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Lot 5
British School19th Century Painting of James McHenry and guests before Oak Hill Lodge, Kensington
15 – 16 February 2022, 10:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £3,187.50 inc. premium
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British School, 19th Century
Painting of James McHenry and guests before Oak Hill Lodge, Kensington
oil on canvas
81 x 116.2cm (31 7/8 x 45 3/4in).
Together with two visitors' books from the Lodge, one commemorating the visit of Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie on 10 July 1871.
oil on canvas
81 x 116.2cm (31 7/8 x 45 3/4in).
Together with two visitors' books from the Lodge, one commemorating the visit of Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie on 10 July 1871.
Footnotes
James McHenry was appointed contractor for the Atlantic Western Railway when it came into financial difficulties in 1858. It had begun in 1853, and James McHenry was seen as having 'saved' the project by arranging finance in Europe, so there could be some crossover appeal between the American, British, and European markets. It was McHenry who handed over the project to engineer Thomas Kennard, who saw it completed in 1864. Oak Hill Lodge is just west of Holland Park (and is now a street called Oakwood Court, W14) and was built in 1855 and bought by James McHenry in 1862. It was later demolished by new buyers in 1900, and replaced by mansion blocks.
Also included in the lot are two visitors' books from Oak Lodge, containing some 85 signatures reflecting the international nature of the guests at Oak Lodge, with illustrious visitors from Spain, Canada and the United States; one commemorating the visit of Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie on 10 July 1871, with illuminated title page comprising a coat-of-arms, signed by both, portrait cabinet photographs of Napoleon III, the Empress Eugenie and their son, the Prince Imperial, affixed (one signed and inscribed "A Mme MacHenry Eugenie"), also with the signatures of Maria Cristina de Borbon and Antonio d'Orleans under an illuminated coat-of-arms, later signatures include John D. Rockefeller and family and William Henry Vanderbilt and family, with various press cuttings, autograph letters and ephemera; the second including the signatures of opera singer Clara Louise Kellogg and the renowned Spanish Arabic scholar Pascual de Gayangos, amongst others, 22 leaves, watered silk endpapers, red calf gilt with foliate-design titles ('Oak Lodge Kensington/ August 1862' and 'Oak Lodge Kensington') and coat of arms applied in gilt metal, folio (320 x 240mm.), 1871-1890 and 1862-1889.