Antique News: Five pages of news and events to appeal to collectors taking place around the UK

WHAT’S GOING ON IN JUNE/JULY ANTIQUE news

A round up of the best events for antiques and fine art lovers this summer, including those celebrating the Platinum Jubilee

Crowning glory

Windsor Castle hosts a number of events this summer to celebrate the Queen’s 70-year reign, including an exhibition of designs worn on her coronation in 1953.

The British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell submitted nine different designs for her dress, from which the Queen accepted the eighth, suggesting the addition of embroideries in various colours, rather than all silver.

The resulting satin dress was embroidered with floral emblems in gold and silver thread and pastel-coloured silks, encrusted with seed pearls. Her purple velvet robe was made by Ede and Ravenscroft and woven by Warner & Sons. It was stitched at the Royal School of Embroidery. Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Coronation is on at Windsor Castle from July 7 to September 26.

Left Cecil Beaton, Queen Elizabeth II on her Coronation Day, 1953, Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021

Above right A Machininspired coloured silk scarf from the new range is priced £150

Right A Machin-inspired mug, priced £20

Below right A bone china cup and saucer, inspired by the purple Robe of Estate worn by the Queen at her coronation, is priced £65

Below left The Queen’s coronation dress, designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, and coronation robe by Ede & Ravenscroft, 1953, Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021

Did you know?

The Queen’s coronation robe took 12 embroiderers 3,500 hours to make using 18 different types of gold thread

ROYAL LINE

For royal watchers who prefer to celebrate at home, the Royal Collection Trust has launched a range of commemorative products inspired by Arnold Machin’s iconic profile portraits of the Queen created by the former Wedgwood designer in 1966.

The Platinum series features homeware items and accessories ranging from a recycled leather key ring, priced £4.95, to a Platinum Jubilee teapot on sale for £350.

The sculptor and Royal Academician Arnold Machin (1911-1999) was responsible for the basrelief of the monarch which has featured on all British definitive postage stamps since 1967.

The range can be purchased online from www. rct.uk/shop or from Royal Collection Trust shops in London, Windsor and Edinburgh.

Below right The menu celebrates food produced at Chatsworth

Queen of puddings

A family-recipe Bakewell tart and Chatsworth gin-cured salmon both appear at a London auction house’s Platinum Jubilee-inspired menu.

Sotheby’s head chef Myles Fensom, came up with the menu in partnership with producers at Chatsworth – home to the Duke of Devonshire.

A selection of Chatsworth Estate cheese from the Derbyshire stilton creamery, established by the 8th Duke of Devonshire in the 1870s, is also on offer, along with Chatsworth gin made from estategrown botanicals, including the Cavendish banana leaf unique to Chatsworth. The jubilee menu is on offer until July 15.

Hands down

Plans to celebrate the remarkable life and work of the artist Sarah Biffin (1784-1850), who was born with phocomelia, have been unveiled by a London gallery.

When as a teenager Biffin, who was born without arms and legs, was asked to join a travelling show it seemed her fate was sealed.

But in her midtwenties she studied under the miniatures artist William Marshall Craig and, in 1816, set herself up as an independent artist taking on a number of royal commissions. Without Hands: The Art of Sarah Biffin will be on this autumn at Philip Mould & Company from November 1 to December 21.

Above Sarah Biffin (1784-1850) self-portrait

SWEET JUSTICE

A gold bonbonnière, one of 100 stolen from a Buckinghamshire stately home, is to go back on display 19 years after it was taken.

In 2003, a masked gang broke into Waddesdon Manor before making off with a collection of 18th-century French boxes, few of which were ever recovered.

Last August one of the sweet jars was spotted by the Art Loss Register (ALR) when it appeared in a regional auction house. Now returned to Waddesdon, it has gone on display in the Rothschild Treasury.

Below The recovered Waddesdon gold box, © Paul Quezada- Neiman Photos

A fight at the museums

Five UK museums have until July 14 to discover which has scooped the prestigious title Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022 and a prize of £100,000.

