The Ante-Room to the Great Room has many of the paintings from Spencer House. Once a bedroom, it is now used as an occasional dining room for informal occasions.
Furniture
The Rosewood commode is of the French régence period,
with ormolu mounts and brass inlay and drawer linings of walnut. The dining
chairs are of the English Regency period (early 19th century) and are of beech
wood veneered with mahogany. Caned backs with leather covered seats. The
long-cased boulle clock is signed Boucheret, Paris. The chimney piece is by
Repton c.1810 and was brought from nearby Harleston House which was demolished
in 1940.
Paintings
Half-length portrait of John Churchill, Duke of
Marlborough, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Standing in armour with a red cloak and
baton. On the back of the canvas is an inscription 'Said to have been painted
for Sarah when he was sunburnt'. A note in the 1802 inventory reads 'This
portrait is doubted as the Duke was naturally of a fair complexion, but here is
represented with a very dark one. It is said that on his return from one of his
campaigns, he appeared so tanned and worn down with the fatigues of it that the
Duchess on seeing him with her usual vivacity cried out 'Good God, what a figure
you are - so altered, so black and so thin, that I rightly should scarcely have
known you again.' To prevent mistakes, I will have your picture taken
immediately, and insisted on his sitting to Kneller the day following'. Over the
chimney piece is a full length portrait of Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII,
ascribed to Beaubrun. Plundered from Versailles at the time of the Revolution
and purchased by 2nd Earl Spencer in 1820. Six paintings on copper (21.6 x 50.8
cm) by David Teniers (1610-1690) after Italian paintings in the collection of
Archduke Leopold William. Among other pictures of interest are An Old Woman at
her meal after Murillo; A Rocky Landscape with Figures by David Teniers bought
in Rome by the 2nd Earl Spencer for £200 in 1785; Amelia Von Solms, d.1675, wife
of Frederick Henry of Nassau Prince of Orange, and her Couirt leaving The Hague
to hunt; A Man with Bagpipes attrib. Claude Vignon.
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