The auction dispersal of the contents of Wormington Grange represents a now very rare opportunity to secure superb quality antiques and works of art from the kind of rich and layered context for which they were first intended. The dreamy house conceals treasures ranging from a huge Algernon Newton capriccio of iconic Dorset views, unseen since its purchase in the 1920s from the Royal Academy exhibition, to the classic country house ‘fodder’ that used to be so commonly found in the stables and outhouses of Britain’s great houses -and with much else in between. The furniture represents precisely what one might expect to find in a house of circa 1840, with all the great names of English furniture making represented in force -Gillows by the boatload, Howard, Lamb of Manchester and the rest. The increasing paucity of this type of traditional country house contents dispersal, along with the sheer quality and quantity of the offering, render it one not to be missed.

- Cristian Beadman, Senior Valuer