The finalists are: Derby Museums’ Museum of Making; Horniman Museum and Gardens in London; Manchester’s People’s History Museum; The Story Museum in Oxford and Wrexham’s Ty Pawb.

Glaze of glory

Some of the world’s leading ceramics experts come together in London to take part in a two-day seminar in June – 40 years since its inception.

In 1982, Brian and Anna Haughton founded the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar, which, for the first time, united collectors and museum curators.

Today, lectures are an integral part of most antiques fairs. This year’s seminar, at The British Academy on June 29-30, is entitled Fragile Splendour: Prestige, Power and Politics from the Medicis to the Present Day. Tickets cost £110, for more details and the programme go to www.haughton.com

Above Dr Mathieu Deldicque will present a talk on Chantilly porcelain, including this figure, c.1735-1740

Celebrating museums’ creativity, previous winners have included The Lightbox in Woking, St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff and last year’s winner Firstsite in Colchester.

Right Horniman Museum and Gardens, London, Museum of the Year finalist 2022, © Emli Bendixen/ Art Fund 2022

30 seconds with...

Antiques Roadshow expert Ronnie ArcherMorgan whose memoir Would it Surprise you to Know?is out this month

How did you start in the business? I have had an interest in beautiful objects since I was seven and took my little sister to Kenwood House in London and fell in love with what I saw. I was brought up in institutions and I was struck by the contrast between what was on show and my everyday existence. Years later, when working on film sets, I’d visit local antique haunts. When I returned the pieces were snapped up by the cast and crew. I thought if they like it, I must have a good eye. What Roadshow surprises have you had? Two spring to mind: one was a New Zealand jade tiki, which a lady had discovered in the garden of her Midlands home – neither of us had any idea how it got there. The other was a pair of Sooty and Sweep puppets which I had actually played with as a child. They belonged to the daughter of Harry Corbett’s props manager and were the same ones the puppeteer had brought in to the children’s home I was at years before.

What surprise would you most want to find? I am passionate about the Knights Templar, the religious order which protected travellers to the Holy Land, so it would have to be anything related to them, such as a sword, shield or badge. But, as such pieces are as rare as hens’ teeth, I might have a wait on my hands.

What has been your most memorable sale? Years ago I came across a wonderfully ornate decorative plaque about 2ft by 1ft in a provincial auction house. I immediately spotted its similarity to an armchair in the V&A designed by the London-based painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema. The chair was part of a suite of furniture for the music room of the New York mansion of Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819-1902), the second president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The suite cost £25,000 in 1884, something like £3.5m today. AlmaTadema would have used the plaque like a mood board to show Marquand. I went on to sell it for 30 times the price I paid.

Why do you love the business? Every day is different, you never know what you are going to find – it fills me up with optimism which is not a bad feeling.

Would it Surprise you to Know? is out on June 23 published by Century, priced £16.99

Left John Knox (1778–1845), View of the Clyde from Fairfley and Duntocher, c. 1816, © The Fleming Collection

Right Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) Violet Seller, c. 1900, © Estate of Sir Alfred Munnings, Dedham

Far right Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) Design for Caley’s Domino Crackers, 1890s, © Estate of Sir Alfred Munnings

1Highland fling

More than 30 significant works exploring the history of Scottish art can be seen at a Surrey gallery.

A Window into Scottish Art, on at The Lightbox, in Woking until July 3, includes paintings, drawings, sculpture and collage by artists such as George Jamesone (1587‐1644) known as ‘the Scottish Van Dyck’, through to the Glasgow Girls and Boys and the Scottish Colourists (SJ Peploe, JD Fergusson, GL Hunter and FCB Cadell). 20th‐century figures such as Eduardo Paolozzi and John Bellany join contemporary artists including Caroline Walker, Alison Watt, Barry McGlashan and Iman Tajik. All works are chosen to reflect the many facets of the Scots’ creative imagination.

