Hundreds of antiques sold from New Forest's Exbury House

Hundreds of antiques from Exbury House, the Hampshire home of the Rothschild family, have gone under the hammer.

The 220 lots included a micromosaic table - made made by an Italian artist who produced furniture for Napoleon - which sold for £200,000.

Auctioneers Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury said the sale was prompted by a redecoration programme at the stately home in the New Forest.

The total sale, including buyer's premium, fetched almost £1.4m.

The metre-wide mosaic table, attributed to Giacomo Rafaelli, who counted Napoleon among his clients, stood in the central hall at Exbury and had been expected to fetch about £100,000.

Furniture, art and clocks specialist Mark Yuan-Richards said before the sale: "This is a remarkably fine piece of furniture with a long and important provenance.

"It is over a century since the table last appeared on the market. It is certain to appeal to collectors of Rafaelli's work across the globe."

Also among the lots was a 19th-century Italian parade shield, which was expected to fetch between £800 and £1,200, but sold for £60,000, and a pair of gold fireplace ornaments, estimated at £8,000 to £12,000, which sold for £62,500.

Exbury House was bought by Lionel de Rothschild in 1919 and the surrounding gardens, next to the Beaulieu River, have been open to the public since 1950.

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