Strauss & co - 17 March 2014, Cape Town

14 Diana Emory Chubb was born in England in 1917 and moved to the Cape when she married Den Stuttaford in 1939. They lived in Milford House, Newlands, which is now part of SACS Junior School and where they brought up their four children. Diana wholeheartedly embraced the Cape lifestyle and enjoyed entertaining visiting dignitaries and those involved with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. As her father-in-law, Richard Stuttaford, was in General Smuts’ war cabinet and her husband was posted to Egypt during World War II, she spent those years travelling between Pretoria and Cape Town and acquiring an appreciation of South African furniture and art. The family developed a close friendship with the Newton Thompson family and, through them, they met Gwelo Goodman and began acquiring his paintings. Lot 666, Helderberg, has been held by the family for well over 50 years. It depicts the mountains behind the family wine farm in Stellenbosch. Den and Diana also befriended Terence McCaw and bought works directly from his studio in Hout Bay. It was here that they purchased lots 671 and 672, which particularly appealed to them, having visited both Torcello in Italy and Ronda in southern Spain. DIANA EMORY STUTTAFORD, 1917-2013 Much of the furniture was inherited from Den’s parents, Richard and Ada Stuttaford, who lived at Lidcote, their elegant Sir Herbert Baker home in Harfield Road, Kenilworth, now the Wynberg Lawn Tennis Club, as well as from their farm, Stellenrust, in Stellenbosch, now owned by Dornier. Den died in 1978 leaving the legacy of having been largely responsible for the development of Cape Town suburb Pinelands, followed by those of Meadowridge and Edgemead. He was always concerned about housing for the less fortunate, which in the case of Pinelands were the ex-servicemen returning after the war. He was also a Director of the Cape Times for many years. The name Stuttaford is synonymous with the famous department store, Stuttafords & Co Ltd, and Den’s lifelong passion was the guiding of the business after his father handed over the reins to him during the war. He remained Chairman and Managing Director until the firm was sold in 1978. Diana remained a widow for nearly thirty years until she reconnected with her first English admirer, Raymond Burton, son of Sir Montague Burton, founder of the high street clothing chain, Top Shop, in the United Kingdom. They were married, both aged 85, and spent seven very happy years living between London and the Cape.