Inside: MOVIE STARS THE FILM POSTERS EVERY COLLECTOR SHOULD KNOW BEATLEMANIA LENNON’S GLASSES SELL FOR £51,000
Lifting the lid on an important single-owner collection
POTTERY BY
Celebrating the genius of the 19th-century showmen and their carousel art
Wednesday18Septemberat10amatourGlandfordsaleroom
Two months into the new government makes me wonder what changes the administration will bring to the UK art and antiques market? If nothing else, the question has sparked much online speculation for a start.
Could it be more collections will come to market ahead of the widely-predicted increase in capital gains tax? Will the new government look to soften some of the more onerous Brexit restrictions by reducing shipping costs and streamlining paperwork such as that required for Temporary Admission? Will Labour’s pledged review of the Arts Council England unlock new opportunities for artists and institutions across the country?
On page 18, gallery owner Simon Rastall takes a much more bricks-and-mortar approach, based on Labour’s plans to build 1.5m new houses. Smaller paintings, he points out, have a broad appeal because they t into any space and suit any small home. But if the housing market picks up and collectors ‘scale-up’ what will they ll their walls with? ‘Big’ art is the answer and now, Simon says, could be the time to buy.
Of course not all – in fact I would venture very few – collections are started with £ signs in mind. Most, like the collection of fairground art described on page 44, are the result of an obsession forged in childhood. Or, as in Simon’s own experience, come from a random meeting of an artist who went on to become a family friend.
But, whether we collect for pro t or passion, it’s great to keep abreast of the latest trends. On page 12, our monthly round-up of sale results acts as a barometer to what’s hot in the current market. is month an amber butterscotch necklace de ed its estimate in Su olk, while a collection of hock glasses, each expected to sell for around £200, sold for £2,000.
Elsewhere in the magazine, on page 36, Catherine Southon describes her surprise when celebrated spoon-bender Uri Geller was revealed as the buyer of a pair of John Lennon’s glasses, for which he paid more than £50,000, at her recent sale. On page 42, Eric Knowles tells us how a strangely modern-looking dish found on a domestic sideboard was revealed to date back to the 1500s and, on page 30, we go behind the scenes of a collection of pottery by a well-known north Devon maker. Enjoy the issue.
SUZANNE ZACK
30 seconds with Olympia Auctions’ new expert, page 6
JOHN BLACK
Lifts the lid on an important sale of early Moorcroft, page 26
MARY CHILCOTT
Georgina Wroe, Editor
Write to us at Antique Collecting, Riverside House, Dock Lane, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 1PE, or email magazine@accartbooks.com. Visit the website at www.antique-collecting. co.uk and follow us on X and Instagram @AntiqueMag
ERIC KNOWLES
Discovers a mother-of-pearl dish dating to the 1500s, page 42
Editor: Georgina Wroe, georgina. wroe@accartbooks.com
Previews ceramics from the renowned makers, the Fishley family, page 30 is 19th-century Viennese glass beaker which has an estimate of £800-£1,200 at Woolley and Wallis’ British and continental ceramics and glass sale on September 3. We love!
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
3 Editor’s Welcome: Georgina Wroe introduces the September issue with topics ranging from fairground art to early Moorcroft ceramics
6 Antiques News: All the latest from the world of antiques and ne art, as well as a look at some of the leading events taking place around the country
10 Your Letters: Last month’s article on collecting Churchill memorabilia provokes a storm of response from the September mailbag
A variety of pieces of Moorcroft pottery, part of Sworders’ 250-lot sale on September 17, image courtesy of Sworders. See page 26 for more details
12 Around the Houses: Discover how much an archive of letters from Princess Diana to her former housekeeper fetched in Essex
16 Waxing Lyrical: Antique furniture expert David Harvey shines a light on a very special Sheraton-period secretaire bookcase
26 Saleroom Spotlight: As an early Moorcroft collection goes under the hammer in Essex, auctioneer John Black studies the current market
36 Lots to Talk About: Catherine Southon gives the inside story on the sale of a pair of John Lennon’s glasses to the famous spoon-bender, and now museum owner, Uri Geller
42 In the Knowles: Eric Knowles describes how the recent nd of a dish on a Sta ordshire sideboard turned out to be a mother-of-pearl bowl dating back to the late 1500s
50 Book O ers: Bag yourself a bargain by making the most of the 30 per cent discount on the latest titles from our sister publisher ACC Art Books
52 Puzzle Pages: Got that September back-to school feeling? It could be time to pit your wits against our resident quiz editor, Peter Wade-Wright
54 Top of the Lots: is month’s sale previews include an unmatched collection of dodo memorabilia and an Ancient Egyptian blue lotus chalice
fairs are back with terri c events this month taking place in North Yorkshire, Surrey and London
58 Fairs Calendar: Why not plan a late summer trip based on the UK’s nest events? We have all the details
60 Auction Calendar: Never miss another sale with our up-to-date listings from the country’s leading auction houses
66 Marc My Words: Antiques Roadshow expert Marc Allum calls for some customer understanding when it comes to the post-sale melee
18 Great Yates: Gallery owner Simon Rastall reveals how a connection between his great grandmother and the artist Fred Yates sparked a lifelong friendship
30 Devon Scent: Auctioneer Mary Chilcott celebrates the Fishley family of potters from Devon and their remarkable designs, some even praised by Bernard Leach, the father of British studio pottery
38 Why I Collect: On the eve of his new book, collector and dealer Tony Nourmand describes his lifelong passion for movie posters, and the most collectable genres and designers
44 e Greatest Show on Earth: Fairground art has never been more collectable. Antique Collecting goes behind the scenes at a single-owner collection amassed over 40 years
FROM 9.30AM TO 1PM,
Summer may be drawing to an end but there is a host of events and exhibitions to delight collectors this month
A London museum has revealed plans to showcase clocks by one of the world’s greatest gilders –the Frenchman André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732).
Five timepieces from the Wallace Collection will explore how Boulle, who worked for the court of Louis XIV, used scientific discoveries to create unique clock designs, the influence of which soon spread across the western world and beyond.
Keeping Time: Clocks by Boulle, runs from November 27 to March 2, ahead of an international conference on the maker held at the Wallace Collection in early 2025.
Infrared technology has been used to reveal new discoveries about a painting by Angelica Kau man (1741–1807) one of the most celebrated artists of her day.
e conservation work at the National Trust’s Petworth House in Sussex has brought her work Diomedes and Cressida back to life, 250 years since its conception revealing a “magni cent” under drawing beneath the paint.
Conservator, Sophie Reddington, said: “It was wonderful to gradually uncover little brush strokes hidden for decades, along with many other lost details.”
Born in Switzerland, Kau man trained in Italy before moving to London in 1766. Her work attracted the patronage of royalty and aristocracy across Europe and she enjoyed the support and friendship of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Kau man was also one of only two female founder members of the Royal Academy.
Conservator Sophie Reddington at work on Diomedes and Cressida, © National Trust Images, Michael Cole
Right An example of a Plate 77 Penny Red which sold for £550,000 in 2012, which remains a record for a single UK stamp
Below left A mantle clock attributed to André-Charles Boulle, c. 1726, © Trustees of the Wallace Collection
e depiction of the Deposition of Christ from the Cross has been saved for the nation, ©
The UK’s most valuable stamp has gone on sale with a price tag of £650,000.
The Victorians issued 21 billion Penny Reds, which replaced the Penny Black in 1841. But just nine examples, of the 240 printed from defective plate 77, survive today after the faulty plate was destroyed.
Paul Fraser Collectibles’ CEO, Mike Hall, selling the stamp, said: “While most people know the Penny Black was the first stamp, it’s actually the rare Plate 77 Penny Reds that send collectors into a frenzy.”
A 12th-century walrus ivory carving showing Joseph of Arimathea lifting Christ’s body from the cross is to remain in the UK after the V&A raised £2m to acquire it.
UK authorities put a temporary export ban on the 18cm-high sculpture after it was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The carving is seen as one of the finest and most important examples of English Romanesque ivory still surviving, praised for its embodiment of feelings of human suffering and compassion. It had previously been in the collection of John and Gertrude Hunt.
An exhibition shining a light on the expansive – but not widely known - oeuvre of the British surrealist Leonora Carrington (19172011) continues in West Sussex this month. Leonora Carrington: Rebel Visionary, on until October 26 at Newlands House Gallery in Petworth, celebrates Carrington’s artistic range, before focusing on her later years in Mexico.
Carrington recently became the highest selling British female artist when her painting Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) sold for $28.5m in New York.
Left Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) Untitled, 1979, courtesy of the Leonora Carrington Council and Rossogranada
Below left Kati Horna (1912-2000), portrait of Leonora Carrington (19172011) in her studio, 1956, courtesy of the Leonora Carrington Council and Rossogranada
Above right Antonio Calderara (1903-1978)
Untitled ( e Market Square in Orta), 1929, private collection
Far right Antonio Calderara (1903-1978)
Untitled, Senza titolo, 1933, private collection
An exhibition of the work of the Italian abstract and gurative artist Antonio Calderara (19031978) opens in north London this month. From the 1920s, Calderara moved from an expressive gurative style to the heightened or ‘magic’ form of realism. Antonio Calderara A Certain Light, is on at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, Islington from September 18 to December 22.
Right Antonio Calderara (1903-1978) e Family: After the Storm, 1934, Fondazione Calderara, Vacciago
Above left Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) Tuesday, 2008, courtesy of the Leonora Carrington Council and Rossogranada
Below far right Humphrey Paget (1893-1974) bust of Edward VIII for gold pattern for £5, £2 and sovereign, 1937, e Royal Mint Museum
e exhibition brings together more than 70 examples of her broad output including sketches, sculpture, tapestries and jewellery.
Below right Hugh Cecil (1889–1974) pro le photograph of Edward VIII, 1936, e Royal Mint Museum
e relationship between art, money and society is in the spotlight at the latest exhibition at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, on show until next January.
Money Talks: Art, Society & Power features more than 100 objects from across the globe, ranging from coins to artworks by Grayson Perry.
e exhibition also considers how rulers’ images, from Nero to Edward VIII, have been depicted on coins. Tradition dictates new UK coinage features the head of the monarch facing the opposite way to its predecessor, but Edward VIII demanded he faced left showing what he thought to be his best side.
Bottom right Sir Grayson Perry (b. 1960) Comfort Blanket, 2014, tapestry, courtesy the artist, Paragon, Contemporary Editions Ltd
A rare copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio has gone on show at a Tasmanian museum, more than 10,000 miles away from where it was first printed.
Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington which sold the book, said: “It is remarkable that a 17th-century book preserving the works of an English playwright is still so revered centuries later, even in a far-flung corner of the globe.”
The First Folio was published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death. Of the 750 copy print run, a total of 235 are currently known to survive, including two that were discovered in 2016.
The volume has now gone on display at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania.
A new centre for art and culture opens in the capital next month with its inaugural exhibition exploring the history of tarot.
e new centre, at the Warburg Institute in Woburn Square in Bloomsbury, will see a number of upcoming public exhibitions and events, with Tarot: Origins & Afterlives opening on January 31.
e show will explore the evolution of tarot from a courtly card game in the 15th century, to its more recent role as a divining device and carrier of ancient secrets in the 18th and 19th centuries.
e original Warburg Institute was founded in Hamburg by the scholar Aby Warburg (1866-1929).
e institute and its treasures, including its collection of books and images, were rescued from Nazi Germany and relocated to London in 1933.
Suzanne Zack, Olympia Auctions’ new paintings and works on paper expert
What has been your greatest discovery to date?
A pair of previously unpublished pen and ink drawings by John Constable which were found among the belongings of the late playwright Christopher Fry by his son in a dusty box when clearing his father’s house! They
An exhibition celebrating the nation’s collectors and hobbyists has started a twoyear tour of the UK.
More than 1,500 people from across the UK have shared details of their collections ranging from football shirts to 19th-century banjos.
The project called Come As You Really Are curated by award-winning artist and Spider-Man enthusiast Hetain Patel is on at the Grants Building in Croydon until October 20, before touring the UK.
Above right Ken Ford shared his plastic bag collection with the project, image © Ken Ford
Below Miranda Worby’s My Little Pony collection, image ©
A model of the 100-gun ship Britannia, dating to the early 18th century, has been conserved.
Launched in 1682, the Britannia was rebuilt for George I in 1715 by Woolwich shipwright John Hayward, who was also responsible for making the model made at the same time.
It was restored by Cambridge dealer Martyn Downer, who bought the model during lockdown. He said: “Models of this type have always been cherished and treasured by collectors .”
Left e 100-gun model can be opened to reveal its inner timbers
had been bought in the 1950s from the great drawings expert Leonard Duke for just £3 each and sold for £92,000.
Are there currently any undervalued schools/artists to excite collectors?
I have always championed 18th and 19th-century British drawings and watercolours as a varied field for collectors, both new and seasoned, where you can still find works at affordable prices. With subject matter ranging from topographical views, natural history, and illustration, to figurative works there is something to appeal to a wide variety of tastes.
Do you collect? If so, what?
I mainly collect relatively affordable small-scale paintings and watercolours by British 18th, 19th, early 20th-century and occasionally contemporary artists. I love still life and recently bought a wonderful late 19th-century watercolour of honeysuckle in a glass vase by Joseph Middleton Jopling (1831-1884) that I am drawn to for its jewel-like colours and naturalistic detail.
Suzanne’s next sale of Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture is at Olympia Auctions on October 2.
A Roman copper-alloy pan used for heating wine has gone on show at a Su olk museum.
e pan, found buried in a small pit near Bury St Edmunds, may have been used at funerals to honour the dead.
