Carefully curated over the last forty years, Sworders is pleased to present the selected contents of North Road House, Hertford.
28 August 2024
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Designed in 1827 by the prominent local architect Thomas Smith, for his own occupation, the house is distinctly Regency with its stucco façade to the front, but with nods to the neoclassical style throughout. After a period of disregard, the house was saved from conversion to flats by the vendor and put back to its former splendour in the early 1980s.
Growing up in a household of collectors, the vendor notes he was influenced from an early age by his father, but cites an exhibition at the Victorian and Albert Museum in the late 1970s on Biedermeier furniture as the greatest steer in developing his daring yet genius taste. North Road offers the perfect expression of this, with its boldly coloured walls and abundance of architectural detail complementing the effortless mix of English and Continental furnishings. Each piece confidently placed with purpose, but without fussiness.
The collection is broad and eccentric, spanning from furniture to porcelain, but throughout is underpinned by a discerning eye for good early 19th-century design. Among the highlights are three striking chandeliers which hung in the principal rooms, to include a Regency colza example. Beyond this, a Biedermeier secrétaire à abattant with architectural interior is particularly notable.
fineinteriors@sworder.co.uk | 01279 817778
A major highlight of our forthcoming Dreams – A Unique Private Collection sale on 9 July is a remarkable archive of letters and manuscripts by John Ruskin (1819–1900), the celebrated Victorian polymath. This unparalleled group – numbering in the hundreds – is believed to be the largest collection of Ruskin correspondence in private hands and spans a vast range of topics from art and architecture to politics, religion, and personal reflection.
2 July 2025
'The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz' - also known as 'The Bagh-i-Muattar' - quickly caught the attention of our book specialists, when a copy bound in full vellum was brought in by a local client to our weekly valuation day.
2 July 2025
We are thrilled to launch The Glass Sale - a brand-new addition to our auction calendar! The inaugural sale will take place on Tuesday 28 October and will become a biannual fixture in our calendar going forward.
20 June 2025