A set of five (5) monumental French Belle Epoque period carved gilt-wood room panels, featuring Aesthetic Movement-inspired oil paintings on canvas with gold-leaf ground set into elaborate carved and pierced Rocaille frames. The largest panel features an imposing peacock perched atop a flower-filled urn, while the others depict urns and stands festooned in a variety of flowers along with birds, butterflies, and imagery emblematic of the four seasons. Unsigned. Height - 108"-115" (see full dimensions below). Dimensions: The two largest panels are: Framed: 115" H x 45 1/2" W. Sight: 97" H x 42 3/4" W. Two narrow panels: Framed: 108" H x 28" W, Sight: 97" H. x 22 3/4" W. One Medium Size panel: Framed : 115" H x 44 3/4" W, Sight: 96 1/2" H x 31 3/4" W.

Note: For more than a century, these panels were a focal point of Annesdale, one of Memphis, Tennessee's most historic and elegant mansions. Annesdale was completed in 1855 for Dr. Samuel Mansfield. In 1868, it was purchased by Robert Campbell Brinkley (1816-1878), originator of the famous Peabody Hotel, as a wedding gift for his daughter, Anne Overton Brinkley (1845-1923), and her new husband, Col. Robert Bogardus Snowden (1836-1909), and re-named Annesdale. The 17,000 square foot Italianate villa with 14 foot ceilings, 5 stories including bell tower, and magnificent gardens was home to the prominent Snowden family for seven generations. The home was eventually sold and preserved as an event venue. Earlier this year, the mansion on what is now known as Lamar Avenue was sold again, into private hands, and these panels were removed. Acquiring lavish, elegantly painted panels to adorn a room was a popular practice among the Southern elite during the late 1800s and very early 1900s. In 1911, noted American artist Everett Shinn painted a series of slightly less extravagant flowering urn canvas panels for a monumental (109"H) screen for the Ballard House of Louisville. It is not known where or how the Snowdens acquired these particular panels - by commissioning them or by bringing them home from their overseas travels - but they likely date from around the same period. These panels are one of several lots formerly from Annesdale Mansion being sold in this auction, along with Snowden family portraits, silver and ephemera.

PROVENANCE: Historic Annesdale Mansion, Memphis, TN.

Overall fair to good condition commensurate with age and use. Each canvas with some form of crazing and craquelure, stretcher bar creases, several areas of paint/pigment loss, touch-ups and in-painting, punctures and patches to canvas, and areas of surface dust & grim. All panels have been glazed with an ochre paint over the pink borders to stabilize fugitive areas of paint cracking and loss. Each frame with some form of loss to surface finish, minor losses to scroll and frame elements, breaks, repairs, drill holes, touch-ups, separation at joints, and some areas with small spilled white paint dots.