Measuring 30cm in length and 8.6cm deep it is now on display at the West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village and Museum.
e pan, which had a maker’s mark on the handle, is similar to those made in Campania in southern Italy, and Gaul which were distributed across Europe.
Tickets go on sale this month for a year of events at Jane Austen’s Hampshire home, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth next year.
e house in Chawton, where she spent the last eight years of her life and wrote six of her best-loved novels, will host a new permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing, opening in October.
e rst festival of the year will run from January 23-28, focusing on Pride and Prejudice followed by a spring festival from May 1-11.
A summer festival from July 12-20, will take its theme from her fourth book Emma. Tickets for events from January to March are available at www.janeaustens.house/visit/whats-on
Some 16 pieces of stonework from a Devon cathedral are on sale this month after going on public display.
e Exeter auction house Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood is hosting the sale of stone from the city’s most iconic building.
Most of the fragments are examples of late-Victorian craftsmanship, carved in Bath stone, from the 11 surviving pinnacles installed between 1871 and 1895 after the originals were destroyed in a storm in 1871.
e timed auction ends on September 15, the nal day of a ve-day public viewing at the cathedral.
The Museum of Home in Hackney is the location this month for a celebration honouring the contribution Bill and Gerry Cotton have made to the study of regional furniture.
e Young V&A has scooped the top £120,000 prize to become the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024.
e museum opened last July following a £13m revamp of the former V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. It aims to spark creativity for youngsters up to 14 using a collection of 2,000 toys and artworks from around the world. It beat the other nalists including: Craven Museum in Skipton, North Yorkshire; Dundee Contemporary Arts; Manchester Museum (Manchester) and London’s National Portrait Gallery.
For more than half a century the pair has considered how country furniture is defined by regional characteristics influenced by geography, materials, trade, rural customs and traditional ways of life.
Bill and Gerry started collecting chairs with makers’ stamps which they referenced to trade directories, census returns and newspaper archives to establish provenance.
The event, on September 9, is hosted by the Regional Furniture Society. The pair donated its archive to the museum as well as a large index of English regional furniture makers now being added to British and Irish Furniture Makers Online.
Above left e Museum of the Home is hosting the afternoon celebration
e rst Art Fund Museum of the Year was awarded in 2013 to the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow.
Last month’s feature on Churchill memorabilia sparked memories of two readers’ own treasures
I thoroughly enjoyed last month’s article on collecting Churchillania (A Broad Churchill, August issue) which put me in mind of a treasured heirloom I inherited from my grandparents.
It is a bell which I remember they kept on the hearth of their north London home, engraved with busts of the three Allied leaders: Churchill Roosevelt and Stalin. It was made for the RAF Benevolent Fund and is marked with the words Cast with metal from German aircraft shot down over Britain 1939 to 1945
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
right A
I loved reading your feature on Churchill (A Broad Churchill, August issue) but I did allow myself a small inward groan when I read the words: “Many cigars have appeared on the market, often with a story, along the lines of ‘my grandfather met him in a Mayfair club.’”
I am one such! Family lore has it that a rather nasty cigar stump kept in a box under the stairs and only brought out on special occasions (usually after a couple of glasses of wine) was once smoked by the legendary wartime leader.
As a boy I would try to bring to mind those aeroplanes and pilots from the German air eet and wondered what became of them. It’s not worth anything but, like all the best collectables, has some treasured memories.
Donald Sharp, Edmonton, by email
Oh I say! Please no more mentions of anthropodermic bibliopegy (Your Letters, June/July issue) and books bound in human skin. If I want gruesome, I will stick to the Discovery Channel. I prefer Antique Collecting to be a little more re ned. On this note, huge praise for David Harvey, whose contributions on ne English antique furniture never fail to cheer my spirits. ey are like balm for the soul. Keep it up!
Above left e bell holds some treasured memories
Below left A book bound in human skin features in the collection of Moyses Hall in Bury St Edmunds in Su olk
In this case it is alleged to have come from a great great aunt who was said to be one of the cleaners at his Chartwell home and who pocketed it while on duty. It could be time to either sharpen up the provenance or consign it to the bin!
Sally Ann Robinson, by email
Answers to the quiz on page 52.
Nigel P. Trent, by email
Nigel P. Trent, by email
Q1 (d). There have been several different styles. Q2 (b). Q3 (c). A winged armchair considered more comfortable than the British equivalent. Q4 (a). Q5 (b). Q6 (d). Funerals carried out at night were the province of the very poor of the working classes who could not afford to take time out of their working day. Q7 (d). Around 1900 the arrival from the US of the rubber-core golf ball which bounced and went further than the old-style gutta percha balls preferred by British traditionalists. Q8 (c). An alloy of copper and zinc once used for plates and dishes, armoury and monumental brasses. (b) It is also a poker-type of implement, like a long shovel. The end would be heated and used to brown bread, meat etc. The name probably came from the mythological belief that the salamander (animal) could withstand fire. Q10. (a) = (iv), (b) = (ii), (c) = (v), (d) = (i), (e) = (vi), (f) = (iii).
Elbow chap can be rearranged to make the word peachblow; native rune is an anagram of aventurine; lint poking can be rearranged to make the name of the maker Pilkington, and rouged Brits is an anagram of the Pittsburgh maker Stourbridge.
Letters from both the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and Princess Diana have been causing a stir in the UK’s salerooms
A painting of hop pickers by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970), one of the leading female artists of the 20th century, sold for £74,000, at the Cotswold auction house, beating its guide price of £15,000-£20,000.
Hop Picking by Dame
Laura Knight
fetched
£74,000 in Gloucestershire
A prattware gure of man on a skewbald horse, c. 1800, galloped past its guide price of £2,000-£3,000 to romp home for £11,000 at the North Yorkshire auction house’s summer ne art sale.
The equestrian scene with sponged markings measured 12.5cm high
‘Prattware’ refers to light earthenware decorated in a palette of oxide colours mainly cobalt blue, yellow ochre, brown and a dark mossy green. It was produced in numerous potteries thoughout the UK from 1780-1840. Its name comes from that of its inventor, thought to be Felix Pratt.
At the same sale a lock of hair from the pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale sold for a mid-estimate £2,800. It was thought to have been cut in 1883 when the social reformer was 63 years old. It was sold alongside an example of her signature and various books.
The hair came from the family of Sir Harry Verney who married Nightingale’s sister
Demand from Asia is keeping the price of amber necklaces high
more than 10 times its low estimate of £120 when it fetched £1,420 at the Su olk auction house’s recent sale. It was made up of 38 graduating beads, with the largest measuring 32 x 24mm and the smallest 19 x 14mm. Demand from Asia has lifted the price of amber necklaces in recent years, especially those of an orangebutterscotch colour, which is most valued by Chinese buyers and, according to Buddhist tradition, associated with good fortune.
e work, measuring an imposing 75 x 62cm, was consigned by a Herefordshire-based client whose family had inherited it. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1971, the work is believed to date from the late 1930s and appears in the catalogue raisonné as no.1042.
Knight’s work spanned various genres, including portraiture, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life, but she is perhaps best known for her depictions of the world of ballet, the circus and the theatre. She was also a leading light in the British Impressionist movement.
Stevens & Williams hock glass, c. 1908, sold for £2,493, smashing its guide price of £200 -£250
Another hock glass by the same maker with the same estimate fetched £2,230
A set of 10 early 20th-century intaglio glasses, some attributed to the Stourbridge maker Stevens & Williams, each expected to make £200£250 sold for a total of £13,789 at the south London auction house. Its head of modern design, Nigel Dawson-Ellis, said: “I knew some examples can reach £500 on a good day. What I didn’t foresee was the amount of interest we received from North American bidders.”
An early 20th-century brooch in the form of a bee met its low estimate when it sold for £1,500 at the Dorset auction house on August 1. e bee’s thorax was a single diamond, with its abdomen made from a large sapphire and diamond wings set with little rubies. Many Edwardian and Victorian jewellery designs, including moths, butter ies and dragon ies, re ected the era’s romanticised notions of the natural world.
An art deco ashtray in the shape of a toucan set re to its guide price of £100-£200 when it sold for £2,200 at the Gloucestershire auctioneer’s recent sale.
The bee brooch created a buzz in the Dorset saleroom
A rare ‘computer drawing’ by Harold Cohen (1928-2016) smashed its guide price of £400-£600 when it sold for £8,820 in west London. British-born Cohen, who moved to California in 1968, studied at Slade School of Fine Art between 1948–1952, before developing AARON, a computer programme designed to produce works in a black felt pen mimicking the actions of a human artist. e current work Untitled Computer Drawing was created in 1983 when the Tate Gallery hosted four AARON drawing machines. Capable of drawing about 12 works an hour, they created hundreds of unique ink drawings during the exhibition. Cohen’s work received a boost following a 2024 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The drawing Untitled Computer Drawing was signed, dated and inscribed in pencil for 1983
In the 1920s and 30s, the ‘YZ’ range of novelties emerged as a unique creation by Henry Howell & Co Ltd. Since its establishment in 1832, Howell’s had been renowned for manufacturing exceptional walking sticks and canes, and their innovative use of new materials and technology. ese novel models featuring quirky birds were brought to life by the highly skilled craftsman at Howell’s, who carved the o cuts of exotic woods and fused them with new synthetic compounds like bakelite (or faturan) in amber, red and jade.
A Royal Crown Derby dinner service in the Red Aves pattern of birds and vines, was one of the surprise best-sellers at the Gloucestershire auctioneer’s two-day sale of the contents of a Cotswold manor house. e 12-piece service was expected to make £400-£600 but went on to hammer for £1,800.
Stabler’s cloisonné pot featured cartouches of animals
Another surprise hit was a 13cm-high, lidded pot in the arts and crafts style by Harold Stabler (1872–1945). Expected to sell for £200-£300, it fetched £1,700. ough not as well-known as others in his eld, Stabler was one of the most important British designers of the 20th century. He in uenced the later arts and crafts movement through his early directorship of the Keswick School of Industrial Art (1898-1900) and was a renowned teacher as Head of Art at the Sir John Cass Institute (1907-1937).
Red Aves pattern proved a hit in Gloucestershire
Eight lights from the RMS Olympic – the Titanic’s sister ship – sailed past their guide prices to sell in three lots for a total of £72,800 at the auction house’s summer sale.
The first-class lounge of the RMS Olympia – the Titanic’s sister ship
A pair of ormolu and cut-glass ceiling lights believed to be from the rst-class lounge realised the highest price, selling for £29,900, against an estimate of £4,000-£6,000.
A set of four smaller lights from the rst-class class corridor sold for £23,400, beating the same estimate; while a pair of dome ceiling lights from the rst-class grand staircase sold for £19,500, against an estimate of £2,000-£3,000.
The ceiling lights were thought to have come from the first-class lounge
A handwritten letter from Princess Diana to her family’s former housekeeper in Norfolk sold at the Essex auction house for £10,000, beating its guide price of £800-£1,000. It was one of a cache of notes, addressed to Violet Collison, head housekeeper at Park House on the Sandringham Estate.
Many were thank you notes for gifts to William and Harry. In one she writes: “William adores his little brother & spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs & kisses over Harry”.
In another, dated July 8, 1981, just before her wedding she wrote: “Everyone frantically busy here ... the bride to be has remained quite calm!”
The letters and cards were addressed to the princess’s former housekeeper
A letter written by the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, beat its low estimate of £350 to sell for £500 at the Shropshire auction house’s recent sale.
from
After the Revolution the relationship between Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), who served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800, and the French emperor started to fail. In 1810, Lucien set sail with his family from Italy start a new life in America. But while their ship was sheltering bad weather in Sardinia he was captured and brought to Britain where he became a paroled prisoner. He was ordered to live within a 10-mile radius of Dinham, near Ludlow, and all his letters were censored by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Leighton.
e auctioned letter was to Francis Hodgson, a friend of Lord Byron’s and Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge, asking
A pair of pansy earrings by American jewellery designer Joel Arthur Rosenthal, known as JAR, sold for a mid-estimate £2,730 at the Midlands auctioneer’s recent sale.
JAR graduated Harvard in 1966 with an Art History degree before moving to Paris. He initially worked in lm before opening a needlepoint shop in the city. Here he had many clients including Hermès, Valentino, and Bulgari.
Fine English furniture expert David Harvey reveals the secrets behind a magni cent Sheratonperiod secretaire
Over many years I have had the good fortune to handle many secretaire bookcases from the Georgian period in a variety of woods. ese have mostly been mahogany, with occasional satinwood and rosewood examples dating from about 1770 to 1830. ey are like people in that each has its own avour and style. But the di erences are also many, and when I have the good fortune to visit clients who have one of these, it really is like seeing a dear old friend.
When I buy a bookcase there are many factors which I have to consider, and it starts with the question: “Is it right?” Do all the parts belong together and did they all start life together? Over the years dealers develop an instinct but rst impressions are always important. If a piece looks altered at rst sight, then that suspicion usually only gets stronger the longer one looks at it.
Firstly, I like to see that the quality is consistent throughout. If the details on the top part are re ected in the base section, that is a good sign.
In this example (above) we can see the additional work the cabinetmaker put into the cornice. e top is moulded above a Greek key pattern and a uted frieze. ese would all have taken extra time which would have been re ected in the nal bill.
On the base (below) notice the applied moulding around the secretaire drawer. What I particularly like about this piece is the re-entrant corners to the moulding and the extra touch of the semicircle below the key.
Delving deeper, it came as no surprise that when I opened it, the interior also revealed something really rather special.
