to get pulses racing
How Gainsborough chairs changed over time Inside:
We put makers from north of the intoborder focus
STAMP OF APPROVAL A COLLECTION OF DESK SEALS GOES UNDER THE HAMMER
CREATING A STIR A VICTORIAN KITCHEN DIORAMA COOKS UP A STORM
On the eve of Remembrance Sunday, we put two incredible lots from WWI and WWII in the spotlight, and pro le a series of propaganda posters
FineChinesePorcelain&WorksofArt onlineauctionavailabletoview&bidonbyvisiting auctionet.com
enquiries@bm-auctions.co.uk01449673088
Details of the latest trend in antique interiors appeared in my inbox this week, namely, “the Paris Grandma look,” which, we are told, “combines a little bit of luxury, a sprinkle of serenity and a large dollop of nostalgia.”
If I was trying to recreate my own grandmother’s “look” it would involve a three-bar electric re, a couple of horse brasses and a half-smoked packet of Woodbines. So it’s fortunate I am not an interiors specialist.
Of course, how many collectors are interested in interiors is a moot point but, according to another email landing this week, autumn is the season of collecting.
After a summer of frenetic activity, in the closing months of the year, we draw the curtains, put the central heating on full blast and hunker down over our stamp collections.
Whether you are a fan of the Paris grandma look, or an autumn collector, or – more likely neither – I hope you will nd something of interest in this month’s magazine. With Remembrance Sunday on the calendar, we look at some upcoming lots from two of the most legendary events of both WWI and WWII.
On page 26 we look at the collection of Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend, one of the 133 men from the legendary 617 Squadron, who took part in the Dambusters raid. Townsend received the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for his bravery. Five of his crew were also given medals, making them the second most decorated Dambusters crew after Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s team. e collection includes two log books, including one signed by Gibson, making it of even more importance to militaria collectors.
On page 35, Eric Knowles unearths a remarkable WWI album bursting with rst-hand accounts of soldiers’ recollections of the con ict, including one written by a soldier who took part in the Christmas Day cease re in the trenches in 1915. It’s a remarkable read.
Elsewhere, on page 38, we look at a portfolio of WWI propaganda prints, some by leading artists of the day, which, after a century kept unseen in the archives of the Imperial War Museum, are now available to buy. Joining them in the spotlight this month are medical antiques, Scottish furniture and portrait miniatures. I hope Parisian grandmas would approve. Enjoy the issue
Georgina Wroe, Editor
PS A reminder that because next month’s magazine is the joint December/ January issue it will be with you slightly later, expect delivery in the second week of December.
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
DR JUN KONG
Behind the scenes with the new head of Asian art at the Suffolk auctioneers Lacy Scott & Knight, page 8
HENRY MEADOWS
Lifts the lid on the collection of the Dambuster's Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend, page 26
The Scottish furniture expert reveals the makers every collector should know about, page 46
Gives her stamp of approval to a collection of desk seals, page 56 is pair of Sta ordshire ‘Disraeli’ greyhounds, c.1850, which has an estimate of £200-£300 at Tennants Auctioneers’ sale on November 15. We love!
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
Call 01394 389969 or email charlotte.kettell@accartbooks.com
Preview of Roseberys’ forthcoming auction calendar
An Important UK Private Collection of Chinese Art
Tuesday 29 October
Old Master, British & European Pictures
Wednesday 20 November
Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art
Wednesday 6 & Thursday 7 November
Prints & Multiples
Thursday 21 November
Design
Wednesday 13 November
Modern British & 20th Century Art
Wednesday 27 November
3 Editor’s Welcome: Georgina Wroe introduces the November issue with a special focus on militaria
6 Antiques News: A whistlestop tour around the UK discovering what collectors can look forward to in November, as well as a round up of three must-see exhibitions
10 Your Letters: One reader shares details of an Anglo-Saxon seal ring, while another is mysti ed by the breadth of Asian art
12 Around the Houses: A sought-after “wanted” poster sells in America, while one of the largest hoards of Anglo-Saxon and Roman coins found in Su olk appears on the rostrum in London
A pair of Chippendaleperiod mahogany chairs, c.1770, image courtesy of Mackinnon Fine Furniture, see the feature on page 16
16 Waxing Lyrical: Fine English furniture expert Charles Mackinnon puts Gainsborough chairs in the spotlight
26 Saleroom Spotlight: e collection of Dambusters raid hero, Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend, is put in focus
35 In the Knowles: Antiques expert Eric Knowles is moved by a WWI album with a rst-hand account of the Christmas cease re in the trenches, which is going under the hammer in Derbyshire
36 Puzzle Pages: Challenge your antiques know-how by pitting your wits against those of our quiz and crossword editor Peter Wade-Wright
45 Lots of Love: Irita Marriott is stirred by a one-o diorama of a Victorian kitchen which cooked up a storm at her recent sale
52 Top of the Lots: With Asian Art London in full swing this month, we lift the lid on Bonhams’ Chinese art auction, while Angelina Jolie’s car is up for sale in Paris
54 Book O ers: Start your Christmas shopping today with the latest titles from our sister publisher ACC Art Books and save more than a third on the RRP
56 Fairs Calendar: Plan your end-of-year events with our essential guide to all the fairs taking place around the UK
57 Fairs News: With festive shopping looming ever closer, it’s time to make the most of four events around the country on this month’s calendar
58 Auction Calendar: A bumper number of sales are taking place this month – nd out where with our essential guide to auctions around the UK
64 Lots to Talk About: e auctioneer and TV expert Catherine Southon gives her stamp of approval to a collection of desk seals under the hammer this month
66 Marc My Words: Our intrepid columnist and Antiques Roadshow expert Marc Allum travels to Japan in search of knowledge and kimonos
18 Brush With History: Antique Collecting goes behind the scenes at an exhibition of portrait miniatures which were beloved by everyone from Elizabeth I to the Georgian middle classes
28 Knife and Times: Taste for the macabre? Medical antiques have never been more popular. On the eve of a new exhibition expert James Gooch shares his insights on the most collectable pieces
38 War E ort: After a century languishing in a museum vault, WWI propaganda prints by some of the nest artists of the 20th century are once more on the market, Antique Collecting reports
46 Great Scots! For years misattribution and poor record keeping has meant Scottish furniture makers were not as well-known as their English counterparts. e situation is set to change with the publication of a new book. Its author Stephen Jackson sheds light on the subject
From talks to exhibitions, there are a host of activities to engage avid collectors this month
A Shropshire auction house holds its first sporting and wildlife sale this month. Halls Fine Art presents its inaugural auction at its Battlefield saleroom in Shrewsbury on November 7, with a collection of wildlife paintings and prints from a gallery clearance in the north west. Halls’ paintings expert Abigail Molenaar hopes to attract works from the leading names of the genre, including Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-1979), Archibald Thorburn (18601935) and Peter Markham Scott (1909-1989).
Right A Ming dynasty (1368-1644) textile panel of green silk velvet, embroidered with a ve-clawed, imperial dragon, on o er from the London dealer, Jacqueline Simcox
Below left Adrian Rigby (b. 1962) Red Grouse, oil on canvas. It has an estimate of £400 at Halls’ new sale
Below right e neck of a stoneware Bartmann jar, 1500s-1600s, found on the ames foreshore © Alessio ChecconiLondon Museum
More than 50 paintings by the war-time leader Winston Churchill (1874-1965) are to go on show next year at a London gallery. e Wallace Collection will stage the major retrospective marking the rst exhibition of Churchill’s work in the UK since his death.
Half of the loans come from private collections and have rarely, if ever, been seen before in public. e exhibition will also showcase a large group of works on loan from Chartwell, Churchill’s family home for more than 40 years, and now managed by the National Trust, a major lender to the exhibition.
While it officially launched last month, the majority of events for Asian Art in London take place in November with, for the first time, three of the capital’s major auction houses, Bonhams, Christie’s and Sotheby’s all hosting exhibitions.
Now in its 27th year, the event boasts an extensive programme of specialist exhibitions with regional auctions houses also involved.
One such, Suffolk-based Bishop & Miller, will showcase lots from its online Asian art sale at the Berntson Bhattacharjee Gallery, 45 Berners Street, Fitzrovia, on November 5-6.
There will also be late-night openings of a number of galleries in Kensington Church Street, St James’s and Mayfair on November 2, 3 and 4 respectively. For more details go to www.asianartinlondon.com
A Tudor wool knitted hat and a pair of 18th-century false teeth are among the treasures found by mudlarkers on the Thames foreshore and going on show next year. Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures has been unveiled as one of next year’s exhibitions at the London Museum Docklands in April. Historically a trade of the Victorian poor, in recent years mudlarking has become a popular hobby, with licensed mudlarks uncovering many significant new finds.
A newly-acquired painting by the Victorian artist, Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896) is one of the highlights of a new exhibition at the artist’s former west London home opening this month.
Bay of Cádiz, Moonlight, 1866, goes on public display for the rst time in 120 years at Leighton and Landscape: Impressions from Nature at Leighton House in Holland Park from November 16 to next April.
Visitors to the exhibition will be invited to explore Leighton’s paintings based on his travels throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, all presented against the backdrop of his famous home, which includes Arab Hall – adorned with tiles inspired by his trip to Damascus in 1873.
Gainsborough’s House in Su olk, a gallery and museum housed in the famous artist’s former residence, this month unveils an exhibition of self-portraits made by current and recent Royal Academicians.
Featuring self-portraits by major contemporary artists, including Chantal Jo e RA (b. 1969), Jean Cooke RA (1927-2008) and Sir Sidney Nolan RA (1917-1992), the exhibition explores the idea of artistic identity.
Alongside more contemporary works, visitors can also enjoy a selection of earlier porraits, including one made in c. 1787 by omas Gainsborough RA (1727-1788).
In another, by Nathaniel Hone RA (17181784), the artist presents himself dressed as Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641).
Left Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) Bay of Cádiz, Moonlight, 1866, © e Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Right Claude Monet (1840-1926), Waterloo Bridge, Overcast, 1903, Ordrupgaard, Denmark
Below far left Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) A View in Spain, © e Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Below left Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) Damascus (Moonlight), © e Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Above right Claude Monet (1840-1926), Charing Cross Bridge, e ames, 1903, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
Right Claude Monet (1840-1926), London, Parliament. Sunlight in the Fog, 1904, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Below far right Nathaniel Hone RA (1718-1784) Self-portrait, 1768, © Gainsborough’s House
Below right Chantal Jo e (b. 1969) Looking Towards Bexhill, 2016, © Chantal Jo e, courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
Below omas Gainsborough (1727-1788) Selfportrait c. 1787, © Royal Academy
Known for his paintings of haystacks, poplars and Giverny, fewer people know of the French Impressionist Monet’s repeated portrayals of the river ames.
For the rst time in 120 years, the Courtauld Gallery in London has reunited a series of paintings the artist produced in three visits to the capital between 1899 and 1901, depicting Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. In total, Monet painted almost 100 views of the river, 37 of which (the focus of the current exhibition) were presented to the public in 1904. Monet and London. Views of the ames continues until January 19.
The legendary ‘80s London nightclub Taboo and the fashions it spawned is the focus for a new exhibition in south London continuing this month.
Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London is on at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey until next March. The exhibition explores the decade’s more outré designers and the fashions worn at the small club on the corner of Leicester Square.
Outfits on show include Boy George’s jacket and a bra top worn by Neneh Cherry.
e face of the Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher joins some of the most famous countenances in history at the National Portrait Gallery this month.
e portrait is one of more than a hundred in a new exhibition by photographer Zoë Law, with others included in the series ranging from Sir Bobby Charlton, to the co-founder of UK Black Pride, Lady Phyll.
e singer songwriter said: “ e thought of the portrait of a grumpy, middle-aged man who frankly hates having his picture taken being permanently displayed for future generations to marvel at is very special. anks and praise.”
An exhibition has gone on show at an East End church as part of a £7.2m campaign to return the Grade-I listed building to its former glory. Plans are underway to repair St Anne’s in Limehouse – designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736) and consecrated in 1730 – in time to celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2030.
The exhibition showcases a series of photographs taken by the architectural photographer Hélène Binet of Hawksmoor’s London churches. Hawksmoor, who worked as Wren’s assistant for 20 years, built six London churches all of which, unlike Wren’s, survive today. The photos are on view until next March.
Right St Anne’s church in Limehouse, the enigmatic pyramid may have been intended to top the church tower
Dr Jun Kong the new head of Asian art at the Suffolk auction house
Lacy Scott & Knight
How did you start in the business? I arrived in the UK in 2006 to pursue a doctoral degree in biological sciences at the University of Cambridge. After completing my PhD, I stayed on to work but found myself increasingly drawn to art and antiques. My journey began as a museum enthusiast and amateur collector and, over time, my interest deepened.
Which aspects most appeal?
Being of Chinese descent, I find it incredible to see so many Chinese
Tours of one of the world’s most famous courts, London’s Old Bailey have been extended into November.
Last year the building, formally known as the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, opened its doors to the public for out-of-hours guided tours. eir popularity means the tours will continue, taking place every Saturday in November and the rst Saturday in December.
porcelains preserved in the UK and across e will
From the 1100s the court was a prison and a later place of execution with the last public hanging taking place in 1868. e talks will reveal the building’s secrets, history, famous trials and artworks.
porcelains preserved in the UK and across Europe. What particularly excites me, coming from a science background, is the precision with which these ceramics can be dated, sometimes within a couple of decades, based on shape and decoration.
What are some of the differences between UK and Chinese collectors? Generally, I’ve observed that UK or Western collectors tend to have broader interests in collecting. When it comes to Chinese art, aside from the aesthetic differences, UK collectors often approach it with curiosity, seeking distinctive shapes, decorations, or functional pieces.
Chinese collectors, on the other hand, place great emphasis on the spiritual significance of objects, often favouring pieces used in literati practices or adorned with auspicious symbols and themes. This
difference in approach may explain why Chinese collectors are more focused on their own cultural artefacts, with less interest in exploring the art of other nations. As a biologist, I am drawn to objects with natural themes, whether animal motifs, nature-inspired shapes or incorporating natural materials. These elements are precisely what makes Asian art so highly sought after.
Do you have any hobbies? I enjoy activities that combine art and nature, and I find travelling to be the perfect way to experience both. I recently trekked the the Inca Trail in Peru and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Dr Kong’s first sale for LSK is a singleowner offering of Chinese porcelain and other works of art on November 15.
Jet jewellery worn by a well-o Scottish woman during the Bronze Age is going on show for the rst time in 4,000 years.
e necklace was discovered more than 150 years ago in a burial site at the former Balgay Estate near Dundee in 1870. National Museums Scotland conservators have combined the original beads with recreations to return the items to their original state. Jet in the Bronze Age would have been an exotic raw material, imported from Yorkshire, suggesting its wearer would have been a woman of status. It has gone on display at Dundee’s McManus Art Gallery and Museum.
e Victorian craze for collecting cartes de visite is in the spotlight at a lunchtime talk at the National Portrait Gallery in London on December 5. “Cartomania” was a photographic phenomenon that seized the public imagination at the beginning of the 1860s. Small portraits, dubbed cartes de visite, were avidly exchanged with friends and family, which were compiled into albums and prominently displayed in the home to peruse, assess and discuss.
Expert and author Paul Frecker will provide an insight into the careers of the enterprising photographers behind the phenomenon.
A rare spread from a 300-year-old bed has gone on display at Erddig Hall in Wales following almost 700 hours of essential conservation work. e cover, embroidered with peacocks and intricate owers, was commissioned for the “best bed chamber” of the Wrexham country house in 1720 by the then owner, John Meller.
Its conservation also revealed the extent of previous repairs made to it after WWI by the wife of the house’s owner, Philip Yorke.
In 1919, Louisa Yorke wrote: “My guests are most obliging. We spent over an hour putting pieces into the worn places of the beautiful Chinese drapery. It is a great work, but we shall get it done.” For more details visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/erddig
A popular Scottish textile goes on permanent display at the V&A Dundee
Charles Dickens’ former London home, now a museum, stages its nal guided tours called Sex, Gin and Opium this month. ree, hour-long tours, on November 6, promise to immerse participants in: “Dickens’ world of boozy parties, illicit romances and dangerous medical treatments.”
Dickens lived at 49 Doughty Street from 1837-1839 and is the place he nished e Pickwick Papers and wrote Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist
While there is little evidence to suggest the author was addicted to either drink or drugs, he did famously abandon his wife,
this month. When the Dundee Tapestry first went on show earlier in the year more than 86,000 people visited it.
The tapestry, conceived by John Fyffe MBE of Dundee’s Weaver Incorporation, was created by 140 volunteers to reveal the city’s past, present and future through eight illustrative themes and 35 hand-stitched panels.
V&A Dundee director, Leonie Bell, said: “We’re absolutely delighted that the Dundee Tapestry will return in November.
“Stitch by stitch, it tells the stories of the people, places and moments that made and changed Dundee, and brings so much joy to all those who see it.”
a air with the much younger actress, Ellen Ternan. For more details on the tours go to www.dickensmuseum.com
is month’s postbag reveals details of an Anglo Saxon matrix seal and more Churchill memorabilia comes to light
Our star letter receives a copy of Designer British 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
Star letter
In last month’s feature on rings (Ringing the Changes, October issue) the writer mentioned that the earliest surviving English seal matrix now resides in Norwich Castle Museum.
Can I add some further details? It is better known as the Balthild seal gold matrix and was found by a metal detectorist in a Norfolk eld in 1999. On one side is the face of Balthild, a 7th-century Frankish queen and on the other, more startling, is a rather erotic scene of two naked lovers embracing beneath a cross.
I have been amused by the ongoing mentions in recent magazines (Antique Collecting, passim) of Churchill’s cigars. Readers may be interested to know that the war-time leader also owned vesta match cases inscribed with his initials and the words “Cigar Matches”. To my mind, that’s more interesting than cigar stubs. I have one example. Ian Spellerberg, New Zealand, by email
ank you for last month’s feature on blue-and-white Chinese porcelain (True Blue, October issue). What it did most was to remind me of just how little I understand about this area of collecting, and how much I have to learn...reign marks, period marks, “heap and pile”, Kraak, Kangxi, the list is endless.
In terms of ignorance, it put me in mind of the words of the legendary Del Boy Trotter from Only Fools and Horses who said: “I’m a Ming man myself, he made some wonderful pottery”.
Jim Fisherman, by email
Top right e Balthild seal gold matrix has a saucy side, image public domain
Left A cigar smoked by Churchill was sold last year by Hansons Auctioneers
Right An advertisement Cadbury’s milk chocolate drink featuring a recipe credited to Sloane, 1850, image public domain
Below A 14th-century porcelain charger from last month’s feature
Intrigued, I did some more research. e lovers are probably Balthild and her husband Clovis II (king of the Franks). e former was sold into slavery as a young girl and ended up at the Frankish court, where the king fell in love with her and they later wed.
I imagine one side of the seal (the regal one) was used on o cial documents while the other (the nudes) was kept for private correspondence as a saucy hint as to the writer. When marriages were usually brokered for political allegiance, it always struck me as a charming love story. Margaret Marshall,Dereham, by email
Answers to the quiz on page 36.
Q1 (b). Sloane discovered that unpalatable ‘raw’ chocolate was considerably improved when mixed with milk.
Others are credited with this improvement, but there is evidence of a Sloane recipe (see the advert above). Q2 (c). Tapling was an English businessman and politician. He played first-class cricket and was also an eminent philatelist who formed one of the greatest stamp collections of his era. Q3 (d). Tahitian flies ate them off the paper before they dried. A mosquito net over painter and easel eased, but didn’t solve, the problem. Q4 (b). Royal blue in colour. Q5 (b). The word refers to small decorative objects. Q6 (c). Q7 (c). Q8 (d). Although founded earlier than 1918, that year they began supplying china tableware to the White (a). He was a cartographer and engraver. His ‘dissected’ puzzles were intended as an aid for teaching geography. Q10 (b). Mrs Amelia Bloomer’s attempts were at first only adopted by a few ‘advanced’ ladies in c. 1850. Almost 50 years later ‘bloomers’ were regularly worn by cyclists.
The anagram Inlaid plasma can be rearranged to make the word Palladianism; the words Real is an anagram of rocaille; Square omen can be rearranged to make the word Romanesque Pinup declarer is an anagram of the word perpendicular.
ART AUCTIONEERS SINCE 1911 14th & 15th February
Auctioneers of the rare, the collectible and the exceptional
Rare Ming-dynasty furniture sells for millions in New York, while a museum-quality 16th-century print by Albrecht Dürer rescued from a tip dazzles bidders in Derbyshire
Some of the most sought-after furniture in the world – Ming dynasty pieces made from coveted huanghuali wood – sold for millions at the start of Asia Week New York.
Just ve rare lots of 17th-century Chinese furniture, from the collection of David S. and Nayda Utterberg, achieved $4.26m (£3.2m).
ey included a large table which quadrupled its estimate to sell for $1.63m (£1.25m) and a three-shelf bookcase which sold for $1.43m (£1.1m), beating its estimate of $200,000-$300,000 (£150,000-£230,000).