Below right Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) Fancy Dress Ball, 1901, © Estate of Sir Alfred Munnings, Dedham

3

to see in June

Far left Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936), Portrait miniature of Hilda Traquair, age five years, 1884. Watercolour on paper, © The Fleming Collection

Left Anne Redpath (1895-1965), Window in Menton, 1948. The Fleming Collection, © The Artist’s Estate. All Rights Reserved Bridgeman Images

2Poster boy

Best known for his equine depictions, the early poster designs of Sir Alfred Munnings (18781959) are on show until October 23 at his former Essex home-turned-museum.

Aged just 14, Munnings moved from the family home in Mendham, Suffolk, to Norwich, where he became an apprentice at Page Bros. & Co. Ltd, a firm of lithographic printers.

During the 1890s, he undertook work for local companies, including Colman’s Mustard and Caley’s – the Norwich confectionary firm which added Xmas crackers to its range in 1898.

Alfred Munnings: the Art of the Poster at Castle House in Dedham features more than 100 designs and paintings, including 13 loans from private collections.

3Fjord clinic

A major group of works by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) go on show in the UK for the first time at The Courtauld in London, until September 7. Munch Masterpieces from Bergen brings together 18 seminal paintings seen as a group for the first time outside Scandinavia.

It includes Munch’s early work Morning, 1884, painted when he was 20, as well as his large-scale canvas Summer Night, 1889, depicting his sister Inger sitting by the shoreline of a fjord. It also includes Self-

Right Edvard Munch (1863-1944) Morning, 1884, Kode Bergen Art Museum, The Rasmus Meyer Collection

Far right Edvard Munch (1863-1944) Evening on Karl Johan, 1892, Kode Bergen Art Museum, The Rasmus Meyer Collection

Below right Edvard Munch (1863-1944) Self-Portrait in the Clinic, 1909, Kode Bergen Art Museum, The Rasmus Meyer Collection Portrait in the Clinic, 1909, painted aged 45 when he was undergoing treatment for stress in Copenhagen.

Left Fabergé egg, rhodonite with diamonds, © National Trust Images, David Brunetti photography

Right The Dissecting Room, T C Wilson after Thomas Rowlandson, 1838, coloured lithograph, © RCP, photography by John Chase

1Greville toaster

Treasures by Fabergé and Cartier are on show at an exhibition in July, marking 80 years since society hostess Dame Margaret Greville left her Surrey country home to the National Trust.

Between 1907 and 1942 Polesden Lacey was Mrs Greville’s weekend retreat where she hosted lavish parties with guests including Edward VII and Winston Churchill.

Society etiquette of the day demanded guests give precious objets d’art as thank yous.

Presents included a Fabergé egg, complete with a diamond clasp fashioned in the shape of a snowflake. Treasured Possessions: Riches of Polesden Lacey, continues on display until October 29.

Below right Consultation of Physicians, unknown artist, 1760–1830, coloured engraving, © RCP,

Far right Satirical brass button, France, late 17th century, © RCP, photography by John Chase

3

to see in July

Left Charles Emile Auguste Duran (18371917) Margaret Anderson, The Hon. Mrs Ronald Greville DBE (1863-1942), © National Trust Images, John Hammond

Far left Collingwood & Co. brooch of diamonds and rubies, © National Trust Images, David Brunetti

3Wall to wall

Eight murals by Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) go on public display for the first time at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft in East Sussex.

The large-scale paintings were commissioned by The Skinners’ Company between 1901 and 1912 to chart the history of the guild from the 13th-century medieval fur trade, to its growing emphasis on philanthropy and education by the 19th century.

The museum in Ditchling (the village where Brangwyn spent his later years) is hosting the 2.5m long panels until October 16, while Skinners’ Hall undergoes restoration work.

Right Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956), Education, Banqueting Hall of the Worshipful Company of the Skinners, London

Middle right Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956), Education, Banqueting Hall of the Worshipful Company of the Skinners, London

Far right Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956), Sir Andrew’s Defense of London, 1554, Banqueting Hall of the Worshipful Company of the Skinners, London

2Gallows humour

An exhibition of satirical images from the mid-18th century to the 1980s continues at a London museum this month.

