Former curator sells off his 'The Country Houses of Shropshire' collection at auction

A former curator at Weston Park has sold off his collection of paintings, documents, furniture, books and collectables in a Shrewsbury auction.

Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox with the Shropshire Star’s free newsletter

Prices peaked at £4,200 as author Gareth Williams sold a large part of his personal collection, some of which featured in his book ‘The Country Houses of Shropshire’, published in 2021, which covers the architecture, the owners’ family history and the social and economic circumstances that affected them.

Gareth was former curator and head of learning at Weston Park Foundation for 19 years, and now curates the Derby Collection at Knowsley Hall, Prescot.

His collection went under the hammer at a British and Continental ceramics and glass, antiques, clocks and Asian art auction held by Halls The Auction House in Shrewsbury.

Gareth said that his acquisition of many objects in the auction had been driven by ‘The Country Houses of Shropshire’.

“Portraits of Shropshire houses and their owning families proved irresistible, so too were talismans of the architects, artists and Shrewsbury trades, plus books and printed ephemera which were,” he said.

“The completion of the book, and now presently a house sale, have prompted a rethink and it was timely to, at last, liberate some of the captives. The shelves and walls are still remarkably well covered, but this offering at Halls provided new collecting opportunities for others to experience the joy that each lot has given.”

Top price went to an 1823 portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850), former president of the Royal Academy, Irish artist and writer, of fellow artist Philip Corbet (1802-’77).

Another portrait, this time of Judge Reginald Corbet (1510-1566), attributed to either John or Francis Meheux, sold for £1,300. Reginald was a Tudor era lawyer and judge who pushed the Government to open a free school in Shrewsbury, establishing what became the Shrewsbury School.

Members of the Corbet family featured in three more portraits by Ellen Sharples (1769-1849) - Dryden Robert Corbet (1804-1859), Andrew William Corbet (1803-1856), both of Sundorne Castle, and Kynaston Corbet (1808-1859), sold for £800, £750 and £720, respectively.

An aquatint and drypoint by Sir Anthony Gormley OBE (b.1950) titled ‘Domain, 2000’, realised £2,500 and a preparatory study for the portrait of Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willington (1866-1941), by New Zealand artist Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley (1880-1952) sold for £900.

Items of Shrewsbury interest included a John Rose (Coalport) jug relating to the 1802 election of William Noel-Hill, third Baron Berwick, which sold for £850 and a watercolour by Philip Vandyke Brown (1801-1868) of St Mary's Almshouses, Shrewsbury which sold for £700.

Abigail Molenaar, Halls’ pictures specialist, said: “Many of the items included in the auction, relating to famous Shropshire families and historical places, are rare and attracted keen interest from collectors.”