With its beautiful grain and owing patterns, huanghuali wood was a favourite material for furniture during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties, particularly for literati, scholars, and the elite. e wood comes from the Dalbergia odorifera tree, a slow-growing hardwood native to Hainan, a tropical island in southern China which has diminished over time due to deforestation.
A 500-year-old German Renaissance print by Albrecht Dürer (14711528) found at a dump by an 11-year-old boy sold for £33,390, more than three times its low estimate of £10,000.
So thrilling was the nd, titled Knight, Death and the Devil, the auction house’s expert, Jim Spencer, was left shaking with excitement.
e vendor, now aged 24, rescued the work before it got tossed into a skip. He said: “I used to go to the local rubbish tip to see what I could nd. One day a lady had some rubbish in her car including the print. I thought it looked interesting and asked if I could have it.”
Spencer said: “I’ve seen countless prints copying Dürer, from a much later period or produced by a di erent means, but I’d only ever seen the real thing in museums – until now.
“ e laid paper was absolutely right for the period. e quality of the engraving was exceptional beyond words. I knew that only one person could have produced something like this – it had to be the hand of Dürer himself.”
An archive of correspondence discovered in a Welsh attic, including a letter written to John Constable, sold for £3,870 at the west London auctioneer’s recent sale.
e letters were written by the artist’s close friend and patron John Fisher (1748-1825), the bishop of Salisbury, and included a previously unknown letter to Constable, dated February 19, 1813. In it Fisher asks the artist for a gift of a landscape for his sister Fanny who had recently started to paint. He writes: My sister Fanny is beginning colouring, can you favour her with a copy - either Landschape [sic] or gures.
The large corner-leg table quadrupled its estimate to sell for £1.25m at the same sale
So close was the pair that Constable spent his honeymoon at one of the family’s homes in Osmington, Dorset in 1816. e lot included a view of the village church attributed to either Constable himself, or John Fisher Snr., as well as family diaries and
Louis Wain (1860-1939)
I assure you I’m quite sober, expected to make £5,000£8,000 it sold for £7,500
A private collection of 13 watercolours and sketches by Louis Wain (18601939) on the market for the rst time in 50 years sold for £45,688 in Surrey. ey came from the collection of cat-loving I.M. Hyams who started collecting feline pictures from the well-known artist in the 1940s.
Wain’s Christmas Shopping, expected to fetch £10,000£15,000 sold for £12,500
A 1933 nude pastel by the Bloomsbury Group artist Duncan Grant (1885-1978) sold for £21,000 against a guide price of £4,000-£6,000 at the south London auction house’s recent sale.
Grant was a central member of the in uential London collective of intellectuals, writers, artists, and thinkers active in the early 20th century, along with his partner Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf.
The pastel of a seated nude by Duncan Grant (1885-1978) sold for £21,000 in London
A “vanishingly rare” mug commemorating the coronation of George VI in 1937 by the artist and designer Eric Ravilious (19031942) sold for £13,500, 16 times its high estimate of £800 at the Leicestershire auction house. e mug, featuring a pale yellow lower band and green detailing was the rarest from a set of ve which had sat undisturbed in a box in the seller’s loft since the late 1990s. One of the mugs in the more commonly-seen blue colourway sold for £360. Another blue version made for the
The rare yellow mug, from a set of five, can be seen on the top row on the left
e rst ever portrait by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) sold for £406,800, against an estimate of £80,000-£120,000 at the London auction house’s recent sale.
After moving from Paris to London in May 1859, the American Whistler settled in Newman Street in London’s historic artists’ quarter. It was here in 1859 he began a sixmonth project commissioned by the father of the sitter (Lucas Alexander Ionides) who was a Greek magnate and a patron of the arts.
The work is Whistler’s first ever portrait, demonstrating his talent for the style
In 1871, while living at 96 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, Whistler produced his most famous painting, the nearly monochromatic full-length gure entitled Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (usually referred to as Whistler’s Mother.)
A brooch belonging to Queen Victoria’s sixth child (and fourth daughter) Princess Louise (1848-1939) sold for more than 10 times its low estimate when it fetched £3,640 at the Midlands auction house.
Commissioned by the queen and made of granite, the brooch marked the engagement of the princess to John Campbell after his proposal while walking near Balmoral on October 3, 1870 - details of which are engraved on the piece.
Despite a shared love of the Arts, the marriage was not happy, with Campbell (who took the title Marquess of Lorne) forming close attachments to men. Louise went on to become a professional sculptor and feminist, moving in Bohemian circles.
The brooch marked the engagement of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Louise
A hoard of 748 Iron Age and Roman coins, one of the largest seen in the UK and found in Su olk, sold for £132,000 at the London auctioneers, beating its expected total of £75,000.
The Helmingham Hoard is one of the largest Iron Age and Roman coin discoveries in the UK
e coins were discovered by local detectorist George Ridgway, whose father camped out overnight to guard the hoard unearthed in the grounds of Helmingham Hall in 2019. Sixty-three of the rare coins were claimed by museums for their collections.
e top seller was a denarius of Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula, dating from AD37-38, which was decorated with a portrait of Agrippina. It sold for £7,000, beating its pre-sale guide price of £2,000-£2,600.
As well as Roman money the hoard included Iron Age coins from the reign of Cunobelin, the king of the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes tribes who ruled southeastern Britain from AD10-42.
Noonans’ Alice Cullen said: “ e coins may have been buried by a long serving legionnaire stationed at nearby Colchester. In 47 AD the East Anglian Iceni tribe rebelled against the Roman governor Ostorius resulting in a erce battle that was likely held at Stonea Camp in Cambridgeshire, which the Romans won. It is possible our hoard was concealed by a victim at this con ict.” e proceeds from the hoard will be split between the landowner and the vendor.
A tiny diamond and ruby pendant in the shape of a bat, measuring less than 2cm, sold for £1,100 at the North Yorkshire auctioneer’s
One of the “most famous and desirable reward poster in American history” hoping to capture three men charged with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln beat its guide price of $80,000 (£41,000) to sell for $132,000(£68,000) at the American auctioneers. ree conspirators John Wilkes Booth, John Surratt, and David Herold are all described in detail with Booth being “Five Feet 7 or 8 inches high, slender build, high forehead, black hair, black eyes, and wore a heavy black mustache, which there is some reason to believe has been shaved o ” Lincoln, was assassinated on April 4, 1865 at a Washington theatre. This, fourth printing of the poster was never circulated due to the swift apprehension of Booth and Herold at a farm in Virginia. Booth was shot and Herold surrendered.
The rare “wanted” poster offers a $100,000 reward for the capture of Lincoln’s assassins
A framed sampler dated 1810 beat its guide price of £300-£500 to sell for £4,400 at the Shropshire auctioneer’s recent sale. e 1810 work by Helen Ingles, depicted a cottage with a fenced garden. It was one of a trio of embroideries that sold for a total of £8,000, with another, dated 1805, of the same estimate selling for £2,000. is sampler by Maria orneycroft, aged 14, depicted a ship with the words: is is to let you know and see, What care my parents took of me, is work in hand my frends may have, When I am dead and in my grave, Lord Nelson. e bottom
The bat pendant produced a spookily good result in North Yorkshire
The top-selling sampler of a country cottage made by Helen Inglis sold for £4,400
English furniture expert Charlie Mackinnon shines
a light on so-called Gainsborough chairs –an essential part of any great collection
Unlike other names attributed to antique furniture, such as the Pembroke table, the story behind the Gainsborough chair is very clear; although, despite their 18th-century origins, it only came into widespread use at the beginning of the 20th century.
What many in the trade now refer to as a Gainsborough chair is, in fact, a large open armchair. Due to their primary use in libraries, they quickly became known as library chairs, which is how they tended to be documented in inventories of the time (it is also the term we use in relation to our own stock). e name derives, as might be expected, from the name of the great English painter omas Gainsborough (1727-1788).
Gainsborough was best known for his wonderful portraits and, due to the appearance of chairs of this sort in some of
his paintings, his name has become attached to furniture of this type. An example of a Gainsborough composition featuring a library armchair is his 1795 portrait of Charles, Earl Camden, reproduced in an engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi.
e chairs (left) are attributed to the maker John Hodson (1709-1786) and made for Warwick Castle. ey are particularly beautifully proportioned, with lovely carved details to the scrolling arms and top of the legs.
As be ts a commission of this importance (they appear in the castle’s 1756 inventory), no expense was spared in their construction, including the upholstery.
As may be seen from close examination of the Chippendale plate illustrated above, such chairs were often upholstered in needlework, sometimes embroidered by the ladies of the house and other times upholstery was supplied by professional workshops both in England and in France.
Above e Warwick Castle armchairs, c. 1745, all images unless otherwise stated, courtesy of Mackinnon Fine Furniture
Above right Preparatory drawing for omas Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director.
Published in reverse as plate XIX in the 1762 edition, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Right A George II mahogany armchair, c. 1750
Left After omas Gainsborough (17271788) e Right
Honorable Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
e chairs retain their original ‘Genoese’ cut velvet. It is highly unusual to nd chairs that have survived in such original condition as this. As well as their top-notch provenance, it makes them highly desirable items and true collectors’ pieces.
e needlework seen on this very ne example of an early rococo period library armchair (right) is known as “bizarre”.
e name refers to the background of chinoiserie-type reliefs including mythical birds. In this case the strong colours have been particularly well preserved.
e chair frame is carved with crisp rococo motifs such as shells and scrollwork. Chair sizes in the 18th century changed with the fashions for clothing, particularly ladies’ dresses, and during this period a lady of wealth might wear particularly extravagant gowns and chairs of this sort would accommodate her perfectly.
e St Martin’s Lane Syndicate
is red chair, with its deeply carved detailing to the legs and serpentine shaped back, is very sculptural in quality and it comes as no surprise to learn that it was handled by the great Knightsbridge dealer Norman Adams Ltd in the past, as evidenced by their label to the rail.
It has a beautiful bronze-like colour and patina, and is a very unusual model clearly made for a grand patron of the period. It is likely to have been made by the St Martin’s Lane Syndicate - a group of makers who had deep links to each other, despite running independent businesses. e makers included William Vile (d.1767) and William Hallett (d.1781), both responsible for some of the most important furniture of this time.
Above A George II walnut armchair, c. 1750-1760
e next pair of chairs is slightly later, dating to c.1765. ey are made in mahogany, which has acquired a lovely patination and, like the previous example, have important dealer provenance. In this case they were handled by the Harrogate dealers Charles Lumb and Sons in 1991.
e Lumbs were exceptional dealers, supplying furniture to a large group of private and trade clients throughout the UK and America.
ere are several aspects to these chairs that make them particularly noteworthy. e sweep of the backs is particularly elegant, showing that these pieces were made by a premier maker who understood the importance of good design. e front legs have beautifully carved knee pieces, always a sign of great quality, and the rake to the arms is perfectly judged and harmonious when seen in the context of the overall design. With their serpentine backs and impressive size, these chairs are statement pieces of the very best sort.
Charles Mackinnon is the owner of Mackinnon Fine Furniture, 5 Ryder Street, London. To view its current stock go to www.mackinnon neart.com. e author acknowledges the help of Christopher Coles in this feature. David Harvey is away.
Above right A George II walnut Gainsborough chair by Giles Grendey (1693-1780), c. 1745
Below A pair of Chippendale-period library chairs, c. 1765
Below right Grendey was unusual in xing labels to his work, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The great maker Giles Grendey (1693-1780) has now become synonymous with japanning and the suite of furniture he supplied in the 1730s on order to the Duke of Infantado for his castle of Lazcano in Spain. This extensive set comprised at least 77 pieces, including tables, chairs, daybeds, looking glasses, tripod stands, several desks and bookcases.
Grendey was based in a workshop in Clerkenwell which, as the label below states, “makes and sells all sorts of cabinet goods, tables, glasses, etc.” He was one of only a few English cabinetmakers at the time to fix trade labels to his furniture, providing valuable additional information on his clients and work.
‘Chair sizes in the 18th century changed with the fashions. During this period a lady of wealth might wear particularly large and extravagant gowns and chairs of this sort would accommodate her perfectly’
Aside from the Lazcano suite, there were plenty of other masterpieces produced in his workshop. Grenley was particularly known for his sets of seat furniture with highly distinctive carving, which, due to the existence of labelling, gives great confidence to attribution.
With its grand proportions, the walnut chair by Grendey (above) shows wonderful carving throughout and is an example of his workshop at its very best. By the middle of the 18th century mahogany had become the most popular timber for furniture, but walnut remained a traditional choice for English design.
A pair of upholstered armrests, with carved acanthus decoration, extend from a rectangular upholstered backrest. Its square seat sits on cabriole legs headed by a rocaille-cartouche, surrounding a flowerhead.
Finally, its carved acanthus brackets terminate in hairy paw feet on castors.
Showing
as much skill as grandiose oil paintings or imposing sculptures, portrait miniatures provide an unparalleled glimpse into the lives of their sitters
Take a look at the screen saver on your mobile phone and you will likely see a photograph of a spouse, child, parent, friend or pet. Before photos could be snapped to cover every experience, before photography itself, those who wanted a portable picture of a loved one looked to the portrait miniature. Compton Verney’s new exhibition, e Re ected Self: Portrait Miniatures 1540-1850, co-curated by Emma Rutherford from e Limner Company, tells the history of these impressive works. From a remarkable pair of portrait miniatures that would have been held by Queen Elizabeth I herself, to the daguerreotype, and even today’s ‘sel e’, the exhibition examines the function of portrait miniatures as the most personal form of portraiture.
e portrait miniature has its origins in illuminated manuscripts. e term ‘miniature’ does not refer to its size, but derives from the Latin word miniare – the red lead paint used by manuscript illuminators. At the time monarchs might have their image incorporated in a manuscript, representing their authority in the same way as a wax seal.
It was during the early 16th century that small-scale portraits became used, aside from manuscripts, for diplomacy and marriage negotiations. While a diplomatic portrait might sound lofty, the intention was personal: a miniature held in one’s hand created a connection more readily than a stately portrait hung on the wall.
Miniatures could also inspire devotion of another kind. e giving of one’s portrait quickly became part of the courtship rituals that would last for centuries. Elizabethan miniatures epitomise the romantic and chivalric culture of the age, the sitters often appear distinctly irtatious or forlorn, and some contain messages in cryptic imagery or poetic phrases that dance around the border in golden calligraphy.
Whether they depicted a monarch or a loved one, miniatures were intended to be kept on one’s person all the time. Small and often housed in a locket, they were portable and robust enough to be worn on the body. e recipient’s relationship with the sitter would determine whether the miniature was worn openly or concealed.
e black string necklaces commonly worn by women in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods would often have a miniature attached, hidden in their décolletage beneath the wearer’s bodice. e intimacy of this gesture need not be explained.
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) one of the earliest monarchs to embrace the miniature, using them not just as personal keepsakes but also as diplomatic and political tools to solidify alliances, reward loyalty, or communicate her favour.
Both Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and Isaac Oliver (c.1565-1617) were charged with crafting Elizabeth’s image through art. Alongside miniatures of the queen herself, Elizabeth owned a number of miniatures of key courtiers
During periods of political turbulence, the court painter had to tread carefully. Portrait miniatures continued to be commissioned from artists who remained diplomatically neutral in a politically unstable climate. One famous name of the day was John Hoskins (1590–1664) .
Above John Hoskins (1590–1664) A Gentleman, © Compton Verney, all images, unless otherwise stated on show at the current exhibition © Compton Verney, photo Jamie Woodley
Left and below Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619), Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (153288), c.1575, watercolour on vellum
Left Isaac Oliver (c.15651617). A Gentleman, previously called Robert Deveraux, 2nd Earl of Essex
He worked at the court of James VI and I, with his royal patronage continuing during the reign of Charles I (1600–1649) who appointed him ‘His Majesty’s Limner’ in 1640. Some of his best-known works include miniatures of Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, and other notable figures. His miniatures are characterised by their refined brushwork, subtle coloring, and expressive details. His career then smoothly rolled into Cromwell’s reign as Lord Protector and continued the interregnum from 1649 to 1660 when his work became less formal and more naturalistic.
and diplomats, most prized of which may have been a thumbnail-sized pair of miniatures by Hilliard depicting her with her ‘favourite’, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532-1588).
e pair of images would likely have been housed together in a locket, which, when closed, would place the portraits face to face. is intimate gift demonstrates the sitters’ close relationship, as well as Dudley’s audacity in seeking to position himself as a suitor to the queen.
After Dudley’s death in 1588, the queen formed a close relationship with Dudley’s stepson, the young and dashing Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, by whom she was equally charmed and who was portrayed in another miniature by Oliver. In it he is seen in the romanticised style of the era, emphasising his dashing appearance and courtly role.
Aside from a airs of the heart, a concealed miniature was used to convey dangerous political beliefs. During the English Civil War miniatures displaying the pro le of Charles I (1600-1649) were distributed among Royalist supporters to display their loyalty to the monarchy.
At the same time the popularity and production of miniatures of ordinary people proliferated, re ecting the turbulence of the period, as loved ones were separated across the country by war.
Whatever the nature of the commission, all miniatures were intended to re ect the true self. For the Puritan
‘All miniatures were intended to reflect the true self. For the Puritan Oliver Cromwell, flattery was out of the question and it is from his instruction to the miniaturist Samuel Cooper (1607/8-1672) that the phrase ‘warts and all’ derives, although what Cromwell actually said was “pimples, warts and everything as you see me”’
Oliver Cromwell, attery was out of the question and it is from his instruction to the miniaturist Samuel Cooper (1607/8-1672) that the phrase ‘warts and all’ derives, although what Cromwell actually said was “pimples, warts and everything as you see me”.
Costume plays a signi cant role in the art of the miniature, with artists paying close attention to sitters’ dress. Miniaturists painted portraits in the presence of the sitter, and not from a pattern or other source as was often the case with oil paintings.
Even Elizabeth I sat for Hilliard, one of few accounts of her sitting for an artist. Gowns and jewels were made available to the artist to ensure accuracy. It was important for sitters to convey their fashionable tastes, wealth and material splendour. Such portraits may have been intended for potential suitors so, like an airbrushed photo, it was important to show your best side.
e intimate nature of the miniature also allowed the sitter to show a more daring side. Innocuous to viewers today, a woman wearing her hair down was considered risqué if the woman was married. One example shows the renowned Jacobean beauty, Venetia Digby (née Stanley) (1600-1633) with her hair thus, and it may have been exchanged as part of her betrothal. She also wears
Left Samuel Cooper (1607/8-1672), Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), 1657, watercolour on vellum, © Compton Verney, photo Jamie Woodley
Below left Peter Oliver (1594-1648) Venetia, Lady Digby (née Stanley) (1600–1633), with her hair falling to her shoulders, c. 16151620, watercolour on vellum, image courtesy of the Limner Company
Below right John Smart (1741-1811) Portrait miniature of a lady, wearing fur-bordered mauve dress with embroidered pointed lace collar and pinkpowdered hair, dated 1785, recently sold by e Limner Company (not in exhibition)
a rarely-seen yellow (sa ron-dyed) ru , an example of the eeting fashions captured in miniature that were rarely included in other forms of portraiture.
As the art form developed, oil on copper was used and, during the 18th century, watercolour on ivory became the prevailing technique. Introduced by the Venetian painter Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757), the use of ivory gave the portraits a translucent quality which lent itself to the depiction of the luminosity of the skin and was soon adopted by British miniaturists. is period is referred to as the ‘golden age’ of the portrait miniature. e art form became increasingly popular, boosted across class divide by the increase in the nation’s wealth. Enamel was another method adopted by miniaturists. Painted on metal, usually copper or sometimes gold and then red in a kiln, it was a less fragile alternative to the delicate nature of ivory.
Soon miniatures could be seen gracing the hands, wrists
shoulders in three-quarter view with a tight realism achieved with fine detail and skill. The changing fashions in hairstyles and dress help date the portraits and give us an idea of the status of the sitter’
jewellers to surround their portraits in a halo of pearls or precious stones. e war in Europe and America, as well as increasing trade in far- ung climes and the popularity of the Grand Tour, saw great demand for miniature portraits of men in uniform and ‘coming of age’ portraits of young men. Infant mortality was also high and it was common practice to commission portrait miniatures of very young children.
Most miniatures were painted as head and shoulders in three-quarter view with a tight realism achieved with ne detail and skill. e changing fashions in hairstyles and dress help date the portraits and give us an idea of the status of the sitter.
Unlike larger, more formal portraits, which often stressed tradition and family status, miniatures re ected more up-to-date fashions, with young sitters often keen to emphasis how à la mode they were. Miniatures can give a unique insight into the prevailing styles of the day.
Wigs began to be powdered white at the beginning of the 18th century, but coloured powders, in pink, blue and lilac, were a short-lived craze of the 1770s-1780s.