Right e bookcase’s applied moulding has a charming semicircle below the key
e drawer ttings and inlays of these bookcases varies from the plain and rather uninteresting to the brightly inlaid and exciting. Sometimes they have secret compartments, which can often be quite di cult to nd and open. In this I am reminded of a London client who acquired a secretaire bookcase from me before moving to New York. Some weeks later I received a frantic call from him as he had put a gold cigar cutter – an anniversary present from his wife – in a secret compartment and couldn’t remember how to open it.
Along with the other re nements, the eight drawers and four pigeonholes, set around the central door (top) are a good, standard arrangement. But what sets them apart is the quality, both of the kingwood crossbanding around the door and drawers, and the marquetry shell inlay at the centre focal point (above).
I was particularly taken with the green harewood and the contrasting sand shading within the shell. e burnt e ect of this shading is achieved by the marquetry cutter dipping the individual segments of the shell into hot sand to lightly burn them, producing the stunning threedimensional e ect.
Here is a tip when looking at the shelves in the top of a bookcase. e traditional way of adjusting a shelf, whether to accommodate books, porcelain, glass or whatever, is to remove it and return it to the required height.
In good pieces, the grooves should be deep enough to stop the shelf from falling forward if it dips due to the weight of what is placed upon it.
Also beware of bookcases with shelf grooves down to the very bottom, or stretching to the top, which is often a sign it has been reduced in height – probably to t into a particular room (shelves at the very top – or very bottom –of a bookcase, would be useless).
‘Also beware of bookcases with shelf grooves down to the very bottom, or stretching to the top, which is often a sign it has been reduced in height – probably to fit into a particular room’
Left Note the kingwood crossbanding around the interior door and drawers
Below left e central panel shows superb sand shading within the shell
Right A bookcase from Sheraton’s e cabinetmaker and upholsterer’s drawing-book, 1793–1794
The Sheraton period refers to the late 18th and early 19th centuries when Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) published drawings which were widely circulated and copied by makers across the country.
Sheraton was one of the “big three” English furniture names of the 18th century (along with Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite). Like both Chippendale and Hepplewhite, Sheraton devised influential pattern books, in this case, The cabinet-maker and upholsterer’s drawing-book, published in weekly installments between 1791 and 1793.
He also gave his name to a style of furniture characterised by an elegant refinement of late Georgian styles; known for its neoclassical influence and Greek and Roman motifs.
Unlike the curved lines of previous styles, Sheraton-period furniture features more rectilinear and straight lines, and a balanced and symmetrical appearance.
Finally look for the small details which is where the true signs of quality can be found. I was expecting the dovetailing on the internal drawers (below left) to re ect quality and I was not disappointed.
Left Look out for the spacing of the shelves
Below right Good dovetailing in the drawers is a sign of a quality piece
Below far right Even the feet on the bookcase are nely shaped
ey are tiny and beautifully executed in the best tradition of Georgian cabinetmaking. Even the feet on this bookcase (below right) with their nice shaping, scream quality. All the small bits of the jigsaw come together to give us the whole piece. It gives me such pleasure to work at a piece like this, whether researching a recent acquisition or writing my column for this magazine.
David Harvey is the owner of Witney-based WR Harvey & Co. (Antiques) Ltd. For more details go to the website www.wrharvey.com
Known as the ‘Happy Lowry’ the work of the British naïve artist Fred Yates is celebrated by the gallery owner Simon Rastall who knew and admired the shy genius
We all love genres of art and various artists for a myriad of reasons but for me it’s a personal connection, forged in childhood, that sparked a lifelong a ection for one notable painter.
Iwell remember how, one morning, aged six, my grandmother, Madge Rastall, asked me to nquire if a visitor in her spare bedroom would like a cup of tea. Obediently I ran upstairs, barged into the bedroom and bleated “Nan wants to know if you
t tea?” After a startled rustle, and a fight with the sheets, ableary-eyed man with a beard said softly: “Yes, please.” That was my first introduction to FredYates the British naïve painter.
While this was my rst encounter with Fred, my family had known himsince 1946. Originallyfrom Urmston in Lancashire, when he returned after serving in WWII, Fred decided to retrain at Bournemouth Teacher Training
‘It is not unusual to find a Cornish or French scene dotted with joyful northern folk and on closer viewing you may see a few of these characters with flat caps or mature ladies with long coats and Sunday best hats’
College. In need of digs he took up lodgings with Nelly Rastall, my great grandmother.
Fred stayed with Nelly throughout those formative years and, being a poor student, often paid his rent in Woodbine cigarettes and, on occasions, coal for the re. In that Bournemouth house he met my grandparents, and their two boys, my father Robin and my uncle Guy. Fred remained lifelong friends with all the Rastall family until his death in 2008. ere was, and remains, a genuine love for him among the Rastall family, an a ection which was reciprocated by the shy and generous Fred.
Like many returning soldiers, Fred was given the chance to restart his life, in his case training as an artist on the south coast.
In the war he had fought as a grenadier guard, sadly losing his twin brother Arthur during the battle of Arnhem in 1944, a tragedy that never left him.
Observant collectors may spot two little boys, often in shorts, holding hands or with their arms around each other, tucked away in the corner of his early paintings. e boys represent Fred trying to look after his beloved twin – although the characters slowly disappear in his later works.
After training in Bournemouth, Fred taught art at secondary schools in southern England for some 20 years, but teaching children was not his passion.
After he became a professional artist in 1969 the family connection continued with my grandparents selling his art in their shop in Tintern. Later, my father also sold Fred’s work in a gallery space in the town in the 1980s, while my uncle was Fred’s accountant.
Above right A pram and black dog often appear in Fred’s work
Below Fred Yates (19222008) e Crowd, 1973
Fred has been called the ‘Happy Lowry’ due to his vibrant northern street scenes. It is not unusual to find a Cornish or French work dotted with men in flat caps or ladies in their Sunday best. These classic Fred subjects are very sought after. Fred’s prices have climbed over the last 10 years, with watercolours now fetching between £1,500 and £3,000, and his oil paintings ranging from £2,500 to £25,000 depending on size.
Fred moved along the south coast. Following a period in Devon, he ended up in Cornwall, a county where his heart lay, living in St Just, in the most western end of Cornwall, the county’s ancient town of Lostwithiel and Marazion on the shore of Mount’s Bay. He painted en plein air along the rugged Cornish coast, depicting harbours and rustic cottages; scenes collectors will encounter many times. ese early years were tough for Fred whose art was not an instant success with the ‘in uencers’ in the
Above Fred Yates (1922-2008) Polperro Harbour, Cornwall
Below Fred Yates (1922-2008) Bridge at Lostwithiel, Cornwall
Below right e Rastalls’ shop 1964 with a Fred Yates painting for sale on the left
art world. But he was loved by the Cornish locals and visitors who saw him painting on the county’s many harboursides.
For decades, he would turn up at my grandmother’s house in Tutshill, just outside Chepstow, near the Wye Valley often breaking up a long journey with an overnight stay, particularly when he was travelling up from Cornwall.
I well remember how he would appear in his tatty Morris Minor Traveller, full of cut boards and loose tubes of sticky oil paints. He would leave my grandmother’s to paint in the morning (often in Tintern) and come back in the afternoon for afternoon tea and gooseberry tart.
He would then sell a work to rustle up money to fuel the car, before heading o again. e boot was always covered in paint as the “wet ones” slid around in the back.
He had a funny accent, played the piano, didn’t have a proper job and I was fascinated by the freedom of his lifestyle. We loved Fred coming for a weekend.
It still amuses me to see many of his paintings with Cornish titles o ered for sale – when I know where they were painted in the Wye Valley.
Yates’ early works (from the 1960s to the early 1970s) use more muted colours, most likely out of necessity. Fred had very little money and brown, black and white paints were cheaper. ese early sepia-style paintings, ranging in price from £500-£4,000, are underrated and undervalued. ey were nearly always painted on boards (which were cheaper than canvas) and painted with a tighter, more precise style which loosened as he got older.
Some are signed, some are not. is is an interesting area for collectors. As Fred’s style graduated away from the more formal ex-school teacher, he developed a freer style
Fred’s signature changes over time, as does his way of signing. On his early pencil drawings Fred would sign Fred J Yates (J for Joseph) but that is rare to find on oil paintings which are usually signed ‘Fred Yates’ or just ‘Yates’. Then there is the dating of paintings. Fred would date some – but not all: he dated from at least 1967 (seen on some of his early examples) but dated fewer after 1974/1975. Finding a 1970 dated oil is rare and I am not sure why, I have only seen two. While it doesn’t appear to increase value, if you are a Fred Yates geek like me – it’s gold!
Left Fred Yates (19222008), e Old Mill at Lower Slaughter, oil on board, signed lower right
Below right Fred Yates (1922-2008) Fred’s Flowers, oil on board, signed lower left
as a professional artist. In later life he did occasionally use acrylic, but didn’t rate it – even calling it “not real painting”. His use of brown packing paper for mixed media work using chalks, crayon and charcoal – which frequently pop up at auction – may seem an odd choice. But, as my father gave it to him free, he made the most of it.
Fred also painted on cardboard boxes, cupboard doors and even wooden brie cheese boxes.
After Cornwall, Fred moved to France living in old mills and village cottages. His later paintings are full of life and colour, with the French oils heavy impasto landscapes which are more complex than his earlier works in both colour and approach. As Fred gained popularity and made more money, he was able to a ord good thick oils and plenty of them (some impasto paintings are up to 22mm thick) and on occasions he would even squeeze oil paints straight from the tube onto the painting.
Right Fred Yates (19222008) Toulouse Fred, oil on canvas (heavily impasto), signed
Opposite page Fred Yates (1922-2008) French Church, oil
Left Fred Yates (19222008) Roman Bridge at Nyons, oil on canvasboard, signed lower left
Below right Mary Remington (1910-2003) Still Life with Fuchsias, oil on board, signed and dated lower right, 60 x 40cm
‘He would set off with a car boot covered in paint as the “wet ones” slid around in the back. He had a funny accent, played the piano, didn’t have a proper job and I was fascinated by the freedom of his lifestyle. We loved Fred coming for a weekend’
While it is true some of the art market has been slow to champion Fred’s work, mistaking his childlike charm for childish painting, the tide is starting to turn.
In my view, he is a good draughtsman, with a profound understanding of colour and how to control it in an oil painting. Simply put, he painted with joy and his works just make you smile.
At a broader level, the art and antiques market has been subdued so far this year, but we are starting to see an uplift postelection.
Modern British art has also uctuated with market changes. But, while buyers are more cautious, good quality paintings will always sell. And, to quote the legendary stock market investor, Warren Bu et: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy only when others are fearful.”
Meaning now is a great time to buy. Negotiate sensibly with your dealer and
Fred was returning to the UK to settle in Frome in his nal years but sadly passed away on that journey home (2008). He is buried in Marazion in Cornwall overlooking his beloved St Michael’s Mount.
Simon Rastall is the owner of Rastall Art in Cheltenham in the Cotswolds (www.rastall.art). He is one of the dealers at this month’s e Northern Antiques Fair at e Garden Rooms at Tennants, Leyburn, North Yorkshire from September 26-29. For more details go to www.northernfair. com or turn to page 57 for more details.
you should be able to pick up a couple of new pieces for your collection. You will thank yourself in a few years’ time when the economic cycle has turned.
Look out for paintings with good provenance and known artists’ names with a good collector base.
Bright, colourful paintings are in demand; with niche areas such as modern British abstracts from the ‘50s and early ‘60s appealing to the more experienced British collector.
Size is important, as is quality. Smaller (60cm x 40cm) paintings have a broad appeal, commanding a good price as they t into any space, while larger paintings are less sought after. Your collecting brain must be asking what will be in demand if the housing market picks up and collectors scale up and start to ll their walls again? A big statement painting might tick boxes in a few years’ time.
My four-point guide is: not too big, good
provenance, colourful and from a known name artist. e fth mantra of being a well-painted subject should go without saying.
Research
good names like the British artist and painter Ken Howard (1932-2022); Julian Trevelyan (1910-1988), the ever-popular Mary Fedden (1915-2012) or the avant garde artist David Bomberg (1890-1957).
Alternatively, consider lesserknown artists, like Su olk-born abstract expressionist Robert Sadler (1909-2001); the Cornish gurative artist Mary Stork (1938-2007) or the British oil painter Mary Remington (1910–2003).
Our marketplace gathers valued objects from auction houses around the world – and delivers them safely to your door. It’s the easiest way to explore, find and buy Valued Objects.
auctionet.com
One of the most interesting collections of early Moorcroft to appear on the market in years goes under the hammer in Essex this month
Amassed over the last 40 years, mostly from auctions, the 250-lot collection, expected to make £75,000, focuses on sought-after, signedwares from Moorcroft’s early Macintyre era.
William Moorcroft (1872-1945), a graduate of what is now the Royal College of Art, rst worked for the commercial pottery and porcelain rm of James Macintyre & Co. in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.
Still in his early twenties, his rst pieces were launched in 1897 and, within a year, he was in charge of the company’s ornamental ware department.
By 1904, his art nouveau-in uenced Florian ware – a design that perfected the technique of trailing slip known as tube-lining – had won him a gold medal at the St Louis
International Exhibition. His early style, featuring a variety of blooms, including forget-me-nots, corn owers, irises, and tulips, is still one of the most acclaimed Moorcroft ranges and consistently achieves noteworthy prices at auction today.
e collection for sale at Sworders in Stansted Mount tchet highlights the vendor’s particular passion for pieces in the Poppy design, from tea wares to vases.
