Why Churchill memorabilia will never be defeated
AUGUST 2024 A inStitch Time samplers19th-century made by three orphans up for sale
Inside:
CHASING THE DRAGON MEET THE UNKNOWN WELSH IMPRESSIONIST
TUDOR ROSES DISCOVER THE JEWELLERY OF HENRY VIII’S WIVES
COLLECTING TABLEWARE BY LEADING 20TH-CENTURY ARTISTS ACTS OF SERVICE
A MISSING CLOCK BY THOMAS TOMPION, THE FATHER OF ENGLISH CLOCKMAKING, STRIKES ALL THE RIGHT NOTES AT AUCTION
ALSO INSIDE Peggy Guggenheim’s time in Hampshire • UK Sale results
Scrolling through programmes on BBC4 in search of some Scandi noir, what joy it was to come across a rerun of e Story of English Furniture hosted by Hugh Scully and Arthur Negus. Some 50 years ago, the august duo were the Ant and Dec of antiques telly, with Arthur presenting the Antiques Roadshow from 1979-1983 (after a stint on Going For A Song) and Hugh joining the show in 1981.
Forget the red and blue teams, and their frenetic attempts to make a couple of quid at auction, this was how antiques programmes used to be. And what an utter pleasure it is.
After encountering a man in a wood working in reconstructed saw pit, Hugh asks if there was any worse job in medieval times than that of a bottom sawyer. In the studio, Arthur caresses early furniture in a no-nonsense way. (“Of course everyone knows about the linen panel fold,” he sighs with his reassuring West Country burr.)
And just as surely as he ages a co er to the 1500s, the studio’s two-tone graphics and Hugh’s beige ares date the show to 1978. If you are after respite from this summer of sport, I strongly urge you to take a look.
Of course, at the magazine we also aim to educate and inform. On page 16, our version of Arthur Negus, the English furniture expert David Harvey, shares some of the secrets of restoration, putting a Regency console table and a Chippendale sofa under the microscope.
For ceramics enthusiasts, on page 18, Graham Fitzpatrick goes behind the scenes at a groundbreaking selling exhibition from 1934 which saw a number of the era’s best-known artists invited to design tableware. If you can’t a ord an artwork by Graham Sutherland, you might well be able to a ord one of his plates.
e same is true of the lithographs of the Welsh-born artist with the unlikely Gallic name of Albert de Belleroche. In his day Belleroche rubbed shoulders with Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas in Paris and was pals with John Singer Sargent. And yet his name is virturally unknown today, despite the superb quality of his art and very a ordable prints. Have a look on page 42.
Elsewhere our experts assess the market for collecting Churchillania, 150 years on from the birth of the war-time leader and, with a new exhibition centred on the wives of Henry VIII ongoing in London, Tudor jewellery is put in the spotlight. Enjoy the issue.
JOHN RYAN
Reveals why Churchillania is booming on the 150th-anniversary of the war-time leader’s birth, page 26
ROGER SAUL
The founder of the British brand Mulberry consigns treasures from his archive to auction, page 34
PAUL LISS
Puts work by the Welsh-born Belle Époque artist Albert de Belleroche in focus, page 42
Georgina
Wroe, Editor
Write to us at Antique Collecting, Riverside House, Dock Lane, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 1PE, or email magazine@accartbooks.com. Visit the website at www.antique-collecting. co.uk and follow us on X and Instagram @AntiqueMag
Shines a light on the opulent jewellery owned – and shared – by the wives of Henry VIII, page 48
Editor: Georgina Wroe, georgina. wroe@accartbooks.com
Online Editor: Richard Ginger, richard.ginger@accartbooks.com
Design: Philp Design, philpdesign.co.uk
Advertising and subscriptions: Charlotte Kettell 01394 389969, charlotte.kettell @accartbooks.com
Tuesday 24 September
Preview of Roseberys’ forthcoming auction calendar
Wednesday 25 September Silver Wednesday 25 September
Friday 25 October
3 Editor’s Welcome: Georgina Wroe introduces the August magazine which looks at legendary art collector Peggy Guggenheim’s little-known life in a Hampshire village
A quarter repeating table clock, c. 1691, by Thomas Tompion, London, Number 181. Sold for £165,500,
Antiques News: Discover all the UK has to o er with our four-page guide to what’s on, including three must-see exhibitions and a number of unmissable events
Your Letters: is month’s mailbag includes one reader’s memories of a spooky print, while another reminisces on holidays in the Lake District
Around the Houses: A round-up of some of the most noteworthy sales from the UK’s auction rooms, including a vintage water pistol and a selection of estimatebusting Victorian paintings
Waxing Lyrical: Antique furniture expert David Harvey returns to the workshop to restore some recent acquisitions such as a Regency console and an Chippendalecamelback sofa
In the Knowles: Antiques expert Eric Knowles puts a 300-year-old brooch, modelled on an unusual Roman gryllus, in the spotlight
Lots of Love: Irita Marriott turns detective to discover whether a 19th-century copy is by the hand of the prodigal artist Sir omas Lawrence
34 Saleroom Spotlight: e collection of Roger Saul, founder of the British leatherware brand Mulberry, goes under the hammer in Berkshire
51 Lots to Talk About: Abattoirs and meat markets might not sound the most beautiful decoration for silverware but they can be if commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Butchers, writes Catherine Southon
52 Puzzle Pages: Don’t let the little grey cells seize up in the long summer vacation, keep them active with the latest quiz and crossword by Peter Wade-Wright
54 Top of the Lots: ree samplers dating from a very special period of Bristol’s history go under the hammer in North Yorkshire, along with an outstanding collection of spoons in Dorset
56 Book O ers: Stuck for a poolside read this summer? Forget the i , why not try the latest i titles from our sisterpublisher, ACC Art Books?
58 Subscription O er: Give the gift that keeps on giving – a subscription to Antique Collecting magazine. You will save more than a third on the annual price and you, or a friend, receives a free gift
59 Fairs Calendar: Never miss another event with our up-to-date listings from all the country’s fairs
60 Auctions Calendar: Catch up with all the sales in your region and beyond with our comprehensive guide
66 Marc My Words: Antiques Roadshow expert Marc Allum gives his insight into the life of a valuer, auctioneer, broadcaster and writer
18 At Your Service: 90 years ago the UK’s leading artists were invited to design tableware for a groundbreaking exhibition, Graham Fitzgerald reports on the collecting possibilities it sparked
26 A Broad Churchill: Few men in history present the collecting opportunities of Winston Churchill. On the 150th anniversary of his birth, specialist John Ryan reveals all
36 Surreal Life: More associated with New York, Venice and Bilbao than Hampshire, few people know about the ve years Peggy Guggenheim spent in an English village, or the lasting in uence it had on her
42 Princely Albert: Largely unknown today, in his lifetime the Swansea-born artist Albert de Belleroche was the toast of Belle Époque Paris. Paul Liss considers the return to fame of the unsung Welsh Impressionist
48 Six Appeal: Dr Nicola Tallis puts the jewellery of the wives of Henry VIII in the spotlight
Dive into summer with a host of exhibitions and suggestions for memorable days out
Tate Britain has unveiled plans for an exhibition in 2025 marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of two pivotal and rival British artists.
JMW Turner and John Constable were born within a year of each other – Turner in 1775 and Constable in 1776. Both men used landscape art as a way to reflect the changing world around them.
Raised in the heart of Georgian London, Turner quickly became a rising star of the art world despite his humble beginnings. Meanwhile, Constable, the son of a wealthy Suffolk merchant, was equally determined to forge a career as an artist. Both men had different approaches, with Turner painting blazing sunsets, and Constable specialising in depictions of a handful of beloved places. Turner and Constable takes place from November 27 next year to April 12, 2026
Above Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Sun owers, 1888, oil on canvas, © e National Gallery, London
Left Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Sun owers, 1889, oil on canvas, © Philadelphia Museum of Art
Right e royal visitors opened the Winston Churchill Centre for Education and Learning in Normandy, image courtesy of BAE Systems
Below right A Tang dynasty (618–907) ceramic gure of a camel laden with silk, © e Trustees of the British Museum
Below JMW Turner (1775-1851) e Decline of the Carthaginian Empire, 1817, courtesy Tate
Two of Vincent van Gogh’s (1853-1890) sun ower paintings, one of which ended up in America, the other in London, are to go on show for the rst time since they left the artist’s studio in the 1880s.
e ‘Philadelphia’ Sun owers, was bought by the American artist and collector Carroll Tyson in 1935 before being acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1963. e ‘London’ Sun owers was sent to Van Gogh’s brother eo in May 1889 and stayed in the family until the National Gallery bought it in 1924. Both paintings will go on show at The National Gallery’s exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers next monthmarking the centenary of the gallery’s acquisition.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla were on hand to open two educational exhibition galleries telling the stories of those who fought on D-Day and in the Battle of Normandy.
The Winston Churchill Centre for Education and Learning, at the site of the British Normandy Memorial, will help schoolchildren understand the sacrifices made during WWII. The memorial is situated at the Normandy village of Ver-sur-Mer.
The broad influence of the Silk Road is explored at a new exhibition at the British Museum next month.
Rather than just linking Central Asia with the West, the route was made up of overlapping networks uniting communities across Asia, Africa and Europe, from Japan to Britain and Scandinavia to Madagascar.
Some 300 objects, dating from AD 500 to 1000, will be on show, including Indian garnets from the Anglo Saxon Sutton Hoo burial in Suffolk and Iranian glass unearthed in Japan.
Silk Roads September 26 to February 2025 in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery.
Two paintings by David Hockney (b. 1937) both featuring depictions of Piero della Francesca’s 15th-century masterpiece e Baptism of Christ within them go on display this month, alongside the original.
In My Parents, featuring Kenneth and Laura Hockney, the Renaissance painting can be seen re ected in a mirror on a trolley behind the sitters. In Looking at Pictures on a Screen, Hockney’s close friend Henry Geldzahler – curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – is seen peering at a folding screen featuring the same painting.
Hockney said: “I often visited the National Gallery as a student. On those early visits I remember being a ected by e Baptism of Christ.” e paintings can be seen in the gallery’s Room 46 from August 8 to October 27.
Described as “one of the nest painters Britain has produced in the last two centuries”, the work of the underrated artist Fred Appleyard continues on show at a Hampshire gallery this month, 150 years after his birth.
Rising Splendour: Fred Appleyard, From the Royal Academy to the Itchen Valley, at e Gallery in e Arc, Winchester, celebrates Appleyard’s long career: from Pre-Raphaelite beginnings at the turn of the century, to post-war British impressionism.
Born in Middlesborough, Appleyard chose to live and work in Hampshire after WWI, repeatedly painting the hills, elds and rivers of the Itchen Valley.
Far left David Hockney (b. 1937) My Parents, 1977, Tate © David Hockney
Left Piero della Francesca (c. 1415-1492)
e Baptism of Christ, c.1437–1445, © e National Gallery, London
Right Cedric Morris (1889-1982) Flowers in a Portuguese Landscape, 1968, loaned by Philip Mould & Co.
Below left David Hockney (b.1937)
Looking at Pictures on a Screen, 1977, private collection © David Hockney
to see in August
Far right Morris, LettHaines and a macaw, image courtesy of Gainsborough House
Right Arthur Lett-Haines (1894-1978) Jeunes lles aux eurs, 1935, watercolour and gouache, private collection
Below right Fred Appleyard (1874-1963)
Gift of June, 1930s, courtesy of the artist’s estate, © Hampshire Cultural Trust 2024
Bottom far right Fred Appleyard (1874-1963)
Rocky Pools (date unknown), courtesy of the artist’s estate, © Hampshire Cultural Trust 2024
Bottom right Fred Appleyard (1874-1963)
Margaret, 1903, courtesy of the artist’s estate, © Hampshire Cultural Trust 2024
An exhibition of two celebrated 20th-century artists who made Su olk their home continues at a gallery in the county this month.
Gainsborough House in Sudbury is hosting
Revealing Nature: the Art of Cedric Morris and Lett-Haines until November 3. e pair, who were partners in art and love for 60 years, founded their famous East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in 1937, which later relocated to Benton End in Hadleigh, with pupils including Lucien Freud (1922–2011) and Maggi Hambling (b. 1945).
Dating back to the late 1100s and belonging to an Arabic-speaking Jewish man living in England, a siddur (or prayer book) has gone on display in County Durham.
It is the only Arabic text known to have been written in medieval England and provides an insight into the faith of Jewish communities in England during a time of persecution.
The owner would have taken it to the synagogue, as well as using it at home.
The siddur (the word comes from the Hebrew word meaning ‘order’) is on show at the Faith Museum, in Bishop Auckland.
A Surrey opera company has paid tribute to Bamber Gascoigne (1935-2022) whose generosity halted its demise.
In 2015, Grange Park Opera took up residence in its new home, a ve-tiered, 650-seat opera house on the TV presenter’s 400-acre estate at West Horsley Place, which he had inherited from his aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe.
e Bamber Bench includes a bronze life-size casting, sculpted by Raphael Maklouf (b.1937) who is best known for his portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II used on the obverse of British coins minted between 1985 and 1997.
Grange Park Opera founder and director, Was Kani CBE, said: “We are so pleased Bamber’s presence continues to be felt in this magical place with a bench for people to sit and have a think about his astonishing legacy.”
Sam Mee who founded the Antique Ring Boutique in 2019 when he was just 23
Which antique rings are the most popular today?
There’s a big surge in interest in antique engagement rings. Younger people are fed up seeing the same old design on their friends’ ring fingers. They no longer want a modern solitaire diamond. Instead they want something more unique with a personality that matches their own...something with a history.
The other appeal is sustainability. Again, something that attracts a younger audience.
Works by contemporary artists, including Dame Zandra Rhodes, is on show at the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, London, after they were invited to breathe new life into umbrellas lost on London’s trains, tubes and buses.
e results also drew inspiration from Japanese folklore and supernatural beings, in particular the kasa-obake or umbrella monster. e exhibition can be seen until September 1.
Which eras are people drawn to?
Everyone thinks they love art deco, but most of the time customers leave with Victorian or Edwardian rings. It’s partly because rings from those era are more practical and wearable.
While I don’t stock them, secondhand and antique wedding bands are cropping up in conversation more and more lately –so this is a trend worth keeping an eye on.
Rings from ‘60s and ‘70s now qualify as vintage and are becoming more popular.
Where are your favourite antique hunting destinations?
I attend fairs in America, Paris and Italy and sometimes the UK. I don’t really go to estate sales as there are too many other people – I like to buy with a sense of calmness and time to think. America is
amazing – I’ve never seen so much jewellery as when I walk into American fairs. It’s slightly overwhelming.
Any advice for would-be collectors?
Sit in auctions but don’t buy. Handle the objects, make notes on the catalogue, observe others. Then start guessing what the pieces will go for – and keep doing this until you start to guess right about what goes for more than their estimates.
Visit www.antiqueringboutique.com for more details.
Above Art deco rings are among the most popular
A Steinway piano commissioned for the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, is on sale at Besbrode Pianos in Leeds.
e gilt-trimmed upright had been ignored – before its provenance was traced by dealer Melvin Besbrode.
Known as ‘Upright K’ it was one of seven pianos commissioned for the liner and destined for the rst-class à la carte dining room.
e Olympic was the lead ship of the White Star Line’s trio of Olympic-class liners and the largest ocean liner in the world from 1910-1913 with facilities, ttings and deck plans identical to the Titanic.
From trying your hand at shipwreck archaeology in Hampshire to joining the team at Bosworth Battle eld Heritage Centre near Leicester, there are hundreds of activities for would-be historians taking place next month.
Heritage Open Days return from September 6-15, o ering thousands of free events across the UK.
When the event launched 30 years ago it was aimed as a weekend opening of buildings not normally seen by the general public. Since then, it has become a 10-day festival, with more than 100,000 events.
For more details go to www. heritageopendays.org.uk
A portrait of Charles I’s children languishing in the corner of a National Trust property and believed to be a painting has been revealed as a rare 18th-century print.
e portrait titled ree Eldest Children of Charles I was on display beneath the staircase in Oxburgh Estate in Norfolk where it was thought to be an oil painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck.
But when the artwork was sent away for treatment at the National Trust’s Royal Oak conservation studio at Knole House in Kent, a conservator realised it was in fact a rare print by Jacob Christo Le Blon, the 18th-century painter who pioneered the three-colour printing process.
Oxburgh’s Ilana van Dort said: “Copies of this painting are known to have been popular with those sympathetic to the Jacobite cause and it would have been quite feasible that the print has spent its whole life at Oxburgh, although we lack enough evidence to prove it.”
Private tours of Queen Mary’s famous dolls’ house continue at Windsor Castle this month, celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Built between 1921 and 1924 as a
A rare chess set depicting key political gures from the miners’ strike of the mid ‘80s has gone on display at the National Coal Mining Museum for England in Overton, near Wake eld, West Yorkshire.
gift from the nation to Queen Mary following WWI, the house is a perfect 1:12 scale replica of an Edwardian-style residence, complete with electricity, working lifts and running water.
One of its highlights is the library filled with nearly 600 specially produced books, handwritten by some of the finest authors of the 1920s, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Vita Sackville-West to A. A. Milne and Aldous Huxley.
Private tours taking in the dolls’ house, with a minimum of 15 people take place every Monday, Thursday and Friday until October 31, priced £37 per adult.
Above left e private tour includes an in-depth look at the dolls’ house’s famous library
e polyester resin pieces were designed by Bill Spalding with the opposing sides made up of the leading gures in support of the striking coalmen. Arthur Scargill appears as the black king, Neil Kinnock as his queen, with knights made up of a ying pickets.
Opposing them is Margaret atcher as the white queen with Ian MacGregor, head of the National Coal Board as king, with police helmets making up the pawns.
Above e rare chess set has Margaret atcher as its queen, image courtesy of the NCMME
Last month’s magazine triggers two childhood memories one more terrifying than the other
How I enjoyed the article in last month’s magazine about the artist (and brother of Stanley) Gilbert Spencer (Brothers in Arms, June/ July issue) and his decampment to Cumbria at the outbreak of WWII.
As someone who spent all her childhood holidays in the Lake District, at a campsite near Ambleside, it struck a particular chord.
Even in the ‘70s, as delightful as they were, local residents appeared (certainly to a seven-yearold) slightly on the gru side. So I chuckled at the thought of how students from the Royal College of Art would have been welcomed.
Now, of course, the town bustles with foreign students, holiday makers and the very well o .
I know this because, like my parents before me, I also take my children to the Lake District for their annual summer holiday and have already earmarked a trip to the exhibition.
Jean Bou et, Eastbourne, by email
Our star letter receives a copy of British Designer Silver by John Andrew and Derek Styles worth £75. Write to us at Antique Collecting magazine, Riverside House, Dock Lane, Melton, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 1PE or email magazine@ accartbooks.com
Top right e Green Lady by Vladimir Tretchiko was a terrifying prospect for a youngster
Above left Gilbert Spencer (1892-1979) Protective Covering, 1941, image courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Above right Q9. A set of six copper pots expected to make £100£200 sold for £3,000 at the Le Gavroche sale in April, image courtesy of Bonhams
Below left e Lake District town of Ambleside which hosted students from the Royal College of Art in WWII
I had to do a double take when I opened last month’s magazine and saw one of the most haunting faces of my childhood staring out at me. I am referring to the the painting of e Chinese Girl (nicknamed “ e Green Lady”)by Vladimir Tretchiko (Lots to Talk About, June/ July issue).
My gran had a print of the woman above her mantlepiece and when I stayed with her I was the one who had to sleep on a put-up bed beneath her terrifying stare. I can’t say why she frightened me so much. e sternness of her face...the blueness of her face...the redness of the lips...?
It was nice to read about the background of the portrait and the artist. I still get a jolt every time I see a print, as I often do, at antiques fairs and auctions.
Craig Barker, Didsbury, by email
Q1 (c). Q2 (b). Q3 (a). He was responsible for producing the ‘Jensen’ look. Q4 (b). Q5 (d). They were very popular and stylish from about 1930. Q6 (d). Specifically imperforate blocks of commemorative stamps. Postmaster General James Farley presented them to President Roosevelt (a keen philatelist) in the mid-1930s. Q7 (c). It is a variety of diaphanous silk, lace and nets. (There is also a breed of Belgian chickens that go by the same name.) Q8 (b). They were issued from the 14th century by the dukes of Moscow bearing a wide variety of designs. Q9 (d). Lots came from Le Gavroche, the Roux brothers’ Mayfair restaurant. Q10. (a) He lied. Also, it was Underwood’s firm that first used the word ‘can’.