Powder would also be scented and have essential oils added to them. In fact, it has been suggested that these oils could naturally deter lice, and had more of a purpose than just vanity.
Such powder would be applied to the wigs, or straight on to natural hair, using a pair of bellows, with a mask used to protect the face from being coated.
e work of John Smart (1741-1811) depicts more pinkhaired sitters than any other artist, and it may be that he
From the
Above right Isaac Oliver (c.1565-1617), Lady Dorothy Sidney (née Percy), Countess of Leicester (c.1598-1659), c.1615, watercolour on vellum, image courtesy of e Limner Company
The most extravagant and exclusive form of courtly entertainment during the first half of the 17th century was the masque. Huge sums of money were spent on these performances, which centred around ornate set designs, elaborate costumes, music and dances, with courtiers and royalty performing festivities late into the night. Usually commissioned by the monarch, masques explored allegorical and fantastical themes, lauding the triumph of virtue over vice.
The Masque of Blackness in 1605 was one of the most famous masques commissioned by Queen Anne, featuring extraordinary scenic effects designed by Inigo Jones, including waves, shells, and “floating” performers.
James I’s court masques were among the most opulent viewed as grand symbolic representations of the monarchy’s divine authority and cosmic order. The Salmacida Spolia in 1640, the final masque before the outbreak of the English Civil War, was a symbol of the king’s vision of peace and order.
To be represented in masque attire in a miniature portrait conveyed an exclusive status connected to the innermost court circles. Like the masque itself, the miniature had a selective audience which allowed them to be more daring than elsewhere. Isaac Oliver’s miniatures of masque performers show women, often in revealing costumes, wearing unusual jewellery and headpieces.
In the portrait above, the dangerously low-cut bodice, loose hair and flower crown worn by Lady Dorothy Sidney (née Percy), Countess of Leicester (c.1598-1659) suggests her outfit was inspired by a masque costume.
To better reflect the glittering atmosphere of the events, Nicholas Hilliard pioneered the use of silver and gold powder in his miniatures to depict sparkling jewels.
‘The heyday of the portrait miniature is considered to be the late Georgian period, when they had become almost ubiquitous among the burgeoning middle classes. Wearable miniatures graced the hands, wrists and décolletages of members from the highest echelons of society downwards’
Above From the exhibition e Re ected
Self: Portrait Miniatures 1540-1850, © Simon
Bevan
Left George Engleheart (1750-1829) A Boy (A Gentleman on the reverse), © Compton Verney
Right George Engleheart (1750-1829)
e commemorative aspect of miniatures was taken a step further with the inclusion of real human hair in miniatures’ frames. Usually seen in a glazed panel on the reverse of the frame, sometimes surrounding the portrait itself, or even braided into a bracelet or necklace to which the miniature was attached, the hair gave miniatures a relic-like quality.
profession as a peruke (wig) maker. His work is forensic in detail, with one showing the sitter with a dusting of hair powder having fallen onto his collar and shoulders.
e prominence of wigs for men would not last, however. In 1795, the British government levied a tax on hair powder of one guinea per year.
e French Revolution of 1789, also heralded a change away from elaborate wigs which were seen as symbolising excess and privilege. Natural hair was seen as more authentic and egalitarian, and people began cutting their hair short, especially men, to re ect this new, more practical aesthetic. Cumbersome, unfashionable wigs began to get smaller, and a focus on natural hair became more prominent across society.
Gent wearing spectacles possibly of a Rev. Liptrott, recently sold by e Limner Company (not in exhibition)
At a time when most people wore wigs or hair powder in public, including a lock of the sitter’s hair – revealing their natural hair colour – was an especially intimate gesture. Indeed, an etiquette developed around the practice of gifting hair.
Another style of note comes with a miniature by George Engleheart (below left) of the sitter wearing glasses. Just why they are featured in this particular miniature is a mystery- it is possible that these were very important to the sitter, or that Engleheart was just keen to experiment in this particular example.
With the dawn of photography in the mid 19th century, the fashion for commissioning portrait miniatures diminished. However, there were some Edwardian painters who carried on the tradition to great e ect, continuing with the Royal Miniature Society whose members are actively painting in miniature today.
e Re ected Self: Portrait Miniatures 1540-1850 continues at the Warwickshire-based gallery and museum Compton Verney until February 23. For details on e Limner Company, the portrait miniatures consultancy, go to www.portraitminiature.com
Left e reverse of the locket contains a lock of the sitter’s hair
Right Richard Cosway (1742-1821) A Lady, © Compton Verney, photo Jamie Woodley
Below left From the exhibition e Re ected Self: Portrait Miniatures 1540-1850, © Simon Bevan
Below right Richard Cosway (1742-1821)
Mrs Sturm, © Compton Verney, photo Jamie Woodley
Devon-born Cosway was one of the leading portrait miniature painters of the 18th century, who, along with a handful of competitors, satisfied the unquenchable Regency desire for grandeur with his ability to enhance his sitters’ beauty and elegance.
Appointed Miniature Painter to the Prince of Wales around 1786, he enjoyed continuous patronage from the prince, of whom he painted more than 50 portraits.
Throughout his career Cosway mastered the use of transparent pigments, which he painted onto ivory to exploit its natural glow. As seen in the example below much of the ivory behind the sitter’s head bare is left bare, allowing an almost ethereal surround. He also developed a technique which contrasted delicate stipple work in the face with more fluent brushwork in the body and background.
Another distinguishable feature of Cosway’s work is the sky background, which was made famous by him and later adopted by all miniaturists in Britain, and then the Continent.
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e collection of
Flight Lieutenant Bill
Townsend one of the pilots in the daring Dambusters raid – one of the RAF’s most famous-ever bombing operations – goes under the hammer this month
Partly thanks to the stirringly patriotic lm starring Sir Michael Redgrave, the Dambusters occupy a special place in the British imagination. And rightly so, the daring raid, known as Operation Chastise, was a frighteningly dangerous mission requiring technology and pilot skills never seen before.
One of the men standing on the runway at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire on that fateful night on May 16, 1943, was Gloucestershire-born Flight Lieutenant William “Bill” Townsend, who had been posted to the newlyformed 617 Squadron on April 4.
His AJ-O was one of 19 Lancasters taking part in the mission – the target being the heavily-defended Ruhr Valley, with its power plants and dams, which had long fuelled the Nazi war e ort’.
As his log book, part of the sale this month of Bill Townsend’s collection at the Cirencesterbased Dominic Winters Auctioneers details, he was joined on the
Above Maurice Gardner (b. 1926) Dambuster Take O , oil on canvas, showing Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend taking o for the raids on the night of May 17, 1943, signed lower left. It has an estimate of £1,000£1,500 at this month’s sale
Left One of two Dambuster logbooks kept by Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend, 617 Squadron, the pair has an estimate of £10,000£15,000.
Right e Möhne dam today, illustration only, not in this month’s sale, image Shutterstock
by ight
and air gunners Doug Webb and Ray Wilkinson. In total, the Dambusters, under Wing Commander Guy Gibson, were made up of 133 crew members, of which 56 never returned.
e primary targets were the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpé dams. Townsend’s crew was charged with destroying one of two secondary targets – the Ennepe Dam.
To avoid detection the mission had to be conducted at night and also involved ying at extremely low altitudes (just 60 feet) over enemy territory – even more risky for heavy bombers like the Lancaster. In addition to which the artillery was the specially designed “bouncing bomb” (developed by Barnes Wallis), weighing a hefty four tonnes and engineered to skip across water surface before exploding against the dam walls.
To ensure the bounce, and avoid the torpedo nets, it had to be spinning at precisely 500 rpm, before being dropped at a height of exactly 60 feet while the plane was ying at precisely 232 mph.
e distance the crews had to cover was also immense: Dambuster bombers had to y a 1,000-mile round trip, which involved crossing a number of heavily-defended areas. e risk of being shot down by enemy ghters or anti-aircraft re was high throughout the entire journey.
WHAT: The Bill Townsend Dambusters Collection, part of the military and aviation history, medals and militaria sale
When Townsend successfully arrived at the target at 3.37am the dam was shrouded in mist, adding to the difficulty. When finally launched, the bomb bounced twice but just missed the target, exploding just short of the dam.
Townsend and his crew headed for home, flying over the Möhne dam which had been successfully breached. But they were not out of the woods, with dawn fast approaching the Germans opened fire near the Dutch coast and the Lancaster was hit by heavy flak.
When they landed at 6.15am (the last aircraft to return safely home) only three engines were working. They were greeted by a group of Bomber Command’s most senior officers including “Bomber” Arthur Harris.
Of the 19 aircraft that participated, eight were shot down or lost, resulting in the loss of 53 crew members, while three men were captured and became prisoners of war.
Where: Dominic Winters Auctioneers, Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, GL7 5UQ
When: November 21
Viewing: November 18, 19, 20 and on the morning of the sale, and www.dominicwinter.com
We asked head of sale Henry Meadows for his sale highlights IN MY OPINION... To militaria collectors, how important is the Dambusters raid?
Significant historical actions will always command a high price due to the rarity and desirability for museums and collectors to add to their collections. We are expecting global interest, including bidders from the UK, America and Canada. Going forward, I would like to be given the opportunity to sell medal groups and logbooks from members of 617 squadron.
Have you come across any other pieces of Dambusters militaria?
Top left e entry from one of two Dambuster logbooks kept by Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend in the sale. It reads Operations, low level attack on Dams in Rhuhr. Möehne- Ader and Ennepe successful. is second log book has mission details signed by Wing Commander Guy Gibson
Above left Lancasters ying in formation, illustration only, not in this month’s sale, image Shutterstock
Left Maurice Gardner (b. 1926) Dambuster Return, oil on canvas, showing Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend returning from the raids, signed lower right. It has an estimate of £1,000-£1,500 at this month’s sale
Below right e Guy Gibson-signed menu sold for £15,000 in 2020
‘Gloucestershire-born Flight Lieutenant Bill Townsend, who had been posted to the newlyformed 617 Squadron on April 4, was the pilot of one of 19 Lancasters taking part in the mission –the target being the heavily-defended Ruhr Valley, with its power plants and dams, which had long fuelled the Nazi war effort’
In 2020, we sold a menu belonging to Barnes Wallis, which was signed by Guy Gibson (below). The dinner was hosted by Vickers at a Weybridge hotel the day after Gibson received his VC on June 22, 1943. Wallis was there with his wife, Molly, who was charmed when Gibson credited her husband with the raid’s entire success. This delighted her because a security blackout prevented public acknowledgement of his role. As the evening broke up, Gibson also signed Barnes Wallis’s collar to show that he was the real Dambuster – which pleased Molly even more.
We have also sold Dambuster pieces to the Tonbridge Battle of Britain Museum, such as relics recovered from the Lancaster flown by John Vere ‘Hoppy’ Hopgood. These included the top of a spark plug, a section of a Merlin engine, parachute and backplate, presented in a display case. A 617 squadron logbook, which included 10 Guy Gibson signatures, also sold for £10,000.
How important was the raid?
It not only boosted allied morale (much like the American Doolittle raid in 1942) but caused considerable disruption by destroying important dams which generated electricity for the surrounding areas.
It was also a daring attack using science (Barnes Wallis’s, bouncing bomb), innovation and bravery. While the mission had its successes and failures, the legacy of the Dambusters and the men involved (including Bill Townsend), remains a testament to the courage and ingenuity of those who participated in it.
From decorative enemas to bone saws, medical antiques have always fascinated collectors. On the opening of a new exhibition, Antique Collecting goes behind the curtain
Unless you are particularly macabre, or a serial killer, it’s unlikely that the majority of your collection will be given over to medical antiques. However, not only do they have an undoubted decorative appeal, and will spark a myriad of talking points, they also provide a link with the past like few other collectables (nothing touches history, quite literally, like an amputation kit).
Collectors and interiors specialists in search of unique “one-o ” pieces are also drawn to their aesthetic value, historical signi cance and craftsmanship, as well as the shock value of some deeply unpleasant medical practices of yesteryear – think leech.
Luckily for us, English medicine underwent signi cant transformations between 1500 and 1900, marked by key
Above
Right A 20th-century medical case, including bone saws, image Shutterstock, not in
milestones in anatomical discovery, medical theory, surgical advancement, and public health.
During this time, as well as a move from traditional humoral theories toward modern scienti c approaches, there were developments in both medical knowledge and a professionalisation of medical practice.
So, when the Royal College of Physicians this month unveiled an exhibition devoted to the subject, it was sure to attract collectors and social historians alike.
Take yourself back to the 1500s: a quarter of all infants died before their rst birthday, and nearly half of all children did not survive to adulthood. e plague, smallpox and dysentery were constant threats. Poor sanitation,
inadequate medical knowledge, and harsh living conditions further exacerbated the health risks faced.
Trained physicians were rare, expensive, and usually only available to the wealthy elite. Most people, especially in rural areas, turned to household medicine, where family members—often women—played the role of healer. e local “wise woman” or herbalist was also a crucial gure, trusted by the community to provide treatments for a variety of ailments.
Homemade remedies remained a trusted and necessary part of English medical practice, especially in rural and lower-class households.
Documented in “recipe” books, remedies were highly collaborative, detailed, and painstakingly handwritten household manuals. As such they defy categorisation – while not medical textbooks, they do contain an extraordinary wealth of medical information.
Recipes for plague water were typical for the period. Plague was a constant threat with treatments ranging from simple herbal mixtures to complex and detailed concoctions. e recipe above uses 18 sweet smelling herbs, possibly to combat the ‘bad air’ thought to transmit the disease.
Two di erent hands can be clearly seen on these pages. Both are unknown – there are no identifying inscriptions, attributions or dates, suggesting the preservation of
Medical antiques are popular among collectors due to their historical significance, craftsmanship and undoubted macabre appeal. Some of the most collectable include:
1 Surgical instruments
Bone saws, trephines, and amputation kits from the 19th and early 20th centuries are highly sought after, especially those in original cases. Instruments made from ivory, ebony, or brass often fetch high prices. Surgical sets used in wars and antique dental instruments are also in demand.
2 Apothecary jars and medicine bottles
Hand-blown glass apothecary jars with ornate labels, often made in the 18th or 19th centuries, are prized by collectors. Medicine bottles with original contents, unique labels, or coloured glass (cobalt blue, emerald green) are valuable. Bottles for quack medicines or those with poison symbols are especially collectible. English Delft jars also achieve high prices.
3 Quack medical devices
Devices that were marketed as cures for various ailments but had dubious scientific basis are popular. These include: electrotherapy devices like
Right Book of medical prescriptions and cookery recipes, © Royal College of Physicians
Below Antique prosthetic limbs are collected by some
knowledge was more important than the authors’ identities. As a result, the books often cite both the sources used, and the e ectiveness of the remedy, either with a testimonial or simply: ‘probatum est’, or ‘it is proved’.
e recipes include instructions for how to gather, measure, prepare and cook the ingredients. is could take place in the kitchen at the hearth, in the ‘still room’ of a local healer or aristocrat, or the preparation room of an apothecary.
‘Medical recipes include instructions for how to gather, measure, prepare and cook the ingredients. This could take place in the kitchen at the hearth, in the ‘still room’ of a local healer or aristocrat, or the preparation room of an apothecary’
belts; radium-based medical devices, including radioactive water dispensers.
4 Dental antiques
Early dentist chairs, foot-powered dental drills, and tooth extractors are favoured among dental professionals and general collectors. Early false teeth made from ivory or human teeth, or vintage dental moulds, are also collectable.
5 Bloodletting instruments
Bloodletting devices such as scarificators or cupping sets can find a market. Fleams, scarificators, and lancets were used for bloodletting in the 18th and 19th centuries. Brass or silver cases for these instruments make them even more desirable.
6 Stethoscopes and thermometers
Early stethoscopes, often made from wood, and mercury thermometers are highly collectable.
7 Medical furniture
7 Medical furniture
Operating tables, pharmacy cabinets, and surgeon’s stools from the 19th century are sought after for their industrial, functional design. The historical use in hospitals or asylums adds to their mystique.
asylums adds to their mystique.
8 Antique prosthetics
Early wooden or leather prosthetics, including artificial arms, legs, and hands, are fascinating both for their craftsmanship and for the glimpse they provide into the lives of past users.
9 Phrenology
Phrenology heads (used to map personality traits based on skull shape) are popular, especially those made from ceramics or plaster. Instruments used in earlier humoral theory medicine, such as leech jars, also attract collectors.
10 Antique eyewear and optometry tools
Early spectacles, especially those from the 18th century with delicate wire or tortoiseshell frames, are popular. Tools used in early eye surgery or optometry tests are niche collectables.
Such books came in all shapes and sizes, and their contents cross genders, professions and social classes from local healers to the aristocracy.
While most recipe books were commonly produced by people who were not medical professionals, the recipes they contain were largely based on accepted ancient medical tenets. So the theories of the Greek doctor Galen (AD 129–216), including works such as his On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body, were central in shaping medieval medicine. Galenic theory sees connections between celestial bodies, our human bodies, our health and our environment. Illness was, he believed, caused by an imbalance in the body’s four vital elements of black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood.
e four must be balanced to restore health and so purging became a mainstay of medicine for centuries, with remedies based on their purgative qualities, or because they were believed to directly a ect the body’s humeral balance. Astrology also in uenced medical thinking for centuries, due largely to Galen, from predicting an individual’s future health outcomes, to identifying the best times to prepare and administer remedies and perform treatments.
There was a longstanding belief that diseases travelled through the air – known as miasma theory.
Thus doctors wore beaklike masks which could be stuffed with herbs to prevent foul odours and disease. Another part of the early physician’s attire was a cane, due perhaps to the rod-waving Greek god of medicine, Asclepius. Canes came into vogue in Britain in the 18th century, as a means of emphasising intellectual rationality over physical prowess.
Left Bottles from an apothecary’s box, including pulverized ‘unicorn horn’ (narwhal horn), and bezoar stones, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not in exhibition
Right A collection of medical recipes, © Royal College of Physicians
Below left A physician wearing a 17th-century plague preventive, image courtesy of Wellcome Trust, public doman, not in exhibition
Below right Lady Catherine Sedley’s receipt book, 1686, © Royal College of Physicians
e overlap between professional medicine and home remedies produced tension between early physicians who often relied on herbal medicines, and apothecaries prepared remedies that were based on both professional and folk knowledge.
Women’s role as healers was also in dispute in the 16th and 17th centuries. As the professionalisation of medicine grew, male physicians and surgeons sought to regulate medical practice, leading to the marginalisation of female healers and their home-based medical – some of whom were accused of witchcraft. Despite this, women continued to play a key role in healthcare, particularly in rural and working-class communities where professional medical services were scarce.
Knowledge of plants and their medicinal properties was widespread, and the use of herbs like chamomile, mint, sage, and rosemary was common in addressing ailments such as fevers, digestive issues, headaches, and wounds. Elizabeth Blackwell (c.1700–1758) was a skilled and resourceful botanist, illustrator and entrepreneur. Between 1737–1739 she published a two-volume work Curious Herbal containing 500 medicinal plants which she personally illustrated, engraved and hand painted.
e manual was a means of rescuing her family from nancial crisis after her husband had been ned for running a printing business without the compulsory apprenticeship and sent to debtors’ prison.
From his cell he provided scienti c names and texts for the illustrations with the word Curious meaning accurate and precise. e book was endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians, showing it contained formally-accepted medical knowledge. It was a signi cant contribution by a woman to the wider understanding of medicinal ingredients and their domestic use.
Medicine chests tended to be called “apothecary boxes” which is a misnomer because it implies they are mainly used by doctors whereas in reality they were produced for use in the home by the heads of the household, or clergymen treating parishioners, or ships’ doctors. In this respect, they represent precursors to today’s rst aid kits rather than a doctor’s black bag. eir contents were quite standardised with many of the contents used for purging. Chests would typically included powdered cathartic drug, similar to a laxative) made from the roots of the ipomoea purga plant from Mexico, and ipecacuan powder (a powerful emetic) made from a owering plant native to central and northern South America.
Some of the contents are known to be toxic today, such as Antimon.L powder, which contains antimony and calomel, a mercury chloride mineral. Other medications include opium for pain relief, plus astringents and stimulants, including ginger and lavender.
Cases typically included a manual which listed the contents and how to use them. e manuals suggest the equipment for purging (enema nozzles) and bloodletting should be done by a professional.
Blackwell’s Curious Herbal, containing some 500 engraved images (or “cuts”) of medicinal plants, © Royal College of Physicians
Above right Portrait of Nicholas Culpeper, etching, by printmaker Richard Gaywood, courtesy of the British Museum, public domain
Official medical knowledge was restricted and closely guarded in the 1600s. At the top of the profession physicians (doctors) were university-educated and passed examinations to qualify them to prescribe. Lower down the hierarchy, apothecaries and barbersurgeons learned through apprenticeships.