With 66 Poppy pieces in total, typical examples include an inkstand (estimated to make £500-£700) while a chocolate set, comprising a tray, chocolate pot, cream jug and sugar bowl has a guide price of £300-£500.
Backed by the famous London store of Liberty & Co., where many of his products were sold, Moorcroft was able to open an art pottery factory of his own in 1913, on Sandbach Road, Cobridge, Sta ordshire.
One of the key designs from this era’s artful patterns, and designed speci cally for Liberty & Co., was Claremont – the popular toadstool pattern made in di erent guises in the rst three decades of the 20th century from c.1905.
A Claremont vase – one of 32 pieces for sale in this pattern – c.1910, printed with the mark Made for Liberty & Co. with the registration number 420081, is expected to fetch £800-£1,200. Also popular sellers at Liberty were the landscape designs of Eventide, with its autumnal balloonshaped trees, and the similar Moonlit Blue pattern.
Right From top to bottom: a Pomegranate twin-handled bowl, dated 1913, it has an estimate of £500-£700; a Tudric Pomegranate vase and stand for Liberty & Co., 17.7cm high, it has an estimate of £400-£600; a Pomegranate twinhandled vase, also for Liberty & Co., 21.5cm high, it has an estimate of £400-£600
Left From left to right: a Pansy twin-handled covered box, impressed Moorcroft/Burslem, it has an estimate of £300£500; an Eventide box for Liberty & Co., has an estimate of £400-£600; a Landscape vase has an estimate of £800-£1,200 at this month’s sale
‘His
A series of more formal art deco wares made by Moorcroft in the 1920s and ‘30s assumed a more austere aesthetic. ese pared-back, tube-lined designs were well received in Paris at the time, with Moorcroft winning an award at the famous 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes –the event that gave art deco its name – and again at the international expo in 1937. e French exhibition was a year after the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 where Moorcroft’s talked-about stand, designed by Edward Maufe, was described in the Pottery Gazette as “a work of art”, writing: “W.Moorcroft, Ltd., Cobridge, have a spacious and digni ed stand, which provides a perfect setting for the wares displayed.” It attracted visitors from around the world. Moorcroft’s lasting popularity was assured.
early style, featuring a variety of blooms, including forget-me-nots, cornflowers, irises, and tulips, is still one of the most acclaimed Moorcroft ranges and consistently achieves noteworthy prices at auction today’
One of the collection’s highlights comes in the series of Fish designs, of which there are 26 examples in a range of colours and glaze types. e most desirable are typically the high-temperature ambé glazes for which Moorcroft built a special kiln in 1921. A vase with this lustrous e ect, with the impressed Moorcroft signature and the mark Potter to HM e Queen (a reference to the royal warrant granted to the factory by Queen Mary in 1928), is expected to bring £2,000-£3,000.
WHAT: A Private Collection of Moorcroft Pottery
Where: Sworders
Fine Art Auctioneers, Cambridge Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, CM24 8GE
When: September 17
Viewing: In Sworders’ London gallery only, at 15 Cecil Court, WC2N 4EZ, from September 9-13 from 11-6pm and online at www.sworder.
co.uk from the end of August
We asked Sworders’ director John Black for his sale highlights
Do you have a favourite piece?
I love the rich colours of Moonlit Blue and Hazledene, so an ink stand in either of these would be among my top choices.
Why is the collection so important?
Our vendor has been collecting for more than 40 years, and the range of designs, especially the inkstands, is outstanding. You just don’t see a collection with this variety and numbers every day, especially the miniatures – the collector’s first love.
On paper, at 250 lots, it looks a massive collection, but physically the entire collection fits into 15 boxes.
Which pieces are likely to attract the most attention?
Moorcroft produced miniatures in a bewildering range of forms and patterns from the early 1900s onwards, making a collecting field in its own right.
Some of these tiny rarities from the Macintyre era can command sums to rival those paid for fullsized versions.
Miniatures were this collector’s first love and there are more than 40 examples in different designs, each measuring no more than 8cm (3½in) high. Highlights include tiny vases in the Poppy pattern (expected to make £300-£500), the Forget-Me-Nots design (with a guide price of £300-£500) and Alhambra, which is expected to fetch £200-£300.
Oppostie page Two Poppy plates, for James Macintyre & Co., each has an estimate of £300£500; a pair of Florian ware Poppy candlesticks, also for James Macintyre & Co., has an estimate of £300-£500; a blue and yellow Poppy chalice has an estimate of £400-£600
Above left Two Fish vases, both in saltglazed earthenware and impressed Moorcroft Made in England’. e taller (29.8cm high) has an estimate of £2,000£3,000; the smaller (8cm high) is expected to make £300-£500
Left Clockwise from top: a ambé Fish covered bowl, estimated at £400£600; a Hazledene vase, dated 1913, estimated at £400-£600; a Hazledene vase, for Liberty & Co., 10cm high, estimated at £1,000-£1,500; a Claremont footed bowl, 11.5cm diameter, estimated at £300-£500; a Hazeldene ewer, for Liberty & Co.,15.5cm high, estimated at £800£1,200 and (middle) a Claremont vase, 8.5cm high, estimated at £400£600
The Fish pattern pieces are sought after and are one of the simplest designs, the McIntyre period is well represented and a diverse range of miniatures and shapes – they will attract a lot of interest.
Where are you expecting interest to come from?
Moorcroft collectors mainly, the collection crosses the periods of art nouveau to art deco, so there’s plenty of scope for new collectors.
Are there any pieces for the new Moorcroft collector?
I would say all 250 lots have something to offer both new and more established collectors.
How about more seasoned collectors?
The condition, rarity of pattern and shapes are the main source for seasoned collectors –again plenty to choose from.
What advice have you got for people starting a Moorcroft collection?
Buy what you like – we’re all different and there will be pieces that speak to you on different levels, of colour, design and shape. Keep an eye on condition which is critical in determining the value of pottery. Look for pieces with minimal damage, such as chips or cracks, and ensure the glaze is intact. Maintain detailed records of your purchases, including provenance, price, and any restoration work. This documentation can be valuable for insurance and future sales. Collect what you love. While investment potential is important, enjoyment is key.
Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts, including Nailsea glass from the Janet and David Moor collection Sat 28th and Sun 29th September 11am start
Viewing Thursday 26th and Friday 27th Sept 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
More than 50 pieces of earthenware from a celebrated dynasty of north Devon potters goes on sale next month in Devon, auctioneer Mary Chilcott reports
For the collector with a love of region and artisanal skill, nothing presents as enticing a prospect as folk art, and craft pottery in particular. Many dealers and most ceramic collectors will have seen, or handled, the pottery wares marked with the name ‘Fishley’ or its variants.
For years it has graced the market place, quietly collected by enthusiasts who have come to recognise the quality and particular individuality of this ware.
So there is great excitement surrounding next month’s sale of earthenware made by multiple generations of Fishleys at the Fremington pottery. e collection - the largest single collection ever to come to market - includes that most iconic Devon piece – a harvest jug, which would have appeared at harvest suppers for the famous county’s cider makers.
Before the Industrial Revolution, when transportation of heavy materials was di cult, rural potters needed local resources at their disposal.
With easy access to the Combrew clay beds and the ports at Bideford and Barnstaple, the north Devon region was the perfect spot for such potters to ourish. One family who took advantage of the bounty at hand was the Fishley family.
e rst Fishley pottery at Fremington was started by George Fishley (1770–1869), eldest son of the local sh master, who set up a pottery at a local smallholding in Combrew in 1811, leasing clay beds at the nearby Knills Moor.
Best known for his hand-built modelled pieces rather than his earlier, wheel-thrown items, George’s work employed a dark brown ground adorned with white slip, often with sgra to, derived from an Italian word meaning “to scratch.” Occasionally he used the method of pressing wet leaves into the slip before burning them o
‘Edwin’s work heavily influenced the
studio
pottery
movement, with the father of British studio pottery, Bernard Leach, referring to him as “the last peasant potter”’
Opposite page A Fremington Pottery vase in the arts and crafts style by Edwin Beer Fishley (1832-1912) decorated with a bird among ora in slipware and sgra to, with a lustrous glaze. Principal photography: Andrew Butler, supplementary photography: Courtney Round
Above right A Fremington Pottery, celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, by Edwin Beer Fishley (1832-1912)
Below Edwin Beer Fishley (1832-1912) jug in vibrant green
in the ring, which o ered a cheaper, quicker method of ornamentation.
Potting was in the family’s DNA, and George’s sons, Edmund (1806-1860) and Robert (1808-1887) both took up the reins, following their father’s innovative use of slip and sgra to, and produced highly decorated commemorative and harvest jugs.
Robert was a journeyman potter and soon left to travel the country and, with Edmund’s early death in 1860, the pottery was bequeathed to George’s grandson, Edwin Beer Fishley (1832-1912).
e most well-known of the Fishley potters, Edwin’s work would heavily in uence the studio pottery movement of the 20th century, particularly the Japanese artist, Shoji Hamada and the father of British studio pottery, Bernard Leach, who referred to Edwin as “the last peasant potter”.
After Edwin’s death in 1912, the potting baton passed to his grandson, William Fishley Holland (1888-1971), the only member of the family choosing to carry on the tradition.
Edwin’s death put an end to the Fremington Pottery, but the bright-faced William set up just across the estuary in Braunton, building his kiln from scratch.
Edwin was involved with the family’s craft from a young age and his artistic are soon shone through. He produced new lead glazes which fused more e ectively to the local earthenware than glazes used previously, which su ered from ssile aking.
In fact, Edwin’s glaze was so e ective that the nearby Barnstaple Art Pottery attempted, but failed, to acquire the recipe.
His early style remained very much aligned with the local tradition, with a ne yellow slip, sgra to motifs and lettering. In the late 1860s he began experimenting with cobalt and copper oxides, adding blue and green to Fremington Pottery’s colour palette. ese colours were brushed on to otherwise plain designs, used most frequently to highlight oral motifs.
Although Edwin’s decorative pottery ourished, he realised he needed to produce everyday ware to keep the business a oat. So he revived the oval baking dish, decorated inside with a simple, combed e ect. One notable admirer of the dishes was Devon-born textile designer, Ethel Mairet (1872-1952), who bought several from Edwin’s stall at Barnstaple’s Pannier Market.
A member of the Cotswold’s craft circle, Mairet’s appreciation caused Edwin to be lauded by major names in the arts and crafts movement. Edwin also continued to promote his pottery at shows throughout the southwest, where his classical Pompeian style became popular. Noticeably larger than his other work, it required a monumental undertaking of highly-skilled sgra to work.
In his later years, Edwin returned to the yellow slip, incised decoration style for which the pottery was most well known among collectors.
Above A Fremington Pottery twin-handled vase by Edwin Beer Fishley (1832-1912) decorated in slipware and sgra to, with depictions of classical gures, including Pegasus, within a vine leaf border and anked by stylised sh scroll handles
Above right Mary’s favourite piece: early 19th-century hand-built pedestal bowl attributed to George Fishley (1770–1869)
Right A watch stand highlighting William Fishley Holland’s debt to George Fishley’s (1770–1869) design style
Initially, his products had very intentional Fremington overtones, taking clear inspiration from George Fishley but, with the advent of WWI, and William joining the Royal Flying Corps, Braunton Pottery had to take on new hands.
William agreed to let a young Michael Cardew take throwing lessons from him during family holidays at Saunton, ensuring the survival of the family’s rural pottery legacy by handing skills on to the post-war generation.
Cardew’s later work at Wenford Bridge shows a clear resemblance in terms of sgra to techniques, as well as Edwin’s timeless combed slip e ect, which Cardew used on his plates. After 1921, William travelled up the coast to Clevedon, Somerset, where he remained until his retirement in the 1960s.
ough the Fishley family no longer makes its wares on the north coast of Devon, there is a handful of potters who are continuing the slipware and sgra to traditions,
Though the description ‘harvest jugs’ seems to suggest these vessels were used by people working on the land, they were predominantly used in the home at a harvest supper.
Although such motifs were employed nationally, North Devon harvest jugs were distinctive because the potters used a scroll handle, which is coiled where the handle meets the body.
The Fishley family popularised this style even further, taking on commissions and creating pieces for local landowners. George Fishley in particular focussed on patriotic designs, such as celebrating British military boats, while his son, the journeyman potter Robert, transported the North Devon harvest jug concept further afield.
Edwin Beer also continued the tradition, absorbing much of the classic motifs and script but adding a novel twist with his new-found range of colours. Today, the tradition continues primarily through the skilled and exacting hands of Harry Juniper in Bideford.
While farmers brought their produce to the table, others might take a harvest jug brimming with cider as their contribution.
In North Devon – blessed with the red clay of Combrew and the fine white clay at Peters Marland – these jugs were not only utilitarian but also decorative.
A symbol of British folk art, the strong, bulbous forms had a multitude of implicit meanings, including marriages, royalism and patriotism – in addition to wishing the farmer a good harvest. Such messages were expressed in a pictorial language, including blossoming floral motifs symbolic of growing love and fertility.
These odd-looking vessels are the pottery equivalent of a joke or a prank. The earliest known example was excavated in Exeter and has been dated to around 1300 AD. It is now part of a fascinating collection at the city’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum.
This complicated vessel (above) is designed to be passed around at merry
gatherings; the aim of the game being to drink from it without causing a spill.
It might sound straightforward, but the neck of the jug is usually heavily reticulated and the rim is adorned with spouts.
The level of difficulty afforded by these features resulted in frequent spillages that would have caused much hilarity in the
pubs in which they were drinking.
