the arc-en-arbalete shelf above a shaped frieze centred with a cartouche with ultramarine and yellow inlaid panels continuing to the jambs headed with leafy clasps, raised on block feet

This spectacular chimneypiece was previously installed at Shute House, Dorset, by Nancy Lancaster (1897-1994) taste-maker and owner of Colefax and Fowler. The project was for her son (from her second marriage) Mr Michael Tree, and his wife Lady Anne (nee Cavendish, daughter of the 10th Duke of Devonshire). It was removed when the couple left Shute House over 30years ago and has remained in storage since.

Nancy Lancaster made her name at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, interiors she developed with Sibyl Colefax (her house where Churchill was invited to hunker-down during the blitz). She went on to own and decorate Haseley Court, from 1950, with her business partner John Fowler. The interiors they created are remembered as being at the zenith of the English Country House style. After a fire at the house, in 1971, Lancaster retreated to the adjacent Coach House to live and continued to establish the gardens for her remaining years. Haseley Court is only a stone’s throw from LASSCO Three Pigeons.