by Andrew Leston

This was a 'house sale' quite unlike any other, as the contents were not the English Country House serendipity of dog kennel to Reynolds portrait but the stock of an antiques dealer who used well-decorated rooms in different styles to exhibit the pieces to their best advantage. In the current economic climate, the task of selling 'remaining stock' at a country venue on the English/Welsh border seemed daunting but, in the event, things turned out surprisingly well, thanks to Bonhams' extensive marketing strategy that included a larger than usual and splendidly illustrated catalogue and the promise that most of the lots were unreserved. For harbingers of gloom, who said that the public was too concerned about their investments and falling house prices to buy at an antiques sale of this kind, the wide mix of people from across the country proved that the 'spend, spend' culture is not dead yet. Expensive cars with personalised number plates littered the lawns and must have reminded the people who lived and worked at the house of the glory days, when a rich international clientele was collected in the Rolls or Bentley that always stood ready, or even arrived by helicopter.
The concept of Great Brampton House was the creation of Lady Pamela Pidgeon, who saw the com-mercial possibilities of selling antiques in a country house setting. She began her career as a fashion model at Harrods and developed an interest in antiques when living in Malaysia with her first husband, Francis Howell, a major in the Scots Guards. They returned to England in the 1960s, a golden age for the antiques trade, with enthusiastic people setting up shops in every small village. It was also a time when antiques buyers drove around the country, looking for interesting pieces, so that it was possible to start a business in a country barn or disused village grocer's shop. With plenty of stock still available, and steadily rising prices, the antiques trade lured people from the professions, theatre and City. Lady Pamela began her life as a dealer selling from the back of her Morris 1000 Traveller. It was a different world from the shrinking antiques trade of the 21st century, and was still full of hope and expectation, perhaps because so many young dealers were active.
Like many people, Lady Pamela fell in love with the concept of operating from an attractive country house that she could stock with furnishings that accorded with her vision of a perfectly furnished mansion. The wide staircases, high reception rooms and elegant windows of Great Brampton House provided an exciting canvas for the soft furnishings that she saw as an essential adjunct to grand furniture. The rooms were hung with watered silk papers, there was an Oriental room, a Wedgwood style and an oak room, as well as landings and corridors, perfect for hanging paintings.