Puzzle jugs were also made in France, where they garnered a global popularity, making them a prudent addition to the repertoire of the Fremington Pottery.
However, due to their complicated design, production of them was never easy to achieve.
The collection was consigned to Chilcotts auctioneers in Honiton, Devon, by Margaret Squance (née Holland) the great, greatgranddaughter of Edwin Beer Fishley.
Her interest in her family’s heritage was sparked by childhood visits to her great uncle William who was then working out of his Clevedon pottery and gave her miniature pots and jugs.
But it was only when she saw them for sale at a Bristol market that she got the collecting bug. Over the years her passion brought her into contact with renowned contemporary potters as well as ceramics experts from the Antiques Roadshow. She also helped with the writing of the 2008 book, The Fishleys of Fremington by John Edgeler.
Opposite page A puzzle jug with endish features making it hard to drink without spillages
Below left A harvest jug decorated with a ne yellow slip over a honey-coloured base
Below right A Clevedon Pottery charger by William Fishley Holland decorated in slip with a mermaid within lattice work border
While some areas of the ceramics market has shown signs of slowing down, the appetite for good quality art pottery is still very much in evidence.
ere has also been a robust revival in more naïve style folk art and pottery. Consequently, the market for Fishley pottery is comparatively strong compared to that of, say, Royal Doulton or Coalport.
When buying Fishley wares, as with all ceramics, look for damage and repairs. However, don’t be too ruthless as the glaze didn’t always fuse perfectly with the earthenware, so many examples have small areas where the glaze is aking.
e work of George Fishley always seems to do particularly well due to its age and in uence on wider North Devon pottery. Similarly, Edwin Beer Fishley’s work has a good following, especially his arts and crafts-inspired pieces which are decorated in his signature bold colours.
Fishley pieces are relatively easy to spot once you’ve got your eye in! Look for either bold dark greens with a slightly lustrous edge, or ne yellow or white slip on a red-brown base; even better if it has a well-executed sgra to scene.
ankfully, the Fishleys were all very clear when it came to marking their pieces: George Fishley usually impressed G. Fishley Fremington to his works, whereas Edwin and William incised their names to the base along with the location of the pottery.
‘Fishley pieces are relatively easy to spot once you have your eye in. Look for either bold dark greens with a slightly lustrous edge, or fine yellow or white slip on a redbrown base; even better if it has a wellexecuted sgraffito scene’
Catherine Southon’s recent sale of a pair of John Lennon’s glasses – which sold to the spoon-bending mystic Uri Geller for over £50,000 – reminds her she is a rock chick auctioneer at heart
In this business standing on the rostrum you never know where interest is going to come from. is is even more the case when the lot in front of you is pair of John Lennon’s iconic round spectacles. I don’t mean a pair of glasses to which the musician gave his name – but ones he actually owned and wore. Imagine my surprise when, after a 15-minute bidding war, the successful bidder turned out to be none other than the celebrated spoon-bending, British-Israeli magician Uri Geller. Geller who paid the premiuminclusive sum of £51,040 (the pair was estimated at £2,000-£3,000) later admitted he would have “paid any price” to secure them.
e round, blue-tinted specs are now set to appear at the Uri Geller Museum in Ja a, Israel, alongside a range of rock and roll memorabilia amassed by Geller, including items from David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson, as well as Donald Trump’s cap. He later disclosed on Times radio why the glasses meant so much to him. He said: “I have been looking for these glasses for decades. When I was in New York, living on 57th Street and John was living in the Dakota building we became good friends. John explained the importance of di erent colours and what they meant to him. Light blue represented the sea and sky and spirituality.”
ese light blue specs were brought into a valuation day in Warlingham, Surrey by a local resident. e Beatle had gifted them to him on a visit to Abbey Road Studios in 1968. e seller’s then girlfriend was friends with a variety of musicians including members of the Yard Birds and George Martin, and he was invited to the Beatles’ recording studios as a birthday treat. He spotted the spectacles lying on the piano and went to pick them up but was told by his girlfriend to leave them, to which Lennon replied: ‘It’s okay, he can have them; Happy birthday!’”
Left e Cartier box was intended as a Christmas gift from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but Lennon died before he could give it away
Below right John Lennon’s glasses will go on show in the Uri Geller Museum in Israel
For me, it was a reminder of the special place rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia has always had in my heart. At the end of my history of art degree, I invited the Antiques Roadshow expert Hilary Kay to to give atalk on rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia at my university. When she described the thrill of auctioning Jimi Hendrix’s Stratocaster guitar for more than £100,000, I knewthe auction path was the one for me.
Even then it was the Beatles who ruled the roost. As a junior at Sotheby’s back in the ‘90s Iwent on to become involved in the monumental sales held at e Hard Rock Café in the late ‘90s where we sold, among other things, Beatles’ lyrics.
I quickly came to understand the importance of provenance because there are a 100 times more fake Beatles’ signatures on the market than genuine ones.
Earlier this year a particularlypoignant piece with a terri c provenance came our way when we were approached by a former bank manager at the Bank of Tokyo. In 1980, he had been given a silver Cartier box by Yoko Ono, which had been intended as a Christmas gift from John Lennon andYoko Ono. Sadly, he never had the opportunity to present it as he died after being shot outside his homein the Dakota building on December 8, 1980. e box sold in May for £13,000.
Catherine Southon’s next antiques and jewellery auction takes place on October 16.
‘I was involved in the monumental sales held at The Hard Rock Café in the late ‘90s where we sold Beatles’ lyrics, Marilyn Monroe’s dresses, Michael Jackson’s costumes and subsequently the Robbie Williams Auction and the Geri Halliwell collection’
Film poster dealer, collector and author Tony Nourmand brokered the sale of the world’s most expensive poster
which sold for $690,000 in 2005. On the eve of a new book, he describes his lifelong passion
When did your obsession begin?
One of the warmest memories of my childhood in Tehran was being taken to the cinema every week by my dad or uncle. My uncle was friends with the owner and we would sit in the private balcony to watch a lm.
While the credits rolled and my uncle drank tea with friends in the back room, I would be allowed to take a movie poster from the pile stacked in the corner (the American lm companies sent posters to Iran). I carried it carefully home and lovingly taped it to my bedroom wall … only to tear it down seven days later and replace it with that week’s new release.
When I was nine, Enter the Dragon was on for almost a year in 1973. I made my father take me to see every week.
e rst which I paid money forwas in1979. Now a teenager living in London, I had just seen Apocalypse Now at the cinema and found a copy of theBritish poster in the dingy Vintage Magazine Shop in Soho. I asked them about a poster for my favourite lm, Chinatown (1974) that I had seen pictured in an article, but they had no idea what I was talking about.
Years later and still thinking about this poster, I came across Jose Ma Carpio at Cinemonde in San Francisco –at that time something of a mecca for movie poster collectors. Jose immediately knew what I was talking about. He explained that the Chinatown I was after was the Richard Amsel artwork – only used on the German and Australian posters – and that he could get me oneif I was interested.
Jose also had original posters for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Casablanca (1942), which at the time were selling for a couple of hundred dollars each ($20,000 and over $100,000 respectively today). In my mid twenties one of the posters I bought from him was an American one sheet for Breakfast at Ti any’s (1961), which I managed to sell to Ti any & Co. in London’s Bond Street.
In 1989, Christie’s in New York held its first dedicated movie poster sale with prices fetching thousands of dollars. … The reappraisal of movie posters had begun.
Above left Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, 1958, American one sheet, art by Reynold Brown (19171991), Reel Art Press
Right King Kong, 1933, Style A, American three sheet, art by S. Barrett McCormick (1890-1965) and Bob Sisk (19031964) art direction by David L. Strumpf (1896-unknown), Reel Art Press
In the mid 1990s, I became the vintage movie poster consultant for Christie’s in London and, most signi cantly, I opened the world’s rst gallery dedicated to original movie posters, the Reel Poster Gallery. By then posters were playing an increasing role in exhibitions in museums and galleries. I curated exhibitions of movie posters worldwide and formed collections for individuals and institutions as the market grew.
And with some astonishing sales gures: the rst Italian release of Casablanca (1946) sold for $478,000; Dracula (1931) Style A – $525,000 and Frankenstein (1931) Style A – fetched $312,000. ese days it isnot unusual for prices to reach $300,000-$400,000.
It’s amazing when you think then, and now, most of these posters would have been thrown out by the studios or the cinemas. One of the biggest buyers I have today is Universal Studios, desperate to replace its missing archive.
are the most popular genres?
People collect movie posters for di erent reasons. A couple might come to me wanting a poster from e Graduate because it was the rst lm they saw together, others may be interested only in the artwork of a designer such as, say, Saul Bass.
e most collectable genre andera forcollecting is, by far, horror lms from theearly ‘30s ey were made in the Depression era when money wasscarce, so few were made making them incredibly rare today. Early Charlie Chaplin lms will also nd a market, and King Kong, Frankenstein and Casablanca are evergreen among collectors.
In later years, James Bond is oneof the more collectable franchises e lms’ appeal are timeless. I remember watching the lms with my 12-year-old nephew who was just as excited about them as I was when I watched the same lms at his age.
Joan Fontaine (unless with Hitchcock or Astaire), whatever the respective merits of their stories. Posters of Breakfast at Ti any’s will always be in demand.
Michael Caine is a collectable actor, as is Steve McQueen. But in all my years as a dealer no one has ever asked me fora poster of a lm featuring Spencer Tracy. Boris Karlo is also collectable.
‘Michael Caine is a collectable actor, as is Steve McQueen. But in all my years as a dealer no one has ever asked me for a poster of a film featuring Spencer Tracy’
In 2005 I brokered the sale of an original German promotional poster for Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction film Metropolis, created by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm (1899-1969) which sold for $690k in 2005 (then £397,762).
Above Casablanca, 1942, rst post-war French Release, French one panel, art by Pierre Pigeot (b. 1929), Reel Art Press
Above right Metropolis, 1927, export German three sheet, art by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm (18991969), Reel Art Press
Below right James Bond underball, 1965, British quad, art by Robert McGinnis (b. 1926) and Frank McCarthy (1924-2002), Reel Art Press
Two versions exist: one with the title and credits at the bottom, which was used in Germany; and a second free of credits, which was exported for screenings around the world. The credits-free version is the holy grail among collectors and one of the most sought-after – and expensive – vintage posters of all time.
Hundreds of copies of the sepia-colour promotional poster measuring 7ft x 3ft (2.1m x 0.91m) would have been produced by Germany’s UFA film studio near Berlin. Most would have been hung on billboards and then thrown away. This one was in absolutely pristine condition and was obviously never used.
I like these ground-breaking posters from the 1940s and ‘50s that you might just have tucked away in an attic and could be worth a fortune.
The man responsible for them was S. John Woods (1915-1997) who was the head of marketing at Ealing Studios from the mid 1940s until 1959. From 1943 onwards, he followed in the footsteps of enlightened commercial patrons like Shell and London Transport, commissioning established artists and illustrators to design posters for its films.
These included such names as Edward Bawden, Edward Ardizzone, John Piper, Barnett Freedman and Ronald Searle. Though it caused him to clash with studio heads who favoured a more traditional (read cheaper) approach, he succeeded in creating some of the most striking movie posters of the era. Among the artists was Alfred Reginald Thomson (1894-1979), whose work can be seen above, who was a renowned portraitist during the 1920s and later a successful commercial artist.
In 1945, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and, in 1948, won a Gold medal for painting at the Olympic Games.
Why has movie art been so underappreciated?
It’s like when William Holden says when he plays the struggling playwright Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard: audiences think actors make up the words, they don’t realise someone has to sit down and write them. It’s the same for movie posters, people don’t realise the work that has gone into them.
Added to which there has been suspicion of the ‘advertising’ element of lm posters designed to sell a product. en there’s the aesthetic preference for the ‘live arts’ – theatre, performance, dance, music, opera – over the experience of lm. Toulouse-Lautrec may have designed lithographic posters for a music-hall in Montmartre from 1891 onwards, but … lms?
If you could save only one poster, what would it be?
This is an impossible question but I do love the 1933 poster for The Invisible Man
Universal’s horror heyday in the 1930s saw a glorious explosion of colour and detail.
Above left e Man in the White Suit British quad, art by Alfred Reginald omson (1894-1979) design S. John Woods (1915-1997), Reel Art Press
Above right e Invisible Man, 1933, advance American one sheet, art by Karoly Grosz (18961952), Reel Art Press
Below Breakfast at Ti any’s, premiere American one sheet, art by Robert McGinnis (b. 1926), Reel Art Press
Rich, lithographic posters loomed with genre-defining monsters and damsels in distress underneath striking fonts and clever taglines. This incredible body of work was created by Hungarian-born art director Karoly Grosz (1896-1952). Little is known about Grosz personally but his posters for Universal are almost mythical.
‘Most collectable vintage movie posters were thrown out by the film studios or the cinemas. One of the biggest buyers I have today is Universal Studios desperate to replace its missing archive’
Professional designers of movie posters on the whole have belonged to a very di erent social milieu and, in any case, they are far too busy working on their next project to have time for learned discussions or round tables about the design principles embedded in the last one. e result of all this – and more – is that movie posters do indeed remain underappreciated.
ese days when all big Hollywood stars will have it written into their contracts how prominent they must appear in any lm’s promotional material – it’s not as easy. Also, in the ‘70s, and earlier, the movie poster was the main carrier of information about a lm, now there is a barrage of images on the internet and social media which has led to some bland, global, comprehensive marketing campaigns, with graphic devices reusable in a whole variety of formats from small ads to huge poster sites and a consequent loss of distinctive identity. at being said it is lazy to write o the past 30 years. Design studios like BLT Communications, Gravillis Inc and La Boca and individual creatives like Akiko Stehrenberger (b. 1978) are producing original, exciting and design-led posters that are some of the best examples in the history of the artform.