The anagram arm vein can be rearranged to make the name of the Roman goddess Minerva; scree rub is an anagram of the canine guardian Cerberus; I’m a pup’s chop can be rearranged to make the word hippocampus and bad nuance spells out the world abundance.
Sir John Bennett Minute repeating full hunter pocket watch believed to be a gift to Sir Winston Churchill from H. H Asquith in 1905 for “crossing the floor” in 1904.
FOR £76,000
INVITING ENTRIES FOR FUTURE SALES
+44 (0)207 431 9445 | info@dawsonsauctions.co.uk www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk
Omega Seamasters and pre-1980s Omegas in general. IWC and Jaeger LeCoultres, all styles. Looking for Reversos. American market filled and 14k pieces possibly, at the right price. Breitling Top Times, Datoras and 806 Navitimers.
Pre-1960s Rolex models, with a focus in pre-war tanks, tonneaus etc. Gold or silver/steel. Also World War I Rolex 13 lignes etc. Princes.
A golden ticket from Willy Wonka & e Chocolate Factory is a hit in London, while a rare Henry VIII apostle spoon causes a stir in Kent
The gun was made by Nicholas Noël Boutet (1761–1833) a leading French firearms innovator
£475,000 at the gun specialist’s recent sale. Decorated with gold stars and Ottoman motifs, and expected to fetch £60,000-£80,000, it was likely a gift to the Algerian ruler from the French government to smooth international relations before the French invasion of 1830. At the same sale a late 16th or early 17th-century south Indian sword, known as a for £43,750, against an estimate of £1,500-£2,000, while an 18th-century Indian hide shield, known as a dhal fetched £43,750, smashing its guide price of £1,000.
Two 19th-century or early 20th-century tea services hit the sweet spot in Shropshire when they sold well beyond their estimates. e top seller was the earliest – a Ridgway Savoy bone china set, c. 1835-1840, made up of 12 teacups, saucers and side plates. Expected to sell for £150-£200 it sold for £850.
The Persian style of the Minton’s set was possibly inspired by Christopher Dresser
Halls’ ceramics specialist, Caroline Dennard, said: “ e shape is scarce in large quantities and typically turns up as the odd individual piece or small groups. It contains the highlycommercial pedestal teacup shape combined with an attractive pink ground with nice quality oral painting.”
A Ridgway Savoy bone china set, c. 18351840, had a guide price of £150-£200 but sold for £850.
A Minton’s part co ee service, dated 1873-1874, in a Persian style possibly inspired by Christopher Dresser, expected to make £100-£150, sold for £650.
Caroline continued: “ e nal result was strongly bolstered by local private buyers in the room.”
An 18th-century hide shield, known as a dhal sold for 43 times its low estimate
Olympia Auctions, London
A “lost” watercolour by the Great Bard eld illustrator and printmaker, Edward Bawden (1903-1989) sold for £10,625 beating its guide price of £5,000-£7,000 at the auctioneer’s recent sale. At the time it was painted, Bawden was part of the artistic community of the Essex village, living in Brick House with his friend and fellow artist Eric Ravilious (1903-1942).
e title of the painting comes from the sixth line of a sonnet by William Wordsworth composed in 1833. A number of Bawden’s watercolours from the period, exhibited at London’s Zwemmer Gallery in 1933, remain unaccounted for.
Bawden’s The Universe is Infinitely wide, is one of a number of watercolours by the well-known printmaker
Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817), Horsemen in a Landscape, sold for £4,420
The “tinsel” picture depicted actors in three popular theatrical roles
A 19th-century “tinsel” picture of three theatrical actors, from the collection of the late Coronation Street actor John Savident (1938-2024) more than doubled its low estimate of £100 to sell for £280 at the Essex auction house. Tinsel pictures are etched prints purchased cheaply from a theatrical print seller which were embellished at home using foil, silk, leather or even feathers. e hobby was hugely popular in the mid-19th century. e pictures came from Savident’s large collection of theatrical-related pieces.
The iconic ticket struck gold at Bonhams’
Some 20 18th-century and Victorian pictures sold for multiple-estimate prices at the Surrey auctioneer’s recent ne art sale.
WillyWonka& e
ChocolateFactory sold for £52,000, beating its pre-sale estimate of £15,000-£20,000 at the auction house’s recent sale.
e legendary ticket had been given to the vendor in the late 1970s by a family friend who had been working in the lm industry in LA in the ‘70s.
Wonka director Mel Stuart kept tight controls on the golden tickets, meaning they rarely appear on the market, with almost all known examples having come from past cast members.
A gold, Anglo-Saxon sword pommel discovered in Billesdon, Leicestershire, by an 81-year-old lady detectorist after 60 years of searching, sold for its mid-estimate price of £16,000 at the London auction house’s recent sale.
One side of the sword pommel, which dates to the early 7th century, depicts two dragons facing each other – similar to a motif found on a shield from the famous Sutton Hoo ship burial in Rendlesham, Su olk.
e nder, who wished to remain anonymous, had been detecting for so long that when she started the hobby she told bemused onlookers she was looking for bombs. Over six decades she had
The pommel measures 4 x 1.5cm and may have been lost in a battle against a Viking
e top seller was a 1784 painting by Julius Caesar Ibbetson (17591817) which rode past its estimate of £150£250, to fetch £4,420. Dated six years earlier, omas Hearne’s (1744-1817) scene of a Glasgow church, with a low guide price of £100, achieved £2,860, while a watercolour by the Chester artist Louise J. Rayner also smashed its guide price of £200-£400 to sell for £1,950.
Thomas Hearne (17441817) The Cathedral Church of Glasgow, 1778, sold for £2,860
Louise J. Rayner’s (18321924) watercolour, titled Bishop Lloyd’s House, Watergate Street, Chester, was a hit
A late 17th-century clock by the ‘father of English clockmaking’, missing for more than 30 years, sold for more than three times its low estimate fetching £165,000 on July 3.
e clock, a quarter repeating eightday movement by the legendary English clockmaker omas Tompion (1639–1713), disappeared from a Wiltshire home three centuries after it was made.
In 2022 Bonhams came across what they thought was the same clock in the collection of the late Dutch connoisseur Cornelis Paulus van Pauwvliet.
But doubts arose when the newlyfound clock lacked the Tompion’s original workshop number of 181. But after careful research Bonhams director of clocks, James Stratton, concurred it was indeed the Tompion, with the number having been removed.
The Tompion clock, missing for three decades, sold for £165,000 in London
In modern China a sycee remains a symbol of wealth and prosperity
A boat-shaped Chinese silver sycee, or ingot, dated to the Guangxu period (1871-1908) sold for more than 10 times its low estimate of £200 at the London auctioneer’s recent silver sale when it hammered for £2,362.
Sycee, which translates in Cantonese as ‘ ne silk’, after they took over from the material as a form of currency, was used as the standard form of payment for larger transactions for a 1,000 years.
Primarily cast by merchants in a variety of shapes, most are often stamped with the assayers’ name or business. e shapes and weights varied, but they were usually boat or shoe-shaped, and sometimes rectangular.
At the same sale a seven-bar toast rack with an ingenious metal burner by Asprey & Co., dated 1913, expected to make £100-£200, sold for £590.
A rare Henry VIII apostle spoon, with a maker’s mark of a heart within a heart, and dated 1532, beat its guide price of £1,500-£2,000 to sell for £10,600 at the Kent auction house’s recent sale.
e silver and parcel gilt, with St. James the Greater cast on the nial, may be the work of the famous London silversmith Robert Amadas whose clients included Henry VIII and his
A vintage water pistol, dating to the mid ‘60s, shot past its estimate of £20-£40 at the North Yorkshire auction house when it sold to £500.
An auction house spokeswoman said: “Although it was expected to achieve higher than the estimate even we were surprised by the end result!”
e lot attracted a number of bids on the book before the auction even started, with bidding for the vintage Stingray gun made by Fairylite opening at £400.
e pistol, still in its original packaging with intact header card, was highly sought after due to its rarity and condition.
Gerry Anderson and Stingray items remain popular, with original-condition items di cult to nd.
A pair of “Heineken” Nike trainers, bought for £150 in 2003, sold for £1,400 at Adam Partridge Auctioneer’s London saleroom’s online sneaker and streetwear sale.
e trainers are an example of SB Dunk low pros which were launched in 2003 as a range of shoes aimed at skaters, rather than the high-tops worn by basketball players. e Heineken uses the colours of the Dutch beer producer with the added element of an embroidered star in the back of the upper.
e most expensive Nike Dunk SB lows are the limited-edition Paris, with only about 150 pairs known to exist. Featuring artwork by Bernard Bu et, the French expressionist, pairs can sell for £200,000.
A
Breathing new life into centuriesold furniture is one of the joys of life, writes antiques specialist David Harvey
Ihave often written about how a little tender, loving care can make a big di erence to the way antique furniture looks and, during the past couple of days, I have had time to put these words into practice. When this furniture was made, it was built to last. is is true in both the materials and construction. But it was also meant to be cleaned and serviced from time to time. e art of restoring is to remove wear and tear of a piece and clean it without removing the vital signs of age.
I recently acquired the superb quality pair of 19th-century salver stands (above) stamped with the Gillows maker’s mark. ey would have been made for important households to display large silver salvers on wide sideboards or serving tables and, as such, re ected the quality of the surroundings.
I spent a little time yesterday removing some of the accretion from one of them – the other will receive my treatment. I did seize the opportunity to photograph the pair together, the one on the right shows how they should look. I am often asked about my methods of restoration, however I am generally reluctant to advise unless I am standing in front of the piece in question.
Several preparations are available and I would always advise any would-be restorer to follow the instructions exactly and be very cautious. Alternatively seek professional assistance.
Another example of careful conservation can be seen in this Regency rosewood and gilt console table, c. 1815, which takes its inspiration from the designs of omas Hope (1769-1831).
Hope was an innovative designer who, with his fondness for motifs from ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, not to mention French design of the mid-18th century, helped de ne what we understand as the Regency style.
Above David’s elbow grease has brought this 19th-century salver stand back to life
Top right e di erence some TLC can add to a Regency rosewood and gilt console table is obvious
Above right One of omas Hope’s favourite motifs was a lion’s paw to add Regency exuberance
Right e settee was no doubt bounced on by generations of children
Dedicated and loving care saw the tables restored to their full exuberance, showing how they were intended to look. Again, both a before and after shot illustrates the di erence a little committed conservation can make.
Look at the majesty of the restored lion’s paw, which in Regency times was the natural accent for extravagant furniture. Hope, in particular, wholeheartedly embraced the lion’s paw. Inspired by his Grand Tour travels, he terminated everything from vases to cabinets with one.
Some 20 years ago I bought a settee from a colleague which was in rather poor condition. e Chippendaleperiod frame, dating from the 1760s, was ne but it had been poorly upholstered using springs which hadn’t been invented in the 18th century. e poor situation was compounded by a covering in a leather-type material which had su ered badly over the years.
Likely the settee had been consigned to the cellar of a grand house and it looked as though generations of children had used it to test their jumping abilities.
Once the upholstery had been removed, we were able to examine the frame. ere were a few loose joints which needed knocking apart, cleaning old glue, re-glueing and clamping to tighten.
Once this had been achieved, the mahogany legs and stretchers were washed back, with centuries of dirt being removed. One of the most di cult decisions is in choosing the right material. If it isn’t right, it can prove a costly mistake. Luckily, we have several companies in the UK which produce coverings sympathetic to both the period and style of pieces such as this settee.
Above David sent away for the right period material to reupholster the settee
These two drawers are from a William and Mary Period walnut kneehole desk which I bought some time ago.
Over the past 330 years it has languished in rooms full of the vapours of life, including cigarette smoke and open fires.
I ordered the material which was sent directly to my upholsterer and waited anxiously to see the results. e day came, and the van arrived. Lo and behold, we saw a veritable masterpiece which was met with a sharp intake of breath all round.
I am often asked about gilt-tooled leather writing surfaces and whether or not they should be replaced when they become worn or scu ed. Research has shown that it was common throughout the Georgian period to replace such surfaces at regular intervals.
is was, of course, a period long before telephones, i-Pads and computers, so communications were either by the written word or word of mouth. Hence, well-used writing surfaces became worn, scu ed and ink stained. If a desk or secretaire has an original writing surface I would suggest trying to conserve it, rather than replace it. Sometimes dealers nd an example which retains its original surface in an almost untouched condition. is was certainly the case with a baize-lined Gillows secretaire cabinet I recently acquired (below).
Right David’s magic has breathed new life into drawers three centuries old
Below left e material of David’s baize-lined Gillows’ secretaire cabinet was untouched
Below A plate from omas Chippendale’s Director showing designs for sofas
Below right A Chippendale triple camelback sofa awaiting David’s touch
‘With the judicious application of cleaners and elbow grease, the grain, figure, feather banding and gilding on the original handles all become apparent once again. It is a curiously satisfying feeling to bring a piece back to life, something you can see in both the before and after shots’
It is 19 years since I last had in my possession a Chippendale triple camelback sofa. So imagine my joy when I returned from a few days away this week to nd I had just acquired another example.
e main design feature of the camelback sofa, named after omas Chippendale, is its higher backrest in the middle, with the curves contrasting with its, generally straight, Marlborough legs.
Chippendale’s 1754 The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director, features several designs for sofas. In it he describes: e Sizes di er greatly; but commonly they are from six to nine, or ten feet long; the Depth of the Seat, from Front to Back, from two Feet, three Inches, to three Feet; and the Height of the Seat one Foot, two Inches, with Casters. e Scrolls are eighteen or nineteenth Inches high. Part of the Carving may be left out, if required.
ere are minor di erences, but the dimensions of the example below are within ½ inch identical.
Due to the expense of upholstery, sofas were available only to the very wealthy and were made in small numbers during the 18th century.
Once again, the sofa has been unsympathetically re-upholstered over the past 150 years. but I know exactly how it will look when I nally put it on show.
Watch this space.
David Harvey is the owner of Witney-based WR Harvey & Co. (Antiques) Ltd. For more details go to the website
With the judicious application of cleaners and elbow grease the grain, figure, feather banding and gilding on the original handles all become apparent once again. It is a curiously satisfying feeling to bring it back to life, the results of which you can see in the before and after shots below. www.wrharvey.com
While artwork by Laura Knight, Duncan Grant and Ben Nicholson may be beyond the collecting budgets of most of us – their ceramics are eminently a ordable, thanks to a pioneering inter-war initiative, writes Graham Fitzpatrick
In October 1934, Sir William Rothenstein, the principle of the Royal College of Art, opened an exhibition featuring some of the leading British artists of the day, including Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Nash and Laura Knight – all of whose names are still well known today. But none of their paintings were on display. What was going on?
Rothenstein delivered his opening remarks, not at the Royal Academy or the Fine Art Society but in the china galleries of Harrods, the London department store.
For an explanation, we need to go back to a couple of
Above Laura Knight (1877-1970) a breakfast service in the Dove and Flood pattern made for the 1934 Harrods Modern Art for the Table exhibition. It sold for £400 in March, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
years earlier and a surprising government intervention. In response to the lack of a policy on industrial design, the Board of Trade set up a committee, chaired by Lord Gorell, to look at the relationship between art and industry. One of its aims was to encourage collaboration between the artistic community and the decorative arts. e report, which prompted the exhibition at Harrods, was published in 1932.
A project was set up to improve the quality of British ceramic and glassware design. e scheme invited leading artists of the day to submit designs in return for £10 per design, plus royalties.
It was led by omas Acland Fennemore, the art director of the Stoke-on-Trent-based potters E. Brains & Co. (which had the trading name of Foley China).
Above right An advert for the exhibition which ran from October 22 to November 10, 1934, image courtesy of Harrods Company Archive, London
Left
Sir William Rothenstein, Principle of the Royal College of Art who opened the exhibition (on the right) and Sir Woodman Burbidge, Chairman of Harrods, admiring Laura Knight’s Circus dinner set, image courtesy of Harrods Company Archive, London
Right Ernest Procter (1885-1935) a cup, saucer and side plate, made for the sale at Harrods. It sold for £50, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Other manufacturers joined in: Brains & Co. would produce the designs in bone china, with the Sta ordshire potters Wilkinsons producing them in earthenware. e Stourbridge company Stuart and Sons was responsible for providing the glassware. Our focus here will be on the pottery. Clarice Cli , who was already creating a name for herself at Wilkinsons, was appointed as overall art director of the project.
Harrods was also to play a vital part in promoting and selling the nal pieces as it was seen as the ideal location to launch the fruits of their labour in the form of an exhibition to be entitled Modern Art for the Table
Around 60 designs from 28 British artists were included. e exhibition displayed many original design drawings alongside the nal pieces. Some of the artists, such as Frank Brangwyn with Royal Doulton and Eric Ravilious with Josiah Wedgwood, had experience of tableware design. But for others ceramics were totally new. e designs were undeniably modern. ere were abstracts from Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth; geometric shapes from Graham Sutherland and Allan Walton; linear designs from Ernest Procter and Milner Gray; stylised foliage from Dod Procter and Duncan Grant and stylised animals from John Armstrong. Even the more gurative designs were stylised, such as Ernest Procter’s dancing couple with a guitarist (overleaf) and Michael Wilmer’s devil.
‘Harrods
was to play a vital part in promoting and selling the final pieces as it was seen as the ideal location to retail the fruits of their labour in an exhibition to be entitled Modern Art for the Table’
Above Dod Procter (1890-1972) tableware painted with stylised owers and stars. It sold for £170 in March, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Above right Allan Walton (1891-1948) cups and saucers with repeat ellipse and triangle design. It sold for £95 in March, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Below left Milner Gray (1899-1997) a side plate, soup bowl, stand and sugar bowl with a pink wave line pattern, stamped with a Bizarre mark. e set had an estimate of £120-£150 at the March sale, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Right John Armstrong (1893-1973) a side plate hand painted with two stylised sh. It sold for £85 in March, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
There’s no doubting both the quality of the designs in the Harrods sale and the big names of the artists involved, many of whom are as well known today as they were in the 1930s.
Coupled with the relative scarcity of the pieces – thanks to their short life span – they should be of interest to collectors. In addition, the tableware should appeal to both art collectors as well as pottery enthusiasts.
Big names, scarcity and crossover interest usually means expense. However, prices are reasonable, especially for the lesser-known names. Some 19 lots from the Harrods exhibition featured in Fieldings Auctioneers’ design sale in March. All but one had estimates of between £60 and £200. Some didn’t sell and those that did were all within estimate.
The lot with a higher estimate, of £400-£600, came from Laura Knight’s breakfast service in the Dove and Flood pattern (opposite). It did sell but at the lower end of the guide price of £400. Had it been in her Circus pattern it would probably have fetched more. C&T Auctioneers sold a tureen in 2022 for £1,250 and Premier Antiques currently have an Acrobats plate priced at £850.
So, the bigger names will fetch higher prices but their actual pictures would, of course, be priced well out of the reach of most of us.
These Harrods pieces offer an affordable opportunity to buy a quite rare example of work directly related to them. You even get a signature, albeit a facsimile, stamped on the back of each, along with, “First Edition 1934”, which links them
As for the shapes, some were new, while others were standard factory shapes already in use. Several of the designs, for example those of Eva Croft and Michael Wilmer, used the Bonjour shape, part of Clarice Cli ’s Bizarre range from Wilkinsons. Her square Biarritz shape was also used successfully by the Burslem School of Art director, Gordon Forsyth. In fact, Cli used this shape for her only contribution, a rather plain banded pattern. Her involvement was, perhaps, more focussed on the design of new shapes and the production side of the enterprise. A further marketing ploy saw Cli ’s signature and famous Bizarre mark stamped on some Wilkinson pieces.