But medical knowledge was becoming more widespread. One doctor in particular, Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654), was determined to make protected medical knowledge accessible to the non-professional population. His book The English Physician Enlarged, 1653, was widely used to guide home care. He translated medical knowledge from Latin into English to make it more accessible.
Towards the end of the 18th century, more medical treatises were written by physicians. The best known being Domestic Medicine by William Buchan (1729-1805) published in 1769 with a total of 19 editions, which was translated into a number of languages, including Russian.
Below left Apothecary cabinet, German, c.1617. Made from ebonized pearwood (pyrus communis) and ebony, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not in exhibition
Below right Weighing scales and box, photo by John Chase © Royal College of Physicians
Other tools included scales, a pestle and mortar, spoons, spatulas and pill tiles. It also contained a cylindrical cardboard weight box housing six larger weights and seven smaller weights.
‘Plague was a constant medical threat and there were many different types of treatments, ranging from simple herbal mixtures to complex and detailed concoctions. One recipe uses 18 sweet smelling herbs, possibly to combat the ‘bad air’ thought to transmit the disease’
Sets were usually based on the Apothecary’s Troy system, which used grains as the basis for the weights. One scruple equalled 20 grains; one drachm was 60 grains, one ounce was 480 grains with one pound (12 ounces) made up of 5,760 grains.
Healing Words: e Uno cial Story of Medical Practice in England 1500-1800 is on at the Royal College of Physicians 11 St Andrews Place, London NW1 4LE, until July 25 next year. For more details go to www.rcp.ac.uk
We asked James Gooch owner of the Buckinghamshire-based dealer Doe and Hope for his tips on collecting medical antiques
QWhat are the sure-fire sellers?
AThere really isn’t any such thing, but usually medical items with decorative merit are the best bets – such as pre-1900 apothecary bottles. Glazed jars were used for centuries for the storage of powders, oils, ointments and syrups. Other similar jars, with holes in the lids, were used for leeches.
Also look out for medicine chests which are always popular, those with old labels are always the best. Try to find ones that haven’t been added to over the years and remain original. Versions with no carrying handles that might have been carried around in a larger crate (think the back of a mule in India) appeal to collectors of campaign furniture.
QHow is the market for quirky and the macabre?
A It peaked for me around 2015 but, as with anything, it comes in waves and there will always be an appetite for rare and macabre pieces – albeit a narrow market. I like items that tell a story even if it’s a macabre one – an amputation saw, for instance. It may sound horrific but imagine if it could talk...it would
‘I
like items that tell a story even if it’s a macabre one – an amputation saw, for instance. It might sound horrific, but imagine if it could talk...it would shout, or rather squeal, a hundred stories.’
shout, or rather squeal, a hundred stories.
Prior to the invention of antiseptics, amputation was often the treatment of first, rather than last, resort, to prevent infection. After skin and muscle had been severed, an amputation saw would cut through the bone. As such it was a major part of any amputation set, and without one, the medical set was seriously compromised.
Another popular choice is anything relating to quack cures. We recently sold a Victorian electric shock therapy machine. On the underside of the lid was the original label, which had instructions for use, and also rather amusingly illustrations of the machine in use.
traits, or an electric corset for ladies who wished to
In the mid 18th century it was claimed that electricity could treat almost every conceivable ailment. One could buy phrenology helmets that could apply electricity to various areas of the head to improve its traits, or an electric corset for ladies who wished to shed a few pounds. Gents could purchase Dr Moffats Electropathic Belt for Extra Vigour, electropathic socks, or even Dr Scott’s Electric hairbrush.
We recently sold a pair of decorative enemas – another glimpse into bygone medical practices. Before the widespread use of modern plumbing and public toilets, enemas were used to regulate bowel movements in more controlled environments.
Before modern versions, tools like animal bladders, hollow reeds, or tubes made from natural materials were used.
QWho, in the main, are the buyers?
AUsually it is gentlemen with a curiosity cabinet, or anyone that likes to have a conversation starter at a dinner party. Otherwise, it’s hardcore collectors who want a very specific item for their collection. When it comes to medicine chests, they are of significant interest to not only the collector of medical history, or indeed campaign furniture, but also to those searching for an original shop front display or decorative fix for a dull room or window, for which, there is no equal.
Left Medical bottles can be decorative as well as practical, image Shutterstock
Below far left A Victorian electric shock therapy machine, image courtesy of Doe and Hope
Right A collection of trap-door spider nests was one of James’ more unusual sales, image courtesy of Doe and Hope
Below left A pair of well-decorated Victorian enemas, image courtesy of Doe and Hope
QWhat’s the oddest thing you have ever sold?
AA very difficult question because ‘odd’ means different things to different peoplea collection of trap-door spider nests spring to mind. They had the original handwritten paper label reading; “Nest of Trapdoor Spider, Ladysmith Natal, 1897, fam. Theraphosidae, Cyrtocarenum rufidens”.
Such spiders construct silk-lined nests in the ground; at the entrance they build a hinged ‘trap-door’. It is difficult to see when it is closed because the plant and soil materials effectively camouflage it.
The spider detects its prey by vibrations and, when it comes close enough, leaps out of its burrow to make the capture. The nests were collected just a couple of years prior to the Battle of Ladysmith, which was one of the early engagements of the Second Boer War in South Africa. With the added bonus of a bona fide date, this is a very hard-to-find collection of fascinating natural history; truly deserving a place in any cabinet of curiosities of merit.
Q
What would be your ideal find?
A I am obsessed by disasters. So anything Titanic-related or, more recently, to do with Air France Flight 447 or the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 appeals. The former was an international passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 people on board. The latter was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and disappeared under mysterious circumstances on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people. Despite extensive search efforts, most of the aircraft remains missing, making it one of the greatest aviation mysteries in history. Other than that, I love finding untouched country house antiques made by people who cared about their craft and which have been not been meddled with since.
Q What aspects are important?
A
Like all antiques, condition, rarity and provenance are all important. In my opinion I put condition last and originality first - but everyone is different. Some clients seek out pieces that look like they are a day old, which I understand, but I prefer items to show the journey they have been on.
Doe and Hope is based in the Buckinghamshire market town of Olney and open by appointment. For more details visit www.doeandhope.com
A rst-hand account of the famous Christmas Day cease re in the trenches has come to light, recollecting one of the most poignant events of WWI, writes Eric Knowles
In the history of con ict, the scene is legendary. e day WWI soldiers lay down their arms, to sing Christmas carols, smoke together and even play an impromptu game of football on land that hours earlier had been a killing eld.
Ironically, a day after celebrating with the enemy Ferguson was wounded at Messines, Belgium, on Boxing Day, 1914. He wrote: “Dec 26 … a shell struck me. Left arm amputated at elbow and shrapnel wound left thigh. In all I had six pieces of shrapnel and two bullets removed but I knew it was not our new friends, the Bavarians, who shot me but the artillery of the Prussians.”
e album, which is o ered for sale this month, was discovered 60 years after the death of its owner, Derby nurse Maude Lineham in 1964. Maude had cared for wounded soldiers at Derbyshire Royal In rmary and was determined their experiences should not be forgotten.
Maude Lineham who cared for recuperating soldiers in Derby
It is brimming with touching poems, tales of war wounds su ered at Ypres, La Bassée, Armentières and Messines, as well as poignant tributes to nurses and sketches. One page (below) is dominated by a fragment of a white German surrender ag. Sgt Jones of the 1/5 Kings Liverpool Regiment wrote: “A piece of a German white ag...taken from a prisoner who surrendered with 120 more at Festubert [France] on May 17, 1915 to the British’.”
Another contribution describes the sinking of the hospital ship Anglia on November 17, 1915. e vessel, which was carrying 390 injured soldiers from Calais to Dover, struck a German U-boat mine. It sank in 15 minutes causing the death of 134 men. e wreckage was declared an o cial war grave.
Survivor C Gordon, of the King’s Royal Ri e Corps, who boarded the ship by stretcher, wrote: “I shall never forget climbing all of the stairs in our sleeping suits, no time to dress.” On deck he met scenes of chaos: “I kept my not-all-together cool. Standing beside me was a ne young fellow … He seemed extraordinarily calm. He asked if I could swim. I answered yes... He said let’s swim for the torpedo boat... O we went and came up on the water together, swam to the boat and so we were saved and had a nice lot of rum from the sailors.”
e day is described in moving detail by John F. Ferguson of the Seaforth Highlanders – one of the rst men to emerge into no man’s land after both soldiers on both sides started singing carols on December 25, 1914. His words appear as one of the entries in an album kept by a Derbyshire nurse who later looked after him. In it he wrote: “Soon most of my company, hearing I had gone, followed us...What a sight it was, little groups of Germans and British extending almost the length of our front. Out of the darkness came laughter and talking, lighted cigarettes and the ash of matches. Germans and Seventh lighting each other’s cigarettes and exchanging souvenirs… Here we were laughing and talking to men whom only a few hours earlier we were trying to kill.”
e famous football match soon followed. Private Ferguson continued: “It was like being in a di erent world. Here we were, Christmas Day in the trenches and able to walk about with our heads up. Some of our men even left the trench to play football - a party from our ‘B’ went over and were photographed with the Germans... We had made friends with the enemy and all day kept calling and joking across the trenches.”
Above Part of the entry by John F Ferguson of the Seaforth Highlanders describing the extraordinary cease re
Right Fragment of a white surrender ag, part of the WW1 album kept by a Derby nurse
Each page is a testament to the bravery of those soldiers and it has been an honour to have played a small part in its history.
e album goes under the hammer at Hansons’ militaria sale on November 13 with a guide price of £400-£600.
‘The album was discovered 60 years after the death of its owner, Derby nurse Maude Lineham in 1964. Maude had cared for wounded soldiers and was determined their experiences should not be forgotten’
Boost your antique bragging rights by scoring high in the latest o ering from our resident puzzles editor, Peter Wade-Wright
Q1 Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) is rightly remembered for endowments that formed the basis of the British Museum collection. For what else is he famously recognised? (a) shoe-stretchers, (b) milk chocolate, (c) pasteboard coasters, (d) mixer taps.
Q2 omas Tapling (1855-1891) gave the British Museum his collection of what? (a) ablution hardware, (b) parasols, (c) stamps, (d) aboriginal weapons.
Q3 One of the nest nature artists of the 18th century was Sydney Parkinson (1745-1771). On James Cook’s voyage of discovery in Endeavour, Parkinson had trouble with his paints. What happened? (a) they dried too quickly, (b) they became adulterated with bilge-water, (c) already-inebriated sailors drank them, (d) insects ate them.
Q4 Collectors of cricket memorabilia may be lucky enough to own articles presented to ladies at Eton v. Harrow matches in the 1870s by the perfumier Eugene Rimmel. What were they? (a) small, cricket-ball shaped ‘samplers’, (b) paper fans, (c) glass ‘marbles’ in school colours, (d) perfume infused cricket-bat shaped sticks.
Q5 What does the Japanese term okimono refer to?
Something to… (a) display, (b) wear, (c) use as a weapon, (d) ride, such as a hobby-horse.
Q6 An albarello is (a) Venetian white glass decorative design, (b) a small altar ornament, (c) a cylindrical maiolica drug pot, (d) a medieval Italian sauce-pan.
Q7 French alentours are (a) cycling memorabilia, (b) chanson concert programmes especially Édith Piaf’s, (c) tapestry borders, (d) pre-WWII postcards.
Q8 e American rm of Lenox has, since 1918 (and for most of the 20th century) produced what? (a) napkins, (b) glassware, (c) riding boots, (d) dinnerware.
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 October 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.
Anagram (a) e Queen’s House in Greenwich is an example of which style of architecture?
Q3 Sydney Parkinson’s (1745–1771) picture of three paddles from New Zealand. But why was his work hampered?
The letters in the highlighted squares could be rearranged to make the word rococo. The three winners who will each receive a copy of the book are Christian Cain, Turin, by email; Jacob Thomas, by email and Mrs Joyce Carrington, by email.
Q9 It is generally considered that in the 18th century John Spilsbury (1739-1769) had the idea for what…? (a) ‘jigsaw’ puzzles, (b) lettered cards for an early ‘scrabble’ game, (c) desk-top ornaments, (d) printed washing-instructions ‘for the education of domestic servants’.
Q10 Which of the following, in the 19th century, is credited with the female attire of the same name? (a) Miss Crinoline, (b) Mrs. Bloomer, (c) Madame Bonnet, (d) Lady Bustle.
Finally, here are four anagrams (a) Inlaid plasma; (b) real loci, (c) Square omen, and (d) Pinup declarer.
Rearrange them to form four architectural terms: (a) A style following classical Roman conventions based on the work of a 16th-century Italian architect. (b) Ornamentation of the 18th century named after shells. (c) A style from the 6th century characterised by round arches. (d) e third phase of English Gothic (c. 1340-1530) with straight horizontal and vertical lines.
1 Figure realised by an item at auction. (6, 5)
7 Visual art form of great versatility and skill…if done well. (4)
8 Era of the big band…and the title of the 18th-century painting by Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) considered a rococo masterpiece. (5)
9 Engrave metal, glass etc. with acid corrosion. (4)
11 Commonly encountered heraldic beast and one that Pepys makes mention of visiting at the Tower of London. (4)
12 Native north American mammal. Now considered a pest but which once played a considerable role in local mythology. (Accepted alt. sp.) (CORONA anag.) (6)
15 Belonging to an earlier time. (6)
18 Very basic conveyance on water…and The ____ of the Medusa 1818/19 painting by Théodore Géricault. (4)
19 A type of bid at auction, and ____ sesame = free or unrestricted access. (4)
20 Queen Victoria’s relationship to William IV. (5)
21 People and pre-Columbian empire…with neither a system of writing nor the wheel! (4)
22 Keyboard instrument using quills or metal points (plectra) to pluck strings. (11)
2 The quality of being a pH value that causes paper to become discoloured and brittle over time, i.e. ‘slow fire’. (7)
3 Something kept or given as a reminder. (7)
4 Now abolished title once given to Turkish governors and high ranking 14-down. (5)
5 _____ Jones (1573-1652). Celebrated English architect who designed using Vitruvian proportion and symmetry. (5)
6____ marbles. The name by which some ancient Greek sculptures held by the British Museum are known, having been brought to Britain by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of ____ (5)
10 To develop insidiously e.g. a price at auction? Also the gradual altering of shape, especially of metals, under stress. (5)
13 From the most south-western county of Britain…and Norman _____ (1919-2014) English miner and artist who particularly focused on mining life and community in the North East. (7)
14 Georgian and Victorian gentleman’s occupation that spawned a variety of portable furniture in those eras. (7)
15 A traditional tête-à-tête seat is also known as a courting ____ (5)
16 Howard ____ (1896-1974). Hollywood fashion and costume designer during the Golden Age of the American (7-Across) industry. (5)
17 Christmas carols (pl.) (5)
Finally, rearrange the letters in the highlighted squares to form the name given to the architectural level with its own windows, and especially above a church triforium. (10)
Having been in storage for 100 years, prints from a remarkable WWI portfolio of propaganda posters, some by the leading artists of the 20th century, are once more available to buy, Antique Collecting reports
In 1916, WWI was intensifying: nearly half a million British men were dead, with no end in sight. David Lloyd George had succeeded Herbert Asquith as prime minister, highly aware of the public’s growing disillusionment at the conduct of the war. At the same time, the need to recruit servicemen was pressing.
In February, a rst bill, conscripting single men aged 18 to 41 was passed, followed by a second one in June allowing for the call up of married and widowed men. e problem was such legislation was very close to the militarism Britain was ghting against. e need to carry public support for the war in France was critical.
e thrust of propaganda had to shift from patriotic recruitment campaigns, such as Kitchener’s famous “Britons Your Country Needs You”, to a reminder to a war-weary public (both at home and throughout the allied nations) why the con ict was so necessary. e result was the most ambitious print project of the WWI.
At the centre of any plan to boost morale was Wellington House, the new government department secretly set up to centralise and intensify Britain’s propaganda e orts.
In charge of visual propaganda and war art, was the writer and Liberal MP, Charles Masterman, who early in 1917 received a proposal from the department’s art editor, the illustrator omas Derrick (1885–1954), for its most far-reaching campaign to date.
e plan was to commission 22 artists (later reduced to 18) who would be charged with producing 66 lithographs between them.
It was no mean feat, organising artists (some of whom were serving at the Front) and moving equipment across a country at war, was a huge task. But the result was also staggering – a portfolio of work called e Great War: Britain’s E orts and Ideals.
Above Maurice Grei enhagen (1862 – 1931) e Restoration of AlsaceLorraine to France. e personi cation of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, lost to Germany in 1871, from the Ideals series
Right Sir Muirhead Bone (1876 - 1953) On Fitting out a Basin, lithograph from the E orts, part of the Building Ships series
Each of the 66 lithographs were produced in a limitededition of 200 signed copies, with a further 100 unsigned impressions. Some were sold to fuel the war e ort and, after the war, continued to be available to purchase via the Grosvenor Galleries. In 1923, they went rst to His Majesty’s Stationery O ce and then to the newlyformed Imperial War Museum. ere they remained un-accessioned, until the recent decision was made to put the remaining stock up for sale.
For print a cionados and militaria lovers, as well as ne art devotees, the lithographs are a mouth-watering prospect, not least because the initiative engaged some of the country’s most celebrated artists, including CRW Nevinson, Eric Kennington, Muirhead Bone, as well as an older coterie such as Augustus John, George Clausen, Frank Brangwyn and William Rothenstein. e lithographs were divided into two thematic categories: E orts and Ideals. e former comprised six prints from nine artists, with the latter made up of one print from 12 artists. Only Rothenstein contributed to both series.
e E orts were based on subjects allocated by Masterman. Each artist was given a theme with some matched to their artistic skill set. Many of the subject titles: Making Soldiers, Making Sailors, Making Guns,
‘By
A great deal of the success of the project lay at the feet of one man, the talented Huddersfieldborn lithographer, F. Ernest Jackson (1872-1945). He started off as an apprentice lithographer to a local printing firm and went on to train in Paris in the late 1890s. When he returned to London, having witnessed the revival of lithography in France, Jackson became one of the founders of the Senefelder Club, named after Alois Senefelder (1771-1834) who had invented lithography in Munich in the late 18th century. The club’s aim was to revive artistic lithography which, at the time, was seen by UK artists as expensive and overly complicated.
Above left Archibald Standish Hartrick (1864 - 1950) On Munitions: Heavy Work - Drilling and Casting, lithograph frrom the E orts, part of the Women’s Work series
Above right F. Ernest Jackson (1872-1945) Defence Against Aggression (England and France, 1914) one of 12 coloured lithographs from the Ideals
1916 the thrust of propaganda was shifting from patriotic recruitment campaigns such as Kitchener’s famous “Britons Your Country Needs You” to something more subtle reminding a war-weary public (both at home and throughout the allied nations) why the conflict was so necessary’
Jackson also taught at various London County Council art schools in Croydon, Camberwell, Chelsea and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. As such, his credentials made him the ideal candidate as the lithographic advisor to the Department of Information at Wellington House. As well as commissioning artists (most of whom were new to lithography) for the Efforts and Ideals, he was charged with supplying materials, including the stone. While managing the project he also contributed one of the Ideals, namely United Against Aggression (England and France, 1914). In it, the allegorical figures of both countries are depicted in medieval dress, valiantly defending against the black eagle of Germany. Referring to ‘England’, rather than Britain, may have been an attempt to appeal to a still neutral America, by presenting a small island country in need of help, rather than a global power with an empire.
Building Ships, Building Aircraft and Women’s Work –presented the war as a creative rather than a destructive process. Each was printed in monochrome and was smaller than the Ideals. From volunteers to female munitioneers, these were ‘real’ Britons, with the prints’ comparative simplicity hinting at honest records of actual war work.
e 12, larger, coloured prints making up the Ideals were more esoteric, addressing the question of why Britain was at war. A major objective of the Department of Information (DOI) in early 1917 was to encourage the neutral US to join the war on the side of the British and French, so one theme was the justness of the allies’ cause.
e Ideals used allegory and symbolism to convey the moral reasons for the con ict. While the subjects may appear somewhat obscure to modern eyes (such as Maurice Grei enhagen’s e Restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France and William Nicholson’s e Restoration of Serbia) the symbolism would be apparent to its war-time audience. Like a poster, they are instructive, but also emotive. While the E orts inspire awe and pride, the Ideals were aimed at global goals.
e fact the portfolio was high-brow in concept may have been deliberate. Its price point – the E orts were sold for £2 2s 0d (£100) each and the Ideals £10 10s 0d (£500) –meant it was targeted at the liberal elite rather than the average citizen.
Below left Christopher Richard Wynne (CRW) Nevinson (1889-1946)
In the Air, from the Building Aircraft series
It is a printing technique based on the principle that oil and water do not mix. An artist draws an image onto a smooth surface, traditionally a limestone, with a greasy material.
