As well as her antiques background, our director and auctioneer Hannah Clayton Atkin was previously the Development Manager of the Historic Houses Association of Australia. She has also worked in some of the most opulent English country houses for the National Trust.
Consequently she was delighted to uncover details of two lost historic houses in the UK and Australia when researching for recent and upcoming auction sales.
Chipstead Place in Kent, UK was a grand house consisting of 26 bedrooms and six large reception rooms. Built at the turn of the 18th century it became home to noted bibliophile Frederick Perkins (1780-1860). Following Frederick's death the house was tenanted, later becoming a hospital for wounded soldier in World War One. It was demolished in 1932 to make way for a new housing estate. A first edition of Charles Dickens 'Hard Times' from Frederick Perkins Chipstead Place library sold for $952 (inc BP) in our recent Director's Selection auction.
Wyldefel, also spelled Wildfell, was a two-storey Victorian mansion in the Sydney suburb of Potts Point. In 1923 it was purchased by wealthy importer William Crowle (1881-1948) who was a well travelled collector of art and antiques. In 1937 Crowle completed work on Wyldefel Gardens, a sprawling Art Deco complex covering the sloping Wyldefel block to the shoreline. The old Victorian mansion was later demolished and land reclamation by the Government during WWII saw Crowle famously put his Deco home on a barge and move it, piece by piece, from Potts Point to Kurraba Point. Treasures from the Crowle family previously displayed at Wyldefel will be part of an upcoming single owner collection sale in July.