Some of the most striking shapes were created for Laura Knight’s circus-inspired full dinner set. is was one of the highlights of the exhibition, with designs
Above Gordon Forsyth (1879–1952) Biarritz plate with a Bizarre mark. It had an estimate of £150-£200 at the March sale, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Left Allan Walton (1892-1948) Swirls, a large circular plate with a stylised foliate motif. It had an estimate of £80-£120 at the March sale, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Below Ernest Proctor (1885-1935) plate and bowl with a stylised dancing couple with a guitarist. e pair had an estimate of £80-£120 at the same sale, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
based on classic circus acts such as horses, acrobats, seals, tightrope walkers and clowns. A large lamp base, made up of a human tower of clowns topped by ve female acrobats, was a stand-out piece.
e initiative certainly ful lled the Gorell report’s recommendation of combining the best artists and manufacturers of the day – encouraging a degree of collaboration not seen before. It received wide coverage in the press and the reviews were generally favourable. e Times described it as: “Amazing in its vividness and beauty”. So the immediate response was good. However, initial success failed to translate into actual sales. As a result of the lack of understanding of industrial design by many of the artists, most of the patterns proved to be expensive to apply, making them commercially impractical. is might explain why very few of them found their way into the companies’ pattern books for future use.
ere was a question mark over the marketing, with much of the general public left largely unaware of the sale and, for those who were, many of the designs were too modern for their taste.
ere may also have been an issue over the pricing. e stated aim was to make the work accessible through reasonable pricing. e smaller services were sold for £2.50 (£225 in today’s money) and the full dinner sets for £35 (£3,000 today) - so, perhaps not reasonable enough. e popular Laura Knight Circus design, made up of 52 pieces and o ered at £35, was a success but mainly selling to the well o . Gracie Fields, the singing star, bought a 12-piece tea service and, at a later date, the Wirth family, owners of the largest touring circus in Australia,
‘The stated aim was to make the work accessible through reasonable pricing.
The smaller services were sold for £2.50 (£225 in today’s money) and the full dinner sets for £35 (£3,000 today)’
bought the full 52-piece dining set. Duncan Grant’s 21-piece Lustre set was o ered for £3, 10 shillings and 6p. In an attempt to generate more sales it was decided to tour the exhibition in stores around the country but this failed to turn things around and the project was prematurely terminated. Initially, just 12 of each set was commissioned and this was never added to.
However, in terms of forging a lasting legacy, the exhibition was more successful. By highlighting the signi cance of aesthetic as well as functional qualities of everyday goods, it had an impact on later generations of designers and manufacturers. In addition, it has something to o er today’s collectors, both in terms of the items exhibited and the lesser-known artists it draws to our attention.
Above Two plates with green pattern edge by Graham Sutherland (1903-1980), and John Armstrong (1893-1973) Chaldean pattern stylised horse side plate. ey sold for £80 at the March sale, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Below left Michael Willmer circular side plate with a stylised devil gure and a matched Conical co ee cup. ey sold for £75, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
Bottom left Milner Gray (1899-1997) side plate with spots and lines, and a loop line border, stamped with a Bizarre mark. It had an estimate of £100-£150 at the March sale, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
In the world of collecting, “completers” are people who aim to own a full set of something. Obvious examples come from the fields of coins, stamps, cards and prints but for the real obsessives, anything will do. The Harrods exhibition has some tempting targets: an example from each of the 28 artists; all the items in a particular set or, if the artist contributed more than one design, an example of each.
For readers who are this way inclined, here are the artists who haven’t had a mention so far: Freda Beardmore, Angelica Bell, Vanessa Bell, John Everett, Moira Forsyth, Ludwig Kny, Anne Riach, William P Robins, Albert Rutherston and Billie Waters (more overleaf).
You may not have heard of all of them but they were clearly skilled in their fields or would not have been approached. This makes them well worth looking into, especially if, like me, your interest is paintings, as well as pottery, of the period.
Top right e breadth of the ceramics on o er gives the collector much to get their teeth into, image Harrods
Below left Dod Procter (1890-1972) a side plate with stylised sh and seaweed design and jug. e pair sold for £60 In March, image courtesy of Fieldings Auctioneers
As most collectors know, one of the joys of the hobby is to champion the life and career of a lesser-known artist, or maker, putting them at the centre of your obsession. One such, for me, is one of the artists who took part in the Harrods’ sale, Billie Waters (1896-1965). In her day she was famed for her animal studies and worked alongside Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson in St Ives. As such, she is a delight for collectors in search of something different and reasonably affordable.
Born in Richmond, Surrey, she studied art at Heatherley’s, Chelsea Polytechnic and the Grosvenor School. During the 1920s she moved to Cornwall, studying under Ernest and Dod Procter (both of whom contributed to the Harrods exhibition) at the Newlyn School and becoming a lover of the former.
By the 1930s she was back in London but continued to spent time in Cornwall, often based in the village of Lelant, although she spent WWII in St. Ives. Her first solo exhibition was at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1933 and she exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of Women Artists throughout her career.
Her style was distinctive, using oils in such a way that they had the appearance of tempera. She achieved the effect by applying paint thinly, to avoid visible brush strokes, before waxing rather than varnishing. The overall effect was a highly finished, neo-classical look.
She produced some landscapes but was best known for her flowers and animals. In 1940, she illustrated an American book called Animals Big and Small by Ray Edwin.
Gardens,
, oil on board, it sold for £1,700, beating its estimate of £700-£1,000, image courtesy of Tennants Auctioneers
Below left e plate is marked with the artist’s name and stamped for Clarice Cli and Bizarre, image by the author
Right One of the plates Waters designed for the Harrods exhibition, image by the author
Today her paintings can be found at auction for around the £1,000 mark. The oil on board Back Gardens, Lelant, sold for £1,700 at Tennants in North Yorkshire this March. At the top end, her oil Sagittarius, sold at Christie’s for around £5,000 in 2014. Also sought after are her short-lived experiments with abstraction that followed her meeting with Ben Nicholson. Blondes Fine Art have such an example and is asking £6,000.
Despite this active and interesting career, as with many women artists at this time, she wasn’t really recognised until long after her death. Exploring her full oeuvre, including her ceramics, can provide the collector wth many varied and delightful options.
Hopes
were pinned on an unusual tri-faced Renaissance brooch when it appeared at auction, Eric Knowles gives his appraisal
You know you have something special on your hands when it has previously received a famous Antiques Roadshow “gasp”.
Such was the case when 51-year-old civil servant Helen Scaife presented an unusual heirloom to the show’s jewellery expert Geo rey Munn last year.
For Helen, whose family had owned the brooch for three generations (keeping it in a drawer), expectations were low. Not so for Geo rey, though, who quickly spotted the unusual piece as a 300-year-old example of a fantastical “gryllus’’.
When he gave it a piece tag of up to £7,000 the assembled crowd took a short intake of breath, before a round of applause. When we consigned it for Hansons’ recent sale, we gave it a guide price of £4,000-£5,000.
e carved intaglio agate brooch depicts three conjoined heads: two classical gures and a wild boar’s head. ese images are most often found on engraved intaglio gem rings, in this case a red jasper gemstone surrounded by a later gold border and pearls.
Derived from the Italian word grillo (“freak”) and the Latin gryllus (“caricature”), they were popular subjects for carved gems in Roman times. No doubt amusing to Romans, they had a serious purpose – thought to have apotropaic or prophylactic properties to protect the wearer.
e brooch had been passed down from mother to daughter for three generations and, like many of the best discoveries on the Roadshow, its owner had no idea of its worth, or indeed even what it was.
Above far right One of the faces is carved out of the boar’s chin
Above right e intaglio cameo brooch shows the faces of two bearded men and that of a wild boar
Left e brooch depicts what is known as a ‘gryllus’, all photos courtesy of Hansons/ Mark Laban
Helen said: “All the cameos we’d seen in the past, or seen on the internet, were invariably faces of women or Greek gods. Nothing we ever came across looked like our brooch, so I hoped someone would be able to tell us what it was and where it came from. I was not expecting what we found out. Which is evident from my surprise in front of the cameras.”
As every antique jewellery appraiser knows, weird, wonderful and valuable objects often languish in drawers for decades, forgotten and forlorn.
Because the items are small, they get tangled up with other baubles – valuers discover gold and diamonds with costume jewellery – and over time slip to the back of people’s minds. ey continue to languish in dusty corners until, perhaps centuries down the line, a curious soul decides to ask an expert.
e brooch is a wonderfully intricate object, complex and dainty. e cream ground highlights the dark and light intricacy of the carving. e attention to detail is incredible. It’s a miniature work of art. e agate itself measures only 20mm x 17mm and is set within a later gold and pearl-set mount dating to circa 1840s.
e choice of material used to carve the brooch adds to the interest. Agate is an ornamental stone consisting of a hard variety of chalcedony (quartz), typically banded in appearance.
As a crystal, agate symbolises strength, protection, and courage. It is often associated with emotional stability, inner calm and self-con dence.
So both the choice of decoration and the material used to make it may been interlinked. A mythical beast to scare away demons made out of a material believed to calm the wearer. I hope any future owner continues to be soothed by this curious tri-faced talisman.
As well as appearing in a number of television programmes about antiques, Eric Knowles is a consultant with the auctioneers Hansons. For more details call 01283 733988 or email service@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
‘While the two-faced man in the Roman period is usually a depiction of the god Janus, a gryllus is a grotesque figural design made up of human heads and animal parts, and often is shown with two or even three faces’
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When it comes to collecting, few men present as many enticing opportunities as Winston Churchill. On the 150th anniversary of the wartime leader’s birth, John Ryan reports
Few would dispute that Winston Churchill (18741965), one of the towering gures of history, did more than any other British leader to shape the modern world. Churchill’s legacy endures not just in the domestic and international political order. It is also a legacy of artefacts, all shedding a light on the man and his times.
In fact, Churchill presents more opportunities for the collector than any other world gure. Most leaders will publish a memoir or two: Churchill published a bookcase worth of titles. Some leaders dabble in artistic hobbies: Churchill’s paintings have sold for eight gures. All leaders cultivate a political image: Churchill is an icon, whose face featured on everything from posters to coins to busts (and the current British £5 note).
Churchill collectors are presented with an almost inexhaustible mine of material. ere are countless paths to pursue when approaching Churchilliana, with many o ering opportunities where no one else has yet trodden. ere are Churchill rarities which would bankrupt most people, many a ordable collectables and also bargains to be picked up cheaply.
Winning world wars did not pay Churchill’s bills. His tastes were expensive and he often spent money as fast as it came in. e overwhelming majority of his earnings came from his writing. Churchill was renowned for his masterly prose style, which he was able to blend with an acute analysis of world a airs. Newspapers would pay the modern equivalent of tens of thousands of pounds for a single article. He published around 30 major books and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. Even in his lifetime book collectors were seeking rst editions of Churchill’s books. e earliest dealer catalogue dedicated exclusively to Churchill was issued in 1940, and now there are rms which solely focus on Churchill.
Opposite page and below right A wartime cigarette lighter in the shape of a bust of Winston Churchill, 1941. On sale from Peter Harrington priced £2,000
Right Stereoscopic photograph of Winston Churchill, aged 25, dated 1900, for sale from Peter Harrington for £1,500
Below left From left to right: A marble-style commemorative resin bust, 1993, on o er for £500; a cigarette lighter, 1941, priced £2,000 and a Alvastone plaster cast with bronze nish,1963, on sale for £1,250
Bottom right A trio of cigars owned by Winston Churchill, 1950s. For sale from Peter Harrington priced £15,000
Churchill even has his own category of memorabilia: Churchilliana. This includes anything with Churchill’s image on, encompassing busts, jugs, coins, posters, banners, postcards, and cartoons. They range in quality from tacky to superb, and from powerful to ridiculous. Value is dictated by the rarity of the item. Anything early in his career is especially desirable. As early as 1900, Churchill’s fame as a Boer War soldier who escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp ensured his image was sold as stereoscopic photographs and on cigarette cards. WWII material is relatively common, but strong demand keeps prices high. Quirky and unexpected items command a premium – a 1941 Churchill bust which lights your cigarette is a case in point. Lighter fluid seeps into Churchill’s cigar, which can be pulled out and struck along the base to make a flame to light a cigarette or cigar.
‘Winning world wars did not pay Churchill’s bills. His tastes were expensive and he often spent money as fast as it came in. The overwhelming majority of his earnings came from his writing’
Churchill’s cigar is almost as iconic as the man himself. He made sure he was almost always smoking one whenever he was photographed and would routinely swap in fresh cigars when they were running low. Many cigars have appeared on the market, often with a story, along the lines of “my grandfather met him in a Mayfair club”. A collector should only buy a cigar with documentable provenance: the examples below were taken by a member of Churchill’s household staff, and comes with her ID card, a letter from
Churchill’s rst book was published in 1898, and his nal tome in 1958. His early books were published in small print runs – fewer than 2,000 for the rst – which make them much harder to acquire. But they get damaged easily, and collectors pay a large premium for sharp condition. His rst book, e Story of the Malakand Field Force, in particular, is prone to fading and discolouring. Churchill was correspondent for the Daily Telegraph on Sir Bindon Blood’s punitive 1897 expedition against the Afghan tribesmen of the northwest frontier. He consolidated his reports into book form on his return to
Below left e Story of the Malakand Field Force by Winston S. Churchill, 1898, sold by Peter Harrington for £8,500
Below right Marlborough by Winston S. Churchill, 1933. e only signed, limited-edition of Churchill’s major works, number 121 of 155 copies, with a rare slipcase. e book is on sale from Peter Harrington for £20,000
As Churchill’s fame built, print runs for his books got larger and larger. By the time of his WWII memoirs, the rst edition was enormous – almost 300,000 copies. ese later titles aren’t di cult to get, even appearing in charity
Bottom left A near perfect set of e Second World War by Winston S. Churchill, 1948, sold by Peter Harrington for
e price of his WWII memoirs ranges from £20 for a set without dust jackets, to £1,000 for a pristine set. e six-volume set traces the history of WWII, from the years following WWI to its end in 1945. Written from Churchill’s personal point of view and while he was still working as a politician, the books are titled: e Gathering Storm; eir Finest Hour; e Grand Alliance; e Hinge of Fate; Closing the Ring and Triumph and Tragedy.
Even in Churchill’s lifetime, his admirers were investing in leather-bound and rst-edition copies. Churchill himself cashed in on the collectors – when he published his biography of his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough, he signed 155 specially-bound copies to sell at three times the price of the regular edition. It now costs 10 times as much. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1715), Marlborough led allied forces to victory against Louis XIV with successes at Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, marking him as one of the great captains of history. e biography, some million words in total, took Churchill a decade to produce, during which he was given
Churchill was always pursued by autograph hunters. Requests were almost always turned down by his sta , but if you managed to get in the room with him, he would generally get out his pen.
A rule of thumb is that a Churchill signature is worth around a thousand pounds, but anything signed to a famous recipient, or a signi cant gure in his life, can shoot up in value.
Auction records include $123,900 for a photograph inscribed to Stalin, £69,300 for a letter to T. E. Lawrence praising Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and £44,650 for a book inscribed to Eleanor Roosevelt.
Step by Step was published in 1939 and a compilation of Churchill’s bi-weekly columns in the Evening Standard warning war was imminent and calling on Britain to prepare for con ict, a view that had led to Churchill’s exclusion from high o ce throughout the 1930s. On publication he sent a signed copy to Sir Antony Eden, one of Churchill’s few supporters at the time. Eden, who had resigned over appeasement, was the ideal recipient.
Langworth’s A Connoisseur’s Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, published in 1998. However, some books are extremely rare with the vast majority of collectors never seeing a copy of these titles, let alone owning one. e words “Mr. Brodrick’s Army” mean nothing to the general public, but to the Churchill collector is legendary as the rarest of all of Churchill’s books. It appears on the market only a couple of times a decade and takes six gures to acquire. It was published in 1903, when Churchill was a brash
Winston Churchill’s desk from his Hyde Park home. It sold this year in New York for
Mr. Brodrick’s by Winston S. Churchill, 1903, is highly desirable to the Churchill completist. It is for sale by Peter Harrington for
For anyone wanting the ultimate piece of Churchillania, you can do little better than his original desk. Churchill acquired it for his Hyde Park Gate home in London after unexpectedly losing the General Election and leaving Downing Street in 1945.
The desk was part of his private office, used in his post-war political career and while writing his WWII memoirs. After the office was repurposed as his bedroom, it stood alongside him at his death in 1965.
The 19th-century George III-style mahogany pedestal desk is restored in places, with its leather top still showing signs of use.
After Churchill’s death it was sold by Lady Churchill and changed hands many times, until it was sold in New York earlier this year, priced £350,000.
Alongside normal wear and tear, for the dedicated – and hopeful – Churchill fan, the desk retained marks resembling cigar burns. A magical sign for collectors.
‘The
words “Mr Brodrick’s Army” mean nothing to the general public, but to the Churchill collector is legendary as the rarest of all of Churchill’s books. It appears on the market only a couple of times a decade and will take six figures to acquire’
ough out of budget for all but a handful of collectors, Churchill’s original paintings, of which there are some 550, are jewels. Churchill was a keen amateur artist.
ough his works have always been a little sneered at by professionals, he showed skill and technical pro ciency.
His guide for amateur artists, Painting as a Pastime (1948), is one of the best-selling art books ever published.
It was June 1915, when Churchill, aged 40, rst picked up a paintbrush, initially as a means of diversion from the pressures of politics. Encouraged originally by Hazel Lavery, the glamourous wife of Sir John Lavery, painting proved to be one of the greatest pleasures of Churchill’s life, a passion which he was to pursue with unyielding enthusiasm until his death in 1965.
It was Lavery who taught Churchill about the Impressionists and their in uences, including the importance of light, colour and the painting of water.
In 1927, Walter Sickert came into Churchill’s life, teaching him new painting techniques, including camaïeu
camaieu, using two or three tints of a single colour.
From 1933, Sir William Nicholson stayed with Churchill at Chartwell, imparting his love of the still life.
Prices for one of Churchill’s paintings will always be in the six gures, but depending on provenance, and the subject depicted, can get much higher.
e highest auction result easily puts Churchill in the territory of Picasso or any other great artist: $11.6m for his painting of Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh.
Why so high? Because it was painted by Churchill for Franklin D. Roosevelt following the 10-day Casablanca Conference in 1943, and was later – strangely – given to Angelina Jolie by Brad Pitt.
‘Prices for one of his paintings will always be in the six figures, but depending on provenance, and the subject depicted, can get much higher. The highest auction result easily puts Churchill in the territory of Picasso or any other great artist: $11.6m’
It was the only work Churchill painted during WWII and had an estimate of £1.5-£2.5m at Christie’s sale on March 1, 2021. After being passed to Roosevelt’s son Elliott it stayed in American collections, including that of the US actress – who was given the painting by her husband Brad Pitt in 2011.
Churchill began painting scenes of Morocco after being encouraged to visit the country by Lavery. On his rst visit in 1935, he felt that the light and scenery were unrivalled and went on to create some 45 paintings of its scenery.
A more modest painting of Morocco, dating from the winter of 1935-1936, demonstrates Churchill’s preference for bright, bold colours, and for scenery rather than people. It was sold by Peter Harrington for £300,000.
John Ryan is a politics specialist at Peter Harrington with a particular interest in world leaders and their legacies. Peter Harrington’s new catalogue Winston Churchill is out now, for more details go to www.peterharrington.co.uk
Below
Churchill remains one of the most collected figures of the 20th century. Even as he comes in for ever greater criticism, his supporters rally behind him ever more closely. The last of the generation who knew him personally are disappearing.
Yet each new generation discovers him anew. His complex character is re-interpreted as the times change, and those who quickly glance at him often find many questionable decisions and quotations.
Yet overwhelmingly, those who closely study his life and times often find their respect building rather than diminishing.
Churchill shows how much can be achieved in one lifetime. But one lifetime will still never be enough to collect everything to do with Churchill.
A mystery portrait, thought to by
the
artist Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) turned heads at Irita Marriott’s recent sale
One of the many things I love about my job is researching the treasures we discover at our day-to-day valuations. It really is the work of a detective and, like all investigations, requires the input of several experts.
One such came when the team stumbled on a gem of a portrait (right) among a pile of paintings at a routine clearance. Its quality was obvious from the start, but the real clues came from the back of the painting. e verso of any work is e ectively its passport, showing where it has been during its life, with each mark revealing a little bit more about the painting’s life.
A seal mark (far right) was a great indication of its age and when we opened the painting up, we came across watermarked paper with a crest bearing eur-de-lis, crown and initials (quality paper indicates we are looking at the work of a good painter).
We then called on the expertise of the art historian Hugh Belsey an expert witness in both the BBC’s Fake or Fortune? and BBC4’s Britain’s Lost Masterpieces. What would be his appraisal?
Hugh soon identi ed the pastel as a very ne head-andshoulders copy of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ oil painting e
Calling of Samuel which was rst exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776. Multiple versions of the painting exist and, while the prime version was destroyed in a re at Belvoir Castle in 1816, another autograph version remains in the collection at Knole in Kent.