Ink is then rolled onto the surface, it is attracted to the drawing, but repelled by the dampened un-drawn areas. Paper is laid down on the stone and run through a press. Different effects can be achieved using different greasy materials to draw. These can imitate a chalk or pencil drawing or even watercolour.
Many of these prints were produced using a ‘transfer’ method, where a drawing made on special paper is transferred to the stone, rather than working on it directly.
For colour lithographs, the artist begins with the design on a key-stone using one colour. Any further colours require a different stone, inked up and printed one on top of another.
Imperial War Museum curator, Claire Brenard, said: “By engaging artists of the calibre, the DOI was appealing to ‘cultured’ and crucially in uential audiences. ese were the sorts of circles that attended art exhibitions and had the means to buy original art.
“Many among Britain’s liberal elite were discontent at the long war, with paci st sentiment rising following the publication of soldier-poet Siegfried Sassoon’s statement of protest in June 1917 – against a war he felt was ‘deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it’.”
E orts artist Kennington was born in Chelsea, the son of a well-known portrait artist. He studied at St Paul’s Art School, the Lambeth School of Art and the City and Guilds School before enrolling as a private in the 13th (Kensington) Battalion London Regiment. He fought on the Western Front, in northern France until he was given an honourable medical discharge in June 1915.
Due to his service, at the DOI, Masterman considered him an ideal candidate for the theme of Making Soldiers. Kennington’s six drawings (opposite) depict the process of training army conscripts. Like others in the series, they steer clear of the horror of war and, instead, focus on the admirable resolve of the ghting man and his courage.
‘The fact the portfolio was highbrow in concept may have been deliberate. Its price point – the Efforts were sold for £2 2s 0d (£100) each and the Ideals £10 10s 0d (£500) – meant it was targeted at the liberal elite rather than the average citizen’
‘The 54 prints (six from nine artists) were based on allocated subjects (some matched to their artistic skill set). The titles – MakingSoldiers,Making Sailors,MakingGuns,BuildingShips and BuildingAircraft – presented the war as a creative rather than a destructive process’
The Official War Artists Scheme, which became more formalised in WWII, received its first official government backing in June 1916.
It was largely supported by officials in Wellington House and championed in particular by Charles Masterman. One of its leading proponents was the Scottish printmaker Muirhead Bone (1876-1953). Bone, also a talented draughtsman, suggested artists be sent to France to record the war as “competent eye witnesses”.
When the scheme was given the green light, Bone was sent to the Front as the first Official War Artist, with the honorary rank of second lieutenant and an annual salary of £500. Over the next two and a half years he was joined by a number of notable artists including Nevinson, John Singer Sargent, Sir Stanley Spencer, David Bomberg and, later in the war, Augustus John.
Right Sir Muirhead Bone (1876-1953)
Ready for Sea, from the Building Ships series
Below left Sir Muirhead Bone (1876 -1953) Shipyard seen from a Crane from the Building Ships series
Below right Sir Muirhead Bone (18761953) e Shipyard, from the Building Ships series
As one of Britain’s leading draughtsmen, Bone was renowned for the almost photographic detail he achieved in his drawings.
As well as recording the war on the Front, Bone spent time on the Clyde in Scotland, documenting shipbuilding, sketching with a notebook strapped to his hand. ese prints show di erent stages in building ships, as well as views of the yard, with one from the top of a crane. One journalist wrote that his E orts: “Delight in the intricacies of sca olding and mechanical contrivances.”
‘When the scheme was given the green light, Bone was sent to the Front as the first Official War Artist, made a lieutenant and awarded an annual salary of £500. Over the next two and a half years he was joined by a number of notable artists’
Nevinson, the son of the well-known war correspondent and journalist Henry Nevinson. He was a former student of the Slade School of Art, and had also studied lithography under Ernest Jackson in 1912.
At the outbreak of war he volunteered as an ambulance driver. But, after been invalided out of the service with rheumatic fever in early 1916, he was keen to nd a position that would exempt him from further military service.
Following in Bone’s footsteps, he became an O cial War Artist in 1917 with the six lithographs Making Aircraft for the E orts his rst commission. To create the works he visited factories in north London and Norfolk to make drawings, and even took to the skies on a number of ights. e resulting prints show the process of building an aeroplane, from making parts, to assembly, and nally to ight. ey clearly show Nevinon’s leaning towards Futurism, each highlighting the wonder of new technology and thrill of ight. e popularity of his prints today means few of his series remain.
Below
Christopher
Welder from the Building Aircraft series
By 1917, almost one million women were working in the munitions industry. e DOI knew how important it was to recognise their labour (although they drew the line at commissioning any women artists for the E orts and Ideals). Archibald Standish Hartrick’s prints depict women workers as capable and even cheerful. Despite his making studies on the spot, there is no hint of the hardships and hazards involved by the women workers.
e completed set of the E orts and Ideals was shown for the rst time at the Fine Art Society in July 1917. Full sets were given to museums and galleries including the British Museum, Tate and V&A. e prints then toured galleries in Britain, Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
While the propaganda element is di cult to assess, media reaction was varied. e Illustrated London News wrote: “ e very soul of the war is to be read in the set of sixty-six brilliant lithographs.” e Daily Telegraph was less favourable, writing: “ eir e orts are in almost every instance sincere; yet the result is, on the whole, meagre and unsatisfying.” Others criticised their idealistic portrayal of war. Nevinson’s contribution was singled out, with the Society of Women Welders asking if it could use Acetylene Welder (left) on its posters.
In America, the reaction initially seemed positive. However, prints sales on both sides of the Atlantic failed to meet expectations and a loss was made on the project as a whole, with many remaining unsold.
Given the size of the run, according to Tom Edwards, from Abbott and Holder Ltd who won the IWM tender to sell the remaining prints, many are still waiting to be discovered. He said: “The prints were sold as a portfolio in a white folder and may not have even been hung. Given the scale of the project, and its international nature, there must be many more to be found.”
Today prices vary, with the most expensive being Kennington’s Making Soldiers series at £7,200 for all six; Hartrick’s Women’s Work is priced £1,800 for the set, with Nevinson’s Making Aircraft prints sold individually, ranging from £3,750-£15,000. The Ideals are sold both as a complete set of 12 (priced £5,400 ) and individually, with prices ranging from £450-£750, with proceeds going to the IWM. For more details visit www.abbottandholder.co.uk. Prints can also be bought from the IWM shop, www.iwm.org.uk
It’s always di cult putting a pre-sale guide price on something that’s an absolute one-o . So when a tiny 19th-century folk art diorama of a kitchen arrived in the saleroom, it had us scratching our heads.
Folk art refers to art, handicrafts and decorative ornaments produced by people with no formal training. But, while the maker was unknown, the attention to detail was exquisite. e entire scene was watched over by a 13cm (5in) tall peg doll in an original oral dress.
She was proudly surrounded by everything that a Victorian kitchen would have included, from a tin stove, to tiny cooking pots, and a brass warming pan hanging on a dresser stacked high with pewter plates and jugs.
Alongside a Lilliputian pestle and mortar was a box piled high with plaster food including a loaf of bread and tiny joint of meat. e diaorama was tted with slide o front and there was an inscription on the back, which gave a good idea of date. It read: is toy kitchen belonged to my father Alexander Brooke. He was born 29 August 1835 and died in 1919. It came to me from my grandmother when she died in 1888. I was eight years old. Margaret Nuttall.
For most of us the word ‘diorama’ conjures up visits to an old-fashioned museum, pausing at a dusty, life-size scene of stu ed animals roaming across an African savannah. At the height of their popularity in the 20th century, museum dioramas could be found in almost every natural history museum. e word literally means “through that which is seen”, from the Greek di meaning through and orama meaning that which is seen.
diorama dates to the mid 1800s
Far left A 13cm (5in) peg doll looks over the kitchen
Left e attention to detail included a tiny joint of meat and a cake
Below left Expected to sell for £600-£800, the diorama fetched £7,000
On a smaller scale, antique dioramas, particularly those depicting domestic scenes like kitchens, served multiple purposes. Some, like this one, were produced as toys or playsets for children. Others may have been more educational, teaching everything from food preparation to social hierarchies. ey also showcased the skills of their makers. By creating intricately detailed scenes, artisans were able to demonstrate their technical abilities in miniature modelling, sculpture and painting.
One of the odder, and more ghoulish, examples of the small-scale diorama came in the shape of e Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death – a series of 20 intricately designed dollhouse-style versions created by Dr Frances Glessner Lee (1878–1962), who was known as the “mother of forensic science”. Here, the dioramas’ purpose was as an educational tool for would-be detectives. ey were each mini crime scenes replete with dishevelled rooms and dead “bodies”. ese were dolls shown in intricate detail and various stage of decomposition.
By comparison the diorama we had the pleasure of selling was nowhere near as macabre. Our valuers put an estimate of £600-£800 on it, which soon sparked interest from both the UK and US (where they take their folk art very seriously) and were delighted when it sold for a nottoo-miniature price of £7,000.
Irita Marriott Auctioneers’ next two-day sale is on November 20-21 in Melbourne, Derbyshire. For more details go to www.iritamariottauctioneers.co.uk
Poor record keeping and misattribution means Scottish furniture makers have languished behind their better-known English counterparts. A new book is set to put the record straight, its author Stephen Jackson reports
Visitors to Edinburgh will often hear of Deacon William Brodie (1741–1788), by day a respectable cabinet maker, but by night a daring burglar. Detected in 1788, he escaped to Amsterdam only to be apprehended, tried, and hanged before a crowd of 40,000. Robert Louis Stevenson, who grew up in Edinburgh and was familiar with the tale, used it as inspiration for his 1886 novella e Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. While Brodie lives on in ctional form, the city’s visitors may search in vain to nd his furniture. In much the same way, a great many Scottish furniture makers have been overlooked. One of the best was Brodie’s father – the respectable, though lesserknown, cabinet maker Francis Brodie (1708-1782).
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Edinburgh was a thriving centre for craftsmanship and the arts. As Scotland established its place within a politically uni ed Britain, the volume of economic activity and the size of the population gradually increased. For the majority there was little or no improvement in living standards until well after 1750; but for those in a position to commission good quality furnishings, the cabinet-makers and upholsterers of Edinburgh were in a position to make them.
Francis Brodie is recorded in more accounts with noble clients than any other 18th-century Scottish cabinet maker. In 1740, the architect William Adam, father of the great Robert Adam, recommended him to the Duke of Hamilton as “the best man in town … I doubt if anyone else would please.”
e elder Brodie’s output is still rare: half a dozen documented pieces at Dumfries House in Ayrshire and a handful of items elsewhere reasonably attributed to him.
is sketchy pattern of survival is typical for Scottish furniture made before around 1770, but it does not mean that Scots did not make ne furniture.
Although nearly 50 clients are recorded in accounts submitted by Francis Brodie, making his workshop the most proli c of the mid-18th century, almost all of his surviving documented output is at Dumfries House, saved for the nation in 2007 by the Earl of Rothesay, now King Charles. Dumfries House is today at the epicentre of 18th-century Scottish furniture history, since few alterations were made to the building before the 1890s.
Little of the original furniture was ever removed, in addition to which the majority of the tradesmen’s bills have survived, enabling a large proportion of the contents to be precisely identi ed.
e house was completed in 1760 with that being the date for the installation of the majority of the Brodie furniture, but it was not Brodie who was commissioned to t it out. Most of the work fell to the renowned English maker omas Chippendale (1718-1779) in London and the Scottish cabinet maker Alexander Peter (1713-1772) in Edinburgh, with upholsterers Young and Trotter from the same city also receiving a valuable order.
Other skilled Edinburgh makers, alongside Brodie and Peter, took part in furnishing Dumfries house, including William Mathie (1733-1763), Peter’s one-time apprentice who supplied most of the carved work.
e Brodie family was part of a larger tradition of skilled artisans who contributed to making Edinburgh a key location for high-quality furniture. e city was home to various talented cabinet makers and furniture designers who catered to the tastes of wealthy clients, including the Scottish aristocracy and emerging middle class.
Above Cabinet by Cottier & Co., ebonised with penwork decoration, c.1878, all images unless otherwise stated © National Museums Scotland
Above right Bureau, or ‘desk and bookcase’, padouk wood, attributed to Francis Brodie, c.1755
Much of it remains in situ and includes some of the nest rococo carving produced in Scotland. Indeed, Lord Dumfries trusted Mathie to repair Chippendale’s work, supplying a ‘large Plate of Finishd Looking Glass’ and resilvering another ‘for the London Frame’.
Peter’s furniture for Dumfries House illustrates well the sort of ne quality functional furniture which the best of Scotland’s makers produced week in week out during
this period. His work for Dumfries house is also well documented by receipts including one for a chest of drawers of the ‘dressing table’ type, with a fold-over surface for writing or laying out clothes, which was billed at £3 15s. e form of these tables is distinctively Scottish and continued to be made very commonly in Scotland.
ey include a single-leaf table with the leaf, or “ ap,” hanging down the back of the table, most often with a drawer on the front rail but sometimes on the end rails. It was intended as a multi-functional table that could be easily stored against a wall when not in use.
e dining room at Dumfries was also furnished by Peter, with a set of 22 mahogany chairs with `Ossenburgh’ tapestry covers, being supplied in 1759 at a cost of £36.0s.0d. A Chinese ‘fret-carved’ sideboard en suite was also supplied by Peter in 1759 at a cost of £7.
Peter, the son of a farmer in Lauderdale, had trained under Deacon James Brownhill from 1713, purchasing his freedom in 1728 after completing the essay of a ‘wainscot press … of the Corinthian order after Scamozie’.
He was among the rst in Edinburgh to use mahogany, in 1733 supplying the Receiver General, Allan Whitefoord – a former cashier of the Royal Bank – with a ‘round couping tabel of mehogeney’.
Although Peter’s well-documented business and his surviving furniture overlap only at Dumfries House, other objects are attributed to him.
e carved chairs by Chippendale and Peter lining the corridor in the Picture Gallery highlight the contrast between Chippendale’s dynamic and organic shapes and Peter’s more formal solid design.
It has been suggested that Peter might have made other large sets of seat furniture dating from the 1740s, with a suite of chairs being part of the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool. Most of these sets feature distinctive needlework covers, the majority depicting scenes from Greek mythology.
Small details in construction often reveal furniture’s Scottish origin. Even into the 20th century, many Scottish country-made chairs were likely to have legs that tapered unevenly, with the outermost edge plumb to the floor.
Top One of a pair of gilt wood mirrors by William Mathie, image courtesy of Dumfries House, part of e King’s Foundation
Below left An eagle console table by Duncan Brodie, image courtesy of Dumfries House, part of e King’s Foundation
Above right Chair from Fife or Angus, made from laburnum wood, early 19th century
Above A sideboard table by Alexander Peter, image courtesy of Dumfries House, part of e King’s Foundation
‘The
The chair illustrated here is made from Scots laburnum, a timber widely employed in the eastern counties throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Laburnum alpinum is a larger tree than the Laburnum anagyroides, whose yellow flower clusters may be found in English gardens.
The former is native to Scotland, as it is in other parts of Europe, where it favours damp places and mountainous terrain. Its dark timber was an excellent substitute for mahogany
Equally, the style of Scottish houses led to a uniquely Scottish adaptation: distinctly narrow cabinets that could be easily carried up and down the spiral stairs of Edinburgh’s tall tenement buildings, or sideboards that replaced brass rails with an elevated wooden ‘stage’ for the display of silverware.
While Edinburgh was at the epicentre of Scottish furniture making in the 18th century, equally capable mid-18th century workshops were in operation elsewhere, such as those of William Crystall in Aberdeen and George Sandeman in Perth. By the 19th century, rapid growth in Scottish towns created work for resident furniture makers, such as James Mein in Kelso, Creighton and Gregan at Dumfries, or Cunningham and McWilliam of Kilmarnock.
In 1817, John Buchanan in the west-coast port of Greenock created a fantastical ‘polyterpic’ table’ which opens to reveal not only boards for chess, backgammon and cribbage but also an entire print-viewing device.
A zograscope – a combination of magnifying lens, mirror and cowl – could be placed above a series of panoramic prints mounted on rollers. Buchanan’s publicity pamphlet boasted that this o ered a ‘person of cultivated taste … an entertainment of no ordinary kind’.
elder Brodie’s output is still rare: half a dozen documented pieces at Dumfries House and a handful of items elsewhere reasonably attributed to him. This sketchy pattern of survival is typical for Scottish furniture but it does not mean Scots did not make fine furniture’
Left A polyterpic table by John Buchanan, mahogany, Greenock, c.1817
Right Centre table by William Trotter, oak, 1829, image courtesy of the Northern Lighthouse Board
Below left William Trotter, marble bust by Samuel Joseph, 1827, image courtesy of the City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries
Cabinet-making in Regency Scotland was, however, dominated by one man: William Trotter (1772–1833). In Edinburgh the Trotter workshop was far larger than any other, furnishing the interiors of the classical New Town as well as numerous country houses.
His father, omas, was one of the leading upholsterers and furniture makers of the late 18th century. When William took over the family rm he expanded it to become Scotland’s leading cabinet makers and upholsterer with a prominent Princes Street showroom, catering to an elite and wealthy clientele, including nobility and landed gentry.
e centre table illustrated above was made for the Northern Lighthouse Commission o ces in 1829. It may have been inspired by a popular stoneware pastille burner produced by Wedgwood, though the essential idea can be traced back to Bernini’s Fontana del Tritone in Rome.
Between 1825 and 1827 Trotter served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh, overseeing new thoroughfares through the Old Town and expansion of the docks at Leith. While he was in uenced by English designers such as omas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite, his work is distinctively Scottish, with certain motifs and proportions that set it apart from his English contemporaries.
19th-century Britain witnessed a brisk turnover in architectural and decorative art styles but it is not always appreciated how many designers had Scottish roots.
One such was Bruce James Talbert (1838-1881) a prominent member of the rst wave of Glaswegian architects and
designers, including Daniel Cottier (1838-1891) and the
proli c Glasgow-born designer Christopher Dresser (18341904). Talbert originally trained as a carver before working as an architectural draughtsman.
He went on to be a proli c commercial designer of furniture, metalwork, stained glass, wallpapers, textiles and carpets and produced several in uential publications, including Gothic Forms applied to Furniture Metalwork and Decoration for Domestic Purposes, which had a big impact on the way in which the revived Gothic style was used in domestic design.
But Talbert’s furniture, along with that of his contemporaries Cottier and John Moyr Smith (1839-1912) was largely made in England before being exported across the globe.
A subsequent generation of freelance designers remained in Scotland: gures such as Ernest Archibald Taylor (1874-1951), George Logan (1866-1939) and John Ednie (1876-1934), all of whom worked for Wylie and Lochhead.
e Glasgow company was started in 1829 by the cabinet makers Robert Wylie and William Lochhead who moved from simple co n building to running a number of successful workshops in the city, and were soon renowned for their artistic designs and high levels of craftsmanship, especially in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. e rm is often wrongly believed to have made almost all the art nouveau-in ected “Glasgow Style” furniture that caught on in Scotland in the years around 1900.
However, several factories located in Beith in Ayrshire, such as Pollock’s and Balfour’s, as well as A. H. McIntosh of Kirkcaldy and omas Justice in Dundee, were involved in promoting the new style. Certain suites of bedroom, dining
‘A
subsequent generation of freelance designers remained in Scotland: figures such as Ernest Archibald Taylor (1874-1951), George Logan (1866-1939) and John Ednie (1876-1934), all of whom worked for Wylie and Lochhead. The Glasgow company was started in 1829 by the cabinet makers Robert Wylie and William Lochhead’
room and drawing room furniture carrying the labels of English retailers can, in fact, be traced back to these factories.
Edinburgh in the late 19th century was home to several workshops making bespoke furniture and woodwork of exceptional quality: Morison’s, Scott Morton and Company, and Whytock & Reid.
All three executed designs by Robert Lorimer (18641929), Scotland’s most successful early 20th-century architect. Lorimer’s furniture embodied a unique blend of in uences. A reluctant member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, he preferred to epitomize the character of historic forms in understated pieces that demanded perfect craftsmanship.
He would sometimes blend characteristics from di erent countries and time periods and was especially responsive to the speci c qualities of timbers and other materials. His close working relationships with individual makers at the rms he employed to t-out the houses he designed were such that they continued to work in his manner for decades after his death.
Stephen Jackson is senior curator of furniture and woodwork, at National Museums Scotland and the editor of the Regional Furniture Society journal. His book Scottish Furniture: 1500-1914, is published by NMSE Publishing, priced £40. To order a copy go to www.nms.ac.uk and click on ‘shop’.
Many of today’s collectors favour vernacular furniture, with which Scotland is richly endowed. The unique form of the straw-backed Orkney chair was developed during the 19th century. It is recognised for its unique design, characterised by a low, solid wooden base and a high, curved back made from woven straw or sea-grass. These chairs were crafted to suit the harsh, windy conditions of the islands, offering both warmth and shelter from drafts in the often cold and exposed homes of Orkney.