A Taste of One’s Own Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) near Regent’s Park, includes William Hogarth’s print The Company of Undertakers which famously attacked the medical profession, as well as cartoonist James Gillray’s print criticising Edward Jenner following his successful vaccine against smallpox. An illustration of one of the adventures of Baron Munchausen is also on display.

The RCP Museum’s senior curator, Lowri Jones, said: “I’m delighted to welcome visitors to our first new exhibition since the museum reopened in January. I am particularly happy to be able to showcase such an engaging but previously under-used part of our collections.”

Water coloured

A view of Waterloo Bridge by the Suffolk artist John Constable (1776-1837) has returned to Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire after being brought back to its former glory by conservators.

National Trust experts spent 270 hours removing layers of badly yellowed varnish to reveal the full majesty of a long-lost Thames view. Constable may have been at the 1817 opening of the bridge by the Prince Regent.

The painting, Constable’s largest, has gone on show alongside his other works at the abbey, including a view of Stoke-byNayland in Suffolk, previously thought to be a copy but recently confirmed as a work by the artist.

Above Constable’s painting of The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, 1817, has returned to East Anglia, © National Trust Images, James Dobson

VALUE ADDED

Collectors who want to value their treasures for free can do so thanks to a new service at an online antiques platform.

The website www.antiques.co.uk is offering the resource for both private collectors and professional dealers.

Founder, Iain Brunt, said: “If you’re looking to sell, or just want to know how much an item is worth, we have a free online service that connects you with the most accurate experts.”

Collectors wanting to sell can list an item for £5 with no other fees. Visit www.antiques.co.uk, or email iain@ antiques.co.uk for further information.

Below The valuation service is free to dealers and private collectors

Snap happy

A photograph of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) painting from her wheelchair in the final months of her life is one of 60 portraits of artists in their studios taken by Magnum photographers on show this month at a Warwickshire exhibition.

Magnum Photos: Where Ideas Are Born is on at Compton Verney until October 16, bringing together images of artists at work, including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon taken by more than 20 photographers from the world-renowned agency

Magnum Photos was formed in 1947 by four pioneering photo journalists: Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour, the Polish photographer known as Chim.

Above Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) Mexico City, Mexico, 1954, Werner Bischof / Magnum Photos

MAGIC ACT

More than 500 items belonging to the German-born magicians Siegfried & Roy go under the hammer at Bonhams Los Angeles in June, with proceeds going to the duo’s animal conservation charity.

The pair amassed a large collection of jewellery, furniture, and decorative objects – ranging from Victorian clocks to Japanese bronzes, as well as Cartier necklaces and Breitling wristwatches, at their two Las Vegas homes, known as Jungle Palace and Little Bavaria.

Roy Horn died of covid complications in 2020, some 17 years after a career-ending injury when a 380lb tiger dragged him off stage in Las Vegas after biting him in the neck.

Siegfried Fischbacher died eight months later from pancreatic cancer, aged 81. At the time of Roy’s accident the naturalised Americans’ magic show was the most-visited show in Las Vegas.

Stage costumes from the famous duo are also up for sale in Los Angeles

Right An 18 carat Cartier necklace with emerald and diamonds has an estimate of $60,000-$100,000 at the sale on June 8-9

Above Leopard Spot pattern Tiffany & Co. tea service, has an estimate of $200-$300 in the same sale

BY THE BOOK

The last Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) miniature book known to be in private hands has been bought for $1.25m and returned to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire, where it was originally written.

Measuring just 3.8 x 2.5in and written when Brontë was 13, the manuscript contains 10 poems and is one of her famous ‘little books’. Inch for inch it is possibly the most valuable literary manuscript ever sold.

Thrown on their own resources while growing up in a rural parsonage, Charlotte, Anne, Emily and Branwell Brontë came up with an imaginary world based on a nation called Angria and a city called Glasstown.

Right The miniature manuscript, entitled A Book of Ryhmes [sic] by Charlotte Bronte, Sold by Nobody, and Printed by Herself