But if it was copy of Reynolds’ work, by whose hand? Enter the artistic child prodigy omas Lawrence (17691830) who was known to admire Reynolds’ work and was responsible for a number of pastel copies of famous works. Hugh added some further tantalising details. He said: “If it is by Lawrence, and that seems likely, it must date from the mid-1780s when the artist was in his teens.”
Left Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) e Calling of Samuel, 1770-1776, image public domain
Below Attributed to Sir omas Lawrence (1769-1830) e Calling of Samuel (portrait of a young boy), c. 1785, crayon on paper laid on board, after Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). It sold for £2,500 at Irita’s recent auction
Below right e red wax seal and watermarked paper suggested the work was by an artist of merit
One of Britain’s greatest portrait painters, Lawrence aged four demonstrated an aptitude for art and, aged six, was producing saleable work. In theme Lawrence, the Bristolborn son of an innkeeper from Devizes in Wiltshire, enjoyed portraying young people facing a rite of passage, confronting the hopes and fears of leaving adolescence for adulthood. Lawrence’s father, recognising his son’s artistic gifts, took him to Oxford and London on something of a promotional tour. It was in the capital that Lawrence met Sir Joshua Reynolds, who is said to have pronounced the youngster as his successor and: “ e most promising genius he had ever met with.”
Lawrence would have been just 16 when he painted e Calling of Samuel. Even after Hugh’s attribution we kept the low estimate at a come-and-get-me £200 and were delighted when it sold for £2,500.
Irita Marriott is an expert on a number of TV programmes including Antiques Road Trip, Celebrity Antiques Road Trip and Bargain Hunt. She also owns her own auction house in Derbyshire, for more details and sale dates go to www.iritamarriottauctioneers.co.uk
‘We
called on the expertise of the art historian Hugh Belsey MBE, a former curator of Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury and expert witness in both the BBC’s Fake or Fortune? and BBC4’s Britain’sLostMasterpieces. What would be his appraisal?’
including Kate Winslet’s Mulberry check boucle wool jacket, tweed waistcoats, its ski wear range and travel cases.
Saul was born in 1950 in Lottisham near Shepton Mallet and, after attending Wells Cathedral School and boarding at Kingswood in Bath, was introduced to leather when his father – a manager at Clarks – took him to work on Saturday mornings. Saul went on to win a scholarship to study business at Westminster College in London, at a time he was already selling Victorian military uniforms from a stall on Portobello Road.
After college, he became a trainee buyer for the menswear designer John Michael, instantly entranced by London’s hip fashion scene. His rst design success was a snakeskin choker with a butter y on it, which he sold to Biba the legendary London fashion brand.
Leatherware and textiles from the collection of Roger Saul, creator of the British brand Mulberry, go
With fans ranging from Kate Moss to the Princess of Wales, the Mulberry name is one of the most beloved fashion brands in British manufacturing history.
In the early 2000s, owning a Mulberry bag – known as a ‘Mulbs’ – was, for many women, the holy grail of accessories. A large part of Mulberry’s appeal, both in the UK and abroad, was its ‘homegrown’ feel, with its high-end designs made in Britain.
e company was founded in 1971 at a kitchen table by Roger Saul with £500 given to him by his mother. A family a air, his artist sister designed the Mulberry logo, inspired by a tree Saul passed everyday on his way to school.
From small seeds an empire was born. is month, some 280 items from Saul’s personal archive go under the hammer in Newbury at Dreweatts, with highlights
Above e original leather holdall designed by Saul in 1975, which became the inspiration for the Mulberry Gisele bag. It has an estimate of £300-£600 at this month’s sale
Below right A Mulberry chocolate Nile crocodile carpet bag. It has an estimate of £200-£300 at this month’s sale
Left A campaign desk designed by Roger Saul, late 20th century, with each pedestal modelled as a packing case. It is one of six made as dressing tables for the Saul’s Charlton House hotel in Shepton Mallet. It has an estimate of £300-£500
Searching for both inspiration and contacts, Saul crisscrossed the globe from Italy to Japan taking his samples with him. Soon he was selling not only to boutiques and stores like Browns, Liberty and Harrods, but also to other designers, from Jean Muir to Kenzo Yamamoto.
Production continued in Somerset and before long he employed up to 100 outworkers and sta working alongside his mother in Chilcompton, Somerset.
Saul’s rst big break came with his hunting, shooting and shing-inspired collection, designed around his rst jacket – a blouson in cotton with a leather collar made out of old army shirts. is whole look was christened ‘Le Style Anglais’ by his French customers and created meteoric sales worldwide, winning the Queen’s Award for Export in 1979, recognised as one of the most successful European brands in the USA. By the mid-70s, they’d built a name on the classic dispatch and binocular bags.
But it was when fashion and accessories met celebrity culture, with Mulberry a regular name on the fashion pages and gossip columns that the brand hit the big time.
One of the sale highlights is a Mulberry chestnut leather holdall, designed by Saul in 1975, the prototype which launched a phenomenon. In 2001, Mulberry was approached by Luella Bartley, a young fashion designer, to create a bag in her name.
After spotting the holdall in Saul’s archive she fell in love with it. e subsequent design
‘The Mulberry Bayswater landed in 2003 sealing the Mulberry name as a player in the ‘bag wars’ of the 2000s, especially when the famous tote appeared on the arm of supermodel Kate Moss’
was showcased at a New York fashion show by the model Gisele Bündchen who, on leaving the catwalk, declared: “ is is mine!” e bag was known thereafter as the Gisele and kickstarted a succession of ‘it’ bags throughout the early 2000s.
e Mulberry Bayswater landed two years later sealing the maker’s name as a player in the ‘bag wars’ of the 2000s, especially when the famous tote appeared on the arm of supermodel Kate Moss.
Princess Diana was an avowed fan of the brand (as is the current Princess of Wales). e sale includes two items from Mulberry’s collections similar to those the late princess wore – a Mulberry waxed cotton leather drover coat and a Mulberry pleated silk oral skirt.
WHAT: The personal archive of Roger Saul
Where: Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2JE
When: August 7
Viewing: Friday August 2 and then daily from August 4 to 6, and online at www.dreweatts.com
Above left A Mulberry shop in London, the store sign featuring the company’s well-known logo
Below left Five Mulberry leather belts, the selection has an estimate of £120-£180 at this month’s sale
Bottom left A Mulberry pleated oral skirt, size 12, similar to one purchased by Diana, Princess of Wales, it has an estimate of £80-£120
Below A group of six Mulberry fabric remnants, various styles and sizes, with the two largest ones measuring 223 x 150cm and 370 x 130cm.
e textiles have an estimate of £500-£700 at this month’s sale
We asked Mulberry founder Roger Saul about the collection
What are the reasons for the sale?
The time seemed right. As we head out on the next chapter of our lives we realised we had accumulated an extraordinary collage of things. They covered the last 50 years –probably the most important era in fashion’s history. We could see the trend for pre-loved and vintage is at its peak so it seemed like the ideal time.
Which are the pieces you will be most sad to say goodbye to?
My gullwing-inspired leather swivel seat which I designed (I have kept one), the original Mulberry hunting, shooting, fishing pieces, the campaign furniture and the director’s chair with Monkshood covers.
Are there any eras that influenced your designs?
Mulberry at Home (launched in 1990) had a number of design influences including Tudor, the pre-Raphaelites, Bauhaus and the Arts and Crafts Movement, as well as the architect Edwin Lutyens and the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.
Which is the Mulberry range of which you are most proud?
It would have to be the 1975-1976 hunting, shooting, fishing range which launched Le Style Anglais. It’s laid back, country casual look was highly fashionable and it sold to the best boutiques and stores all over the world. Our Mulberry at Home collection was launched to coincide with the Gulf War when people were turning away from fashion and wanted cocooning. It was well done. We jumped from one industry, fashion, to interiors without a hitch.
Other than this personal archive, do you collect anything else?
So many things, but today it is paired down to the simplest and most treasured pieces. Historic racing cars have been my passion to collect, race and restore, but now I am down to one Willys Jeep!
We also have a gypsy caravan which we are lovingly restoring and we enjoy indoor plants (sadly, the recent house move has just killed my traveller’s palm). Don’t ask what my wife Monty (a former Dior model) collects –there are too many boxes.
e Guggenheim name is synonymous with the great cities of New York, Bilbao and Venice. Less so a market town in Hampshire. However, an exhibition this summer is set to change all that
When most small regional museums look to celebrate milestone anniversaries, they are usually modest a airs based on a trawl through the archives. Not so Peters eld Museum and Art Gallery, located in the town’s former Victorian police station and magistrates’ courthouse, which was able to look to one very special former resident to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Step forward the legendary collector, Peggy Guggenheim – one of the world’s most famous art surnames with landmark collections in New York and Bilbao among others.
Unbeknown to many, the ancient market town on the West Sussex border, was Guggenheim’s homefor five yearsfrom 1934 to 1939. It was abucolic five years of cricketmatches and village fetes, butalso represented the periodwhen, recovering from the break-up ofa recent love affair, Guggenheim took her first steps asa patron of the arts.
Sohow did American-born Peggy Guggenheim, member of a wealthy family and friend ofthe avant-garde circlesof 1920s Paris, come to call an Elizabethancottage in the hamlet of Hurst, near Petersfield, home for half a decade?
Born in 1898 and raised in New York City, into aSwissGerman-Jewish family that had emigrated to the United States in the mid 19th century, Guggenheim was the second daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim who died on the Titanic in April 1912. Her father had left themining family business early on, and so Guggenheim, her mother, née Seligman, and two sisters, were not nearly as wealthy as their Guggenheim cousins, and hence, contrary to popular belief, Peggy never had unlimited funds.
In defiance of the conventions of her upbringing, in 1920 Guggenheim started work as an assistant at The Sunwise Turn, a bookshop in New York.
But in 1920 when she came into an inheritance, she decided to travel to Europe, not returning to the US for twodecades. Heading for the cultural hub of Paris, she becamereacquainted with the French-American artist and writerLaurence Vail (1891–1968)whom she had first met in the New York bookshop.
She soon found herself at theheart of Parisian bohème and American expatriate society. Many of her acquaintances of the time, such as Constantin Brancusi, Djuna Barnes, and Marcel Duchamp, were to become lifelong friends. After two children and a seven-year tumultuous marriage to Vail, Guggenheim moved to
Above Peggy Guggenheim at the Greek Pavilion, 24th Venice Biennale, arranging Alexander Calder’s Arc of Petals; 1948. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Photo Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche. Gift, Cassa di Risparmio di Venezi, 2005 © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / DACS, London
England, with her young son, Sindbad, staying with his father in Austria and her daughter, Pegeen, moving across the Channel with her mother.
For the summers of 1932 and 1933, Guggenheim had rented Hayford Hall, a mansion set within expansive gardens on the edge of Dartmoor. A coterie of literary friends joined her, including her then partner the writer John Holms who died unexpectedly, aged 37, during a minor operation to x a wrist injury after a riding accident, leaving Guggenheim devastated.
By the summer of 1934, she had relocated, this time with her current partner the writer Douglas Garman (1903-1969), renting Warblington Castle, near Langstone, in Hampshire.
Soon after, and with no other focus other than staying near Garman, Guggenheim bought Yew Tree Cottage, situated on the road between South Harting and Peters eld. It heralded the start of a period of short-lived domesticity and a nascent decision to take a role as a patron of the arts.
International collaboration
Above Guggenheim with her Ahasa Apso terriers, on the terrace of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni; Venice, 1973. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Photo Archivio
Cameraphoto Epoche, Gift, Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia, 2005
Above right Peters eld Museum and Art Gallery, Hampshire, © Peters eld Museum and Art Gallery. Photo Richard Chivers
Below left e Guggenheim name is synonymous with some of the most famous art galleries in the world including the Bilbao Guggenheim, image Shutterstock
Right Peggy Guggenheim on the roof terrace of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venice, early 1950s, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, Photo Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche, Gift, Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia, 2005
To stage the exhibition, the curator contacted the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice to arrange the loan of world-renowned pieces collected by Peggy throughout the 20th century. The roll call of paintings and sculptures included work by Henry Moore (1898-1986), Yves Tanguy (1900-1955), Max Ernst (1891-1976), Jean Arp (1886-1966) and John Tunnard (1900-1971) among others. Director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Karole P. B. Vail, said: “It is wonderful to have an exhibition exploring an unexpected and wonderful little-known chapter in Peggy Guggenheim’s eventful life before she began her life as a committed patron of the arts.”
‘While living at Yew Tree Cottage, Guggenheim began her subsequent lifetime commitment to art and artists, although, as she noted, “Little did I dream of the thousands of dollars I was about to sink into art”’
In her autobiography, Guggenheim opens the chapter on Yew Tree Cottage by describing the property as a small house with two living rooms and four bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a larder and the old yew tree, which towered over the roof.
She noted the grounds were a particular attraction, with about an acre of land belonging to the property. But while she loved the South Downs, she often felt lonely and found that the cottage could be cold and draughty.
When Garman moved in with his daughter, Debbie, Guggenheim wrote that she found herself (alongside her own daughter, Pegeen) “Once again the mother of two children.” e girls adapted to country life taking part in dance recitals and other activities. In the spring of 1935, Sindbad returned to England and, between 1936 and 1939, boarded at nearby Bedales School, soon becoming a stalwart of the local cricket team.
Above left Peggy Guggenheim at her typewriter, c.1965, Rolo Beny / © Library and Archives Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada
Below Photograph of Yew Tree Cottage from the garden, 1930s, courtesy Emily Holmes Coleman Estate
e domestic idyll was not long lived. Garman’s increased commitment to left-wing politics meant Guggenheim saw less and less of him causing her to feel increasingly isolated and unhappy.
By early 1937 the relationship was over and when he moved to London, Guggenheim stayed at Yew Tree Cottage. It was Guggenheim’s old friend, Peggy Waldman, who suggested she should put her energy into a project, rather than dwelling on Garman.
In 1937, she wrote: “Darlingest Peggy, I’m only sorry that you’re so upset and unhappy and I wish you would do some serious work – the art gallery, book agency –anything that would be engrossing yet impersonal – if you were doing something helpful for good painters or writers, or better still, a novel yourself. I think you’d be so much better o than waiting around for G. to come weekends and tear you to bits.”
Guggenheim decided to put the idea of a publishing house to one side, thinking it would be too expensive. She had spent the previous decade supporting writers and poets and no doubt fancied a new interest. And so, while living at Yew Tree Cottage, Guggenheim began her subsequent lifetime commitment to art and artists, although, as she noted, “Little did I dream of the thousands of dollars I was about to sink into art.”
She found support for this new venture from a young Surrealist painter, poet and lmmaker, Humphrey Jennings – a committee member for the International Surrealist Exhibition held at Burlington Galleries in 1936 – famously opened by Salvador Dalí delivering a lecture wearing a deep-sea diver’s suit.
When Guggenheim refused to go (complaining she had had enough of Surrealism in Paris in the 1920s) Jennings’ contacts introduced her to the key players of the emerging British avant-garde art scene.
In November 1937, Florette Guggenheim, Guggenheim’s mother, died in New York. A $450,000 bequest from her estate gave Guggenheim the nancial con dence to open a gallery.
In January 1938, aged 39, Guggenheim took out a lease on the rst oor of 30 Cork Street, London. She called it Guggenheim Jeune, and it kickstarted a career that would signi cantly in uence the course of art in the second half of the 20th-century.
e project relied greatly on the support of her friends, in particular Marcel Duchamp (1897-1968) who introduced her to other artists and taught her, as she put it, “the di erence between abstract and Surrealist art” – both styles which were, in the 1930s, the two major trends in modern art.
e project hit the ground running with 21 shows in the rst 18 months, the rst of which presented works by Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), with the second showcasing the rst solo exhibition of works by Wassily Kandinsky (1886-1944).
Rita Kernn-Larsen
e majority of artists Guggenheim showed were men, a re ection of the art world at the time. But after meeting the Danish Surrealist artist Rita Kernn-Larsen (19041998) in Paris, Guggenheim o ered her a solo exhibition in London. Kernn-Larsen was one of several women who played a notable part in the Surrealist movement in Denmark and internationally. At the opening of her exhibition in 1938, Kernn-Larsen, in Surrealist fashion, wore a hat designed by the Danish-born Aage aarup, who ran a well-known millinery in London. e hat was adorned with little bells, feathers and porridge oats, which oated down as she walked.
‘In January 1938, aged 39, Guggenheim took out a lease on the first floor of 30 Cork Street, London. She called it Guggenheim Jeune, and it kickstarted a career that would significantly influence the course of art in the second half of the 20th-century’
Among the controversial artworks in the sculpture exhibition was a piece called Tête et Coquille (Head and Shell) by the German-French sculptor, painter and poet Jean Arp (18861966), the first work Guggenheim bought for her collection. Duchamp introduced Guggenheim to Arp in 1937 when they visited his foundry – an experience which so fascinating to her that it forged Guggenheim’s lifelong appreciation of sculpture.
When Arp came to the UK to help with the exhibition he visited Guggenheim at Yew Tree Cottage. She described him as: “Very domestic about the house. He got up early and waited impatiently for me to wake up. He served me breakfast every morning and washed all the dishes. We had so much fun together.”
Above Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904-1998) Sycamore Leaf, 1939, oil on canvas. ©DACS, London 2023
Henry Moore (1898-1986) was the only British artist to feature in Guggenheim’s contemporary sculpture exhibition. It was at the Royal College of Art that Moore began to develop his understanding of sculpture as fully three-dimensional in feeling.
As with Arp, Moore showed with the Surrealists in exhibitions promoting abstract art. In the Guggenheim
By February 1939, Guggenheim was considering a new, more ambitious project and asked the art historian and editor of e Burlington Magazine, Herbert Read, to help her establish a modern art museum in London.
Read compiled a list of artists to be included and in early summer 1939, Guggenheim returned to Paris renting a at near Notre-Dame.
She actively sought out works of art, visited artists’ studios and acquired many masterpieces that would form the backbone of her collection, following her famous dictum “to buy a picture a day.”
Guggenheim remained in the city until spring 1940, continuing to buy work by Salvador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Hélion, Fernand Léger and Man Ray. However, by this point, Guggenheim’s collection included work by most of the leading modern artists of the day, many of whom the Nazis deemed degenerate. Guggenheim managed to ship her collection to a temporary location outside of Paris, and three days before the Germans entered Paris, she headed to the south of France.
In July 1941, she left France with her family and future husband the German artist Max Ernst and arrived in her hometown of New York.
Keen to return to her passion, in early 1942, she found two rooms on the top oor of a building at 30 West 57th Street which she intended as the home for a new gallery. She appointed the modernist architect Frederick Kiesler to design the space, installing artworks on curved walls and mounting paintings unframed so they appeared to oat. Named after the catalogue she had compiled, Art of is Century opened on October 20, 1942.
Above left Gisèle Freund (1908-2000) Peggy Guggenheim and Herbert Read, © RMN gestion droit d’auteur Fonds
Above Max Ernst (18911976) Zoomorphic Couple, 1933, oil on canvas, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2023
Alongside her collection, Guggenheim showcased the work of young American artists. In 1943, she gave the then relatively unknown painter Jackson Pollock his rst solo exhibition. She continued to acquire work in New York and by January 1942, her collection had nearly doubled in size from when she left Europe.
In 1947, Guggenheim felt the urge to return to Europe which she considered her spiritual home. In her memoir she wrote: “I loved Europe more than America, and when the war ended, I couldn’t wait to go back. ... On my way there, I decided Venice would be my future home. I had always loved it more than any place on earth and felt I would be happy alone there.”
She closed Art of is Century and moved to Venice. Before she could purchase a place to live, she was invited to show her entire collection at the 24th Venice Biennale in 1948. Her exhibition gave an unprecedented survey of the trends of modern art from Dadaism to Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism. Guggenheim recalled: “My exhibition had enormous publicity, and the pavilion was one of the most popular of the Biennale.”
e following year, Guggenheim acquired the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal. After some interior remodelling and with the collection nally installed, in
1951 Guggenheim began to open her home and collection to the public, free of charge, three afternoons a week from Easter to November. In 1970, she donated her palazzo and in 1976 her collection to her uncle under the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. She died in 1979, aged 81, with her ashes placed in a corner of the museum garden alongside her beloved Lhasa Apso dogs.
