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A WILLIAM IV MAHOGANY WINE COOLER OR JARDINIERE CIRCA 1835 The foliate-carved lid with a spiral-turned finial above a lead-lined cistern with later removable galvanised bucket and a gadrooned edge, the body boldly reeded on a turned socle and square moulded plinth with anti-friction castors, metal inventory label 'M191' and inscribed 'BZ HA' 29 in. (73.5 cm.) high; 31 in. (79 cm.) diameter
Edward James (1907 – 84) is best known as a champion of Surrealism in the 1930s, as a collector and patron and in his own colourful life. He grew up at West Dean Park, Sussex, a Jacobean house that had been extended in neo-Gothic style in the early 19th century by James Wyatt for the 1st Lord Selsey and furnished after 1891 in eclectic fashion with family artefacts from across the ages and continents, some English furniture possibly acquired with the house and much more purchased. Through his short marriage to the Viennese actress and dancer Tilly Losch Edward James became involved with Les Ballets 1933, an offspring of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, was then drawn into the circle of artists such as Pavel Tchelitchev and Christian Bérard and soon found an empathy with the Surrealists even before the startling 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition. In 1935 he moved to the Lutyens-designed Monkton House on the edge of West Dean Park, where his own imaginative and unconventional interiors were given free-rein in a conscious attempt to shock and amuse his friends. At the same time he became an important patron and supporter of artists including René Magritte and Salvador Dali and the contents of Monkton included many iconic pieces such as Dali’s 'Lips’ sofa and Lobster Telephone. West Dean House was given to a charitable trust in 1981 with much of the contents sold at Christie’s three-day sale in 1986.