VISCOUNT Gage of Firle Place has given an extraordinary insight into the playful nature of members of the artistic Bloomsbury Group.

As his oil paintings are about to go on sale at the new Firle Place Antiques Fair next month, the Sussex aristocrat has revealed that members of the group loved playing pranks.

He grew up in Firle Place, the 15th century stately home that is part of the Firle Estate.

iT has been the country seat of Gage family for 500 years.

He has told how, one day, members of the Bloomsbury Group, which included Virginia Woolf, arrived at the house, announcing themselves as the illegitimate off-spring of the sixth Viscount.

The Viscount said: “As my grandfather was extremely churchy, this was rather unlikely. But they loved pranks and rather enjoyed the act of poking fun at him.”

Artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, the leading lights of the Bloomsbury Group, rented Charleston, a nearby farmhouse, from 1916 where Grant worked as a labourer because he was a conscientious objector during the First World War.

Charleston became a meeting place for artists, writers and intellectuals, and the young Nicholas Gage was surrounded by art and artists.

Grant even sat for Gage. “He was never rude about my paintings and was highly amusing,” said the Viscount.

It was not until 2010, when the Viscount was 81, that he launched his first art exhibition at his home.

At the Firle Place Antiques Fair, which takes place on Friday, July 1 to Sunday, July 3, he will be represented by art dealer Nicholas Bowlby, from Uckfield.

Specialist dealers from across the UK will be exhibiting fine art, furniture, silver, jewellery, ceramics, metalwork, glass, sculpture and rare collectables.

Organiser Caroline Penman says prices will range from less than £20 for small antique silver items to more than £10,000 for the finest paintings.

Among them is an oil painting Firle Beacon by the Sussex artist Frank Wootton (1911-1988), known for his aviation paintings and landscapes. It is going on sale from fine art dealers E Stacy-Marks Ltd, which is based in Selmeston and has a long association with the artist.

Adam Stacy-Marks, whose father Ronald was the son of the company’s founder Edwin Stacey-Marks, said: “My father knew Frank since he was 16 years old. He was a gifted young artist who volunteered when World War II broke out and became the official war artist for the RAF and Royal Canadian Air Force.

“After the war, his paintings received international recognition and his works hang in

major aviation museums throughout the world. He was also an extraordinary landscape and equestrian artist.”