Rosehall items showcased in Coco Chanel furniture sale
It was where Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, and one of the wealthiest men in the world, whiled away the summers with his lover, the great French couturière Coco Chanel.
Now some of her furniture is being auctioned.
Rosehall House in Sutherland had, until recently, lain abandoned for more than 50 years, but in the 1920s it was full of life.
Finding the house too gloomy for her tastes, Chanel set about a major refurbishment. Among other changes – completely re-wallpapering the house, for example – she commissioned new, lighter, furniture, some of which features in this year’s Scottish Home sale at Bonhams, Edinburgh on October 20.
One of the pieces, a limed oak Tuscan table estimated at £800-1200 was modelled on Sir Robert Lorimer’s designs for furniture at Balmenno Castle in Perthshire.
Other Rosehall House furniture commissioned by Coco Chanel in the sale includes:
A set of four limed oak 'Tuscan' open armchairs after Sir Robert Lorimer. Estimate: £1500-2000.
A limed oak octagonal topped centre table in the manner of Sir Robert Lorimer. Estimate: £600-800.
Plans to turn Chanel’s former 700-acre Highland love nest into a luxury hotel were revived two years ago.
The crumbling B-listed Rosehall Estate with a £2.5 million price tag, had been in need of a buyer since 2015.
Despite her leaving the home more than 85 years ago, a number of the rooms still bear her work, including fragments of wallpaper she designed.
Chanel had hand-blocked wallpaper shipped in from France, and oversaw local workmen as they put together simple fireplaces.
A team of specialists who act on behalf of the Chanel Archive previously viewed the property and offered their support in giving access to all their records.
A planning permission renewal application – for a hotel and five new-built guest lodges in the grounds – was lodged in 2017 on behalf of Ghulum Choudry of the Rosehall Estate.
In 2020, after four years on the open market, an undisclosed offer made by a family from abroad has been accepted, Malik Afsar of Remax Central estate agents said.
The purchaser bought Rosehall because of planning permission that will allow it to be converted into a hotel, he added.
Built in 1873 after a fire gutted the original building, Rosehall was owned by the duke, known as "Bendor", one of the world’s richest men, during the 1920s. The duke spent summers at the property with Chanel, his lover between 1923 and 1929. She decorated each room in floral and pinstriped wallcoverings that were inspired by her flat in Paris.
Rosehall welcomed a host of famous faces during the 1920s, including Winston Churchill, who stayed in 1928 while recovering from illness.
Writing to his wife, Clementine, Churchill emphasised his admiration for the French fashion designer. He wrote: “Coco is here in place of Violet (Nelson, the duke’s second wife). She fishes from morn till night, and in two months has killed 50 salmon. She is very agreeable — really a great and strong being fit to rule a man or an Empire.”
Rosehall comes with five separate buildings and is the only home outside of Switzerland and France with interiors by Chanel. It also has what is thought to be one of the first bidets fitted in a Scottish home.
It is thought that the duke and Chanel were introduced in 1923 by Vera Bate Lombardi, a British socialite. The duke lavished gifts on his lover and provided her with a home in Mayfair, London. He is thought to have been devastated when she turned down his proposal of marriage, allegedly by saying: “There have been several duchesses of Westminster, but there is only one Chanel.”
Under plans approved in February 2014, the Georgian mansion near Lairg would be fully restored and turned into an up-market hotel, carrying many of the design features created by Chanel.
Having been neglected for more than 60 years, work on the project had been expected to being in early in 2015.
The property had been on the market for almost two years with an initial price tag of £3 million.
Other highlights of the Bonhams' sale include:
Millennium Kilt No. 2 Philabeg by the Scottish textile artist Jilli Blackwood. The work, which is made from wool, cotton velvet and silk, on steel hanger, is the second of Jilli Blackwood's kilts to be produced and the first to come to auction. It was made to meet the demand generated by Millennium Kilt No I created in 1999 and exhibited to great acclaim at The Victoria and Albert Museum.
The present work has been created through an intricate and painstaking process of weaving and embroidering, but also, in the artist's words, 'un-embroidering' which involves the removal of previously worked up areas, this method leaves impressions and memories on the fabric. This unique process creates a vividly colourful and highly textured and tactile surface. Estimate: £2000-3000
A fine Glasgow shipbuilder's scale model of the cargo ship 'Gujarat'. The SS Gujarat was the first Harland & Wolff ship to be built for Andrew Weir, delivered by the Govan Shipyard in 1923. It was a motor cargo-passenger ship on the Indian-African Line travelling from Calcutta, Rangoon, Madras, via Colombo to Mozambique and Southern Africa. Estimate: £8000-12,000.
A very rare Jacobite colour twist glass, circa 1760. The bell bowl is decorated with a six-petalled rose with two buds, one partially open. This is a reference to James VIII of Scotland, the Stuart claimant to the British crown and his two sons Charles and Henry all three of whom lived in Continental Europe. James – known popularly at the Old Pretender – led the unsuccessful Jacobite Rising of 1715. The 1745 Jacobite Rising of his son Charles – The Young Pretender better known as Bonnie Prince Charles – fared no better coming to a catastrophic end at Culloden the following year. The glass would have been used to toast the ‘King over the water’. Estimate: £4000-6000.
The original masthead for "The Scotsman" newspaper used from the launch in 1817 until 1835. Estimate: £500-700.
And Balmoral by HRH King Charles III. Signed and in pencil ‘Charles 2001’. Estimate: £400-600.