The style might have died out but for the industry of a single man, David Munro Kirkness (1880-1936) of Kirkwall who standardised the style we know today.
Always popular and in demand, they come in a variety of styles and sizes,with hooded examples being the most sought after.
It is little appreciated, however, that Shetland and Fair Isle have their own distinct traditions in straw-backed chair-making.
It is assumed that a straw back was used across the islands where extreme weather conditions meant no trees are able to grow. Earlier examples usually have frames that are made from driftwood, which was gathered from the coastline.
Similarly, a unique form of rudimentarychair was made in the counties of Sutherlandand Caithness using naturally bent branches to form the basis of side rails and back uprights, connected by horizontal bars,and with the legs socketed in from below. The seats were often woven from materials such as straw or rushes, which added a layer of comfort. Their a balance of practicality, local material use, and a deep connection to the rural life of northern Scotland.
which added a layer of comfort. Their design reflects a balance of use, and
We asked Douglas Girton, head of fine furniture at the Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull for his tips
QWhy are we less familiar with Scottish makers, and how can we become better acquainted with the country’s designs?
AIt is true, when it comes to discussing Scottish furniture makers, the subject is typically overshadowed by their contemporaries south of the border, many of whom have become household names. Scotland was always a smaller market but nonetheless vibrant, and in some cases its relative remoteness from other influences allowed for more idiosyncratic styles.
One of the easiest ways to see variations is to compare chair styles which often are locationspecific depending on the individual chairmakers. This is particularly true with vernacular furniture which developed from regionalised tastes, functions and available resources.
Above A set of seven Whytock & Reid dining chairs, showing a Queen Anne in uence. It has an estimate of £600-£800 at Lyon & Turnbull’s Five Centuries sale on November 13-14
QWhich other makers should we be aware of?
A good example of this is the Darvel chair, Scotland’s closest relative to the Windsor armchair. They were made in the southwest Ayrshire town of Darvel, intended as comfortable, work-a-day chairs. We sold an example earlier this year for just over £1,000, but a canny collector can pick them up for as little as £250. Their influence can be seen in the New England comb-back Windsor chair, the style no doubt carried across the Atlantic by an immigrant Scottish joiner.
Below left A Darvel chair which sold earlier this year for around the £1,000 mark, both images courtesy of Lyon & Turnbull
A As well as those mentioned, look out for the work of the Edinburgh maker William Hamilton (1743-1790) and his son James (fl.17731801). The distinct pierced ladderback design must have been a popular option in the latter part of the 18th century in Scotland, because it appears on sets of chairs in a number of country houses being furnished by William Hamilton at that time, including Keir House in Sterlingshire, and Lennoxlove in East Lothian, and also for Trinity House, Leith. Longer sets were frequently broken up into smaller ones over time, so it is not unusual to encounter a pair of these chairs at auction where they sometimes can be picked up for £300 or less. One does need to be careful you are buying Georgian examples, as Victorian and early 20th-century copies were made to fill out existing sets. A good set of 12 Georgian of this type would probably sell at auction for £6,000-£8,000, or more, if they come with good provenance.
Q What about makers from the 20th century?
AAs mentioned, the preeminent furniture maker was Whytock & Reid, known for the high quality of its work and beautifully-figured timber. Under the artistic direction of Sir Robert Lorimer, they developed a unique style based on historic influences with a definite ‘modern’ edge. This month we are offering a set of seven dining chairs by the firm that clearly are derived from a Queen Anne antecedent, but with a more modern sensibility. They are offered at £600-£800 which seems a modest sum when considered against the cost of a set of modern dining chairs. Whytock & Reid furniture has a good following in Scotland due their reputation for incomparable quality, but pieces can pop up in other markets where they are less well known, so an eagle-eyed buyer may be able to spot a piece at a good price.
Lyon & Turnbull’s Five Centuries auction takes place at its Edinburgh saleroom and online on November 13-14.
e importance of Scottish embroidery is explored in a new exhibition charting 200 years of the art, from both professional and amateur makers
Made up of armchairs, re screens and table clothes, as well as more personal belongings, Stitched: Scotland’s Embroidered Art celebrates designs from 1720 to 1920 by makers – usually women- whose skills have been long unappreciated.
Over these two centuries, embroidery evolved from simple household craft to a celebrated art form, blending in uences from the Far East, Scottish Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the arts and crafts movement.
Above Gold table runner embroidered with owers (detail) from Hill of Tarvit, image © e National Trust for Scotland
Above right Firescreen embroidered by Lady Augusta KennedyErskine from the House of Dun, © e National Trust for Scotland
Below left Mahogany chair with tent-stitch and green velvet upholstering from Drum Castle, © e National Trust for Scotland
symbols. Cross-cultural in uences were also at work and the exhibition celebrates the textiles produced by professional embroiderers, such as a set of Chinese embroidered hangings from Newhailes House, c.1740, and Indian embroidered curtains from House of the Binns, c.1720s. Originally sought after for their beauty and perceived exoticism, these textiles also became symbols of status.
Women played a pivotal role in perpetuating embroidery skills, investing time and resource in local and national development schemes, including the 19th-century Kilbarchan Female School at the Weaver’s Cottage and the needlework school set up by Lady Aberdeen at Haddo House.
While the early 18th century saw embroidery as largely a domestic craft practised by women at home, with young girls showcasing their skills by making of samplers.
In wealthier households, women would create embroidered linens, clothing, and accessories, such as caps, cu s, and handkerchiefs. ese items often had oral motifs, crests, or family
Below right 19th-century embroidered tablecloth copied from an Italian table cover by Mrs Sandison (detail) from Haddo House, © e National Trust for Scotland
Stitched: Scotland’s Embroidered Art is on display at Dovecot Studios, 10 In rmary St, Edinburgh, from October 25 to January 18. practised
Below far right 19th-century embroidered tablecloth copied from an Italian table cover by Mrs Sandison (detail) from Haddo House, © e National Trust for Scotland. Mrs Sandison was a selftaught embroiderer and the daughter of an Aberdeenshire crofter
Over these two centuries, embroidery evolved from simple household craft to a celebrated art form, blending influences from the Far East, Scottish Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the arts and crafts movement.
e latter half of the 19th century saw the rise of the arts and crafts movement, which valued craftsmanship and traditional techniques over industrial mass production. Embroidery was central to this movement, with Scottish artists embracing a revival in handcrafted textiles. e Glasgow School of Art, led by artists like Charles Rennie Mackintosh, played a major role in this revival. Although Mackintosh himself was an architect and designer, his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (18641933) and her sister Frances Macdonald (1873-1921) were both renowned for their work in textiles and embroidery. e Glasgow Style incorporated geometric forms, oral motifs, and Celtic revival themes. Alongside the Mackintosh sisters other notable makers included Jessie Newbery (1864-1948) who created the department of embroidery at the Glasgow School of Art, and Ann Macbeth (1875-1948) another prominent gure from the school who championed embroidery as both decorative and a means of self-expression.
Chinese works of art go under the hammer in London this month, while Angelina Jolie’s Ferrari makes an appearance on the rostrum in Paris
A life-size silver fox, modelled in the late 19th century by famed Victorian taxidermist James Rowland Ward, has an estimate of £25,000-£35,000 at north Yorkshire auctioneers Tennants
A 1958 Ferrari owned by the Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie is expected to make £675,000 when it goes on sale this month.
The Ferrari 250 GT coupé, first unveiled at the 1954 Paris Motor Show, was one of a series of road-going, grand touring cars produced by Ferrari between 1954 and 1960.
Jolie and her ex-husband Brad Pitt have been embroiled in a long drawn-out legal battle over their various assets since they announced their split in 2016.
The car goes under the hammer at Christie’s Paris on November 20.
The 16kg model was presented to Sir Bache Cunard (1851-1925), legendary huntsman and scion of the Cunard shipping family, as a testimonial for his services to hunting in south Leicestershire, and was paid for by subscription by members of his hunt. A book of the subscribers’ names was housed in a drawer in the base of the sculpture.
Some 30 Maundy sets, the earliest of which dates back to the reign of Charles II, has an estimate of £20,000 when they appear for sale at Halls in Shrewsbury on November 6.
The first recorded participation of an English monarch in the ceremony was King John in 1210, where he gave alms to the poor of Knaresborough, Yorkshire. While early monarchs continued to imitate the actions of Christ by washing their subjects’ feet, the
A Chinese silver tankard retailed by Lee Ching (Li Sheng) has an estimate of £1,000-£2,000 at Duke’s Auctioneers’ Asian art sale on November 7 in Dorchester.
A racing helmet signed by Michael Schumacher is expected to make £500-£800 at Ewbank’s sporting sale in Woking on November 20.
The helmet, signed in silver pen on the visor, dates from the 2004 Grand Prix at Silverstone at which the F1 star secured his 10th victory of the season. In 2103, the seven-time world champion met with a life-threatening skiing accident in the French Alps.
Since then little has been known about his health
condition. According to reports, the 54-year-old has been residing privately in Switzerland, and details about his health have been kept confidential.
Lee Ching was one of the most important retailers in Canton after the 1st Opium War, known for supplying very fine pieces often in the neo-classical style. The company, which began in the 1840s, expanded to sell in Hong Kong in around 1880. The tankard was once in the collection of the American philanthropist and art collector, Elisabeth Severance Prentiss (1865-1944).
For the collector of Asian art, November signals some of the finest sales of the genre across the UK with Bonhams’ fine Chinese art sale leading the way.
Two pieces in particular stand out – one a large 18th-century famille rose plate – one of the earliest pieces of Imperial porcelain ever to come to the west; the second an earlier rouleau vase. A dragon motif, one of the country’s most potent images, is central to both.
The first, with a Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period, was owned by the diplomat, Richard Le Poer Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty (1767-1837), possibly acquired during missions to China in the 1790s or 1810s.
The removal of the dragon’s fifth claw signifies it was a gift to someone below the rank of emperor or king. In imperial China, only pieces intended for the emperor have five-clawed dragons. Its size – 54.8cm (21½ in) diameter –attests to the exceptional skills of the potters in the imperial kiln under the brief yet illustrious reign of the Yongzheng Emperor (1723-1735). The phrase famille rose refers to its decoration of predominantly pink-coloured enamel.
Equally rich in symbolism is a rare 78.5cm (31in) giltdecorated grisaille and iron-red ‘dragon’ rouleau vase, dated to the Kangxi period (1662-1722). The name refers to its straight cylindrical shape raising from an angular shoulder.
The depiction of two imperial five-clawed dragons was possibly carried out by Liu Yuan (c.1641–c.1691), who was responsible for many imperial porcelain pieces following the re-opening of Jingdezhen kilns during the Kangxi period.
The sale also includes 30 works of art and paintings from the collection of Martyn Gregory, one of the world’s leading dealers in China Trade paintings. One such is attributed to the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) who arrived in Beijing in 1715 as a young missionary and was assigned to work as an artisan in the palace’s enamelling workshop. Castiglione was famous for introducing Western techniques like perspective, depth and realistic portrayals previously not common in traditional Chinese art. He worked for three emperors over 50 years, taking on the Chinese name, Lang Shining.
His portrait of Prince Guogong (1733-1765), sixth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, is offered alongside two other 18th-century imperial oil paintings. For collectors wishing to learn more, two days before the sale, on November 5, Bonhams present a talk by Dr Patrick Conner entitled From China to the West: Martyn Gregory and the World of Chinese Export Paintings.
The fine Chinese art sale takes place at Bonhams New Bond Street on November 7.
1 A large, 54.8cm ( 21½ in) diameter famille-rose ‘dragon’ dish, with the Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period (1723-1735). It has an estimate of £250,000-£400,000 1a e dish shows the pinnacle of craftsmanship during the period. 1b A detail from the ‘dragon’ dish. 2 Attributed to Giuseppe Castiglione, also known by his Chinese name, Lang Shining (1688-1766), Portrait of Prince Guogong (1733-1765), sixth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, from the Martyn Gregory collection. It has an estimate of £80,000-£120,000. 3 Circle of Jean Denis Attiret (1702–1768) Portrait of Prince Guogong, sixth son of Yongzheng (1733-1765). It has an estimate of £80,000-£120,000 4 A large blue and white shbowl, Wanli six-character mark and of the period (1573-1620). It has an estimate of £100,000-£120,000 5 A large gilt-decorated grisaille and iron-red ‘dragon’ rouleau vase, Kangxi (1662-1722). From the collection of Edward Varley Kayley (d.1974), an English collector of Chinese ceramics and works of art. It has an estimate of £100,000-£200,000 5a A detail from the ‘dragon’ vase
SPACE POSTERS AND PAINTINGS – ART ABOUT NASA
BY BILL SCHWARTZ
ISBN 9781788842785
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111 PLACES IN LONDON THAT YOU SHOULDN’T MISS (REVISED 10TH EDITION)
BY JOHN SYKES
ISBN 9783740823795
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London is endlessly surprising. This book takes you to Little Ben and a junkyard, to markets and gardens, to Lenin’s office and a fake 10 Downing Street. The ultimate insider’s guide to London for locals and experienced travellers. Fully revised and updated edition.
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An award-winning, beautiful, and fascinating natural history of seeds, jointly created by an artist and a scientist, now with a fully updated text and new images. The story of how seeds evolved to ensure the survival of their species and how they adapted to their natural environments is stunningly illustrated, combining closeup photography with digitally enhanced scanning electron micrographs.
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This book explores all continents and countries in search of the most extraordinary national parks around the world. From desert parks to safari parks, from jungle areas to the highest mountains; each park has its unique story to tell. Serves as a practical travel guide but also as inspiration for those looking for the ultimate next travel destination. A traveller’s bucket list with a selection of the world’s most incredible natural parks.
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The Scottish Highlands is a place rich in history, a land of hills and craggy mountains, of secluded coves and sandy beaches, and appealing towns and villages. Written by someone who loves the Scottish Highlands whatever the weather, this book will help you explore this wonderfully beautiful corner of Britain.
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A unique collaboration between bestselling author Stephen Ellcock and textile expert Karun Thakar. Together, they share an inspiring vision of the world through the medium of textiles, leading the reader on a journey into the splendours of nature and the infinite complexities of the human condition. A must-read for anybody with an interest in art and visual culture, as well as textile devotees, experts and enthusiasts.
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
Clarion Events Ltd
0207 3848147
www.olympia-art-antiques.com
Winter Art and Antiques Fair, National Hall, Olympia, Hammersmith Road, London, W14 8UX Nov 4-10
Coin and Medal Fair Ltd 01694 731781
www.coinfairs.co.uk
NOVOTEL, London West, 1 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London W6 8DR, Nov 2, Dec 8
Etc Fairs 01707 872140
www.bloomsburybookfair.com
Bloomsbury Book Fair, Turner Suite at Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London, WC1N 1HT, Nov 10, Dec 8
Bloomsbury Ephemera Fair Nov 24
SOUTH EAST & EAST ANGLIA:
including Beds, Cambs, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex.
Dedham Antiques Fair
Dedham Assembly Rooms, Dedham, High Street, Suffolk, CO7 6HJ, Nov 3, Dec 1
Graham Turner Antiques Fairs
01379 897266
Long Melford Village, Memorial Hall, Chemists Lane, Long Melford, CO10 9LQ, Nov 6, Dec 4
IACF 01636 702326
www.iacf.co.uk
Ardingley International Antiques & Collectors Fair
South of England Show Ground, Ardingley, Nr Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH17 6TL, Nov 5-6
including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire.
Arun Fairs
07563 589725
Emsworth Antiques and Collectors Fair, Emsworth Community Centre, North Street, Emsworth, Hampshire, PO10 7DD, Nov 10, Dec 8
Cameo Fairs
07790 126967
www.cameofairs.co.uk
Corfe Castle Antiques Fair, Village Hall, East Street, Corfe Castle, Dorset, BH20 5EE, Nov 3, Dec 1
Lyndhurst Antiques Fair, Community Centre, Central Park, High Street, Lyndhurst , SO43 7NY, Nov 17
Continuity Fairs
01584 873 634
www.continuityfairs.co.uk
The International Westpoint Antique Home and Vintage Fair, Westpoint Arena, Clyst St Mary, Exeter EX5 1DJ, Nov 16-17
Cooper Events
01278784912
www.cooperevents.com
The Cotswolds Decorative Antiques Fair, Westonbirt School, Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8QG, Nov 2-3
Drayton Antique & Collectors Fair
07488 549026
Drayton Village Hall, Lockway, Drayton, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4LG, Nov 3, Dec 1
IACF
01636 702326
www.iacf.co.uk
Antiques, Vintage & Collectors Fair, Royal Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 6QN, Nov 8-10
Sga Fairs 07759 380299
Browsers Antique & Collectors Fair,
Pangbourne Village Hall, Pangbourne, Berkshire, RG8 7AN, Nov 23
EAST MIDLANDS
including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland.
Arthur Swallow Fairs
01298 274493
asfairs.com
Vintage Flea Market, EXO Centre, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, LN2 2NA, Nov 17
Antiques & Home Show, Dec 3
IACF
01636 702326
www.iacf.co.uk
Runway Monday at Newark Antiques and Collectors Fair, Newark & Nottinghamshire Showground, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 2NY Nov 25
Newark International Antiques & Collectors Fair, Dec 5-6
WEST MIDLANDS
including Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire
B2B Fairs 07774 147197/ www.b2bevents.info Malvern Antiques Fair, Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire WR13 6NW, Nov 3
Classic Antique Fairs 07395 056393 www.classicantiquefairs.co.uk Antique and Arts Fair, Birmingham NEC (Hall 10), Pendigo Way, Marston Green, Birmingham, B40 1NT, Nov 29 - Dec 1
Coin and Medal Fair Ltd 01694 731781
www.coinfairs.co.uk
Midland Coin Fair, National Motorcycle Museum, Bickenhill, Birmingham, B92 0EJ, Nov 10
Elephant Promotions 07947 271947
Antiques collectors Market Staffordshire, Penkridge market, Gas house, Pinfold lane, Staffordshire, ST19 5AP, Nov 7, Dec 5
NORTH including Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Yorkshire.
Cooper Events 01278784912
www.cooperevents.com
The Pavilions of Harrogate Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair, The Pavilions of Harrogate, Railway Road, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG2 8NZ, Nov 15-17
Freckleton Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair 07935 966 574
Freckleton Memorial Village Hall, 17 School Lane, Freckleton, Lancashire, PR4 1PJ, Nov 9, Dec 7
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 Nov 21
RJG Events 0798 9955541
Beaumaris Antique and Collectors Fair, Beaumaris Leisure Centre, Rating Row, Beaumaris Isle of Anglesey LL58 8AL, Nov 17
JAC Fairs 07960 198409
Ayr Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair, Citadel Leisure Centre, South Harbour Street, Ayr, Ayrshire, KA7 1JB, Nov 30
Glasgow Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair, Bellahouston Leisure Centre, Glasgow, G52 1HH, Nov 17, Dec 8
Antiques Fairs Ireland 00353 85 862 9007
Waterford Antiques, Vintage & Collectables Fair, Waterford Tower Hotel, The Mall, The Viking Triangle, Waterford X91 VXE0, Nov 10
With fairs taking place in every corner of the UK this month, there is no excuse for not indulging your collecting passion
Birmingham’s NEC is the location for Classic Antique Fairs’ threeday Christmas event running from November 29 to December 1.
With 70 exhibitors set to take part, the fair is the ideal spot to buy an Xmas gift for collectors, with pieces on offer ranging from the Roman period to the 1950s.
Bristol-based timepiece specialist Kembery Antique Clocks will be offering a carriage clock with its circular enamel dial indistinctly signed Tiffany & Co. Like many other online dealers, after giving up its Bath retail outlet, fairs are the only way to see Kembery’s wares in person.
Organiser, John Andrews, said: “The November fair offers high quality pieces from every discipline to the discerning collector or the occasional bargain hunter. It is the ideal opportunity to indulge your Christmas spirit.” For complimentary tickets go to www.classicantiquefairs.co.uk.
Featuring more than 45 specialist dealers from across the country, the Pavilions of Harrogate Decorative Antiques and Fine Art Fair returns to the Yorkshire Showground this month.
Taking place from November 15-17, the popular event is a magnet for antique collectors and period furnishers across the north of England.
Organiser Sue Ede said: “Art and antiques made in Yorkshire or by Yorkshire artists and designers are always popular.”
A pair of oak arts and crafts tables, with octagonal tops, attributed to the early Mouseman apprentice Sid Pollard of the Yorkshire arts and crafts movement will be on sale from William Cook Antiques priced £1,450.
The Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (WCPF) in south London returns this month for its ninth edition, with a number of new events for print aficionados.
Taking place from November 21-24, new collectors can take part in its “new collectors’ evening” on its first day, with a curated walking tour.
This year’s event also sees the inaugural WCPF Public Art Trail which allows visitors and local residents to enjoy public art in the historic surroundings of London’s Royal Arsenal.
