Country House Sale features carved penal cross, hunting dog artwork, and Dales paintings

Penal Crosses are small, devotional artefacts made in Ireland from the early 18th century to the mid 19th century, during a period of suppression of Catholicism by a Protestant Parliament through Penal Laws that restricted employment, landownership, education and freedom of worship for the Catholic population.

Devout Catholics continued to practice their faith, and Penal Crosses are thought to be pilgrim tokens from pilgrimages to Lough Derg in County Donegal, a religious site associated with St Patrick.

While Penal Crosses vary, they are all carved from one piece of wood: the crucifixes tend to have short cross bars and the figure of Christ in high relief, often elongated and stylised. Covering the rest of the cross are inscriptions and symbols relating to the Passion of Christ.

There is often a cockerel, referencing a story from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus that recounted the return home of Judas following his betrayal, when, fearful that Christ would rise from the dead and punish him, he was intent on killing himself.

At home he found his wife cooking a cockerel. She told him there was as much chance of Christ rising from the dead as the chicken coming back to life, at which point the cockerel rose up and crowed.

The cross is dated 1762, and inscribed on the front with 'INRI', a scourge, a ladder, a cockerel and a cooking pot, and on the reverse with 'IHS', nails and scourges.

The sale will include hunting themed lots from the Collection of the Late Captain Edward Cazenove. Devoted hunter and art collector Captain Edward ‘Teddy’ Cazenove was born on 11 June 1923. He was brought up at Cottesbrooke, Northamptonshire, and attended Eton and Oxford. After graduating, he served in the Army throughout WW2, and afterwards settled in Pytchley, Northamptonshire, to hunt. He became Master of hunts in England, Scotland and Ireland, and died aged 77 in 2000. One highlight of the collection is ‘Southwold Deemster’, portrait of a standing hound by George Plaice (1854-1925) (est: £300-500).

A private collection of 15 works by Wensleydale artist Fred Lawson (1888-1968) will be on offer. Fred Lawson was born in Leeds where he attended art school. In 1910, he first visited Wensleydale with fellow artist George Graham. He returned to settle in Castle Bolton, painting each day, exhibiting, and teaching art. For 58 years his fascination with Wensleydale never waned. Highlights of the collection include Leyburn Fair (est: £400-600) and "Scarth Nick House, Redmire with the Peacocks Builders" (est: £250-400).

A further collection of works by William Miller Frazer will also be offered. Scottish artist William Miller Frazer (1864-1961) is known for his impressionistic and atmospheric landscapes depicting his native Scotland, as well as further afield. He was the longest consecutive exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Academy. Eight works by the artist are on offer in the sale, including A Bend in the River, Perthshire (estimate: £250-400).