Footnotes

• Provenance: Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams.
  
  Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (1872-1958) was the foremost British composer of his time and is considered to be one of the greatest of the 20th century. 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of his
  death which is being celebrated with a variety of concerts and other events. Vaughan Williams'
  cycle of nine symphonies are still being performed widely through the English-speaking world, while polls have shown that his two works Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending are amongst the most popular pieces of classical music in the country. His widow, Ursula, survived him by nearly 50 years and died in October 2007.
  
  The two pieces of furniture offered here are thought to be family pieces. Vaughn Williams' mother Margaret Susan Wedgwood (1843-1937) was a great grand-daughter of Josiah Wedgwood and after his father's death in 1875, Vaughan Williams went with his mother to live at Leith Hill Place, the Wedgewood family home on the South Downs. Vaughan Williams was also related to the Darwins, his great uncle being the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882).