Inside the fair, at the Fireworks Factory, leading galleries will showcase work by well-known artists including Tracey Emin and David Hockney, while platforming independent, up-and-coming artists.
For more details go to www.woolwichprintfair.com
Well-behaved dogs are allowed at the fair
With a late-night session on November 7, the annual Winter Art & Antiques Fair at Olympia in London opens its doors this month.
Taking place from November 4-10, the well-attended fair brings together the UK’s finest dealers, each offering their very best pieces with prices ranging from £100 to more than £100,000 for high-end museumquality treasures.
To ensure quality and authenticity, each piece is vetted by a specialist expert committee.
This year, art dealer Karen Taylor Fine Art will be showcasing works by female British artists, including Mary Perrin (18721929) who specialised in watercolour portraits of women, often drawing them with elaborate hats or coiffures.
English furniture dealer, S&S Timms will present a charming Charles II period English oak chest, while jewellery dealer, Anthea AG Antiques will offer an 18-carat gold bracelet by the Italian goldsmith Mario Buccellati (1891-1965).
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
Antiques and Fine Art, Nov 12
Bonhams
101 New Bond St, London W1S 1SR, 020 7447 7447
www.bonhams.com
The Golden Age of Motoring Sale, Nov 1
Fine Chinese Art, Nov 7
Ben Janssens Oriental Art: From Spink to Maastricht (Online), Nov 1-11
Islamic and Indian Art, Nov 12
Fine and Rare Wines (Online), ends Nov 12
Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, Nov 13
Pop X Culture (Online), Nov 8-19
Modern British Art, Nov 20
Fine Decorative Arts, Nov 26 Fine Clocks, Oct 23
20th Century Decorative Arts (Online), Nov 25 to Dec 4
London Jewels, Dec 5
Antiquities, Dec 5
Prints and Multiples, Dec 10
Bonhams
Montpelier St, Knightsbridge, London, SW7 1HH, 020 7393 3900
www.bonhams.com
Asian Art, Nov 4-5
Weekly Watches (Online), ends Nov 6
Collector’s Treasures
Asian Art (Online), Nov 4-12
British and European Art (Online), Watches and Wristwatches, Nov 13
Antique Arms and Armour (Online), Nov 11-20
Fine Books and Manuscripts, Nov 20
Fine Glass and British Ceramics (Online), Nov 26-27
Modern British and Irish Art, Nov 27
Prints and Multiples (Online), Nov 25 to Dec 3
Luxury Gifts (Online), Nov 22 to Dec 3
Weekly Watches (Online), Nov 22 to Dec 4
Rock, Pop and Film (Online), Nov 24 to Dec 4
Books and Manuscripts (Online), Nov 25 to Dec 4
Travel and Exploration (Online), Dec 2-11
Chiswick Auctions
Barley Mow Centre, Chiswick, London, W4 4PH 020 8992 4442
www.chiswickauctions.co.uk
Asian Art I, Nov 6
Asian Art II, Nov 7
20th-21st Century Art, Nov 12
Fine Photographs, Nov 19
The Grand Chiswick Wine Auction, Nov 20
Modern British and Irish Art, Nov 26
Jewellery, Dec 3
Watches, Dec 3
Designer Handbags and Fashion, Dec 4
Chiswick Auctions
1Roslin Square, Roslin Road, London, W3 8DH 020 8992 4442
www.chiswickauctions.co.uk
Books and Works on Paper, Nov 28
Interiors, Homes and Antiques (Timed Online), ends Nov 3
Jewellery, Dec3
Christie’s
8 King St, St. James’s, SW1Y 6QT, 020 7839 9060 www.christies.com
Modern and Contemporary
Middle Eastern Art (Online), ends Nov 4
Fine and Rare Wines and Spirits (Online), Nov 26-27
Jewels Online: The London Edit, Nov 15-29
Fine and Rare Wines (Online), Nov 19 to Dec 3
Old Masters Part I, Dec 3
Old Masters Part II, Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings and Watercolours, Dec 4
Antiquities from the Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Dec 4
The Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn - Part II, Dec 5
Works of Art from the Mougins Museum of Classical Art (Online)
Nov 26 to Dec 10
Science Fiction and Fantasy (Online), Nov 28 to Dec 12
Elmwood’s 101 Talbot Road
London, W11 2AT, 0207 096 8933 www.elmwoods.co.uk Important Jewels, Nov 6
Fine Jewellery, Nov 13, 27 Jewellery, Nov 20
Forum Auctions
220 Queenstown Road, London SW8 4LP, 020 7871 2640 www.forumauctions.co.uk
The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper (Online), Nov 7
A Visual and Historical Voyage into the Ottoman World: the Library of a Gentleman, Nov 14
Winter Selection: Modern and Contemporary Editions, Nov 20 Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper, Nov 21
The John and Eileen Harris Collection of Architectural Drawings and Works of Art (Online), Nov 26
Books and Works on Paper (Online), Nov 28
Modern Literature (Online), Dec 5
Hansons
6 Parkley’s Parade, Upper Ham Road, Richmond, TW10 5LF 0207 018 9300 www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Fine Art and Antiques Auction: Including the Gentleman’s Library of Wine, Whisky and Works of Art, Nov 29
Lyon & Turnbull
Mall Galleries, The Mall, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5AS, 0207 930 9115 www.lyonandturnbull.com
Modern Made: Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Design, Craft and Studio Ceramics, Oct 31 to Nov 1
Fine Asian Works of Art, Nov 8
London Watches, Nov 21
Noonans
16 Bolton St, Mayfair, London W1J 8BQ, 020 7016 1700 www.noonans.co.uk
Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, Nov 7, Dec 5
Jewellery, Silver and Objects of
Vertu, Nov 26
Watches, Nov 26
World Banknotes, Nov 27
Phillips
30 Berkeley Square, London, W1J 6EX, 020 7318 4010 www.phillips.com
Design, Nov 13
Photographs, Nov 21
Olympia Auctions
25 Blythe Road, London W14 0PD, 020 7806 5541 www.olympiaauctions.com
Chinese and Japanese Works of Art, Nov 6
Indian, Islamic, Himalayan and South-East Asian Art, Nov 13
European Objects and Works of Art, Nov 21
Jewellery, Nov 21
Fine Antique Arms, Armour and Militaria, Dec 4
Roseberys
Knights Hill, Norwood, London, SE27 0JD, 020 8761 2522
www.roseberys.co.uk
Chinese, Japanese and South East Asian Art Day 1, Nov 6
Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art Day 2, Nov 7
Design, Nov 13
Old Master, British and European Pictures, Nov 20
Prints and Multiples, Nov 21
Modern British and 20th Century Art, Nov 27
Silver, Nov 27
Jewellery and Watches, Dec 4
Sloane Street Auctions 158-164 Fulham Road, SW10 9PR, 020 3915 8340 www.sloanestreetauctions.com
The November Auction: Midcentury and Photographs, Nov 21
The Old Master and Impressionist Sale: to also include Jewellery, Fine Furniture, Dec 5
Sotheby’s
New Bond St., London W1A 2AA, 020 7293 5000
www.sothebys.com
Art of Japan (Online), ends Nov 4
Finest and Rarest Whisky (Online) ends Nov 5
Chinese Art, Nov 6
Classic Design: Furniture, Clocks, Silver and Ceramics (Online) end Nov 12
Fabergé, Imperial and Revolutionary Art, Nov 26
Fine Jewels, Nov 27
Finest and Rarest Wines (Online), Nov 13-27
19th and 20th-Century Sculpture (Online), Nov 26 to Dec 3
Old Master and 19th Century Paintings, Dec 4-5
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
20th Century Furniture and Design, Nov 27
A Private Estate from Chinon, France, Nov 27
Coins, Stamps and Postcards, Nov 4
Medals and Militaria, N
Bishop and Miller
Unit 12 Manor Farm, Glandford, Holt, Norfolk, NR25 7JP 01263 687342
bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk
The Collector, Silver and East Anglian, Nov 13
Toys and Collectables, Nov 27
Bellmans
Newpound, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, RH14 0AZ, 01403 700858
www.bellmans.co.uk
Antiques and Interiors, Nov 18-19
Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, Nov 20
Modern British and 20th Century Art, Nov 21
Wines and Spirits, Dec 2
Coins and Medals, Dec 3
Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts, Dec 4 Fine Clocks, Dec 5
Burstow & Hewett
The Auction Gallery, Lower Lake, Battle, East Sussex,TN33 0AT, 01424 772 374
www.burstowandhewett.co.uk
Fine Antique Sale, Nov 14
20th Century Design, Nov 14
Fine Art and Sculpture, Nov 14
Luxury Watches, Fine Jewellery and Silver, Nov 22
Homes and Interiors, Nov 27-28
Catherine Southon Auctioneers
Kingsley House, 5 High Street, Chislehurst, BR7 5AB
Kent, 020 8396 6970
www.catherinesouthon.co.uk
Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Handbags, Nov 27
Henry Adams Auctions
Baffins Hall, Baffins Lane, Chichester, PO19 1UA 01243 532223
www.henryadamsfineart.co.uk
An Antiques and Collectables Auction, Nov 13
The Canterbury Auction
Galleries 40 Station Road West, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 8AN, 01227 763337
canterburyauctiongalleries.com
Fine Art, Antiques and Collectables, Nov 29-30
Cheffins Clifton House, Clifton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7EA 01223 213343, www.cheffins.co.uk
The Interiors Sale, Nov 21
The Jewellery, Silver and Watches Sale, Nov 21
Ewbank’s
London Rd, Send, Woking, Surrey, 01483 223 101 www.ewbankauctions.co.uk
Comics, Nov 1
Pre-Loved Vintage and Antique
Nov 8
Toys and Models, Nov 13
Sporting Memorabilia, Nov 20
Entertainment and Memorabilia Premier, Nov 21
Entertainment and Memorabilia Collectables, Nov 22
Jewellery, Watches and Coins, Dec 3
Silver and Fine Art, Dec 5 Antiques, Books, Stamps, Clocks and Antique Furniture, Dec 6
Excalibur Auctions Limited Unit 16 Abbots Business Park
Primrose Hill Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, WD4 8FR 020 3633 0913 www.excaliburauctions.com
Collectors’ Cavern Auction
- Including Entertainment Memorabilia and Posters, Nov 2
Diecast and Vintage Toys and Model Railway Collectors Sale, Nov 16
Marvel, DC and Independent Comic Books, Dec 7
Gorringes 15 North Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2PE, 01273 472503
www.gorringes.co.uk
Weekly featuring Coins and Stamps, Nov 4
Weekly featuring Toys, Dolls and Teddy Bears, Nov 11
Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, Nov 12
Weekly featuring Music and Science, Nov 18
Weekly Featuring Wines and Spirits, Nov 25
Weekly Featuring Mid Century Furniture and Vinyl, Dec 2
Pictures – Old Master to Modern British, Dec 3
Hanson Ross
Unit 1, The Power House, Lumen Road, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7AG, 01763 430 042
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Fine Jewellery, Wine and Spirits, Nov 8
John Nicholson’s Longfield, Midhurst Road, Fernhurst, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 3HA, 01428 653727
www.johnnicholsons.com
None listed in November
Lacy Scott & Knight 10 Risbygate
St, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3AA, 01284 748 623 www.lskauctioncentre.co.uk
Home and Interiors, Nov 9
Jewellery and Watches, Nov 12
Single Owner Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Nov 15
Lockdales Auctioneers
52 Barrack Square, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP5 3RF 01473 627110
www.lockdales.com
Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Nov 2
Coins and Exonumia, Nov 12-13
Toys, Ceramics and Antiques, Nov 19-20
Medals, Militaria and Weapons, Nov 26-27
The Banknote Sale, Dec 3-4
Mander Auctioneers
The Auction Centre Assington Road Newton, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 0QX, 01787 211847
www.manderauctions.co.uk
Fine Art and Interiors, Nov 9
Parker Fine Art Auctions
Hawthorn House, East Street, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7SX, 01252 203020
www.parkerfineartauctions.com
Fine Paintings and Frames, Nov 7, Dec 5
Reeman Dansie
8 Wyncolls Road, Severalls
Business Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 9HU, 01206 754754
www.reemandansie.com
Royalty, Antiques and Fine Art, Nov 5-6
Classic Cars, Vehicles and Automobilia, Nov 16
Wines, Spirits and Christmas Presents, Nov 20
Specialist Collectors, Dec 3-5
Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers
Cambridge Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, CM24 8GE, 01279 817778
www.sworder.co.uk
Asian Art, Nov 8
Fine Jewellery and Watches, Nov 12
Old Master, British and European Art, Nov 19
Home and Interiors, Nov 20
Fine Wine and Spirits (Online), Nov 15-24
Jewellery and Gifts, Nov 27
Paint. Print. Sculpt (Timed Online), Nov 22 to Dec 1
Fine Interiors, Dec 3-4
Timeline Auctions
The Court House, 363 Main Road, Harwich Essex, CO12 4DN, 01277 815121
www.timelineauctions.co.uk
Ancient Art, Antiquities, Natural History and Coins, Nov 26-30
Toovey’s Antique & Fine Art
Auctioneers Spring Gardens, Washington, West Sussex, RH20 3BS, 01903 891955 www.tooveys.com
Stamps. Cigarette and Trade Cards, Postcards, Photographs, Autographs and Ephemera, Nov 13
Asian and Islamic Ceramics and Works of Art, Nov 21
Wine and Spirits, Firearms and Edged Weapons, Militaria, Medals and Awards, Nov 26
Fine Art, Silver and Plate, Jewellery, Nov 27
Furniture, Objects of Virtu, Collectors’ Items, Rugs and Carpets, Nov 28
Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books, Dec 4
T.W. Gaze Diss Auction Rooms, Roydon Road, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4LN, 01379 650306. www.twgaze.com
Antiques and Interiors,
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.
Nov 1, 7, 15, 22, 29
Cameras and Optical Equipment, Nov 2
Blyth Barn Furniture Auction, Nov 5, 12, 19, 26
Modern Design, Nov 12
Bygones and Railwayana, Nov 14 Jewellery, Nov 19
Books and Ephemera, Nov 28
W&H Peacock Auctioneers
Eastcotts Park, Wallis Way Bedford, Bedfordshire MK42 0PE, 01234 266 366 www.peacockauction.co.uk Mid Century Design, Nov 15
W&H Peacock Auctioneers
24 Newnham Street, Bedford Bedfordshire, MK40 3JR 01234 269082 www.peacockauction.co.uk
The Newnham Street Sale, ends Dec 14
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 Rd, Hele, Exeter, Devon, EX5 4PW. 01392 719826 www.adampartridge.co.uk
Fine Art, Antiques & Collectors’ Items with Toys, Wines & Spirits, Dec 9
Auctioneum Broadlands Fruit Farm, Box Road, Bathford, Bath BA1 7LR, 01225251303 www.auctioneum.co.uk
Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper (Timed), ends Nov 13
Winter Fine Home Sale Day 1, Glass, Objet d’Art and Horology, Nov 21
Winter Fine Home Sale Day 2, Paintings, Furnitures, Rugs and Taxidermy, Nov 22
Asian Art and Ceramics (Timed), Nov 15 to Dec 2
Auctioneum East Bristol, Unit 1, Hanham Business Park, Memorial Road, Bristol, BS15 3JE, 0117 967 1000 www.auctioneum.co.uk
British Comedy, Television and Film, Dec 6
Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood
St. Edmund’s Court, Okehampton Street, Exeter EX4 1DU, O1392 413100
www.bhandl.co.uk
Sporting and Collectors Sale Nov 19-20
British Bespoke Auctions
The Old Boys School, Gretton Rd, Winchcombe, Cheltenham, GL54 5EE 01242 603005
www.bespokeauctions.co.uk
Antiques Jewellery and Collectables, Nov 28
Chilcotts The Dolphin Saleroom, High Street, Honiton, Devon, EX14 1HT, 01404 47783
www.chilcottsauctions.co.uk
Specialist Auction, Nov 16
Chorley’s
Prinknash Abbey Park, Near Cranham, Gloucestershire, GL4 8EU, 01452 344499
www.chorleys.com
Fine Jewellery, Silver, Watches and Vertu, Modern Art and Design, Prints and Multiples, Nov 19
The Christmas Sale, Dec 10
Dawsons Unit 8 Cordwallis
Business Park, Clivemont Rd, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 4BU, 01628 944100
www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk
Fine Pictures, Prints and Sculptures, Nov 21
Fine Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Nov 28
Fine Art and Antiques, Dec 3
Dominic Winter
Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 5UQ, 01285 860006 www.dominicwinter.co.uk
Printed Books, Maps and Documents, A Private Collection of British and European Ex-Libris, Nov 13
Historical Autographs and Documents, Photography 18502000, Nov 20
Military and Aviation History, Medals and Militaria, The Bill Townsend Dambusters Collection, Nov 21
Dreweatts Donnington Priory Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2JE 01635 553 553
www.dreweatts.com
Interiors, Nov 7
Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (Part 1), Nov 13
Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (Part 2) and Japanese, Indian and Islamic Ceramics and Works of Art, Nov 14
Fine Jewellery and Watches, Nov 20
Modern design and Decorative Art, Nov 21
Fine Furniture, Sculpture, Carpets, Ceramics and Works of Art Day 1, Dec 3
Fine Furniture, Sculpture, Carpets, Ceramics and Works of Art Day 2, Dec 4
Jewellery, Silver, Watches, Pens and Luxury Accessories, Dec 5
Duke’s Brewery Square, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1GA, 0105 265080
www.dukes-auctions.com
Chris Watts: The Salisbury Antiquarian, Nov 14
Asian Art, Nov 27
Gardiner Houlgate
9 Leafield Way, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 9SW, 01225 812912
www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk
Jewellery, Nov 20
Watches, Nov 22
Antiques and Works of Art, Nov 21
Paintings and Prints, Nov 21
The Alan Jaffray CollectionPrivate Treasures, Nov 22
The Guitar Sale Part 1, Dec 3
The Guitar Sale Part 2, Dec 4
Entertainment Memorabilia; Guitar Amps and Effects, Dec 5
Antiques and Classical Guitars, Dec 6
Musical Instruments, Dec 6
Hansons Auctioneers
49 Parsons Street, Banbury, Oxford, OX16 5NB, 01295 817777
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Fine Art and Antiques Auction to Include Decorative Art and Design, Nov 20
Harper Field Auctioneers
The Stroud Auction Saleroom Ebley Road, Stonehouse, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL10 2LN 01453 873800
www.harperfield.co.uk
November Auction, Nov 6-7
December Auction, Dec 4-5
Kinghams 10-12 Cotswold Business Village, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucester, GL56 0JQ, 01608 695695
www.kinghamsauctioneers.com
Silver and Objects of Vertu
Nov 15
Jewellery, Watches and Designer Bags, Nov 22
Lawrences Auctioneers Ltd
The Linen Yard, South St, Crewkerne, Somerset, TA18 8AB, 01460 703041
www.lawrences.co.uk
Militaria and Medals, Nov 21
Coins and Banknotes, Nov 22
Lay’s Auctioneers
Alverton Road, Penzance, Cornwall. TR18 4RE. 01736 361414
www.davidlay.co.uk
The Art Sale (Timed) ends Nov 3
The Shipwreck Archive of Richard Larn OBE, Nov 5
Charlestown Shipwreck Museum Sale, Nov 6-8
Cornish Art and Fine Art Sale, Nov 28
Antiques and Interiors, Dec 5
Lay’s Auctions
Lay’s Auctioneers, Church Row, Lanner, Redruth, Cornwall, TR16 6ET, 01736 361414
www.davidlay.co.uk
Jewellery and Luxury Fashion, Nov 21
Watches, Nov 22
Mallams Oxford
Bocardo House, St Michael’s St, Oxford, OX1 2EB, 01865 241358
www.mallams.co.uk
Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Nov 13-14
Modern Art and Design, Dec 4-5
Mallams Cheltenham
26 Grosvenor St, Cheltenham. Gloucestershire, GL52 2SG
01242 235 712
www.mallams.co.uk
Asian, Indian and Islamic Art, Nov 6
Mallams Abingdon
Dunmore Court, Wootten Road, Abingdon, OX13 6BH, 01235 462840
www.mallams.co.uk
Early Flight - The Caproni Collection and The Collectors Sale, Nov 12
Moore Allen & Innocent
Burford Road Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5RH, 01285 646050
www.mooreallen.co.uk
Vintage And Antique Furniture Auction, Nov 13-14
Vintage And Antique Furniture Auction (Timed), Nov 15-24
Nesbits Auctioneers & Appraisers 7 Clarendon Road, Southsea, PO5 2ED, 023 9229 5568
www.nesbitsauctions.co.uk
General Auction, Nov 13
Philip Serrell
Barnards Green Rd, Malvern, Worcestershire.
WR14 3LW, 01684 892314 www.serrell.com
Interiors, Nov 7
Fine Art and Antiques, Nov 28
Special Auction Services
Plenty Close, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5RL 01635 580 595 www.specialauctionservices.
