ROOM FOR SALE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 675, 29 May 1929, Page 9

ROOM FOR SALE

STOREHOUSE OF BEAUTY One of the most magnificent Elizabethan rooms in the country, “The Great Chamber,” of Gilling Caotle, Yorkshire, is to be denuded of its princely decorations, and these are to be offered for sale. The panelling is in three tiers of panels, reaching lift high, and covers all the walls of this 39ft long chamber. With the panelling will be offered the frieze, 3ft Sin deep, decorated with trees springing from a verdure of plants among real and heraldic animals. All the stained glass contained in llie three beautiful windows, which 3i6 nearly 400 years old, and include a portrait of the artist and his name, is also to come under the hammer. The windows, with the arms on the overmantel. give the heraldic history of three great families ——Constable, Fairfax and Stapleton —while the frieze constitutes an armorial of the country in Elizabethan days. Messrs. Sotheby are offering ..he room bv auction for the owner of the castle. Captain K. S. Hunter._ whose father acquired the property 25 years ago Portions of the castle date back to Edward IT., and it was for centuries the seat of the Fairfax family. It was Sir, William Fairfax, who succeeded his father in 1597, who decorated the chamber in its present form. Captain Hunter says that he had not lived at Gilling Castle for a year, "and. so far as I know at present, he added. “I shall not live there again. “It is possible that I shall offer the castle for sale." Mr. B. Rackbam, keeper of the Department of Ceramics at the Victoria and Albert Museum, said it would be “a great pity if the room were broken up, and deplorable if the panelling and glass passed out of the country. It would be splendid if it could be secured for the museum if it must leave the castle. ,