Tony Nourmand (with Graham Marsh, Christopher Frayling and Alison Elangasinghe) is the author of 1001 Movie posters: Designs of the Times published by Reel Art Press RRP £80. For further information and full list of stockists visit www.reelartpress.com
Below left e Last Black Man in San Francisco, 2019, special American one sheet, art and design by Akiko Stehrenberger (b. 1978)
Below right Unforgiven, 1992, American one sheet, photo by Eddie Adams (1933-2014) design by Bill Gold (1921-2018), Reel Art Press
In 2010, I got a phone call at work, out of the blue, from an elderly American man. He said: “My name is Bill Gold and I am a movie poster designer and have just retired and I wondered if you’d be interested in doing a book on my work.”
The name rang a bell, as I’d spent the past 20 years researching the designers behind movie posters. So I asked if he was the same man who had designed the posters for Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Unforgiven (1992).
He agreed and then added he’d also designed posters for Casablanca in 1942 (his first), Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Barbarella (1968), The Exorcist (1973) as well as every Clint Eastwood movie poster from Dirty Harry (1971) to Mystic River (2003).
When we met, Bill introduced me to his archive, which included thousands of iconic movie posters, unseen designs, alternative versions, sketches, drafts, notes, photographs and diaries. The subsequent 450-page book which result, with a foreword from Clint Eastwood, was called Bill Gold: PosterWorks.
Poster designers and directors can have a fractious relationship but Bill’s partnership with Eastwood was an exception to the rule. Eastwood was a well-informed director, who realised the significance of movie posters was still ‘underappreciated’. His philosophy married well with Bill’s ‘less is more’ design philosophy.
The poster for Unforgiven, with photograph by Eddie Adams (1933-2014), distilled the essence of this approach; as Eastwood wrote of his character in the foreword of the book: “William Munny was a loner, and conflicted, and Bill’s poster captured that in all its silent beauty.”’
In 2018, just before he died, Bill and I speculated on why movie poster art was still so unappreciated, and still tended to be filed under ‘collectables’ or ‘memorabilia’ rather than as serious examples of graphic design. I hope one day, for Bill’s sake, they will be given the appreciation they deserve.
A shimmering sideboard dish is set to prove the mother of all nds this month, writes Eric Knowles
Left e late 16th or early 17th-century mother-of-pearl, IndoPortuguese dish, has an estimate of £10,000£15,000
Africa, presented Vasco de Gama with a “bedstead of Cambay, wrought with gold and mother of pearl.”
Mother-of-pearl comes from the inner lining of a mollusc’s shell. It is formed by layers of nacre – a protective secretion produced when a foreign object enters the shell. It is known for its sparkling iridescence.
So often it’s a treasure spied by chance that sparks a thrill of excitement for us specialists, and so it was when this beautiful dish, 26cm (10in) wide, was spotted languishing on a sideboard.
Its owner, whose husband bought the bowl in London in the 1970s, was blissfully unaware it was something extraordinary, dating back centuries, and potentially worth thousands of pounds.
It boasts a oral design created from the smooth, shiny and iridescent wonder of nature that is mother-of-pearl. As early as the 1500s its shimmering quality was prized by noble families and royalty, including Henry VIII.
In the 19th century many art historians thought such pieces were European due to their Western shape, but it would almost certainly have been made in Gujarat, India. It was likely commissioned by one of the country’s Portuguese population which grew after Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to the Indian subcontinent in 1498.
According to my great friend the Antiques Roadshow expert Adam Schoon, who is very interested in Portuguese history, the dish demonstrates the vast extent of the Portuguese trading network at the time.
Incredibly, he told me, its value when it was made in the 16th century would have been even greater than its auction value today. We will see this month when the dish is o ered for sale this September in Derbyshire with an estimate of £15,000.
Gujarat is rst mentioned as the centre of mother-of-pearl work in 1502 when the king of Malindi, on the east coast of
Above right In the 19th century many art historians thought such pieces were European due to their Western shape
Over time a number of Indo-Portuguese mother-ofpearl pieces were brought to Europe by merchants and soon became beloved by the very wealthy and listed in many 16th-century royal inventories.
e courts of both Francis I and Henry VIII were charmed by exotic goods from ‘the Indies’ with motherof-pearl gifts given at New Year in Tudor times.
In 1534, omas Cromwell gave the monarch a mother-of-pearl ewer set in gold, and Queen Elizabeth I was presented with a ewer and basin embellished with mother-of-pearl.
roughout the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat continued as a centre of production of a diversifying number of mother-of-pearl goods, including caskets, ceremonial maces, basins and ewers. e inspiration for these objects remains unclear but the in uence may be Korean. Najeonjang, or mother-of-pearl inlaying, is a traditional Korean method of decorating household objects with strips of mother-of-pearl.
eir fragility means few Gujarati wares have survived but, by hook or by crook, one glorious example has fared well on its Sta ordshire sideboard.
It’s in good company. Similar mother-of-pearl overlayed items can be seen at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and in the Green Vault Museum in Dresden, Germany.
Eric Knowles is a consultant with the Etwall-based auctioneers Hansons. e dish will be o ered in Hansons Auctioneers’ ne art auction in Derbyshire on September 26-27. For more details call 01283 733988.
‘The 26cm (10in) diameter dish dates back centuries, possibly to the late 1500s. Ornamental delights like this were coveted by noble families and royalty, including the court of Henry VIII when they were given as New Year presents’
Some 300 lots of fairground art –the culmination of one man’s 40-year passion – go under the hammer this month. Antique
Collecting reports
Once a familiar sight, the fairground carousel with its ornately carved wooden animals, has become a rarity. Of necessity, breglass animals have replaced the antique originals, and most of the other old rides and shows have all but disappeared.
Fortunately, many examples of decorative fairground work have survived, due to the enthusiasm of far-sighted collectors. One such is Ross Hutchinson whose collection, spann ng almost half a century, goes under the hammer this month at Bonhams, following a three-week exhibition at the London auctioneer’s New Bond Street saleroom.
Ross’s lifelong passion for fairground art was triggered by a childhood memory. As a young boy he would watch open-mouthed as a procession of trucks hauling the fairground sets made its way into town. For a few magical days the fair captivated the locals, creating memories and changing lives, before packing up and setting o to the next venue.
Ross was so mesmerised by the fair went on to become an antiques dealer, with an interest in vintage rocking horses, before establishing a toy museum in
‘Fairs reached their ultimate splendour around 1900 when people of all ages and from all sectors of society enjoyed the thrills and excitement of the lavishly decorated rides and sideshows’
English carousels are easy to spot because the rides are always turned in an clockwise direction with the most intricate carving seen on the left side of the body. The outside row animals generally bring higher prices because they are larger and more ornately carved. They are also rarer. Some makers, such as Savage, used metal ears for the horses, as those made in wood needed constant repair
The value of a carousel figure is determined by such factors, including rarity, size, ornateness, condition and beauty. The carver responsible for the piece is not always a factor because all the major carvers produced work that was exceptional as well as mediocre.
Some European carousel figures rate highly as being charming – especially Bayol’s rabbits. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, with some collectors preferring ornately-carved animals, others may favour a gracefully-arched neck, or an animal in a dramatic pose; while others prefer the sensitive face of a dainty innerrow jumper.
Because the showmen were continually on the move and tended to view the rides as business equipment, rather than art, there was, until recently, few records kept of either the designers or carvers. Added to which, few pieces have the carver’s signature or logo carved into them.
Equally, because the main aim of the showmen was to provide a showy ride at the start of the season, figures and architectural details such as aprons, balustrades and steps were repaired and repainted.
It is because of this continual programme of often poor restoration that any items in virtually original state are now highly prized.
Accordingly, a professionalrestoration can enhance the value of a carousel figure, while a poorly done restoration can detract from it.
Fairs, music halls, bandstands in the park and even the new department stores all o ered public places for lavish display. Each fairground owner and maker of rides strove to make their entertainments ever more splendid, ever more inventive and more lavish.
Fairground art has long been appreciated by painters and illustrators and was the inspiration for many mechanical toys during the late 19th century but it was only when the number of fairs declined rapidly after WWII that antique collectors began to take an interest in the artefacts.
By the early ‘60s fairground pieces had become decorators’ accessories and gallopers and sign boards started to be displayed as works of art in smart city homes.
en, the mecca for anyone looking for striking pieces was “Trad” on the Portobello Road, run by Lord and Lady Bangor – which was stacked high with animal shapes and fairground art.
Buyers were mainly American dealers and collectors who, even then,
Left A large French carved and painted organ gure of a female bellringer, made by Gavioli, it has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 at this month’s sale
seemed to prize folk art beyond their British counterparts and had the space to display their purchases.
With their appreciation, public awareness grew, and the value of carved gures abandoned in elds and barns increased. Among the eager collectors was Russ Hutchinson, who in 1977, was entranced by the forgotten objects and art on display at London’s Whitechapel Gallery’s exhibition e Fairground
He said: “Dealers and collectors took interest and started looking for surviving pieces. First to strike me were the signs with their swirling fonts and gaudy colours. en as a few carved pieces started to appear on the market, I began to really see the quality of the Victorian fairground art, carvings by skilled men working in the tradition of ships’ gureheads, tobacco shop gures and church decoration.
“Most of their work has been destroyed, and their names forgotten, with carvings burnt for the gold leaf nish. It has taken me more than 40 years to gather these baroque survivors together, uniting sets and pairs. It gives me great pleasure to present them to you.”
Until recent years, no fairground was complete without its share of Savage-built merry-go-rounds, switchbacks and showmen’s engines.
Each machine was a masterpiece, not only of engineering ingenuity, but also of amboyant art and craftsmanship. Savages’ fairground machinery was exported all over the world, but the root of this success lay in agricultural implements originally made for local farmers.
e mid-19th century drainage of the Fens by steam power opened up new agricultural opportunities. Savage was quick to exploit these and built and developed carts, hoes and steam threshing machines.
Right An important pair of carved and giltwood harpies from the famous Wonderland Organ, made by Orton & Spooner, c. 1906, it has an estimate of £3,000£5,000 at this month’s sale
Below left An English platform Venetian gondola, made by Savages, c. 1890, it has an estimate of £4,000-£6,000 at the same sale
Below right A giltwood horse and chariot made by Orton & Spooner, c. 1906, it has an estimate of £30,000-£50,000
chariot made for the front of Wonderland No.2 Organ, commissioned by the Midlands showman
Pat Collins. The figure of a winged classical woman, carved by the Burton and Trent firm, Orton & Spooner, dates to 1906.
The early 20th century saw the arrival of the bioscope, in effect, a travelling cinema with an ornate facade and an equally opulentlydecorated organ.
When fixed cinemas appeared, many of the larger organs were used as the centre pieces of huge riding machines called scenic railways.
As time progressed, and public interest in the scenics dried up, the instruments were broken up or stored in barns and out houses.
Such was the case with the current lot which Ross Hutchinson rescued from plans to destroy it after he came across the chariot front in a barn. Ross set about cleaning and restoring it, returning it to its former glory.
The other known example of a centre piece from the same bioscope was sold at Christie’s Tussauds Collection of Fairground Art in 1997.
market all the principal novelties that have delighted the many thousands of pleasure seekers at home and abroad.”
Before Savages, and prior to the mid 1860s, roundabouts were driven by young boys or horses pulling round the spinning frame. Similar technology had been applied to horse-driven threshing machines, which Savage was manufacturing at the time. Savage developed a rotating frame on which several animals could be turned abreast. Later he evolved the up-and-down, or galloping, motion.
As the showmen jostled with each other for trade, they required larger, faster and more opulent rides to attract the punters’ attention.
Savage responded not only with Racing Peacocks, Jumping Cats and Flying Pigs as variations on the gallopers theme, but also with the Switchback, the forerunner of most modern rides. Patented in 1888, switchbacks were the most lavish machines ever
Right A large French carved platform ride gure of a nodding donkey made by Gustave Bayol, c. 1900, it has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000
Below An English carved and painted galloping double-seater gure of a dragon made by John Anderson, c. 1900, it has an estimate of £4,000-£6,000 at this
produced, their cars taking the form of Baroque-style gondalas, gilt-encrusted carriages and newly invented motor-cars.
Mechanisation made the fairground appear modern and futuristic, the latest attractions including ghost shows, cinematograph and x-ray photography.
A live 150-lot sale, e Greatest Show: e Fairground World of Ross Hutchinson, place at Bonhams New Bond Street on September 10, with an online sale of a further 150 lots at www.bonhams.com, ending on September 11. In the three-week run up to the sales the collection can be viewed at Bonhams New Bond Street from Monday to Friday 9-5pm.
Williams brothers. Between them they produced figureheads for sailing ships that filled Bristol’s docks during the 1840s and ‘50s.
But, by the time the demand for wooden ship figureheads died out at the turn of the 20th century, the company had already turned to carved fairground
carousel figures.
An article in the National Fairground Archive notes: “Their (Andersons) carved galloper mounts were known for the burgeoning scrollwork under the animal’s belly, complete with Italianate grotesque grins upon its flanks and a flying ribbon frozen onto the neck, lettered with nameof a famous horse or friend.”
Later work went further, with animals heads carved into the body work creating a dream-like, surreal effect.
