The firm owes its origin to a notable man, James Christie, who issued his first catalogue in 1766. A portrait of him, painted by his friend Gainsborough, originally a good advertisement of the skill of the artist, was long hanging in the “great auction rooms” on the south side of Pall Mall, where Christie took up his quarters, next to Schomberg House. It was afterwards at the present address, No. 8 King Street, St. James’s, to which the firm moved in 1824. They now only have an engraving of it. Rowlandson drew another caricature of an auction sale at Christie’s.
By T. Rowlandson (1756-1827). Lent by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods.
47 [OLD CHEESE-CAKE HOUSE, HYDE PARK, 1797.] Plate XXI.
Watercolour. 21½ by 12 in.
The building, close to the Serpentine, is thus mentioned in Howard’s “English Monsieur” (1674): “Nay, ’tis no London female; she’s a thing that never saw a cheesecake, a tart, or a syllabub at the Lodge in Hyde Park.” Swift writes to Stella that after his duel with Lord Mohun the Duke of Hamilton was helped towards the “Cake-house,” but died on the grass before he could reach it. Later it was sometimes called the Mince-pie House. Demolished 1835-36. There is an engraving of it in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for May 1801.
Date 1797. Lent by H.M. the King.
Wash drawing in Indian ink. 10¾ by 5¾ in.
Buckingham House in St. James’s Park was designed by Captain William Winde, said to have been a pupil of Gerbier, and to have been born at Bergen-op-Zoom, being finished for John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in 1705. There is an account of it with elevation in Sir Reginald Blomfield’s book on English renaissance architecture. It was bought by George III, settled on Queen Charlotte, and here Dr. Johnson had his famous interview with the King. The original building was altered and added to from 1825 onwards until it quite disappeared, Buckingham Palace covering the site.
Winde was of Norfolk family, well connected. See references to him in “Notes and Queries,” and his pedigree by Mr. J. Challenor Smith in Surrey Arch. Coll., vol. x.