Peggy Guggenheim: Peters eld to Palazzo is on at Peters eld Museum and Art Gallery, 1 St Peter’s Rd, Peters eld, GU32 3HX, until October 5. For more details visit www.peters eldmuseum.co.uk
Above left Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venice, © Peggy Guggenheim Collection, photo Matteo de Fina
Above Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) Sans titre (Untitled), 1933, gouache on paper. On Loan from Hepworth Wake eld © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2023
Right Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) Untitled, July 20, 1938, pencil and feather on paper, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2023
Left Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venice, © Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, photo Andrea Sarti
Below Yves Tanguy (1900-1955), Untitled, ring, rosewood, c. 1937. e Penrose collection
Yves Tanguy
To bring the first season of the gallery to a close, in 1938 Guggenheim held an exhibition of work by the French painter Yves Tanguy (19001955). Together with André Breton and Max Ernst, Tanguy was part of an inner circle of avant-garde artists in Paris during the 1920s.
In the exhibition his Surrealist landscape painting, Untitled, 1933, was bought by Peggy Guggenheim’s sister Hazel who in 1938 gave it to the Wakefield Art Gallery, now The Hepworth Wakefield.
After the start of a love affair between Tanguy and Guggenheim, she invited him and his wife) o Yew Tree Cottage. During this period, the Frenchman made her a rosewood ng as agift. But it was his drawing with “a ttle featherin place of a tail, and eyes that oked like thechina eyes of a doll” (above) that really caughther eye.
‘Guggenheim
showcased the work of young American artists. In 1943, she gave the then relatively unknown painter Jackson Pollock his first solo exhibition. She continued to acquire work in New York and by January 1942, her collection had nearly doubled in size from when she left Europe’
In his lifetime the little-known, Swansea-born artist Albert de Belleroche rubbed shoulders with Degas, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as being a lifelong friend of John Singer Sargent. A ground-breaking exhibition and catalogue raisonné is finally putting the unsung artist on the map. Paul Liss reports
Next year will mark the centenary of the death of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) when the reputation of the portraitist will be rightly fêted around the world. Less known, however, is the work of his lifelong friend Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) with whom he shared a studio in London and Paris. While interest in the Belle Epoque has spawned numerous publications and exhibitions, the name Belleroche remains stubbornly unknown. e question is why?
Not surely for the lack of drama: his life reads like a novel. He was born to a French nobleman in Wales, he
Oppostie page Albert de Belleroche (18641944) Portrait of Julie Visseaux, c. 1908, signed, oil on canvas, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Above right John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) portrait of Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944)
Left Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) Les deux petits pots (Les pots jaunes), c.1889, signed, oil on canvas, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Right Albert de Belleroche (18641944) portrait of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), c. 1882, Colorado Springs Fine Art Centre, public domain
Below right Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) Haarlem, c.1883, oil on canvas, signed, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Having met at the atelier of Carolus Duran, Belleroche and Sargent went on to become lifelong friends providing mutual support for their artistic endeavours.
Correspondence shows that Sargent acted as Belleroche’s mentor, offering him advice about his paintings and exhibiting his work. Belleroche was the subject of numerous portraits in both pencil and oil by Sargent.
Eight years his senior, Sargent affectionately referred to Belleroche as ‘baby Milbank’, referring to the name of Belleroche’s stepfather. The closeness of the pair’s friendship has caused speculation as to whether their relationship was purely professional.
Art historian Dorothy Moss, states: “Sargent’s portraits of Belleroche, in their sensuality and intensity of emotion, push the boundaries of what was considered appropriate interaction between men at this period.”
The pair made many painting trips together, including an 1883 trip to Haarlem in the company of their artist friend Paul Helleu (1859-1927). In 1905, Belleroche declined joining Sargent on another painting trip to the Middle East, later writing “I realized that a journey like this with Sargent might influence me in my art and affect my individual expression.”
‘Impatient to embark on his own career Belleroche, still in his early 20s, set up a studio in Montmartre, opposite the Moulin Rouge, he took lodgings in the nearby Place de Clichy, close to the art shop M.Hennequin, the favourite paint supplier of Manet and the Impressionists’
became a leading light of the artistic milieu of turn-ofthe-century Paris. He shared a model with Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, the celebrated Lili Grenier, a woman who went on to become his mistress and muse for 17 years. Belleroche’s works, especially his lithographs were widely lauded – even Edgar Degas owned three.
And yet Belleroche ended his days in relative obscurity in Southwell near Nottingham renting a makeshift studio over an electrician’s shop.
But nally his light is set to shine with an exhibition at Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth, featuring more than 60 of his oils and lithographs, many of which have not been on public display. Added to which George Kenney’s catalogue raisonné, Albert de Belleroche, Master of Belle Epoque Lithography, was published in May – an essential guide for art lovers and collectors alike.
But fame due to Bellroche’s undoubtedly illustrious associations alone would be a poor reason to argue for a reassessment of his work. So was he simply a minor gure – a petit maître – of the Belle Epoque, who justi ably has sunk to relative obscurity, or is his talent worthy of a more detailed examination?
Belleroche was born in Swansea; his father, Edward Charles, Marquis de Belleroche, came from a noble French Huguenot family, and his mother, Alice Sidonie Van den Berg, daughter of Desire Baruch, was Belgian. e marquis died in 1867, when Albert was three and in 1871, Alice married Harry Vane Milbank, a well-known adventurer, huntsman, gambler and duellist said to have been responsible for the deaths of four men.
In the same year the family (the young Albert took his stepfather’s name until he was 30) moved to Paris with the new Madame Milbank, described as possessing ‘almost legendary beauty’, lavishly entertaining at their home in the Avenue Montaigne.
In 1882, Milbank commissioned Carolus Duran, a noted portraitist, to paint his wife. While the work was in progress, Alice gave a dinner party for Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales. At the gathering Duran saw sketches by the young Belleroche and suggested he should study at his studio.
However, Belleroche wasn’t happy with the formal teaching provided by Duran, and only stayed a short time. Although he didn’t remain a student of Duran’s for long, he did adopt his master’s technique of painting with a fully loaded brush. Belleroche was also inspired by the Dutch Old Masters, whose works he studied in museums, appreciating the power of light and dark chiaroscuro that would later drive his innovations in lithography. It was at Carolus’s atelier Belleroche met the rising star of the studio, the American John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), whose early salon successes were the talk of Paris.
Impatient to embark on his own career, Belleroche – still in his early 20s – set up a studio in Montmartre, opposite the Moulin Rouge. He took lodgings in the nearby Place de Clichy, close to the art shop M.Hennequin, the favourite paint supplier of Manet and the Impressionists.
Above Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944)
Place de Clichy, c.1890, oil on canvas, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Above right Albert Belleroche (1864-1944)
Maissa: Danseuse du ventre - Moulin Rouge, Sold for £4,080 at Bonhams in 2018
Left Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) lithograph of the artist’s mother Mrs Harry Vane Milbank, c.1900, image public domain
He soon became a habitué of the next-door Café Guerbois, and Café de la Rochefoucauld where many of the renowned artists of Montmartre gathered. Among his entourage were the celebrated literary gures of the day, including Oscar Wilde, Emile Zola (whose funeral cortège he painted in 1902) and George Moore.
Famous models of the period posed for Belleroche, among them Victorine Meurent, notorious as the model of Eduard Manet’s Olympia. Belleroche also portrayed many of the performers of Montmartre, including Maissa from the Moulin Rouge, famous for her Danse du Ventre
He also painted other personalities of the quartier including the dancer Cha-U-Kao and the femme fatale and spy Mata Hari (of whom he produced at least four lithographs and several pencil studies).
It was in Toulouse-Lautrec’s studio which neighboured
his own that, in 1888, Belleroche met Lili Grenier, the wife of Toulouse-Lautrec’s close friend and fellow artist Albert (René) Grenier. Lili, known for her striking red hair and milky complexion, lived a bohemian lifestyle, with ToulouseLautrec even living with the couple for a time at their home at 19, bis Rue de Fontaine.
Born Amélie Sans on October 9, 1863, Lili was a favourite model of the young artists under Fernand Cormon at his atelier school in Rue Coustance.
While she became famous as a model for ToulouseLautrec, Grenier soon began to pose almost exclusively for Belleroche after he spent two years trying to entice her away from the Frenchman to model only for him. Grenier went on to become Bellroche’s mistress and muse for 17 years and the subject of many oils and drawings, as well as 67 lithographs between 1900 and 1908.
In his choice of subject matter and technique, Belleroche’s landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes reveal the strong in uence of the Impressionists. He enjoyed painting en plein air, and employed a wet-on-wet painting technique favoured by contemporaries such as Sargent, Monet and Renoir.
e daring compositional devices, as well as the striking economy and sparseness of his views, may betray a debt to advances in contemporary photography, in addition to a knowledge of Ukiyo-e printmaking, which was enjoying widespread popularity and distribution throughout Paris, due to the endeavours of Tadamasa Hayashi.
Among Belleroche’s favourite sketching grounds were Châteaudun, 130 km from Paris, where he rented La Vieille Chapelle as a studio spacious enough to house his huge Imprimerie Le Mercier printing press, and Villierssur-Morin, where his frequent model and mistress Lili Grenier had a farmhouse. Other scenes include ports, such as Dover and Boulogne, and railway stations, among them Charing Cross, and other staging posts that were essential to his frequent crossing of the Channel.
Women in different states of reverie or melancholy, bearing titles such as Indolence, Réflections and Résistance are central to Belleroche’s art. Art critic Roger Marx, writes: “His works may be benevolent, dignified, gentle, gracious, and even humorous or portly. But always they are full of charm and contrast.” In addition to female subjects, artists were a o the subject of Belleroche’s art, including lithographic portraits of Léandre (1803-1881) and Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956); aswell as pencil portraits of the American artist and printmaker Mary Cassat (1844-1926).
Above right Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944)
Portrait of Mary Cassatt, 1880s, pencil, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Above far left Francois Gauzi (1862-1933) photograph of Lili Grenier
Above left Albert de Belleroche in his studio next to a painting of Lili Grenier, Musée d’Orsay, public domain
Above Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), Madame Lili Grenier,1888, oil on canvas. Private Collection. e Japanese kimono she is wearing was, in fact, one of Belleroche’s studio props, public domain
Below right Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944)
e Artist’s Garden with stone owerpot, Hampstead, 1900, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
‘So why is Belleroche little-known today? Several reasons can be suggested. He was financially independent, and so had no need to sell or exhibit his works. Commissioned portraits never appealed to Belleroche’
In 1910, Belleroche, then aged 45, married Julie Emilie Visseaux at All Saints Church, St John’s Wood. She was 28 and the daughter of his friend, the sculptor Jules Edouard Visseaux. In 1912, the couple moved to a 13th-century house at Rustington in Sussex where they raised three children. His son William (1913-1969) became active in the art world as a painter and a writer.
Belleroche continued to make lithographs, although after WWI he worked only intermittently and in seclusion. At the outbreak of WWII and the bombing of the coast, Belleroche moved his family north to Southwell in Nottingham where he lived a simple life in retirement. In a small rented room over an electrician’s shop, he kept a makeshift studio where he stored the work of his Montmartre days. Belleroche died in 1944 at the age of 80
Despite his lack of recognition today, during his lifetime Belleroche’s achievements did not go unnoticed. He exhibited at the Salon from 1887, with the Société des Artistes Français from 1891; in England at the Royal Academy and, from 1894, the more progressive New English Art Club.
In 1903, alongside Henri Matisse, André Derain and Georges Roualt, he became a founding member of the Société du Salon d’Automne, and had a room dedicated to his work in 1904. is honour was only ever accorded to ve other artists: Cézanne, Puvis de Chavannes, Redon, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. On the occasion of this solo exhibition, the French state acquired his oil Printemps –painted in his studio opposite the Moulin Rouge – which entered the Luxembourg Museum and afterwards hung in the British Section of the Musée du Jeu de Paume (now in Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Orange).
In the 1930s, Belleroche presented large collections of his lithographs to the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels; and the British Museum in London. A smaller collection was given to the National Museum of Wales, Cardi .
So why is Belleroche little-known today? Several reasons can be suggested. He was nancially independent, and so had no need to sell or exhibit his works. Commissioned portraits never appealed to Belleroche. Given his social position and his special talent in portraiture, he could have enjoyed the fame of Helleu and Sargent, whose commissions were growing in demand.
However, Belleroche believed that when an artist accepted a portrait on commission he risked becoming a slave to the sitter. And because money was not an issue for him, Belleroche could choose his subjects, selecting only personalities who appealed to him.
On leaving Paris in 1910 he was increasingly out of the public eye, and he never sought the limelight. In 1924, at the age of 60, Belleroche appears to have largely retired from producing lithographs. Only 12 lithographs are known to have been produced after 1924, most of them of his daughter Alice.
Above Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) Landscape Study, oil on canvas, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Right Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944)
A Woman Standing in a Doorway, signed and dated ‘90’ estimated at £1,500-£2,000, it sold for £30,000 in March 2018, image courtesy of Sworders
While his lithographs frequently appear at auction, less common are his paintings and drawings, attracting great interest from collectors when they do so. In 2018, his oil on canvas, A Woman Standing in a Doorway, estimated at £1,500-£2,000, sold for £30,000 at the Essex auction house Sworders.
In the same year a striking oil painting of a black male sitter, dating from his time in Montmartre piqued the interest of several bidders when it went under the hammer in East Sussex.
Catalogued simply as a ‘half-length portrait of a nude black man’, the 2ft 6in x 20in (76 x 51cm) oil of the silhouetted gure sailed above the £400£600 guide to £7,000 at Gorringe’s in Lewes.
While the sitter is unknown, Gorringe’s auctioneer Cli ord Lansbury said he was identi ed after the sale by one bidder as a dancer from the moulin rouge – possibly Feral Benga, a Senegalese entertainer of the era.
e picture came to the auction house with a collection of mostly unstretched canvases formerly owned by the painter’s son, William de Belleroche (1913-1969), and consigned from the estate of his lover, the late Gordon ‘Andy’ Anderson. Once part of a much larger collection of art from the Belleroche family, the 40-lot group sold for a total of just under £35,000.
Paul Liss is the founder of Liss Llewellyn, Fine Art Dealers which partners the exhibition A Painter in Paris: Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) continuing at Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth until September 22. On August 19 George Kenney will host an online talk on Belleroche as a master of lithography. His book Albert de Belleroche - Master of Belle Epoque Lithography, A Catalogue Raisonné is published by Liss Llewellyn priced £150.
‘Arm
yourself with a copy of George
Kenney’s
catalogue raisonné, to acquaint yourself with his work. The catalogue is organised by subject and year and we learn the rarity of each edition’
From collectors’ points of view Belleroche’s work seems easy enough to acquire. Between 1900 and the mid 1920s he produced nearly a thousand lithographs, examples of which regularly appear on the secondary market or on ebay for just a few hundred pounds. Arm yourself with a copy of George Kenney’s catalogue raisonné, to acquaint yourself with his work.
The catalogue is organised by subject and year and we also learn the rarity of each edition. Belleroche typically produced each lithograph in an edition of between 10 and 20 signed but unnumbered impressions. Variations in paper and ink add to the uniqueness or rarity of each print.
Above right Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944)
Gildys, Grand portrait, 1906, lithograph on laid paper, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Above Catalogued as a ‘half-length portrait of a nude black man’, the painting by Albert de Belleroche (1864-1944) sold for £7,000
Below right Albert de Belleroche (18641944) La Femme Arabe, 1905, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
Rare and highly desirable lithographs include Gildys, Grand portrait, of the Gildys Leiffer for which Belleroche won a gold medal in the Amieus exhibition and was produced in an addition of 15. Equally rare, La Femme Arabe, dating from 1905, was one of three Belleroche lithographs Degas is known to have owned. In his studio logbook Belleroche noted Degas insisted the print showed the model’s pubic hair, which Belleroche agreed to.
Stumbling across a copy of La Femme Arabe would be a coup for any collector as it was produced in an addition of only 10 impressions. Conversely, and this is where knowledge makes all the difference, some Belleroche lithographs are very common indeed. Between 1903 and1908, 35,000 impressions were printed from Belleroche’s original lithographic stones, for use in magazines. A good example is Mélancholie, 1907, of which 700 copies were published in The Neolith
It is also worth noting that in commerciallyprinted impressions the signature is in the plate, rather than in the margins where Belleroche signed in pencil the lithographs he printed himself. Kenney’s catalogue also notes Belleroche’s three most frequently portrayed models are Lili Grenier (the subject of 67 lithographs), his wife (the subject of 60 lithographs), and his mother of whom he produced a dozen lithographs.
e jewellery of Henry VIII’s wives is showcased at a new exhibition this month. While the queens all shared his bed they also shared the Tudor king’s gemstone gifts
Opulence was all around Henry VIII’s queens – seen in their surroundings, the objects they used and, most notably, in the gems that adorned them. Jewels were the ultimate signi er of wealth and a tangible indicator of the queens’ high status and, most importantly, that of their husband. When it came to being recorded for posterity, as these portraits show, it is not surprising the best jewellery was chosen to impress. As we observe the likenesses almost 500 years after they were painted, that is precisely what they continue to do.
Exquisite they may be, but the portraits also show many pieces were owned by multiple wives. e high value of
jewels ensured that the practice of passing them from one queen to another was common, and thus many of Henry’s wives inherited items that had formerly been used by their predecessors.
Among the 175 opulent items listed in the jewel inventory of Catherine Howard, one is the pendant worn by Katherine Parr in the National Portrait Gallery’s fulllength and bust-length portrait of her.
e Buccleuch miniature (overleaf), which probably depicts Catherine Howard shows a similar diamond and ruby pendant to one owned by Jane Seymour, and which almost certainly appeared in the jewel inventory of Katherine Parr.
Sadly, neither of these splendid objects, or any other jewels owned by Henry VIII’s queens, survive, although a comparable example of such a pendant containing a hessonite garnet, a peridot and a sapphire can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Katherine Parr owned no fewer than 24 pieces that had once been part of Catherine Howard’s collection, including “a Chain containing xix pieces of goldsmiths work round enamelled black and xviij Clusters of pearl set in gold that is to say v pearls in every Cluster” and an elaborate “Ship of gold sailing containing one fair ruby in two fishes’ mouths / and xxix diamonds great and small”.
Both women were expected to recycle and reuse the jewels that were given to them when they married, but as the chain and the ship pendant were extremely valuable, this was no hardship.
ere were, though, instances when Catherine Howard was given brand new pieces, for notes in her inventory show that she was given various items of jewellery by her husband.
At New Year 1541, for example, among the assortment of jewels Catherine received was a square (a band of jewels outlining the neckline of a dress) made up of diamonds, rubies and pearls.
Tau cross e inventories of both Katherines reflect the genres of jewels their predecessors had too, and include brooches, girdles and habillements (jewelled trimmings).
ere is also other visual evidence that provides further links between the wives. Miniatures of Katherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr show all three queens wearing a Tau cross, and, given the similarities, it is feasible that they owned the same one, perhaps altered to suit their own needs.
In early Christianity, the tau cross, resembling the Greek letter tau (Τ) was used as a symbol of the cruci xion of Jesus Christ. It predates the more familiar Latin cross (†) and was used by early Christians.
Likewise, the same miniature depicts Katherine of Aragon wearing an IHS brooch as a symbol of her Catholic faith. e letters IHS are derived from the rst three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek, ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Iēsous). In the Greek alphabet, these letters are iota (Ι), eta (Η), and sigma (Σ).
Although not identical, the brooch resembles that shown in Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Jane Seymour, a queen also recognised for her adherence to Catholicism. A similar example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, albeit of a later date, provides a visual clue as to the appearance of such a jewel.
As much as there is ample evidence of the wives owning the same jewels, the likelihood is that they would all have commissioned new pieces too. e popularity of initial jewels at Henry VIII’s court is evident in Hans Holbein the Younger’s drawings.
Among them is a design for a pendant featuring the letters ‘HA’ which was almost certainly made with the combination of Henry and Anne in mind. It is unclear, however, if any of Holbein’s designs transpired into a nished product, although Anne is known to have owned several of these personal pieces.
In line with contemporary trends, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr and Jane Seymour eached owned initial jewellery, with Catherine Howard owning two examples of a jewelled letter ‘H’.
e lettering in the cipher ‘HISA’ has been interpreted
Left Katherine of Aragon (c. 1520) by an unknown artist, © National Portrait Gallery, London. By permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church Commissioners: on loan to the NPG
Right Anne Boleyn (based on a work of c.1533-1536) by an unknown English artist, © National Portrait Gallery
‘Miniatures
Anne Boleyn used jewellery to cultivate the image of a fiercely independent woman at the cutting edge of fashion
This image of Anne Boleyn has etched its way into popular memory. Five centuries after it was painted, it remains a source of fascination – and that fascination is largely the product of her jewels, most specifically the gold “B” pendant hanging from her neck.
