A painting of Englefield House that went under the hammer at Dreweatt’s today came up for some fierce bidding and sold for over double its estimate.
The Newbury auction house expected the historical painting – which shows previous owner of the house Powlett Wrighte (the younger), standing in front of it in the mid-18th century – to fetch £10,000-£15,000. But bidding was fiercely competitive and the hammer came down at £27,700.

The oil painting was created by the celebrated English painter, Royal Academician and politician Nathanial Dance (1735-1811). It was being sold by a US private collector.
Brandon Lindberg, head of Dreweatts Old Master, British & European Art said: “18th century country house views are exceptionally popular.
“We were particularly delighted that in this case, we could identify the house and that it attracted a lot of local interest.
“There was a lot of competition for it, but it finally won out to a European buyer.”
About the painting:
Powlett Wrighte Junior (1739-1779) was the son of Powlett and Mary Wrighte and the heir to Englefield House and its estate. His father died in 1741, when he was just two years old, and the house and estates were left in trust for him until he turned 21.
The painting shows Englefield as it was in the mid-18th century, most likely around 1760, the year that Wrighte turned 21 and came into full ownership of the house.
This would have been a thoroughly plausible reason to commission a painting of himself, standing proudly in front of his country house of which he was now master.
Given that his mother, now the chatelaine of several large houses through her second marriage in 1745, would have spent much of her time away from Englefield, it is also entirely plausible that she would have wanted a second version of the picture to hang in one of her other houses to remind her of the house where she lived before and to remind her of her eldest son, who was now the master there.
On his death in 1779 and being childless, Wrighte left the Englefield estate to his uncle, Nathaniel Wrighte in accordance with his father’s will. Nathaniel Wrighte let the house and estate to Lady Clive, the widow of the famous ‘Clive of India’ and she lived there for some years in the 1780s.
Since that time that house has been architecturally altered more than once – most significantly during the early 19th century when it was given some impressive ‘Gothic’ additions. The elevation shown in this picture, however, is largely still extant today and the positioning of the church to the viewer’s right is similarly unchanged.
The Benyon family, descendants of Powlett Wrighte, are still the owners of Englefield House today. Richard Benyon said: “We have been aware of this painting and it is an almost exact copy of the one in our possession.
“It is not unusual for a Georgian artist like Nethaniel Dance to paint one or even more copies.
“We are very fond of our version of the painting which shows our home as it once looked and our ancestor who was clearly very proud of it.”
Click on
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englefield_House
https://www.englefieldestate.co.uk/about-us/our-history
for links to the history and importance of Englefield house to the Berkshire region.