

Igor Stravinsky, a friend, once said that at one time the only important living English composer was Lord Berners, and Nancy Mitford expands on the opinion: “One of the greatest of his achievements was the atmosphere he created around himself at Faringdon, a house where the second best was never tolerated, either in comfort, conversation or in manners.”

In the visitors book, Nancy and her sisters sit within a perfect fantasy dinner-party ready crowd that includes Salvador Dali, Gertrude Stein, Marchesa Casati and Margot Fonteyn.

Scandal and sensationalism abounded at Faringdon – at turns bittersweet, intriguing and entertaining - from when the Mad Boy rode bareback and naked around the estate, to the unusual set-up the couple arranged with Jennifer Ross, who married Heber-Percy in 1942 and had his daughter.

It is his granddaughter, writer Sofka Zinovieff, who now owns the house, and her latest book, The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me, is a witty memoir that provides insight into entertaining events that led to her own legacy when she inherited everything, entirely unexpectedly, aged just 25.

The Interiors Sale at Christie’s stands out not only for its accessibility – with some lots starting as low as ￡300 it attracts a younger collector because of the nature of the material – but also for the stories behind the objects presented. Many of the objects that make up the sale are rare and of exceptional value, but – and especially in this case – the sense of fun and the surrounding narrative are what makes them more appealing still.  

It is the enormous sense of hospitality and fun that imbues the Faringdon estate that Christie’s most wants to celebrate in this season’s sale, says Cecilia Harvey, Interiors Specialist at the auction house.

“Lord Berners’ address book was extraordinary,” she says, “and so many people visited the house from Evelyn Waugh to Cecil Beaton. Highlights include a cream painted and glass mounted four poster bed that many of these illustrious guests would have slept in, and a work by Dali with a personal inscription and drawing to Lord Berners.”

A pair of ornamental one-metre high elephants, will open the sale, and collectors should also watch for many works by the peer himself, including portrait and landscape paintings. An enormous George II Giltwood mirror is expected to fetch between ￡30,000 and ￡50,000. For interior designers with a keen eye for symmetry, says Harvey, there are many pairs of items too.

The sale, on 12 April, features property from several consignors and consists of 145 lots in total including property from the collection of Lord and Lady Jacobs, items from a David Hicks interior and a selection of travel posters.

Although there’s no promise of multi-coloured doves and the dogs at the auction house that we are so far aware of, highlights will be on view at Christie’s at a private viewing on 7 April, and there will be another chance to explore them during the next Christie’s Lates open house evening on 9 April.

christies.com