These large and impressive 'Foo' lions are rare examples of the statuary taste of the celebrated and fabled collector Sir Philip Sassoon and his equally cultivated cousin and heir Mrs Hannah Gubbay. Almost certainly acquired to ornament the lavish grounds of Sassoon's Trent Park in Middlesex, the lions are testament to an age of unparalleled luxury and entertaining.

Mrs David Gubbay (1885-1968) nee Hannah Ezra was the daughter of E.D.Ezra and Mozelle Sassoon and was thus a member of one of the richest and most cultivated Jewish families in Europe. Described by John Pope-Hennesey in her Times obituary as a " collector of genius".
Following the untimely death of her first cousin Sir Philip Sassoon in 1939 she became his principal beneficiary, inheriting not only his London House in Park Lane, but also Port Lympne in Kent and Trent Park, three properties on which Philip Sassoon had lavished the best that money could buy in terms of luxury appointments and furnishings both for deluxe living and to provide an appropriate canvas for the display of his art collections, all of which passed to his cousin Hannah Gubbay in 1939.

Trent Park was immediately requisitioned by the War Office for the duration of WW11 for use by the secret unit MI 19 (specifically set up to obtain information from enemy prisoners of war) who used it as a camp for captured senior German officers who were secretly recorded using concealed microphones. At the end of the War, Mrs Gubbay returned to Trent Park until 1951 when the entire estate was compulsorily purchased by Middlesex County Council in order to preserve the Green Belt. Mrs Gubbay retained the use of a cottage which she extended with two wings into a dower house to contain much of the retained Sassoon collections of Fine Arts ( which she referred to as "her treasure").

At the time, just the furniture is reputed to have been valued at more than £1m. Much of her collection was bequeathed to the V&A following her death in 1968 and subsequently Hannah Gubbay's collections were displayed at the National Trust's Clandon House in Surrey. This property and contents were sadly totally consumed by fire in 2015. Parts of the Sassoon collections survive at Houghton Hall, Norfolk via Philip Sassoon's sister Sybil, Marchioness of Cholmondeley ( 1894-1989) who married George 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley in 1913. Some French objects and pictures from the Sassoon collection at Houghton were sold at auction by Christies on 8^th December 1994.

Trent Park, which dates to the 14th Century, was part of Enfield Chase, a Royal hunting ground , leased in 1777 by George 111 to his doctor Sir Richard Jebb as a reward for saving the King's brother, the Duke of Gloucester's life in Trent in Italy, and hence that name was given to the property . The original Georgian house was replaced in 1838 with a Victorian Mansion for the banker David Bevan. It was inherited by Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon upon the death of his father Sir Edward Sassoon ( 1856-1912) who had acquired a lease on the estate from the Duchy of Lancaster in 1909. Sir Philip acquired the freehold in 1922 and set about substantial building and renovation works using architect Philip Tilden to transform the Victorian house into the neo-Georgian stately mansion that still stands today.
In short no luxurious appointment was overlooked in making Trent Park the ultimate in comfort and sophistication with many of Sir Philip's friends and celebrities including various members of the Royal Family, Charlie Chaplin , Winston Churchill and others frequent visitors. The fact that this idyllic country retreat was situated just 12 miles from central London and from 1933 was within a short walk from the end of the Piccadilly Line made it ever more convenient and extraordinary.

Enjoying the 400 ha Repton designed surrounding parkland, Philip Sassoon worked closely with celebrated garden designer Norah Lindsay to create numerous gardens and parterres and walks at Trent Park connecting the various parts of the grounds including tennis courts, an orangery, a swimming pool, an 18-hole golf Course and private aerodrome. The wide borders lying in pairs on a gentle slope with paths on either side were a particular celebrated feature, interposed with pergolas and pavilions incorporating garden statuary, including this pair of exotic carved marble Chinese dogs of Fo.

Descended from Chinese lions of antiquity, Dogs of Foo from the Ming and Qing dynasty were placed in pairs on either side of the threshold of buildings to mythologically ward off evil spirits and intruders. The male traditionally with one paw astride a geometrically divided ball representing Order opposed by the female with one paw resting on her cub, representing chaos. It is not known which of the many thresholds they guarded in the grounds at Trent Park.