Anne acquired a reputation for great style and sophistication among her contemporaries, so it’s tempting to imagine that the trend for wearing jewels bearing initials originated with her. This was, however, a fashion that had begun long before, spreading through Europe during the late 14th century.
Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands, was extremely fond of initial jewels. Given that Anne had spent a small amount of time at Margaret’s cosmopolitan court in Mechelen in her youth, it is feasible that she was influenced by the trend there.
Anne was fascinated by fashion, so it is unsurprising that she set and expressed the latest trends through her choice of jewellery. She was certainly enthusiastic about initial pieces, for in addition to her “B” pendant she owned an “AB” and an “A”, which her daughter, Elizabeth, can be seen wearing in a portrait. Anne also had a ring which displayed her motto: “The most happy.”
of Katherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr show all three wearing a Tau cross and, given the similarities, it is feasible they owned the same one, perhaps altered to suit their own needs’
Above left Anne of Cleves (c. 1860-1862) by Edgar Degas after Hans Holbein the Younger. Photo © Christie’s Images/ Bridgeman Images, private collection
The Tudor dynasty started when Henry Tudor (Henry VII) seized the throne in 1485, heralding a tumultuous time. Jewellery design mirrored the rapid changes in society and became more ornate and elaborate as engraving, goldwork and enamelling techniques improved. Many of the skills came to England from Europe where the Renaissance was ongoing. It was also a time when wealthy patrons were willing and able to spend money on the most extraordinary pieces.
as signifying ‘Henri immutable serviteur Anne’ (Henry, Anne’s unchanging servant).
Documentary evidence for the commissioning of jewels showed Anne of Cleves spent a fortune on gems purchased from numerous goldsmiths. Such pieces re ect Anne’s royal status, showing her in a more majestic light than previously perceived. Katherine Parr also took advantage of her ability to order items that enhanced her grandeur. As both a patron of the arts and one who was exceedingly fond of gems, it is no surprise that she was eager to put her own stamp on her jewellery collection. For example, the splendid crown brooch embedded with diamonds that appears in two of her portraits was almost certainly made according to her own commission. Another notable and costly example is the cameo – a rare and extremely valuable jewel – featuring the images of the king and queen engraved in stone.
Taken from the essay e Queens’ Jewels by Dr Nicola Tallis, part of the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Six Lives: e Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens at the
Above Probably Catherine Howard (c. 1540) by Hans Holbein the Younger, © e Buccleuch Chattels Trust
Top right A Tudor red spinel ring, English, c. 16th century, £21,000, on sale from the London jeweller Berganza, www.berganza.com
Above right Tudor table cut diamond ring, c. 1485-1603, price on application, on sale from the London jeweller Berganza, www.berganza.com
Below Anne of Cleves (1539) Hans Holbein the Younger, © Victoria and Albert Museum
For the nobility, jewellery was layered and embossed onto every piece of clothing from sleeves to dresses. European royal courts vied to outdo each other with the most extravagant jewels.
Women often layered necklaces, wearing a carcanet (a wide choker-style necklace) and a longer second necklace which was made of gold and often set with gemstones. The third ropelike necklace was then pinned to the bodice and shoulders forming a loop, often made of pearls. Rings were exceedingly popular and it is thought that Henry VIII had a collection of more than 700. Jewellery was an easy way for the wealthy to distinguish themselves, with spectacular pieces worn as a display of political strength and identification.
Gemstones such as diamonds, spinels, amethysts, sapphires and rubies in gold closedback settings are often seen in Tudor jewellery. Diamonds were often table-cut, the simplest method of faceting a diamond, consisting of removing the top and bottom points of the octahedron.
Gentleman of rank would wear wide gold chains engraved and enamelled, forming medallions which were often set to centre with large gemstones. Chains often had a pendant hung from them which symbolised rank such as the Collar of Essex worn by Sir Thomas Moore which denoted his position as Lord Chancellor of England.
Most Tudor jewellery has not survived to the modern day, however some jewels do remain. Paul Daughters, chairman of the London antique jewellery specialist Berganza.
Who knew depictions of an abattoir and cattle pens could be quite so beautiful? Catherine Southon reports on silverware from the Worshipful Company of Butchers
We are all familiar with ornate silverware boasting graceful scrolls and owing foliage. But how about depictions of a butcher’s shop and meat market? Such was the bovine inspiration behind a remarkable collection which recently came our way, consigned by the Worshipful Company of Butchers – itself a rather remarkable institution.
London liveries, which number some 120, date back more than a millennium. ey started out as a sort of early trade union for artisans who wanted to protect their interests and membership was essential to carve out a career in any chosen eld. Of the ‘great twelve’ companies at the top come the mercers, followed by the grocers, drapers and shmongers. Ranked 24, is the Worshipful Company of Butchers, which traces its roots all the way back to 975AD.
Steeped in tradition, over the years the companies amassed a number of treasures. Silverware in particular was commissioned and presented to the company by past, or current, liverymen. In the case of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, many pieces featured the company arms, granted in 1540, depicting a winged bull representing St Luke, the patron saint of butchers. e accompanying Latin motto translates as ou hast put all things under the feet, all Sheep and Oxen.
Above right Grant Macdonald, the frieze on a pair of Elizabeth II silver and parcel gilt pepper mills, London, 1989. ey have an estimate of £1,000-£2,000 at next month’s sale
Left C J Vander, an Elizabeth II silver rose bowl centrepiece, with three cast bulls, chased with the arms of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, London, 1993. It has an estimate of £15,000-£20,000 at the same sale
Below right Grant Macdonald, an Elizabeth II parcel-gilt silver rose bowl, 1985. It has an estimate of £8,000£12,000 at the same sale
In 1981 the company’s HQ at Butchers’Hall was burgled andmuch of itssilver stolen. To replenish the depleted stock, members were encouraged to presenta new piece of silver.To maintain a consistency ofstyle, it was suggested they commission the leading silversmith Grant Macdonald. More recently, a refurbishment ofthe hall saw much of the new silver go into storage, sparking the decision to consign some of itto auction.
Next month, some 15 bespoke designswill go under the hammer at our saleroom. One of the highlightsis a parcel-gilt silver presentation rose bowl designed by C.J. Vander Ltd. and presented to the company by two liverymen in memory of their father.
e central base is anked by three realistically cast bulls and chased with the livery arms. e lid is cleverly pierced with holes reminiscent of bulls’ horns.
Silver and silver-gilt pepper mills, designed in the 1980s by Macdonald, are another highlight. Each has a textured upper section, with a chased-gilt frieze depicting various aspects of the meat trade, such as Smith eld’s market, a butcher’s shop and even an abattoir.
Just as lovely is a parcel-gilt rose bowl inset with a gilt pierced cage underneath a charming sheep nial. Let’s hope the ‘steaks’ are high when these beautiful treasures go under the hammer next month.
Silverware from the Worshipful Company of Butchers is part of Catherine Southon Auctioneer’s larger sale on September 11.
‘With
much of its silver put in storage, only to be used at the finest livery events at Butchers’ Hall, the company recently made the decision to sell a number of pieces all of which are bespoke and beautifully handcrafted by some of today’s most notable master silversmiths’
ink
you know ne art and antiques? Pit your wits against the super noggin
of our resident quiz editor Peter Wade-Wright
Q1 William Moorcroft is known for his oral designs while working for Macintyre’s pottery in Sta ordshire. What were they known as? (a) Bloom ware, (b) Botanic ware, (c) Florian ware, (d) Herbarium ware.
Q2 A settle refers to piece of furniture between a chair and a settee. Country-made settles sometimes had a storage space built into the back. What was it, loosely, known as? (a) treasure-cabinet (b) baconcupboard, (c) grandma’s-closet, (d) sheep-locker.
Q3 Georg Jensen (1866-1935) was a Danish designer. What was his profession? (a) silversmith, (b) toymaker, (c) potter, (d) furniture designer.
Q4 A book belonging to someone particularly identi ed with it is called (a) a club edition, (b) association copy, (c) union tome, (d) comrade book.
Q5 e French-named designs Grand Libellule, Tête de Paon and Victoire refer to what? (a) bonbonnière pot lids, (b) Belle Époque furniture designs, (c) phrenological ceramic-models (d) glass carmascots.
Q6 Farley’s Follies were (a) theatre posters, (b) cigarette card series, (c) advertising fans, (d) stamps?
Q7 Malines are one of the oldest types of (a) combs, (b) perfume bottles, (c) fabrics, (d) photographs?
Q8 What is a denga? (a) An Aboriginal nose- ute, (b) Russian coin, (c) Norwegian chamber-pot, (d) Central American dog-basket.
Q9 Earlier this year (April 2024) Christie’s auction
Send your answers to Crossword, Antique Collecting magazine, Riverside House, Dock Lane, Melton Woodbridge, Su olk, IP12 1PE. Photocopies are also acceptable, or email your answers to magazine@ accartbooks.com. e rst three opened by August 14 will win a copy of Jackson’s Hallmarks, Pocket Edition: English, Scottish, Irish Silver & Gold Marks From 1300 to the Present Day, worth £6.95.
Q2 What are some types of
Anagram 1 What is the name of this
The letters in the highlighted squares could be rearranged to make the word gate-leg table. The three winners, who will each receive a copy of the book, are Bob Newgate, the Wirral, by email; Hugo Cole, by email and Mrs Betty Back, Cambridgeshire.
house held two sales of related lots which fetched, in total, just under £2.3m. What was being auctioned? (a) classic cars, (b) royalty-owned jewellery, (c) very rare rst-edition books, (d) restaurant ‘treasures’.
Q10 Packaging is a popular collecting genre. e Englishman William Underwood (1787–1864) introduced canning to America in 1817. If you owned one of his rst canned lobster, or salmon, containers what would the labelling say? (a) ‘Made in England’, (b) ‘ e Taste of America’, (c) ‘Foreign delights’, (d) ‘A ordable luxury’.
Finally, here are four classical iconography references in anagram form: arm vein, scree rub, I’m a pup’s chop and bad nuance.
Rearrange them, in order, to form:
(a) A goddess (one of the 12 Olympian deities), often seen carrying a spear, shield and armour.
(b) e many-headed dog guardian of the underworld.
(c) A mythical sea creature with the fore-parts of a horse and the rear of a sh.
(d) What a cornucopia, or sheaf of corn, is said to represent.
4 Double-reed woodwind instrument developed from the shawm. (4)
6 A five-point geometrical pattern common on dice and for fruittree planting as it maximises light to all. (8)
7 Southern Italian city and province on the Adriatic. A good place to see traditional architectural trulli. (3)
10 ______ front. Description of a piece of furniture with facing panels in different vertical planes. (6)
12 Eric _____ (1923-2012) English TV, radio and film actor, director and writer, perhaps best known for his comedic abilities. (5)
15 Filled with reverential respect and wonder…common among enraptured collectors. (4)
16 A prefix meaning ‘before’…or shall we up the stakes? (4)
18 An amassed treasure…often refers to coins. (5)
21 Fine wool with what knitters call a ‘halo’. (6)
23 _____ Wars. The franchise which spawned some highlycollectable entertainment merchandise. (4)
24 Welsh island, home to the Oriel Môn museum. (8)
25 Non-metric unit of length usual for traditional printing papers: a crown measures 20 x 15 of them. (4)
1 British comic-title for girl readership (1958-2001). (5)
2 Distinctive style of Japanese animation. (5)
3 ____ waiter. Term coined in the 18th century for a stand with tiers of trays. (4)
4 Type of lake that everyone who has studied geography knows well. The term is now used to describe furniture with two, forward-facing swellings. (5)
5 Tracey ____ (b. 1963). English artist known for her autobiographical and confessional work. (4)
8 Kipling character from The Jungle Book. Leader of the wolf pack. (5)
9 Visible spectrum colour of longest wavelength. (3)
11 Action done on impulse without careful consideration such as a mad bid at auction. Perhaps leaving you with an itch? (4)
13 Kenyan cloth, and an AA Milne character who was a friend of Winnie-the-Pooh. (5)
14 Person of (supernatural?) insight with visions of the future. (4)
16 Small, but not insignificant, insect and the name given to the 1952 chair designed by Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971). (3)
17 The compiled first five books of the Hebrew Bible. (5)
19 Above-ground bay-window in the main wall of a building. (5)
20 Maurice ____ (1875-1937). French composer, perhaps best known for Boléro (1928). (5)
21 White Italian wine. (4)
22 Greek mythological ship that was used in the search for the Golden Fleece. (4)
Finally, rearrange the letters in the highlighted squares to form the name of the semi-precious stones (pl.) and Charles III’s description of awful architecture.
ree 19th-century samplers are up for sale in North Yorkshire, while a WWII photographic archive goes under the hammer in Shrewsbury
A large enamel Tube sign for the station Trafalgar Square has an estimate of £1,000-£2,000 at Ewbank’s sale in Woking on August 30. Measuring 117 x 162.5cm, it comes from the estate of Tim Beddows – the founder and former managing director of Network Distributing. Trafalgar Square is considered one of the most iconic London Underground signs for collectors and interior designers.
The roundel first appeared on London Underground station platforms in 1908. The bar and circle, as it became known, comprised a solid red enamel disc and horizontal blue bar.
A large collection of silver spoons, some dating from the 1650s, is one of the highlights of the Charterhouse’s sale in Sherborne, Dorset on August 1.
The 50-lot collection, with estimates ranging from £50 to £1,000, comes from an estate in Devon and includes seal top, commemorative, mote, berry, caddy and picture back spoons.
Most of the flatware is English, with some coming from Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, America, France, Africa, China and even Japan.
Auctioneer, Richard Bromell, said: “It is an incredible collection of hundreds of spoons which has been amassed over several decades from auctions, antiques fairs, silver dealers and, in all probability, junk shops, too.”
A 1989 bronze medal by the American sculptor Leonda Finke (1922-2017) has an estimate of £100£150 at Fellows’ sale on August 29 in Birmingham. The medal commemorates Virginia Woolf’s 1922 essay A Room of One’s Own and featured on the cover of a British Museum exhibition. Another medal by the artist, medallist and sculptor Jane McAdam Freud (1958-2022), daughter of Lucian Freud, has an estimate of £100-£150 at the same sale.
Some 1,500 WWII press photographs have an estimate of £4,000 at Halls Auctioneers in Shropshire on August 21. Consigned by a Shropshire vendor, the archive depicts all three branches of the British military, including recruitment and Home Front mobilisation, as well as reflecting daily life during the war.
Some snaps show gas mask distribution in Fulham, a peace demonstration in Trafalgar Square and recruits signing up for the Auxiliary Fire Service.
The archive also includes around 48 black-and-white photographs by Topical, Wide World and other press agencies.
Above right A snap of a submarine cookhouse is part of the archive
Previously unseen illustrations by the 20th-century artist Gilbert Spencer (1892-1979) have an estimate of £700 to £1,000 at The Cotswold Auction Company’s sale in Cheltenham on August 13. As detailed in last month’s magazine, Gilbert was the younger brother of Sir Stanley Spencer, as well known as his artistic sibling in his lifetime.
The illustrations – for a series of unpublished children’s stories written in the 1940s – were the result of a lifelong friendship between Gilbert and aspiring writer Marjorie Freeman. The work never found a publisher and Marjorie’s family kept Gilbert’s work after his death.
Right Flower Stories were illustrated by Gilbert Spencer and written by Marjorie Freeman under the pseudonym Michal Taunt
Samplers dating from an extraordinary period in Bristol’s history go under the hammer at Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire this month.
All were made by girls at Ashley Down House, a ground-breaking institution founded by a German-born preacher whose life’s work was to house orphans in humane conditions, rather than workhouses.
George Müller was born in Kroppenstadt in Prussia in 1805 and endured his own struggles. After his mother died when he was 14, Müller drifted into a life of drinking and gambling. He was released from a debtor’s jail by his father on the condition he attended university to become a Lutheran priest.
After moving to England, he became a pastor in Devon and started to forge plans to care for disadvantaged youngsters. His model of funding was unusual: he never asked for donations, instead preferring to put his faith in the power of prayer.
It worked and money flooded in. It is estimated that he had received nearly £1.5m in donations (approximately £80m in today’s money) by the time he died in 1898.
He opened the first premises on Ashley Down in 1849, housing 300 children and, by 1870, his fifth orphanage, was home to 450. He was also determined to give his charges an education well beyond what was expected at the time, ensuring both boys and girls had an apprenticeship, a trade or a good household position to go to.
Sewing was a vital skill, with the Bristol and District Teachers’ Association’s creation of a needlework scheme. Samplers were produced as examples of pupils’ abilities, to show employers.
Each followed a model sampler of red cotton on linen, working the alphabet in different fonts at the top and personalising the bottom with motifs of their own. Of the three samplers on sale, one is dated 1884 and is the work of A. F. Broton, another is signed Emily, while the third has the initials EB
Each is a delightful insight into Victorian life, combining both the era’s hardship and philanthropy.
1 A 19th-century Bristol ophanage sampler worked by A. F. Broton, dated 1884, in ne red cross-stitch with di ering style and size alphabet fonts and numbers. Decorative motifs include a Bible, crowns, cruci x, oral and fruit motifs. It measures 25 x 35cm and is mounted in modern frame taking it to 35 x 35cm. It has an estimate of £1,500-£2,500 at this month’s sale. 2 A line drawing of the third Müller orphan house, 1860, from e Bristol Orphan Houses by W. Elfe Tayler, image public domain, not in this month’s sale 3 A 19th-century Bristol orphanage sampler worked by Emily, in cross-stitch in pale blue and cream silk threads, with the alphabet made up of ve di ering fonts and seven further rows of oral and geometric designs. Other motifs include vases of owers, crown, duck, anchor and corner designs. It is initialled to the right side AH RG HS. It measures 20 x 25cm and is mounted in a modern frame taking it to 28 x 33cm. It has an estimate of £1,000-£1,500 at the same sale. 4 A 19th-century Bristol orphanage sampler worked in red cross-stitch with upper and lower case fonts, intialled EB. It measures 12.5 x 17.5cm and is mounted in a later frame taking it to 19 x 22cm. It has an estimate of £300-£500 at the same sale. 5 Girls at one of the Müller homes, image courtesy of Visit Bristol/ public domain, not in this month’s sale
MARIA VICTORIA DOUKA
ISBN 9781788842563
RRP £30.00
OFFER PRICE £19.50
Discover the hidden highlights of London and take a stroll around old Corfu this summer by lea ng through the latest titles from our sister publisher ACC Art Books
DON’T BE A TOURIST IN LONDON - THE MESSY NESSY CHIC GUIDE
VANESSA GRALL
ISBN 9781916430945
RRP £30.00
OFFER PRICE £19.50
Immaculately illustrated, Old Corfu opens the rusty gate on an island experience like no other. By highlighting the flaking paint on garage doors, pavements split by the heat, or olive trees stooped by fruit, each page is infused with the same unspoilt appeal as the island itself.
150 RESTAURANTS YOU NEED TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE
AMÉLIE VINCENT
ISBN 9789401495707
RRP £30.00
OFFER PRICE £19.50
From Paris (Plaza Athénée, Septime) and Mexico City (Quintonil, Lorea) to Tokyo (Den, Florilège, Sushi Saito), Amélie Vincent, also known as The Foodalist, selects 150 must-visit restaurants around the world in her latest book. Updated second edition which includes 30 new restaurants.
Don’t be a Tourist in London offers an escape route from the typical tourist itinerary to the British capital, unlocking a vault of thoughtfullycurated itineraries, local secrets, insider advice and little-known urban anecdotes.
DAVID BATES & XAVIER BARRAL I ALTET
ISBN 9782386110092
RRP £29.95
OFFER PRICE £19.47
The Bayeux Tapestry is impressive in its original richness and, almost a thousand years after it was made, amazingly well preserved. Entirely needle-embroidered in coloured woollen threads, it recounts the conquest of the Kingdom of England by Duke William of Normandy. This illustrated survey, with accompanying detailed commentaries, tells its miraculous story.
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS
ISBN 9781915815088
RRP £17.95
OFFER PRICE £11.67
A charming celebration of the most seductive and passionate of dances, captured by the artist David Remfry. The author’s skill in portraying dancers’ movement in spontaneous watercolour is shown to particularly good effect in this pocket-sized sketch book – ideal for tango aficionados.