Other British firms such as Lakin and Lang Wheels all became rivals, with German competition becoming very strong in the 1880s, when Fritz Bothmann and Glück of Gotha in Thuringia began producing much cheaper rides, with horses that were carved at the Fredrich Heyn factory in Neustadt. Both he and fellow German maker Carl Müller became known for their dainty prancing horses with gentle faces, although they also carved other menagerie figures.
French carvers specialised in menagerie figures, producing entire “ménage” carousels, sometimes with only one type of animal. French figures tended to be gentle, doe-eyed creatures more like domestic animals, as opposed to the exotic wild animals produced by the American carvers.
They included long-eared pigs, cows with brass horns, donkeys with nodding heads, cats, rabbits, dogs, ostriches, cockerels, swans and kangaroos –with French horses being more of a rarity. The best known French carousel carver was Gustav Bayol, Coquereau et Maréchal, manufactured carousel figures in a similar style.
HEALING PLANTS - FROM ELIZABETH BLACKWELL’S “CURIOUS HERBAL”
BY MARTA MCDOWELL
With topics ranging from London’s best tea shops to the importance of pollen, there is much to fascinate with this month’s selection of titles from our sister publisher ACC Art Books
BY ROB KESSELER & MADELINE HARLEY
ISBN 9781906506513
ISBN 9780789214812 RRP £9.99
A miniature treasury of medicinal plants, drawn from the work of a pioneering woman artist. Healing Plants is the perfect little gift for anyone interested in herbalism, botany, or gardening.
BY MATTHEW
STADLEN & MARTIN HARPER
ISBN 9781906506698 RRP
Starting with the smallest bird in each chapter and building towards the biggest, and using his photographs as a guide, How To See Birds takes us on a very personal birdwatching journey and in the process, helps us to see birds – to really see birds!
First published 10 years ago, this ground-breaking book is now in its fourth edition. It is the result of the shared fascination of an artist and a scientist with the perfect design of pollen grains, organisms so small that they cannot be seen without a microscope. It also considers the many ways in which pollen impacts unseen on our lives.
RICHARD INWARDS
JEAN CAZALS
ink you know ne art and antiques? Pit your wits against the super noggin of our resident quiz
editor Peter Wade-Wright
Q1 If, in your special collection, you had a Gothic, Owl and Niagara would you collect (a) buttons, (b) can openers, (c) bathroom ttings, (d) paperclips?
Q2 Alternatively, your collection contains a Bull’s Head, Simplex and Church Key. Do you collect (a), (b), (c) or (d) from Q1?
Q3 To what is the French term Bergère applied in the mid-18th centruy. (a) a shepherdess’ dress, (b) a large dog’s basket, (c) an armchair, (d) a wideframed mirror?
Q4 e twice-weekly newspaper e London Gazette became available in 1666. What was its title when rst published a year earlier? (a) Oxford, (b) Cambridge, (c) Edinburgh, (d) Dublin Gazette.
Q5 A Victorian, small, horse-drawn, two-wheeled, tub-shaped cart with a rear door and facing sideseats is called what? (a) a Gilly cart, (b) Governess cart, (c) Bath cart, (d) Berkshire cart.
Q6 Funeral paraphernalia was often re-used and is highly collectable. e College of Heralds was once responsible for upper-class funerals. e pomp was impressive but the expense enormous. How did people circumvent the expense? (a) holding funerals abroad, (b) forming funeral ‘collectives’, (c) home interment, (d) holding funerals at night?
Q7 e term ‘bounder’ now means a shifty sort of chap with low morals, but was originally applied to users of what? Special types of (a) rugby ball, (b) croquet ball, (c) baseball, (d) golf ball?
Q8 Latten is what? (a) a plastic, (b) a wood, (c) a metal, (d) an insect’s ‘silk’.
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 September14 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.
Q9 A salamander is a lizard-like creature and what else?
The letters in the highlighted squares could be rearranged to make the word ‘carbuncles’. The three winners, who will each receive a copy of the book, are: Jess Goodwin, by email; Russell Friars, Glasgow and Dr June Phillips, by email.
Q9 A salamander is a type of amphibian but was once also to be found in (a) the bathroom, (b) the kitchen, (c) the conservatory/orangery, (d) the library.
Q10 In art, the saints are recognised by their symbols or attributes. Each may also represent a profession, skill or calling. Match the following… (a) St. Bernardine of Siena, (b) St. omas the Apostle, (c) St. Eligius, (d) St. Cecilia, (e) St. John Bosco (f) St. Luke, …with (i) musicians, (ii) architects, (iii) painters, (iv) advertising, (v) jewellers, (vi) editors.
Finally, here are four anagrams associated with types, or manufacturers, of glass: elbow chap, native rune, lint poking and rouged Brits. Rearrange them, in order, to make (a) an art glass made in the US resembling Chinese porcelain, (b) a hardstone imitation using metallic specks in molten glass, (c) a British glass manufacturer of at (plate) glass, (d) a glass manufacturer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that made plain and cut int glassware.
Across
4 Jewelled head ornament. (5)
6 Sir Thomas Stamford ______ (1781-1826). Important figure in the founding of Singapore and the Zoological Society of London. (7)
7 Disagreeable sound. (5)
8 Having been rent asunder. (4)
10 Cider with ____ Evocative and nostalgic work by Laurie Lee. (5)
13 Witch of ____. Biblical necromancer through whom Saul sought communication with Samuel. (5)
14 The anglicised name of a South American palm tree…also a musical instruction meaning emphasis. (5)
16 Beautifully banded stone used for decoration. (5)
19 Legendary British king whose story is told by Shakespeare. (4)
20 Face coverings with various uses/meanings across many cultures (pl.). (5)
21 Greek mythological daughter of King Minos. (7)
22 Term originally applied to a spirit helper, but now usually used for his/her/its physical representation. (5)
1 Classical male singing voice e.g. Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) (5)
2 Constellation and sheepish zodiacal sign. (5)
3 A sharp mountain ridge… and an ancient Greek concept (sometimes personified in statuary form) = ‘excellence’. (5)
4 Former German coin and note that officially replaced the denarius in the 9th century. (7)
5 Canopy support found in sleeping quarters. Older ones were often beautifully carved. (7)
9 Preposition denoting ‘with reference to’. Seen on many an invoice. (2)
11 Camera _____. Dark chamber into which an outside scene is projected. (7)
12 Of, or from a particular European country. See 1-Down example. (7)
15 Abbreviation = ‘that is to say’. (1. 1.)
16 15th-century helmet that completely enclosed the head and face. (5)
17 Useful or valuable thing (to collectors) or person (e.g. to an organization). (5)
18 Town, south of London, known for its salts and horseracing. (5)
Finally, rearrange the letters in the highlighted squares to form the title of the 14th-century work by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313- 1375) The ________ (9)
Rare dodo bones go under the hammer in West Sussex, while a kettle by the leading silversmith Paul Storr appears on the rostrum in North Yorkshire
An ebony veneered table clock by the renowned maker Joseph Knibb (1640-1711) c. 1690, has an estimate of £4,000-£6,000 at Fellows’ sale in Birmingham on September 4.
It is one of 29 clocks, all dating from the 17th to 20th century, amassed over 40 years by the late collector Mike Baker. Baker’s career in horology began while recuperating from an accident in Rhodesia, in modern-day Zimbabwe. He went on to become one of the continent’s leading restorers.
After returning to the UK in the 1970s he undertook private commissions including working on clocks in Salisbury Cathedral and Brighton Pavilion.
Knibb was one of the leading London clockmakers alongside illustrious names as such as Fromanteel and Thomas Tompion.
A Mr Toad car mascot is among a collection of 50 vintage designs up for grabs at Charterhouse’s automobilia auction on September 25.
Auctioneer at the Sherborne-based sale, Richard Bromell, said: “The market for enamel signs, car mascots and automobilia
A 19th-century silver-gilt kettle by Paul Storr (17701844) has a guide price of £6,000-£9,000 at Tennants’ sale at its Leyburn saleroom in North Yorkshire on September 13.
It is one of a number of lots from the Swinton Estate, one of Yorkshire’s most important landed estates which has been owned by the Cunliffe-Lister family since the 1880s.
Storr was one of England’s most celebrated silversmiths of the late Georgian period. His large-scale pieces were manufactured to the highest standards and his work can be seen in museums across the world, and most notably in the Royal Collection.
Above A William IV silver-gilt kettle by Paul Storr, London, 1832, has an estimate of £6,000-£8,000
An ancient Egyptian chalice, c.1504-935 BC, shaped as a blue lotus, is one of the highlights of Timeline Auction’s online sale, expected to make £8,000-£10,000.
Blue lotus chalices, known as seshen by the ancient Egyptians, were believed to have been used in temples or in ritual off erings to the dead.
Egyptians associated the fl ower with rebirth, probably because itsfl owers opened in the morning and closed at night. They also believed it had narcotic properties and added its extracted essence to wine – the stupefying effects of which are depicted on many banqueting scenes.
mascots, the sale features glass versions from Lalique. Estimates range from £100 to more than £1,000.
A rare 1841 sovereign showing a young Queen Victoria is estimated at £10,000-£15,000 at Noonans’ sale of 200 British coins on September 18.
The sovereign is one of the rarest ever produced due to the limited number (one of only124,054) struck that year. It comes from the collection of the late British numismatist John Sabberton, which is expected to make £300,000 in total.
Noonans’ Peter Preston-Morely called it: “A small but advanced collection of British gold coins issued since the reign of George III, including rare specimens from the mints in Australia, Canada, India and South Africa.”
A proof five pounds from the reign of Queen Victoria, dating to 1887, is estimated at £20,000-£26,000.
Above e 1841 sovereign could make up to £15,000 in London this month
Bones from a dodo found on the island of Mauritius at the turn of the 20th century go under the hammer at Summers Place Auctions in West Sussex this month.
The Billingshurst auction house is set to sell the collection of the British naturalist Ralfe Whistler (1930-2023), son of the ornithologist Hugh Whistler (1889-1943) part of whose 70,000 Indian bird collection was donated to the Natural History Museum in 1949.
Ralfe’s obsession with the extinct flightless bird started when he inherited bones from his father who had been given them by Thomas Parkin, founder of the Hastings Museum.
The bequest sparked a lifelong interest in the “funny looking” bird: so much so he named his home Dodo House and crammed it with memorabilia, including everything from dodo paintings to stamps and banknotes.
The collection’s highlight is two letters from Edith Clark, dated 1921, the daughter of schoolteacher George Clark (1807–1873), who discovered the first dodo subfossil bones on Mauritius in 1865 after a 30-year search.
Books to adverts
The auction includes two of the most important publications on the dodo - Strickland & Melville’s The Dodo and its Kindred from 1848, estimated to make £1,400-£1,600 and Hachisuka’s The Dodo and Kindred Birds published in 1953, expected to make £400- £600.
Also on sale are more than 150 paintings from renowned British artists including Beryl Cook and Richard Bawden. Other printed material includes an article from The Illustrated London News, a Virgin Atlantic print ad, a book cover design for Philip Pullman’s A Dodo at Oxford, as well as stamps depicting the dodo (both from Mauritius and the USA) and a Mauritian bank note. There are also some 20 sculptures of the dodo made of bronze, wood, ceramic and wire.
Mythical status
The dodo was greyish brown in colour and stood approximately 1m (3.3ft) tall. Found by Dutch soldiers around 1600, it became extinct less than 80 years later due to deforestation, hunting and destruction of its nests by animals brought to the island by the Dutch.
Since its demise – with the possible exception of Tyrannosaurus rex – the dodo became arguably the best known and most mythical of all extinct creatures.
Summers Place Auctions’ Rupert van der Werff said: “Ralfe Whistler’s dodo collection was clearly a life’s work. This auction offers an opportunity to all those dodo enthusiasts out there to buy a piece of this collection with prices starting at as little as £20. The bones and the accompanying letters are of real importance and we hope that they will find their way into existing dodo collections.”
Ralfe Whistler’s dodo collection goes under the hammer at Summers Place Auctions on September 24.
1 From top left: a pair of dodo tarsometatarsus lower leg bones has an estimate of £4,000-£6,000; a single dodo tarsometatarsus has a guide price of £1,500-£2,500; a pair of dodo tibiotarsus or tibia has an estimate of £4,000£6,000; a dodo scapler coracoid with a letter from Edith Clark is expected to make £8,000-£10,000; fragments of Dodo eggshells should fetch £200-£400 and a letter from Edith’s sister, Bessie, dated 1921, has an estimate of £400£600. 2 A modern copy after the oil painting of the dodo by Roelandt Savery (1576-1639); it has an estimate of £100-£200 3 A wooden dodo sculpture with concealed drawer, it has an estimate of £30-£50 4 A ceramic teapot in the shape of a dodo, it has an estimate of £40-£60 5 A Viva Dodo board game, one of a 14-item lot, which is expected to make £150-£250 in total
On holiday this month – why not take in an antiques fair while you are away?
The Northern Antiques Fair opens its doors this month for the third time at the Garden Rooms at Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire.
Particular highlights of the four-day event, from September 26-29, include drawings by Harold Riley (1934-2023) of his friend LS Lowry, a decorative Windsor chair and a Parkinson & Frodsham carriage clock.
The prestigious event has been running since 1951, firstly in Harrogate and latterly near the market town near Richmond. Over the years it has established a loyal following of both dealers and collectors, with one of this year’s newbies being Derbyshire-based Peter Bunting Antiques and Rastall Art from the Cotswolds. Both join a coterie of well-known northern dealers, including Solo Antiques from Lancashire and Mark Buckley Antiques and Walker Galleries from Yorkshire, as well as Highland Antiques and the jewellery specialist Billy Rae from Scotland.
