A number of items from Peckover House and Sibald's Holme in Wisbech are to go under the hammer at a Cheffins auction.
Furniture, artwork and collectables from Peckover House, now a National Trust-owned property, will all be part of the 23-lot collection, which will be sold as part of the Cheffins Fine Sale in June.
Upon the death of Alexandrina Peckover, the house was gifted to the National Trust, and most of the contents were sold during a two-day sale in 1948.
Some of the contents were left to her two nephews, Sir Roland Penrose, the surrealist painter and prolific art collector, and geneticist Lionel Sharples Penrose, who then went on to continue the Peckover legacy.
The National Trust renamed the property Peckover House in 1948 in homage to the family, and along with its two acres of formal gardens, it is one of the most important properties in East Anglia.
The items offered by Cheffins are being sold by a direct descendant of the Peckover family.
Brett Tryner, director at Cheffins, said: "This wonderful collection, many pieces of which comes to the market for the first time, provides a window into the lives of the progressive Peckover family, one of the most significant dynasties in East Anglia."
Several items in the sale were also part of the original contents of Sibald's Holme.
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The house, which is also on the North Brink, Wisbech, became the home of Algernon Peckover, who extended the house prior to his marriage to Priscilla Alexander in 1828.
Items up for auction
- A 19th-century photograph of the drawing room at Sibald's Holme shows a Chinese lacquered cabinet on a stand, estimated at £800 – 1,200, decorated by a family member, Elizabeth Shewell, née Peckover (1795 - 1871).
A Chinese lacquered cabinet on the stand is one of the items going under the hammer. (Image: Cheffins)
- Also included is a series of 148 watercolour views of England, Wales and Scotland, painted by Alegrina Peckover between 1874 and 1880, which are illustrative of the artistic nature of the family. They have an estimate of £1,000 - £2,000.
- In addition, there is a collection of 100 watercolour views of Ireland by another unknown member of the Peckover family, dated between 1857 and 1859, which have an estimate of £800 - £1,200.
- Also on offer is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age landscape painter Adriaen van der Cabel (1630 – 1705) of a Mediterranean harbour view and is expected to sell for £1,500 - £3,000.
- This is followed by a pair of Venetian wall mirrors from the 18th century, which have an estimate of £1,200 - £1,800, and a 19th-century stag antler hunting lodge chair which is believed to be Bavarian and was originally in the library at Peckover House and has an estimate of £500 - £800.
History of Peckover House
Peckover House, previously known as Bank House, was built in 1772 and was purchased along with a fifty-acre estate by Jonathan Peckover in 1787, a well-known Quaker and philanthropist.
The building went on to be the home for the family for the following 150 years, whilst they created a famous dynasty of bankers, artists and collectors.
The Peckover family founded the first bank in Wisbech, which, combined with a grocery business, became a centre of import and export for the town.
As the family grew, they also created a home at Sibald's Holme and are credited for the development of the current North Brink, a streetscape that Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described as 'one of the finest Georgian brick streets in England'.
The items from the houses are set to go for auction at The Cheffins Fine Sale on June 28 and June 29.
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