BY ALFIE BOWEN, INTRO BY CHRIS PACKHAM
ISBN 9781788842624
RRP £35.00
OFFER PRICE £22.75
Photographer and wildlife activist, Alfie Bowen presents his two-year-long project photographing Britain’s wild horses through the eyes of someone living with autism spectrum disorder. A fascinating insight into an alternative way of looking at the world.
Email uksales@accartbooks.com, or call 01394 389950.
Postage to UK addresses is £7, call for overseas rates. Offer subject to change without notice.
Because this list is compiled in advance, alterations or cancellations to the fairs listed can occur and it is not possible to notify readers of the changes. We strongly advise anyone wishing to attend a fair especially if they have to travel any distance, to telephone the organiser to confirm the details given.
LONDON:
Inc. Greater London
Sunbury Antiques
01932 230946 www.sunburyantiques.com
Kempton Antiques Market, Kempton Park Race Course, Staines Road East, Sunbury-onThames, Middlesex TW16 5AQ, Aug 13, 27
Wimbledon Antiques Market, Prince Georges Playing Fields, Bushey Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8TE, Aug 18
SOUTH EAST & EAST ANGLIA: including Beds, Cambs, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex.
A Blackdog Event Ltd www.ablackdogevent.com
Dark Horse Brocante, Fakenham Race Course, Fakenham, NR21 7NA, Aug 4
Grand Brocante, Woolverstone Hall, IP9 1AZ, Ipswich, Aug 18
Arun Fairs
07563 589725
Rustington Antiques & Collectables Fair, The Woodland Centre, Woodlands Avenue, Rustington, West Sussex, BN16 3HB, Aug 4
CL Fairs
07501 782821
Norfolk Collectors Fair At The Parish Hall, Church Street, Cromer, Norfolk, NR27 9HH, Aug 3
Dedham Antiques Fair
Dedham Assembly Rooms, Dedham, High Street, Suffolk, CO7 6HJ, Aug 4
Graham Turner Antiques Fairs
01379 897266
Long Melford Village, Memorial Hall, Chemists Lane, Long Melford, CO10 9LQ, Aug 7
Kent Card Club
01773 550915
Crofton Hall, Crofton Road, london, BR6 8PR, Aug1
Love Fairs
01293690777
Detling Antiques, Vintage and Collectors Fair, Kent County Showground, Detling, Maidstone, England, ME14 3JF, Aug 31
The Majestic Hare Fairs
07355 722585
Castle Community Rooms, Church Street, Framlingham, Suffolk, IP13 9BQ, Aug 3
SOUTH WEST
including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire.
Antique Fairs Cornwall
07887 753 956
www.antiquefairscornwall.co.uk
Lostwithiel Antiques & Collectors Fair, Community Centre, Plyber Christ Way, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0HA, Aug 11
Pensilva Liskeard Antique and Collectors Fair, PL14 5NF, Aug 25
Arun Fairs
07563 589725
Emsworth Antiques and Collectors Fair, Emsworth Community Centre, North Street, Emsworth, Hampshire, PO10 7DD, Aug 11
Cameo Fairs
07790 126967
www.cameofairs.co.uk
Corfe Castle Antiques Fair Village Hall, East Street, Corfe Castle, Dorset, BH20 5EE Aug 4
Sga Fairs
07759 380299
Browsers Antique & Collectors Fair. Pangbourne Village Hall Pangbourne, Berkshire, RG8 7AN, Aug 24
EAST MIDLANDS
including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland.
Arthur Swallow Fairs
01298 274493
asfairs.com
Antiques & Home Show, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, LN2 2NA, Aug 7
Astra Antiques Centre
01427 668312
Astra Antiques Fair, Astra Antiques Centre, Gibson Road, Old RAF Hemswell, Hemswell Cliff, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, DN21 5TL, Aug 7
IACF
01636 702326
www.iacf.co.uk
Newark International Antiques & Collectors Fair, Newark & Nottinghamshire Showground, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 2NY, Aug 8-9
WEST MIDLANDS
including Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire
B2B Fairs
07774 147197/ www.b2bevents.info
Malvern Flea & Collectors Fair
Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire WR13 6NW, Aug 26
Coin and Medal Fair Ltd 01694 731781
www.coinfairs.co.uk
Midland Coin Fair
National Motorcycle Museum, Bickenhill, Birmingham, B92 0EJ, Aug 11
Elephant Promotions 07947 271947
Antiques collectors Market Staffordshire, Penkridge market, Gas house, Pinfold lane, Staffordshire, ST19 5AP, Aug 1
Freckleton Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair
07935 966 574
Freckleton Memorial Village Hall, 17 School Lane, Freckleton, Lancashire, PR4 1PJ, Aug 10
V&A Fairs
01244 659887
www.vandafairs.com
Nantwich Civic Hall Antique and Collectors Fair, Civic Hall Nantwich, Beam Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, England, CW5 5DG, Aug 26
Nantwich Town Square Antiques Market, Aug 3
Betws-y-Coed Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair 01492 518597
St Marys Church Hall, Betws-yCoed, North Wales, Conwy, LL24 0AA, Aug 1
Rafael Fairs
07907 856504
Classic car show & Collectors Fair Chepstow Racecourse Chepstow, Monmouthshire NP16 6BE, Aug 18
Glasgow Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair 07960 198409
Bellahouston Leisure Centre, 31 Bellahouston Drive, Glasgow, G52 1HH, Aug 18
Kelso Antique Fleamarket Fair 07760 660556
BUAS Showground, Springwood Park, Kelso, Scottish Borders, Scotland, TD5 8LS, Aug 10
Antiques Fairs Ireland 00353 85 862 9007
including Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Yorkshire.
Cooper Events 01278 784912
www.cooperevents.com
The Cotswolds, Decorative Antiques Fair, Westonbirt School Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8QG, Aug 16, 17, 18
Dun Laoghaire Antiques & Collectors Fair, Royal Marine Hotel, Marine Road,Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, Aug 4
Prestige Antiques Fairs 07754 390722
Antiques@the Ramble
The Ramble Inn
Ballymena Antrim, Main Carriage Way, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, BT41 2JT, Aug 26
On holiday this month – why not take in a local antiques fair while you are away?
A 19th-century corozo nut carved as an openmouthed face, with handblown glass eyes, goes on sale at the Cotswolds Decorative Antiques and Art Fair at Westonbirt School, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire, from August 16-18.
Offered by Andy Maule Antiques, owner Andy Maule, said: “Corozo is derived from the nut of the Tagua Palm which grows in the equatorial rainforests of central America.”
The fair hosts more than 40 specialist dealers showcasing everything from the most traditional antique pieces to more modern decorative furniture, textiles and accessories.
Fair organiser, Sue Ede, said: “This is where people come to furnish their homes, mixing and matching antique with contemporary pieces.”
Above e antique carved nut is on sale with a price tag of £300
A second Dark Horse Brocante at Fakenham racecourse in north Norfolk takes to the tracks this month attracting more than 50 top dealers from Suffolk and Norfolk.
With the location being just half an hour from the popular resort of Wells-next-the-Sea, on the north Norfolk coast, the August 4 event is likely to attract well-heeled tourists.
Organiser Black Dog Events, based in Halesworth, was founded in 2014 with one local brocante and has since expanded to 10 events booked for 2024 across Suffolk and Norfolk.
The Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells in Kent is the historic backdrop to this month’s two-day Antiques and Vintage Fair.
From August 10-12, the famous Georgian colonnade will host more than 40 selected dealers, alongside its boutique shops and cafés. Added to which, the event runs parallel to the Pantiles Arcade, inside the town’s old corn exchange, which houses dealerships from some of the best-known names in UK antiques, including Mark Hill, Eric Knowles and Richard Price.
On Saturday there’s a chance to have your treasures valued by celebrities, including Antique Collecting’s Eric Knowles.
Above e Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells will host more than 40 dealers this month
Organiser Kate Button said: “Fakenham is a new event for 2024 and while there is no Tote we think it’s a safe bet that it’s going to be a winner!”
Last year Black Dog launched its first Runway Flea at Debach Airfield in Suffolk with a second event taking place in April followed by a fair at the same location in July.
A new three-day event on the Scottish borders takes place this month in the grounds of the historic Paxton House.
Organised by Glam Racket Events Ltd., in partnership with Paxton House, the fair on August 16-18, will see more than 70 dealers selling everything from jewellery, smalls, fine furniture and architectural to decorative antiques.
Visitors will also have the chance to explore the grounds of the Palladian-style house on the banks of the river Tweed and take a tour of the house and its extensive collection of Chippendale furniture, specially made for Paxton.
Other features include on-site catering with the Paxton House Stable Café and a walled caravan site.
Because this list is compiled in advance, alterations or cancellations to the auctions listed can occur and it is not possible to notify readers of the changes. We strongly advise anyone wishing to attend an auction especially if they have to travel any distance, to telephone the organiser to confirm the details given
LONDON:
Inc. Greater London
Adam Partridge
The London Saleroom, The Auction Room, Station Parade, Ickenham Road, West Ruislip, HA4 7DL, 01895 621991 www.adampartridge.co.uk
None listed in August.
Bonhams
101 New Bond St, London W1S 1SR, 020 7447 7447 www.bonhams.com
Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art (Online), ends Aug 6
Bonhams
Montpelier St, Knightsbridge, London, SW7 1HH, 020 7393 3900 www.bonhams.com
Jewels (Online), Aug 19-27
Chiswick Auctions
Barley Mow Centre
Chiswick, London, W4 4PH 020 8992 4442 www.chiswickauctions.co.uk Design and Modern Contemporary, Aug 6 Coins and Banknotes (Timed Online), Aug 16 to Sept 1 Autographs and Memorabilia(Timed Online), Aug 30 to Sept 15
Chiswick Auctions
1Roslin Square, Roslin Road, London, W3 8DH www.chiswickauctions.co.uk Books and Works on Paper, Aug 22
Christie’s
8 King St, St. James’s, SW1Y 6QT, 020 7839 9060 www.christies.com
None listed in August.
Elmwood’s
101 Talbot Road London, W11 2AT, 0207 096 8933 www.elmwoods.co.uk
None listed at the time of going to press.
Forum Auctions
220 Queenstown Road, London SW8 4LP, 020 7871 2640 www.forumauctions.co.uk
Books and Works on Paper (Online), Aug 8
Modern and Contemporary Editions (Online), Aug 21
Travel Books, Maps and Atlases (Online), Aug 22
Hansons Auctioneers
Richmond Saleroom, 6 Parkley’s Parade, Upper Ham Road, Richmond, TW10 5LF 0207 018 9300/ 07469 353077 www.hansonsauctioneers.com
Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Fine Art and Antiques Auction: including Chinese Ceramics and Asian Art, Aug 30
Lyon & Turnbull
Mall Galleries, The Mall, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5AS, 0207 930 9115
www.lyonandturnbull.com
None listed in London, see Edinburgh listing
Noonans
16 Bolton St, Mayfair, W1J 8BQ, 020 7016 1700 www.noonans.co.uk
World Banknotes, Aug 28
Phillips
30 Berkeley Square, London, W1J 6EX, 020 7318 4010 www.phillips.com
None listed in August
Olympia Auctions
25 Blythe Road, London W14 0PD, 020 7806 5541 www.olympiaauctions.com
Olympia Timed Autumn 2024, Aug 30
Roseberys Knights Hill, Norwood, London, SE27 0JD, 020 8761 2522 www.roseberys.co.uk
None listed in August.
Sotheby’s
New Bond St., London W1A 2AA, 020 7293 5000 www.sothebys.com
None listed in August.
Timeline Auctions
23-24 Berkeley Square London W1J 6HE, 020 7129 1494 www.timelineauctions.co.uk
None listed in August.
SOUTH EAST AND EAST
ANGLIA: Inc. Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex
Bishop and Miller
19 Charles Industrial Estate, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 5AH, 01449 673088 bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk
Coins, Stamps and Postcards, Aug 7
Bishop and Miller
Unit 12 Manor Farm, Glandford, Holt, Norfolk, NR25 7JP 01263 687342
bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk
The Collector with Silver Aug 14
Bellmans
Newpound, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, RH14 0AZ, 01403 700858
www.bellmans.co.uk
Wines and Spirits, date TBC Antiques and Interiors, Aug 5-7
Brighton & Hove Auctions
112-114 Warren Rd, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 6DB 01273 23 00 50 brightonandhoveauctions.co.uk Antiques and Collectables, Aug 1-2
Burstow & Hewett
The Auction Gallery, Lower Lake, Battle, East Sussex,TN33 0AT, 01424 772 374 www.burstowandhewett.co.uk
Homes and Interiors General Collectables, Aug 7
Homes and Interiors Jewellery and Silver, Aug 8
Science, Natural History and Curiosities, Aug 9
Fine Antiques, Aug 22
Fine Art and Sculpture, Aug 22
Luxury Watches, Fine Jewellery and Silver, Aug 30
Clifford Cross Auctions
Auction Halls, The Chase, Wisbech, PE13 1RF 01945 584200
www.cliffordcrossauctions.co.uk General Aug 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Henry Adams Auctions
Baffins Hall, Baffins Lane,
Chichester, PO19 1UA 01243 532223
www.henryadamsfineart.co.uk
Antiques and Collectables, Aug 15
The Canterbury Auction Galleries 40 Station Road West, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 8AN, 01227 763337
canterburyauctiongalleries.com
Fine Sale, Aug 2-3
Catherine Southon Auctioneers
Farleigh Court Golf Club, Old Farleigh Road, Selsdon, Surrey, CR6 9PE, 0208 468 1010 www.catherinesouthon.co.uk
None listed in August.
Cheffins Clifton House, Clifton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7EA 01223 213343, www.cheffins.co.uk
The Interiors Sale, Aug 1
The Jewellery, Silver and Watches Sale, Aug 15
Ewbank’s
London Rd, Send, Woking, Surrey, 01483 223 101 www.ewbankauctions.co.uk
Vintage Posters, Aug 2
Retro Video Games and Consoles, Aug 8
Trading Cards, Aug 9 Pre-Loved, Vintage and Antique, Aug 16 Comics, Aug 21
Entertainment and Memorabilia
Premier Live Auction, Aug 22
Entertainment and Memorabilia Collectables, Aug 23
Excalibur Auctions Limited Unit 16 Abbots Business Park Primrose Hill Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, WD4 8FR 020 3633 0913
www.excaliburauctions.com
Marvel, DC and Independent Comic Books, Aug 3
Gordon Day
Bowens Yard, Park Corner, Knockholt, Kent, TN14 7JE 01959 533263
www.gordondayauctions.com
Antique Furniture and Effects, Aug 10 General, Aug 31
Because this list is compiled in advance, alterations or cancellations to the auctions listed can occur and it is not possible to notify readers of the changes. We strongly advise anyone wishing to attend an auction especially if they have to travel any distance, to telephone the organiser to confirm the details given.
Gorringes 15 North Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2PE, 01273 472503
www.gorringes.co.uk
Weekly Featuring Coins and Stamps, Aug 5
Weekly House and Gardens, Aug 12
Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Aug 13
Weekly featuring Dolls, Toys and Teddy Bears, Aug 19
Hansons The Pantiles Arcade, 49 The Lower Pantiles, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 5TE, 01892 573540
www.hansonauctioneers.co.uk
None listed in August.
Hanson Ross Unit 1, The Power House, Lumen Road, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7AG, 01763 430 042
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Coins and Militaria, Aug 9
John Nicholson’s Longfield, Midhurst Road, Fernhurst, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 3HA, 01428 653727
www.johnnicholsons.com
Fine Antiques, Aug 7
A Combined Auction of Books and Fine Paintings, Aug 13 Islamic and Oriental, Aug 14
General, Aug 24 Fine Paintings, Aug 27
Lacy Scott & Knight
10 Risbygate St, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3AA, 01284 748 623
www.lskauctioncentre.co.uk
Home and Interiors, Aug 17
Toys and Models, Aug 23
Lockdales Auctioneers
52 Barrack Square, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP5 3RF 01473 627110 www.lockdales.com
Toys, Ceramics and Antiques, Aug 21
Mander Auctioneers The Auction Centre, Assington Road Newton, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 0QX, 01787 211847 www.manderauctions.co.uk
Fine Art and Interiors, Aug 17
Parker Fine Art Auctions
Hawthorn House, East Street, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7SX, 01252 203020
www.parkerfineartauctions.com
Fine Paintings and Frames, Aug 1
Reeman Dansie
8 Wyncolls Road, Severalls
Business Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 9HU, 01206 754754
www.reemandansie.com
Antiques and Fine Art, Aug 6-7
Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers
Cambridge Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, CM24 8GE, 01279 817778
www.sworder.co.uk
Homes and Interiors (Online), Aug 6, 28
Paint. Print. Sculpt (Timed Online) Aug 2-11
Toovey’s Antique & Fine Art
Auctioneers Spring Gardens, Washington, West Sussex, RH20 3BS, 01903 891955
www.tooveys.com
Wristwatches and Pocket
Watches, Clocks and Barometers, Cameras and Scientific
Instruments, Aug 1
Prints, Maps and Posters, Decorative Pictures, Silver and Plate, Jewellery, Aug 7
Furniture, Objects of Vertu, Collectors’ Items, Works of Art and Light Fittings, Rugs and Carpets,
Aug 8
Stamps, Postcards, Cigarettes and Trade Cards, Photographs, Autographs and Ephemera, Aug 14
British and Continental Ceramics, Glassware, Aug 22
T.W. Gaze Diss Auction Rooms, Roydon Road, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4LN, 01379 650306. www.twgaze.com
Antiques and Interiors, Aug 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Blyth Barn Furniture Auction, Aug 6, 13, 20, 27
W&H Peacock Auctioneers
Eastcotts Park, Wallis Way Bedford, Bedfordshire MK42 0PE, 01234 266 366
www.peacockauction.co.uk
Mid-Century Design, Aug 16
W&H Peacock Auctioneers
24 Newnham Street, Bedford Bedfordshire, MK40 3JR 01234 269082
www.peacockauction.co.uk
None Listed in August.
SOUTH WEST: Inc. Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire
Adam Partridge
The Devon Saleroom, The Antique Village Station Road, Hele, Exeter EX5 4PW 01392 719826
www.adampartridge.co.uk
Fine Art, Antiques and Collectors’ Items with Asian Art, Aug 5
Auctioneum
Broadlands Fruit Farm, Box Road, Bathford, Bath BA1 7LR, 01225251303
www.auctioneum.co.uk
Fine Art and Antiques (Live), Aug 16
Books and Works on Paper, date tbc
Auctioneum East Bristol, Unit, 1 Hanham Business Park, Memorial Road, Bristol, BS15 3JE, 0117 967 1000 www.auctioneum.co.uk
Ceramics and Collectables, Aug 13
Jewellery, date tbc
Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood
St. Edmund’s Court, Okehampton Street, Exeter EX4 1DU, O1392 41310 www.bhandl.co.uk
Sporting and Collectors Auction, Aug 13-14
British Bespoke Auctions
The Old Boys School, Gretton Rd, Winchcombe, Cheltenham, GL54 5EE 01242 603005 www.bespokeauctions.co.uk
None listed in August.
Chorley’s Prinknash Abbey Park, Near Cranham, Gloucestershire, GL4 8EU, 01452 344499
www.chorleys.com
None listed in August.
Claydon Auctioneers
The Claydon Saleroom, Calvert Road, Middle Claydon, MK18 2EZ 01296 714434
www.claydonauctioneers.com
Antiques, Collectables, Paintings & Prints Auction, Aug 18-19
David Lay Auctions
Lay’s Auctioneers, Church Row, Lanner Redruth, Cornwall, 01736 361414, TR16 6ET www.davidlay.co.uk
The Barrie Cook Studio Sale, Aug 1
Rare Books and Works on Paper, Aug 8
The Timed Art Sale, Aug 9-25
Dawsons
Unit 8 Cordwallis Business Park, Clivemont Rd, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 4BU, 01628 944100
www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk
Fine Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Aug 22
Fine Art and Antiques, Aug 29
Dominic Winter
Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 5UQ, 01285 860006 www.dominicwinter.co.uk
Printed Books and Maps and Documents, Aug 14
Dreweatts
Donnington Priory Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2JE 01635 553 553
www.dreweatts.com
Art Live, Aug 1
Interiors Day One, Aug 7
Interiors Day Two, Aug 8
Books and Works on Paper (Online), Aug 8
Silver and Precious Objects, Aug 15
Fine Wine, Champagne, Vintage Port and Spirits (at Forum Auctions), Aug 20
Travel Books, Maps and Atlases (Online), Aug 22
Duke’s Brewery Square, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1GA, 0105 265080
www.dukes-auctions.com
Summer Interiors, date tbc
Gardiner Houlgate
9 Leafield Way, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 9SW, 01225 812912
www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk
Jewellery, Aug 29
Watches, Aug 29
Hansons Auctioneers
49 Parsons Street, Banbury, Oxford, OX16 5NB, 01295 817777
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Fine Art & Antiques Auction, Aug 21 Whisky and Wine, Aug 28
Harper Field Auctioneers
The Stroud Auction Saleroom Ebley Road, Stonehouse, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL10 2LN 01453 873800
www.harperfield.co.uk
August Auction to include Guns and Weapons, Medals and Militaria, Ceramics, Glass, Taxidermy and Sporting, Aug 7-9
Kinghams 10-12 Cotswold Business Village, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucester, GL56 0JQ, 01608 695695 www.kinghamsauctioneers.com
Cotswold interiors and Collectables, Aug 16
Lawrences Auctioneers Ltd
The Linen Yard, South St, Crewkerne, Somerset, TA18 8AB, 01460 703041
www.lawrences.co.uk
None listed in August.
