Sir Cecil Beaton, Reddish House, Christie’s 1980 Auction Catalogue

Sir Cecil Beaton (1904–1980)
Reddish House, Broadchalke, Wiltshire
Christie’s 1980 Original Auction Catalogue 
Monday 9th June & Tuesday 10th June 1980
Published Christie's, London
1980

8vo; 155 pp. 24.4 cm x 18.5 cm. 142 illustrations, 14 in color. Essay by Richard Buckle. Good condition, slight crease to cover top right. Other minor marks. Some pencil annotations to the estimates list. 

First and only edition of the auction catalogue for the disposal, over 725 lots, of works of art, furniture, silver, pictures, porcelain, general contents and garden effects  from Sir Cecil Beaton's home at Reddish House, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, where he had lived since 1947. With his singularly discerning eye, Beaton transformed the house so that he might entertain his illustrious group of friends there in style.

His tastes were eclectic but Beaton gave his home an air of studied grandeur in the fashion of an elegant, old-money English country house. On visiting Reddish, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother supposedly said to him, “How clever you are, Sir Cecil to have made everything look so shabby!”

Beaton remained at Reddish until his death and is buried in the churchyard at All Saints', Broad Chalke. The two-day auction by Christie’s of the contents of the house was held in a marquee on the lawn. With everyone wanting to take home something from what was considered to be one of the great interiors, the Reddish House auction became one of the great sales of the 20th Century.