Antiques and Collectables, Nov 5
Jewellery and Silver, Nov 12
Music and Entertainment, Nov 19
Dolls and Teddy Bears, Nov 26
Teddy Bears of Witney, Dec 3
Pre-Loved Christmas Antiques and Collectables, Dec 5
The Cotswold Auction Company
Bankside Saleroom, Love Lane, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1YG, 01285 642420 www.cotswoldauction.co.uk
Toys, Dolls, Models, Antiques and Interiors, Nov 19-20
Special Christmas Sale – Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Whisky and Antiques, Dec 10
The Cotswold Auction Company
Chapel Walk Saleroom, Cheltenham, Gloucesterhire, GL50 3DS, 01242 256363
www.cotswoldauction.co.uk
None listed in November or early December
Wessex Auction Rooms
Westbrook Far, Draycot Cerne, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 5LH, 01249 720888
www.wessexauctionrooms.co.uk
Antiques, Collectables and Furniture, Nov 9, 23, Dec 7
Coins, Nov 28
Jewellery, Silver and Watches, Nov 29
Two-Day Vinyl Records and Memorailia, Dec, date tbc Toys, Dec 5-6
Woolley & Wallis
51-61 Castle Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 3SU, 01722 424500
www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk
Asian Art, Chinese Paintings and Japanese Works of Art, Nov 12-13
Medals and Coins, Arms and Armour, Nov 27
British Art Pottery, Dec 3-4
Modern British and 20th Century Art, Dec 5
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
Three-Day Fine Art and Antique Auction, Nov 1-3
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, Nov 6, Dec 4
The Bakewell County House
Two-Day Antique and Fine Arts Auction, Nov 20-22
Gildings Auctioneers
The Mill, Great Bowden Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE16 7DE. 01858 410414
www.gildings.co.uk
Antiques and Collectables, Nov 5, 19
Golding Young & Mawer
The Bourne Auction Rooms, Spalding Road, Bourne,
Lincolnshire PE10 9LE
01778 422686
www.goldingyoung.com
Bourne Collective Sale, Nov 20-21
Golding Young & Mawer
The Grantham Auction Rooms, Old Wharf Road, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG31 7AA, 01476 565118
www.goldingyoung.com
Grantham Collective Sale, Nov 13-14, Dec 5
Grantham Collective Sale, Including Asian Art, Dec 4
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, Oct 31 to Nov 6, Nov 27-28
Hansons
Heage Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire, DE65 6LS 01283 733988
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Gallery Fine Picture and Photographica, Nov 7
Medals, Militaria and Firearms, Nov 13
Antique and Collectors Including Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Nov 21-26
Football in Focus and Sporting Memorabilia, Nov 26
Two-Day Derbyshire Fine Art Auction, Nov 28-29
Coins, Banknotes and Historica, Dec 4
Irita Marriott Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd, William’s Yard Derby Road, Melbourne, Derbyshire, DE73 8JR 01332414848
iritamarriottauctioneers.co.uk
None listed in November or early December
John Taylors Auction Rooms
The Wool Mart, Kidgate, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9EZ 01507 611107
www.johntaylors.com
Sale of Furniture, Ceramics, Pictures, Jewellery, Watches, Coins etc., Nov12
WEST MIDLANDS: Inc.
Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire
Cuttlestones Ltd
Pinfold Lane, Penkridge
Staffordshire
ST19 5AP, 01785 714905
www.cuttlestones.co.uk
Antiques and Home, Nov 14
Specialist Militaria Nov 27
Winter Antiques, Nov 28
Fellows Augusta House, 19 Augusta Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6JA , 0121 212 2131
www.fellows.co.uk
Pawnbrokers, Jewellery and Watches, Nov 6, 20, Dec 4
Jewellery, Day 1, Nov 12, 26, Dec 1
Jewellery, Day 2, Nov 13, 27, Dec 2
Watches and Watch Accessories, Nov 14
Gemstones, Nov 19, Fine Jewellery, Nov 21
Silver and Plated Ware, Nov 21 Antiques, Fine Art and Collectables, Dec 2
Fieldings
Mill Race Lane, Stourbridge, DY8 1JN 01384 444140
www.fieldingsauctioneers.co.uk
Collectors, Nov 14-15
Everyday Antiques (Timed Online), Nov 20-27
Vinyl, Toys, Music and Entertainment Memorabilia and Cameras, Nov 28
Christmas Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Dec 5
Specialist Coins, Dec 6
Halls
Bowmen Way, Battlefield, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 3DR, 01743 450700 www.hallsgb.com/fine-art.com
Books, Coins and Stamps Auction, Nov 6
Sporting and Wildlife Auction, Nov 7
Asian Art, Nov 20
The Christmas Auction, Dec 4
Hansons Auctioneers
Bishton Hall, Wolseley Bridge, Stafford, ST18 0XN, 0208 9797954
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Whisky and Spirits, Nov 6
Classic Cars and Automobilia, Nov 30
Dolls, Teddy Bears and Toys, Including Textiles, Designer Bags and Accessories, Dec 2
Country House Fine Art Including Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Dec 4
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.
Library Auction Including Books, Manuscripts and Autograph Letters, Dec 5
Potteries Auctions
Unit 4A, Aspect Court, Silverdale Enterprise Park, Newcastle, Staffordshire, ST5 6SS 01782 638100
www.potteriesauctions.com
Rare Ceramics, Jewellery & Collectables, Nov 7-9
Potteries Auctions
The Cobridge Saleroom, 271 Waterloo Road, Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST6 3HR 01782 212489
www.potteriesauctions.com
20th Century Pottery, Furniture & Household Items, ends Nov 10 (timed) 20th Century Pottery, Furniture & Household Items, Nov 24
Trevanion
The Joyce Building, Station Rd, Whitchurch, Shropshire, SY13 1RD, 01928 800 202 www.trevanion.com
Fine Art and Antiques, Nov 20
NORTH: Inc. Cheshire, Co.
Durham, Cumbria, Humberside, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Sheffield, Yorkshire
Adam Partridge Auctioneers
Withyfold Drive, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2BD 01625 431 788
www.adampartridge.co.uk
Asian Art, Decorative Arts, Books and Musical Instruments, ends Nov 1
One Day Sale of Studio Ceramics, Nov 15
The Stock of a Manchester Toy and Model Shop (Part 1) (Timed Online), Nov 1-22
Boutique, Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Toys, Wines and Spirits, Dec 4-6
Adam Partridge Auctioneers
The Liverpool Saleroom, 18 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 OBP, 01625 431 788
www.adampartridge.co.uk
Silver and Jewellery with Antiques and Collectors’ Items, Nov 6-7
Toys with Antiques and Collectors’ Items, Dec 4-5
Anderson and Garland Crispin Court, Newbiggin Lane, Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 1BF, 0191 430 3000 www.andersonandgarland.com
Pictures, Nov 6
The Collectors’ Auction, Nov 20
Fine Silver, Nov 26
Fine Watches, Nov 27
Fine Jewellery, Nov 27
Christmas Country House and Fine Interiors Auction, Nov 28-29
Homes and Interiors, Dec 10
Capes Dunn The Auction Galleries, 40 Station Rd, Heaton Mersey, Cheshire, SK4 3QT. 0161 273 1911
www.capesdunn.com
Interiors, Vintage and Modern Furniture, Nov 11, 25, Dec 9
Antique Furniture, Clocks, Eastern Carpets & Traditional Paintings, Nov 12
Jewellery, Silver Watches and Gold Coins, Nov 26
Hawleys Auctioneers,
Albion House, Westgate, North Cave, Brough, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU15 2NJ, 01482 868193 www.hawleys.info
Antiques and Fine Art, Nov 23-24
David Duggleby Auctioneers
The Gallery Saleroom, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 1XN, 01723 507 111
www.davidduggleby.com
Antiques and Decorative Objects, Nov 1, 22
Affordable Antiques and Collectors, Nov 1, 22
Toys and Models, Nov 15
Furniture, Rugs and Interiors, Nov 20
Whisky, Wine and Advertising, Nov 20
Jewellery and Watches, Nov 21
The Silver Sale, Nov 21
Affordable Art, Nov 21
The Winter Sale, Nov 29
Duggleby Stephenson
The Saleroom, York Auction Centre, Murton, York, YO19 5GF,01904 393 300
www.dugglebystephenson.com
Coins, Banknotes and Stamps, Nov 6
Jewellery and Watches, Nov 7, Dec 5
Antiques and Decorative Objects, Nov 7
Affordable Antiques and Collectors, Nov 7
Fine and Affordable Art, Nov 8
Furniture, Rugs and Interiors, Nov 8
Maps, Antiquarian Books and Ephemera, Dec 4
The Country House Sale, Dec 5
Elstob Ripon Business Park, Charter Road, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 1AJ, 01677 333003
www.elstob.co.uk
Fine Art and Antiques, Nov 13
Omega Auctions Ltd
Sankey Valley Industrial Estate, Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside WA12 8DN, 01925 873040
www.omegaauctions.co.uk
Audio Equipment and Music Memorabilia, Nov 19
Rare and Collectable Vinyl Records, Nov 20
Showcase Sale - Guitars, Music Memorabilia and Rare Vinyl Records, Nov 26
Richard Winterton
Lichfield Auction Centre, Wood End Lane, Fradley Park, Staffordshire, WS13 8NF, 01543 251081
www.richardwinterton.co.uk
Two-Day Antiques and Home Sale, Nov 4-5, 11-12, 18-19, 24-25
Ryedale Auctioneers
Cooks Yard, New Rd, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, YO62 6DZ, 01751 431 544 www.ryedaleauctioneers.com Collectables, Militaria and Sporting Goods, Nov 15-16 Antiques, Interiors and Collectables, Dec 6-7
Sheffield Auction Gallery Windsor Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 8UB, 0114 281 6161 www.sheffieldauctiongallery.com Antiques and Collectables,
Nov 1, 15, 29
Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Nov 14, 28
Football Programmes and Sporting Memorabilia, Nov 14
Specialist Collectable Toys, Nov 28
Specialist Collectable Coins (Online), Dec 5
Tennants Auctioneers
The Auction Centre, Harmby Road, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 5SG, 01969 623780
Antiques and Interiors, to include Designer Fashion and a Section of Silver, Nov 8
Natural History and Taxidermy, Oct 5
Modern and Contemporary Art, Nov 13
The Selected Contents of Bell Hall, Nov 15
Autumn Fine Sale, Nov 16 Fine Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Nov 16
British, European and Sporting Art, Nov 16
Coins and Banknotes, Nov 20
Antiques and Interiors, Nov 22 Fashion, Costume and Textiles, Nov 22
Books, Maps and Manuscripts, Nov 27
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. Nov 4, Dec 2
Antiques, Silver, Jewellery, Ceramics, Glass and Oriental, Nov 11
Antiquarian and Collectable Books, Nov 21
Wilkinson’s Auctioneers
The Old Salesroom, 28 Netherhall Road, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN1 2PW, 01302 814 884
wilkinsons-auctioneers.co.uk
Period Oak, Country Furniture and Effects, Nov 23-24
Wilson55
Victoria Gallery, Market St, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5DG 01270 623 878
www.wilson55.com
Firearms, Shotguns, Airguns, Arms and Militaria, Nov 6
Modern Art and Design, Nov 21
Fine Jewellery and Watches, Nov 28
Bonhams 22 Queen St, Edinburgh, EH2 1JX, 0131 225 2266 www.bonhams.com
Whisky (Online) Nov 25 to Dec 5
Lyon & Turnbull
33 Broughton Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3RR, 0131 557 8844 www.lyonandturnbull.com
Five Centuries, Nov 13-14
Jewellery, Dec 4
Watches, Dec 4
Scottish Paintings and Sculpture, Dec 5
McTears Auctioneers
31 Meiklewood Road, Glasgow, G51 4GB, 0141 810 2880 www.mctears.co.uk
Militaria, Maps and Ethnographica, Nov 6
19th and 20th-Century Design, Nov 6
Silver and Luxury Accessories, Nov 7
Asian Art, Nov 7
Antiques and Interiors, Nov 14, 28
Coins and Banknotes, Nov 27
Watches, Nov 27
Whisky, Dec 4
The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction, Dec 5
Thomson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, Irongray Road Industrial Estate, Dumfries, DG2 0JE, 01387 721 635 www.thompsonroddick.com
01558 823 430
Antiques and Works of Art, Nov 26, Dec 4 Collectors, Dec 5
Thomson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, 118 Carnethie Street, Edinburgh, EH24 9AL 0131 440 2448 www.thompsonroddick.com
Home Furnishings and Interiors, Nov 7, 21
Thomson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, 22 Smith Street, Ayr, KA7 1TF, 01292 267681
www.thompsonroddick.com
Antiques, Fine Art and Works of Art, Nov 14
Anthemion Auctions, 15 Norwich Road, Cardiff, CF23 9AB, 029 2047 2444 www.anthemionauction.com
Monthly General sale, Ceramics, Glass, Paintings, Furniture, Clocks, Works of Art, Books, Sporting Memorabilia, Nov 6
Jones & Llewelyn
Unit B, Beechwood Trading Estate, Carmarthenshire, SA19 7HR, www.jonesandllewelyn.com
General Sale, Nov 2, 16, 30
Rogers Jones & Co
Colwyn Bay Saleroom, 33 Abergele Road, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, North Wales, LL29 7RU, 01492 532176
www.rogersjones.co.uk
Furniture and Interiors, Nov 5, 26
Jewellery, Collectables and Fine
Art, Nov 12, Dec 3
Jewellery and Collectables, Dec 6
Rogers Jones & Co
17 Llandough Trading Estate, Penarth, Cardiff, CF11 8RR, 02920 708125
www.rogersjones.co.uk
Jewellery and Collectables, Nov 1
The Club House, Nov 6
The Welsh Sale, Nov 16
Fine Art and Interiors, Nov 22
Luxurious Gifts: Jewellery, Watches, Wine, Dec 6
Adam’s 26, Stephens Green, Dublin 2, D02 X665, Ireland, 00 353 1 6760261
www.adams.ie
Irish Old Masters, Nov 5
Asian Fine Art, Nov 18
Fine Jewellery and Watches, Dec 3
Fine Watches, Dec 5
DeVeres
35 Kildare Street
Dublin, D02 X088. Ireland, 00 353 (0)-1676 8300
www.deveres.ie
Design, Nov 5
Outstanding Irish Art, Nov 26
•
Catherine Southon gives her seal of approval to a collection of desk matrices going under the hammer this month
What is it about nostalgia? e more we see something recede into the past the more we appreciate and miss it. Take letters. Today, personal missives are mostly a thing of the past, replaced by the far-less romantic text, or WhatsApp message. Even more distant is a letter impressed with a red wax seal on the reverse. Imagine living in the 19th century, or earlier, and receiving a longed-for letter from an admirer with an unbroken seal with a family crest. What a thrill.
So, when a collection of seals arrived at our new Chislehurst o ce, one could not help but image the documents, from love letters to legal correspondence, they had been used to authenticate.
Pre-dating writing, seals were used in the same way as signatures are today. ey validated documents such as charters, letters, writs, as well as being used to seal documents for correspondence.
eir history stretches back to stone versions from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, but they were further developed in the Middle Ages when the seals, also known as matrices, were carved from metal. e design in the matrix is the object that makes an impression when pressed into the melted wax and then reveals a mirrored image, motto, initials or family crest.
As time progressed and commerce ourished, the need for a reliable means of veri cation grew, leading to the popularization of personalised seals among nobility and the gentry.
e growth in seals with handles, regularly called desk seals, occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries with the rise in the notion of a desk as a xed piece of furniture. As silver came to the forefront at the same time, the material which lent itself to the engraving of heraldry became a favoured choice for matrices and mounts.
Variations in size, shape and materials, whether silver or lapiz lazuli, lignum vitae or rose quartz, re ected both the personal tastes and social standings of their owners.
In the 18th and early 19th century seals became popular and accessible for the middle class. As well-o young men travelled through Europe pursuing classical art and antiquity on the Grand Tour, they acquired rare and exotic hardstones. Seals started to become works of art in their own right. By the 19th century they certainly became objets de vertu.
Above A collection of hardstone seals that will be o ered this month.
Estimate £200-300
Above far right A silver plated Danish owl seal matrix with glass eyes. Sold for a hammer of £100
Above right and below right Part of a collection of silver and brass 19th-century seals.
Estimate £200-300
With no maker’s mark or documented purchases, not much is known about the people who made seals. Likely contenders were “toymen”. In Georgian times “toyshops” did not sell children’s playthings, but small precious items, ranging in value from only a few shillings for a buckle or comb to several guineas for a gold or jewelled snu box. Many hands worked on the seals with the handles from one workshop, and the engraving and matrices from another.
By the Victorian era, desk seals had become a staple of personal correspondence, often accompanying letters and documents to convey authenticity and prestige.
In the 19th century, the gummed envelope was introduced and the sealed letter moved away from being practical, with the seal becoming just a decorative piece. Today, lacking any practical use, desk seals are highly collectable. eir appeal is based not just on their intricate craftsmanship and obvious beauty; they are also prized for their links to the past and, most notably, their connections to notable gures or events. What joy to receive a sealembossed letter, rather than a text or WhatsApp message.
A collection of desk seals will be sold on November 27 at Catherine Southon Auctioneers, Chislehurst High Street. For details go to www.catherinesouthon.co.uk
‘Variations in size, shape and materials, whether silver or lapiz lazuli, lignum vitae or rose quartz, reflected both the personal tastes and social standings of their owners.’
Antiques Roadshow
expert Marc Allum’s rst visit to Japan resulted in a meeting of the ancient and modern, and a suitcase of kimonos
At last, I’ve been to Japan! And what an experience it was. Decades of collecting means we have plenty of Japanese objects and works of art in the house – including a suit of Samurai armour which, for many years, featured on the opening titles of Antiques Roadshow. However, not having been there felt like a major cultural gap in my quest for experience and knowledge.
So, on our rst day in Tokyo we headed straight to the Tokyo National Museum where I marvelled over 12th-century katana blades and ancient Jomon ceramics. is was then capped o by taking tea in a 200-yearold tea house. Unfortunately, I can’t cross my legs and so sitting on tatami mats wasn’t too comfortable. is happened a lot over the three weeks.
Prior to setting o , we had compiled a list of ‘must-do’ activities. As is always the case, we tried to cram too much in, and after three swelteringly humid days in Tokyo we hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface.
As a result, my quest for vintage Japanese electric guitars bit the dust, and I didn’t get to do any karaoke.
Of course, we were interested in buying old items, as we always are when we go abroad, but I had no real idea of how it would play out. Our discovery of second-hand shops and antique emporiums in random back streets of
cities like Kyoto proved fruitful and fun, with purchases of vintage wooden kokeshi dolls and kimonos being a frequent choice.
Some items were remarkably cheap, and it took a little bit of adjusting to realise that buying a second-hand kimono in Japan is rather like buying a second-hand dress in the UK. So we lled a case with them. It feels much better saying, “I bought this in Kyoto”, rather than the UK, so my dressing gown has now been replaced with a rather stylish yakuta ( man’s kimono).
Japan is undoubtedly a country of many contradictions. e juxtaposition of ancient and modern appears an almost unbridgeable chasm. e modern is made up of concrete tower blocks and raised roadways, box-shaped cars and technology, in vast neon-lit urban conurbations. e ancient can be seen at Kongobu-ji temple on the sacred Mount Koya and then wandering through Okunoin cemetery, which dates to 835, with its 200,000 moss-covered graves and mausoleums.
Above e cemetery at Mount Koya, image courtesy of Marc Allum
Below Feeding sacred deer at Nara Park, image courtesy of Marc Allum
Below right Marc drinks tea in a traditional Japanese tea house but without crossing his legs, image courtesy of Marc Allum
Staying in a vegetarian Buddhist Temple on Mount Koya with a Zen garden outside the window will de nitely be added to my list of life’s most memorable experiences. (As will operating Japanese toilets, although for very di erent reasons.)
So, whether it’s the wonder of sites like Matsumoto Castle, the amazing enamelled manhole covers that adorn the streets, the ultrafast trains, the food, or the cultural di erences that make travelling to Japan so captivating, I enjoyed everything I experienced – except the humidity.
Marc Allum is an author, lecturer and specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. For more details go to www.marcallum.co.uk
‘Some
items were remarkably cheap, and it took a little bit of adjusting to realise that buying a second-hand kimono in Japan is rather like buying a second-hand dress in the UK. So we filled a case with them’
Period Oak, Country Furniture and Effects
Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th November 2024 11am start
Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd November 10-4pm
Each Sale day 9-11am or by private appointment.
Hardcopy catalogues are available for £10, the online catalogue is available at: drouot.com, invaluable.com, the-saleroom.com, wilkinsons-auctioneers.co.uk
Wilkinsons Auctioneers Ltd
The Old Saleroom, 28 Netherhall Road, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN1 2PW Telephone: 01302 814884 www.wilkinsons-auctioneers.co.uk