Mallams Oxford
Bocardo House, St Michael’s St, Oxford, OX1 2EB, 01865 241358 www.mallams.co.uk
Collective: Jewellery, Silver and Accessories (Timed), Jul 29 to Aug 8
Mallams Cheltenham
26 Grosvenor St, Cheltenham. Gloucestershire, GL52 2SG 01242 235 712
www.mallams.co.uk
Cotswold Living, Aug 14
Mallams Abingdon
Dunmore Court, Wootten Road, Abingdon, OX13 6BH, 01235 462840
www.mallams.co.uk
None listed in August.
Moore Allen & Innocent
Burford Road Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5RH, 01285 646050
www.mooreallen.co.uk
Vintage And Antique Furniture Auction, Aug 21-22
Vintage And Antique Furniture
Auction (Timed), Aug 23 to Sept 1
Nesbits Auctioneers & Appraisers 7 Clarendon Road, Southsea, PO5 2ED, 023 9229 5568
www.nesbitsauctions.co.uk
None listed in August.
Netherhampton Salesrooms
Salisbury Auction Centre, Salisbury Road, Netherhampton, SP2 8RH 01722 342044
General Household Furniture and Effects, Aug 2, 23
Philip Serrell Barnards Green Rd, Malvern, Worcestershire. WR14 3LW, 01684 892314 www.serrell.com
Interiors, Antiques, Vintage and Household Furniture and Effects, Aug 15
Richard Edmonds Auctions Ltd (formerly Chippenham Auction Rooms) Unit 1, Showell Business Park Showell. Chippenham Wiltshire. SN15 2NU, 01249 444544
None listed at the time of going to press.
Special Auction Services
Plenty Close, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5RL 01635 580 595 www.specialauctionservices.
Charity Antiques and Collectables Auction, Aug 6
Photographica and Cameras Auction, Aug 20
Popular Diecast Toys and Trains Auction, Aug 29
The Cotswold Auction Company
Bankside Saleroom, Love Lane, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1YG, 01285 642420
www.cotswoldauction.co.uk
None listed at the time of going to press.
The Cotswold Auction Company
Chapel Walk Saleroom, Chapel Walk, Cheltenham, Gloucesterhire, GL50 3DS, 01242 256363
www.cotswoldauction.co.uk
Modern Art and Design, Vintage Fashion and Textiles, Aug 13
The Pedestal
The Dairy, Stonor Park, Henleyon-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 6HF, 01491 522733
www.thepedestal.com
None listed in August
Wessex Auction Rooms
Westbrook Far, Draycot Cerne, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 5LH, 01249 720888 www.wessexauctionrooms.co.uk
Toys, Aug 1-2, Antiques, Collectables and Furniture, Aug 10, 31, Militaria, Aug 16
Woolley & Wallis
51-61 Castle Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 3SU, 01722 424500 www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk
None listed in August.
EAST MIDLANDS: Inc.
Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Sheffield
Bamfords The Derby Auction House, 46 Nottingham Road, Spondon, Derby DE21 7NL 01332 210 000 www.bamfords-auctions.co.uk
None listed in August.
Bamfords The Bakewell Auction House, Peak Shopping Village Chatsworth Road, Rowsley, Derbyshire,DE4 2JE, 01629 730 920
www.bamfords-auctions.co.uk
The Bakewell Country Home Interiors and Collectors’ Auction Including Furniture, Ceramics, Textiles, Jewellery, Contemporary Design etc, Aug 11, 14, 28
Gildings Auctioneers
The Mill, Great Bowden Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 7DE 01858 410414
www.gildings.co.uk
Antiques and Collectors, Including Entertainment and Sporting Memorabilia, Aug 6
Golding Young & Mawer
The Bourne Auction Rooms, Spalding Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9LE 01778 422686
www.goldingyoung.com
Bourne Collective Sale, Pt 2, Aug 1
Bourne Collective Sale, Aug 28-29
Golding Young & Mawer
The Grantham Auction Rooms, Old Wharf Road, Grantham,
Lincolnshire NG31 7AA, 01476 565118
www.goldingyoung.com
Grantham Collective Sale, Aug 21-22
Golding Young & Mawer
The Lincoln Auction Rooms, Thos Mawer House, Station Road North Hykeham, Lincoln LN6 3QY, 01522 524984
www.goldingyoung.com
Lincoln Collective Sale, Aug 7-8
Lincoln Fine Art Sale, Aug 14
Hansons Heage Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire, DE65 6LS 01283 733988
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Antique and Collectors Auction: including Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Aug 7
Medals, Militaria & Firearms, Aug 7
Silver, Jewellery and Watches
Ceramics, Glass and Metalware
Aug 15
Clocks, Furniture and Textiles
Aug 16
Pictures, Works of Art and Collectors, Aug 20
Football in Focus and Sporting Memorabilia Auction Aug 20
Irita Marriott Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd, William’s Yard Derby Road, Melbourne, Derbyshire, DE73 8JR 01332414848
iritamarriottauctioneers.co.uk
None listed in August
John Taylors Auction Rooms
The Wool Mart, Kidgate, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9EZ 01507 611107
www.johntaylors.com
None listed in August.
Unique Auctions Vincent Court,Teal Park,Turnstone Rd, Lincoln,Lincolnshire, LN6 3AD, 01522 690444
www.unique-auctions.com
Two-Day Antiques and Collectors including Gold, Jewellery, Silver, Furniture , Aug 3-4
WEST MIDLANDS: Inc.
Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire
Bigwood Fine Art Auctioneers
The Old School, Tiddington, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 7AW 01789 269415
www.bigwoodauctioneers.com
None listed at the time of going to press.
Cuttlestones Ltd
Pinfold Lane, Penkridge
Staffordshire ST19 5AP, 01785 714905
www.cuttlestones.co.uk
Antiques and Interiors, Aug 8, 22
Fellows Augusta House, 19 Augusta Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6JA , 0121 212 2131
www.fellows.co.uk
Pawnbrokers Jewellery and Watches, Aug 7, 21
Watches, Aug 8
Jewellery, Day 1, Aug 13, 27
Jewellery, Day 2, Aug 14, 28
Designer Handbags and Accessories, Aug 20
Jewellery and Costume Jewellery, Day One Aug 21
Jewellery and Costume Jewellery, Day Two, Aug 22
Bags of Costume Jewellery, Aug 23
Monies, Medals and Militaria, Aug 29
Fieldings Mill Race Lane, Stourbridge, DY8 1JN 01384 444140
www.fieldingsauctioneers.co.uk
Antiques and Interiors, Aug 15-16
Everyday Antiques (Timed Online), Aug 21-28
Specialist Coins, Aug 29
Halls
Bowmen Way, Battlefield, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 3DR 01743 450700
www.hallsgb.com/fine-art.com
Militaria, Maritime and Naval Auction, Aug 21
Hansons Auctioneers
Bishton Hall, Wolseley Bridge, Stafford, ST18 0XN, 0208 9797954
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Art and Limited Editions including Paintings, Prints, Private press Books and Livre d’ Artiste, Aug 6
Country House Fine Art: including Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Aug 23
Potteries Auctions
Unit 4A, Aspect Court, Silverdale Enterprise Park, Newcastle, Staffordshire, ST5 6SS 01782 638100
www.potteriesauctions.com
None listed in August
Potteries Auctions
The Cobridge Saleroom, 271 Waterloo Road, Cobridge, Stokeon-Trent, Staffordshire, ST6 3HR 01782 212489
www.potteriesauctions.com
None listed at the time of going to press.
Trevanion
The Joyce Building, Station Rd, Whitchurch, Shropshire, SY13 1RD, 01928 800 202 www.trevanion.com
None listed in August.
Warwick & Warwick
Chalon House,Scar Bank, Millers Road, Warwick CV34 5DB. 01926 499031
www.warwickandwarwick.com
Collectables Auction, Aug 7
NORTH: Inc. Cheshire, Co. Durham, Cumbria, Humberside, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Sheffield, Yorkshire
Adam Partridge
Withyfold Drive, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2BD 01625 431 788
www.adampartridge.co.uk
Jewellery, Silver, Watches and Boutique, Aug 14-16
Adam Partridge
The Liverpool Saleroom, 18 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 OBP, 01625 431 788
www.adampartridge.co.uk
Maritime and Militaria with Antiques and Collectors’ Items, Aug 7-8
Anderson and Garland Crispin Court, Newbiggin Lane, Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 1BF, 0191 430 3000
www.andersonandgarland.com
None listed at the time of going to press.
Bank Hall Auctions
Bank Hall Works, Off Colne Road, Burnley, BB10 3AT,01282 435435
www-bank-hall-auctions.co.uk
Antiques, Collectibles and General, Aug 5, 12, 19, 26
Capes Dunn
The Auction Galleries, 40 Station Road, Heaton Mersey, Cheshire, SK4 3QT. 0161 273 1911
www.capesdunn.com
Interiors, Vintage and Modern
Furniture, Aug 5, 19
Summer Auction, Aug 6
Hawleys Auctioneers, Albion House, Westgate, North Cave, Brough, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU15 2NJ 01482 868193
www.hawleys.info
Antiques and Fine Art - with Mouseman (Bargain Hunt in Attendance), Aug 3-4
David Duggleby Auctioneers
The Gallery Saleroom, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 1XN, 01723 507 111 www.davidduggleby.com
Garden, Home and Commercial Assets, Aug 21
Coins and Banknotes, Aug 28
The Stamp Sale, Aug 28
Jewellery and Watches, Aug 29
Affordable Art, Aug 29
Decorative Antiques and Collectors, Aug 30
Collectors and Clearance, Aug 30
Furniture, Rugs and Interiors, Aug 31
Duggleby Stephenson
The Saleroom, York Auction Centre, Murton, York, YO19 5GF,01904 393 300 www.dugglebystephenson.com
None listed in August.
Elstob
Ripon Business Park, Charter Road, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 1AJ, 01677 333003 www.elstob.co.uk
Fine Art and Antiques, Aug 14
Omega Auctions Ltd
Sankey Valley Industrial Estate, Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside WA12 8DN, 01925 873040
www.omegaauctions.co.uk
None listed in August.
Richard Winterton
Lichfield Auction Centre, Wood End Lane, Fradley Park, Staffordshire, WS13 8NF, 01543 251081
www.richardwinterton.co.uk
Two-Day Antique and Home Sale, Aug 5-6, 12-13, 19-20
Richard Winterton
Tamworth Auction Rooms, 34 -35 Church Street, Tamworth, B79 7BX, 01827 217746
www.richardwinterton.co.uk
None listed in August.
Ryedale Auctioneers
Cooks Yard, New Road
Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, YO62 6DZ, 01751 431 544
www.ryedaleauctioneers.com
Antiques, Interiors and Collectables, Aug 1-3
Collectables and Militaria, Aug 16-17
Sheffield Auction Gallery
Windsor Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 8UB, 0114 281 6161 www.sheffieldauctiongallery.com
Specialist Collectable Toys, Aug 8
Medals and Militaria, Aug 22
Shelby’s Auctioneers Ltd
Unit 1B Westfield House, Leeds LS13 3HA, 0113 250 2626 www.shelbysauctioneers.net
Antiques and General Sale, (Online) Aug 13, 27
Tennants Auctioneers
The Auction Centre, Harmby Road, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 5SG, 01969 623780
Antiques and Interiors, Aug 2, 16, 30
Natural History and Taxidermy, Aug 7
Coins and Banknotes, Aug 9
Fashion, Costume and Textiles, Aug 16
Books, Maps and Manuscripts, Aug 23
Thompson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, Marconi Road, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA2 7NA 01228 535 288 www.thomsonroddick.com
Carlisle: Home Furnishings and Interiors Auction to include Jewellery, Silver, Paintings, Porcelain, Collectables, Furniture Etc. Aug 5
Carlisle: Antiquarian and Collectable Books and Related Items, Aug 29
Vectis Auctions Ltd Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton on Tees, TS17 9JZ, 01642 750616
www.vectis.co.uk
Specialist Diecast and Tinplate Auction, Aug 6
Lego and Action Man Auction, Aug 7
Wilkinson’s Auctioneers
The Old Salesroom, 28 Netherhall Road, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN1 2PW, 01302 814 884 wilkinsons-auctioneers.co.uk
None listed in August
Wilson55
Victoria Gallery, Market St, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5DG 01270 623 878
www.wilson55.com
Firearms, Shotguns, Airguns, Arms and Militaria,
Bonhams
22 Queen St, Edinburgh, EH2 1JX 0131 225 2266 www.bonhams.com
None listed in August.
Lyon & Turnbull
33 Broughton Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3RR, 0131 557 8844 www.lyonandturnbull.com
Contemporary Art, Prints and Multiples, Aug 13
Scottish Works of Art and Whisky, Aug 20
The Cairncross Collection, Aug 21
McTears Auctioneers
31 Meiklewood Road, Glasgow, G51 4GB, 0141 810 2880 www.mctears.co.uk
The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction, Aug 1
Thomson Roddick
22 Smith Street, Ayr
KA7 1TF 01292 267 681 www.thompsonroddick.com
None listed in August
Anthemion Auctions, 15 Norwich Road, Cardiff, CF23 9AB, 029 2047 2444 www.anthemionauction.com
Monthly General Sale of Furniture, Works of Art, Books, Sporting
SA19 7HR, 01558 823 430
Abergele Road, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, North Wales, LL29 7RU
www.rogersjones.co.uk
None listed in August.
Rogers Jones & Co
17 Llandough Trading Estate, Penarth, Cardiff, CF11 8RR, 02920 708125 www.rogersjones.co.uk
Jewellery and Collectables, Aug 9
Omega Seamasters and pre-1980s Omegas in general.
Antiques and Interiors, Aug 8, 22
Fine Art and Interiors, Aug 30
IWC and Jaeger LeCoultres, all styles. Looking for Reversos. American market filled and 14k pieces possibly, at the right price.
Militaria, Maps and Ethnographica, Aug 14 19th and 20th-Century Design, Aug 14
Breitling Top Times, Datoras and 806 Navitimers.
Adam’s
Pre-1960s Rolex models, with a focus in pre-war tanks, tonneaus etc. Gold or silver/steel. Also World War I Rolex 13 lignes etc. Princes.
Scottish Pictures, Aug 15 Silver and Luxury Accessories, Aug 15
Asian Art, Aug 15
Thomson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, Irongray Road Industrial Estate, Dumfries, DG2 0JE, 01387 721 635 www.thompsonroddick.com
Homes, Furnishings and Interiors, Aug 6, 20
26, Stephens Green, Dublin 2, D02 X665, Ireland 00 353 1 6760261 www.adams.ie
None listed in August.
DeVeres 35 Kildare Street Dublin, D02 X088 Ireland. www.deveres.ie 00 353 (0)-1676 8300
None listed in August.
Sheppards Irish Auction House
Longines, Tudors and Zeniths, pre-1970. Even basic steel models in nice condition.
The Square, Durrow, Co. Laois, R32 FN88, Ireland
For East Yorkshire town house renovation.
Labelled/ stamped branded furniture from Georgian to Victorian, eg Thomas Butler, Morgan & Sanders, J Alderman, Ross of Dublin (pictured), Gregory Kane, Wilkinson of Ludgate Hill, Robert James of Bristol, James Winter, W Priest, Samuel Pratt and many others. Tables all types, chairs, bookcases, , Davenport. mirrors etc. Campaign shower.
Unusual Georgian to William IV architectural features eg doors, door frames, over door pediments. 18th century staircase spindles and handrail needed. Anything Georgian or Regency with lots of character considered.
Rectangular Georgian fanlight.
Four identical reclaimed Georgian wooden sash windows with boxes, approx 60 high x 37 wide.
Marble fire surrounds from 1750 to 1850ish. White or coloured. Bullseyes, William IV styles etc. Brass Regency reeded fire insert and Victorian griffin grate (pictured)
Human skull, stuffed crocodile/ alligator. Grand tour souvenirs.
All the quirky oddities like Harwoods, Autorists, Wig Wag, Rolls etc, and World War I hunter and semi-hunter wristwatches.
Thomson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, 118 Carnethie Street, Edinburgh, EH24 9AL 0131 440 2448 www.thompsonroddick.com
00 353 (0)57 874 0000 www.sheppards.ie
None listed in August.
Early, pre-war ladies’ watches also wanted by Rolex, Jaeger LeCoultre etc. Prefer 1920s/30s deco styles, but early doughnuts also considered.
Whyte’s 38 Molesworth St. Dublin D02 KF80 Ireland
Yorkshire based, but often in London and can easily collect nationwide.
vintagejewellery@yahoo.co.uk or tel 07958 333442
None listed in August
00 353- (0)1-676 2888 www.whytes.ie
None listed in August.
As the dust settles on a new UK government, Antiques Roadshow specialist Marc Allum considers what e ect it will have on the industry he loves
Iwrite on the day after the General Election. In the run up, I had that lack of certainty which fostered a general sense of restraint. With all the pressures on life and business it certainly asn’t been one of the easiest or most predictable periods to work in the antiques trade. Now the results are in, and in Chippenham, we have a new Liberal Democrat MP.
My hope is after the election, the trade will be enthused with a new vigour and optimism, re-energised by a perception that things will surely be getting better.
If Labour’s pledges come to bear, more people will have more money in their pockets to, hopefully, indulge in the frivolous practice of collecting.
I’m feeling upbeat about both that and the idea of having some fresh people and new ideas at the helm of the country. Will it change anything in our business? I hope so.
After 36 years in the trade, I wonder if there was ever a golden period in which we weren’t a ected by a nancial crash, tumultuous natural disaster or a stupendous rise in the mortgage rate.
In fact, in almost four decades, life seems to have been a constant need for re-invention and adaptation.
But, luckily, the antiques and arts trade is generally very good at riding out the highs and lows of these spikes.
Brexit adversely a ected the way we operate and the ease with which we move both ourselves and our stockin-trade around. Added to which, the last 14 years has seen stricter regulatory impositions, making some things valueless and seeing other items mired in paperwork. Willthere be more to come, or will the antiques trade nd more constructive engagement with the new government? We hope so.
Inevitably, the bigger national issues will come rst. But, as my daughter applies for her first mortgage, amid moans about the high rates, I remind her she’llactually be paying a third, or even half, some of the ratesI’ve paid for a mortgage over the decades.
Labour’s stated plans to build more houses will no doubt rejuvenate the property market. e cyclical business of buying and selling chattels, allied with increased con dence inthe trade, will – all being well –see us enjoy an overall boost.
Above What e ect will the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government have on the antiques business? image Shutterstock
Below right A new boom in house building may spark an upturn in interiors and antiques, image Shutterstock
I know people willtrot out the old maxim: “People with money will always have money,” but it takes all layers of the market to produce a stable foundation. Fingers crossed for abright future in the antiques, and every othe r, business.
Marc Allum is an author, lecturer and specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. For more details go to www. marcallum.co.uk
‘Labour’s stated plans to build more houses will, no doubt, rejuvenate the property market. The cyclical business of buying and selling chattels, allied with an increased confidence in the trade, will – all being well –see us enjoy an overall boost’
WEMYSS WARE | RARE CARP TUREEN
48cm long
This tureen is one of only three known, the design based on a Chinese example of the Quianlong period (1711-1799) found at Wemyss Castle
£4,000-6,000 + fees
Scotland’s premier dedicated auction of Scottish Works of Art features Ceramics and Glass including The George Bellamy Collection of Wemyss Ware, Jacobite Works of Art, Furniture, Arms & Armour, Whisky and Silver from the 17th to 19th century.