The British Art Fair, the only fair dedicated to modern and contemporary British art, returns to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea this month.
Works by Britain’s most famous artists including Frank Auerbach, Banksy, John Craxton, Tracey Emin, Terry Frost, Barbara Hepworth, Damien Hirst, Ivon Hitchens, David Hockney, Henry Moore, John Piper and Bridget Riley will all be on sale from 80 of the UK’s leading dealers at the event from September 26-29.
Among the highlights at the gallery, just off the King’s Road, will be an selection of works by the celebrated Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004) who, as well as being a draughtswoman, printmaker and a brilliant colourist, was a prominent member of the post-war St Ives group.
Roman knows Surrey-based antique glass specialist Mark West is one of the dealers heading to the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre this month to take part in the Classic Antique Fairs’ inaugural event at the venue.
Mark, who has been dealing in antiques for more than 50 years, will be showcasing 2,000 years of glass from Roman times to the 19th century.
He will be joined at the event, from September 20-22, by other well-known Surrey-based dealers, including M&D Moir, which specialises in the three great masters of French glass: Lalique, Galle and Daum. Also taking part is Shire of Surrey and John Andrews, a ceramics collector and the man behind Classic Antique Fairs.
Above Surrey glass dealer Mrk West is selling a 27cm (10in) Roman ask in perfect condition with a price tag of £4,600
The Festival Hall in Hampshire is the location for the popular Petersfield Antiques Fair this month, which sees original illustrations from a range of mid-century publications go on sale.
John Robertson Fine Paintings will showcase a number of illustrations from the 1950s and ‘60s all created by the artist Fred Laurent (1922-1995).
Laurent serialised stories for 40 years on magazines ranging from John Bull to Woman. While early versions of the originals were pulped, in the ‘60s publishers began returning them to artists to keep.
As well as original illustrations, the fair, from September 6-8, welcomes other specialist dealers including Hickmet Fine Art, which will be showcasing art nouveau and art deco bronzes. There will also be an opportunity to meet fine English furniture expert and Antique Collecting columnist David Harvey from Witneybased WR Harvey Antiques.
Above On the beach an original illustration by Fred Laurent (1922-1995) on sale at this month’s fair
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
British Art Fair
07572435010
www.britishartfair.co.uk
Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York HQ, King’s Road, SW3 4RY, Sept 26-29
Coin and Medal Fair Ltd 01694 731781
www.coinfairs.co.uk
Novotel, London West, 1 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London W6 8DR, Sept 7
Sunbury Antiques 01932 230946
www.sunburyantiques.com
Kempton Antiques Market, Kempton Park Race Course, Staines Road East, Sunbury-onThames, Middlesex TW16 5AQ, Sept 10, 24
Wimbledon Antiques Market, Prince Georges Playing Fields, Bushey Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8TE, Sept 1
SOUTH EAST & EAST ANGLIA:
including Beds, Cambs, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex.
Blackdog Event Ltd
www.ablackdogevent.com
Grand Brocante, Culford Hall School, Culford, IP28 6TX, Sept 8
Arun Fairs
07563 589725
Rustington Antiques & Collectables Fair, The Woodland Centre, Woodlands Avenue, Rustington, West Sussex, BN16 3HB, Sept 1
Castlewood Antique Fairs
07594 800998
The 11th Three Counties
Antiques & Fine Art Fair
The Rufus Centre
Flitwick, Bedfordshire, MK45 1AH, Sept 7-8
Dedham Antiques Fair
Dedham Assembly Rooms, High Street, Dedham, Suffolk, CO7 6HJ, Sept 1
Graham Turner Antiques Fairs
01379 897266
Long Melford Village, Memorial Hall, Chemists Lane, Long Melford, CO10 9LQ, Sept 4
IACF
01636 702326
www.iacf.co.uk
Ardingly International Antiques & Collectors Fair, South of England Showground, Ardingly, Nr Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH17 6TL, Sept 3-4
Love Fairs
01293690777
Detling Antiques, Vintage and Collectors Fair, Kent County Showground, Detling, Maidstone, England, ME14 3JF, Sept 1
Sunbury Antiques
01932 230946
www.sunburyantiques.com
Sandown Antiques Home & Interiors Fair, Sandown Park Racecourse, Portsmouth Road, Esher, KT10 9AJ, Sept 15
The Majestic Hare Fairs
07355 722585
Castle Community Rooms, Church Street, Framlingham, Suffolk, IP13 9BQ, Sept 7
including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire.
Antique Fairs Cornwall 07887 753 956
www.antiquefairscornwall.co.uk
Lostwithiel Antiques and Collectors Fair, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0HA, Sept 8
Pensilva Liskeard Antique and Collectors Fair, PL14 5NF, Sept 29
Arun Fairs
07563 589725
Emsworth Antiques and Collectors Fair, Emsworth Community Centre., North Street, Emsworth, Hampshire, PO10 7DD, Sept 8
Cameo Fairs
07790 126967
www.cameofairs.co.uk
Corfe Castle Antiques Fair
Village Hall, East Street, Corfe Castle, Dorset, BH20 5EE, Sept 1
Lyndhurst Antiques Fair, Community Centre, Central Park, High Street, Lyndhurst , SO43 7NY, Sept 15
Classic Antique Fairs
07789 502027
www.classicantiquefairs.co.uk
Antique and Arts Fair, Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre, Hall 5, Show Centre, ETPS Road, Farnborough, Surrey, GU14 6FD, Sept 20-22
IACF 01636 702326
www.iacf.co.uk
Antiques, Vintage & Collectors Fair, Royal Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 6QN, Sept 13-15
The Petersfield Antiques Fair 07774 850044
www.penman-fairs.co.uk
The Festival Hall, Petersfield, Hampshire GU31 4AE, Sept 6-8
EAST MIDLANDS
including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland.
Arthur Swallow Fairs
01298 274493, www.asfairs.com
Vintage Flea Market, EXO Centre, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, LN2 2NA, Sept 8
IACF
01636 702326
www.iacf.co.uk
Runway Monday at Newark Antiques and Collectors Fair, Newark & Nottinghamshire Showground, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 2NY, Sept 16
WEST MIDLANDS
including Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire
B2B Fairs 07774 147197/
www.b2bevents.info
Malvern Flea & Collectors Fair
Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire WR13 6NW, Sept 15
Coin and Medal Fair Ltd 01694 731781 www.coinfairs.co.uk
Midland Coin Fair
National Motorcycle Museum, Bickenhill, Birmingham, B92 0EJ, Sept 8
including Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Yorkshire.
Arthur Swallow Fairs 01298 274493
www.asfairs.com
Decorative Home & Salvage Show Ripley Castle, Ripley, Harrogate,HG3 3AY, Sept 6-8
Antiques & Salvage Market
Clay House Farm, Tabley, Knutsford ,WA16 0HJ, Sept 21
The Northern Antiques Fair 07970 110370 www.northernfair.com
The Garden Rooms at Tennants Harmby Road, Leyburn North Yorkshire DL8 5SG, Sept 26-29
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, Sept 19
Nantwich Town Square Antiques Market, Sept 14
Betws-y-Coed Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair 01492 518597
St Marys Church Hall, Betws-y-Coed, North Wales, Conwy, LL24 0AA, Sept 5, Sept 12
Linlithgow Antique, Retro and Collectors fair
01506 848059
Linlithgow Antique,Retro and Collectors fair, Queen Margaret hall, Blackness road, Linlithgow West Lothian, EH49 7JA, Sept 7
Dame Laura Knight R.A. (British, 18771970), ‘Hop Picking’ – sold for £71,500
VALUATIONS & ADVICE SPECIALISTS IN SINGLE-OWNER COLLECTIONS NATIONWIDE VALUATIONS & ADVICE
Quirky architectural features. Regency columns, corbels, marble and stone
pediments, folding/rolling multi part Georgian room dividing
over
Victorian canopy shower bath. Decorated toilets etc Unitas, Simplicitas, Deluge etc. Decorated basins x 3.
Jewellery | Watches | Silver | Ceramics | Glass | Decorative Arts Paintings | Furniture | Clocks | Design | Books | Designer Goods 10-12 Cotswold Business Village, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, GL56 0JQ 01608 695695 enquiries@kinghamsauctioneers.com www.kinghamsauctioneers.com
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 With Asian Art, Sept 3
Bonhams
101 New Bond St, London W1S 1SR, 020 7447 7447
www.bonhams.com
The Greatest Show
The Fairground World of Ross Hutchinson (Online) ends Sept 11
The Greatest Show
The Fairground World of Ross Hutchinson (Live) Sept 10
Blazing a Trail: Modern British Women, Sept 9-18
19th-Century and British Impressionist Art, Sept 25
Bonhams Montpelier St, Knightsbridge, London, SW7 1HH, 020 7393 3900
www.bonhams.com
Weekly Watches (Online) ends Sept 4, Sept 13-25
Watches and Wristwatches, Sept 11
Instruments of Science and Technology (Online) Sept 2-12
Homes and Interiors, Sept 6-17
Knightsbrige Jewels, Sept 18
Jewels (Online) Sept 16-24
Prints and Multiples (Online) Sept 16-25
Chiswick Auctions Barley Mow Centre, Chiswick, London, W4 4PH 020 8992 4442
www.chiswickauctions.co.uk
Fine Oriental Rugs and Carpets, Sept 17
Old Masters and 19th-Century Art, Sept 18
Jewellery and Watches, Sept 24
Silver and Objects of Vertu, Sept 25
Chiswick Auctions 1Roslin Square, Roslin Road, London, W3 8DH www.chiswickauctions.co.uk
Interiors, Homes and Antiques (Timed Online), Sept 22
Christie’s 8 King St, St. James’s, SW1Y 6QT, 020 7839 9060 www.christies.com
Prints and Multiples (Online), Sept 12-26
Contemporary Edition (Online), Sept 17-Oct 1
Elmwood’s 101 Talbot Road London, W11 2AT, 0207 096 8933 www.elmwoods.co.uk
September Designer Handbags and Accessories, Sept 10
Forum Auctions
220 Queenstown Road, London SW8 4LP, 020 7871 2640 www.forumauctions.co.uk
Books and Works on Paper (Online), Sept 5
Autumn Selection: Modern and Contemporary Editions, Sept 12
Modern Literature (Online), Sept 19
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper, Sept 26
Prints - Holding Sale, Sept 30
Lyon & Turnbll Mall Galleries, The Mall, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5AS, 0207 930 9115 www.lyonandturnbull.com
None listed in London, see Edinburgh listing
Noonans 16 Bolton St, Mayfair, W1J 8BQ, 020 7016 1700 www.noonans.co.uk
Jewellery, Silver and Objects of Vertu, Sept 10
Watches, Sept 10
Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, Sept 11
The Helmingham Hoard of Iron Age and Roman Coins, Sept 18 British Coins from the Collection of John Sabberton, Sept 18
British and World Coins, Sept 19
A Collection of Greek Coins, Sept 25
The Phillips Family Collection of Ancient Greek Coins, Sept 25
Phillips
30 Berkeley Square, London, W1J 6EX, 020 7318 4010 www.phillips.com
David Hockney, Sept 19
Evening and Day Editions, Sept 19-20
Olympia Auctions
25 Blythe Road, London W14 0PD, 020 7806 5541 www.olympiaauctions.com
None listed in September
Roseberys Knights Hill, Norwood, London, SE27 0JD, 020 8761 2522 www.roseberys.co.uk
Prints and Multiples, Sept 4
Modern British and 20th-Century Art, Sept 11
Jewellery and Watches, Sept 24 Silver, Sept 25
Sloane Street Auctions
158-164 Fulham Road, SW10 9PR, 020 3915 8340 www.sloanestreetauctions.com
The Autumn Fine Art Auction, Sept 19
Sotheby’s New Bond St., London W1A 2AA, 020 7293 5000 www.sothebys.com
Jorge Lewinski: A Portrait of the British Art Scene, 1960s-1990s (Online) ends Sept 5
Finest and Rarest Wines, Sept 6-7, 11-25
Popular Culture (Online) ends Sept 12
Modern and Contemporary African Art, Sept 20
Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, Sept 26
Timeline Auctions
23-24 Berkeley Square London W1J 6HE, 020 7129 1494 www.timelineauctions.co.uk
Ancient Art, Antiquities, Natural History and Coins, Sept 3-7
SOUTH EAST AND EAST
ANGLIA: Inc. Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex
Bishop and Miller
19 Charles Industrial Estate, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 5AH, 01449 673088 bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk 20th-Century Furniture and Design, Sept 18
Modern Art and Design, Sept 18
Bishop and Miller
Unit 12 Manor Farm, Glandford, Holt, Norfolk, NR25 7JP
01263 687342
bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk
The Explorer, Sept 26
Bellmans
Newpound, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, RH14 0AZ, 01403 700858
www.bellmans.co.uk
Antiques and Interiors, Sept 9-10
Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, Sept 11
Burstow & Hewett
The Auction Gallery, Lower Lake, Battle, East Sussex,TN33 0AT, 01424 772 374
www.burstowandhewett.co.uk
Homes and Interiors. General Collectables, Ceramics, Sculpture, and Pictures and Prints, Sept 4
Homes and Interiors. Jewellery and Silver, Furniture, Rugs, Garden Ornaments, Sept 5
Fine Antique Sale, Sept 19
20th-Century Design, Sept 19
Fine Art and Sculpture, Sept 19
Luxury Watches, Fine Jewellery and Silver, Sept 27
Catherine Southon
Auctioneers Kingsley House, 5 High Street, Chislehurst, BR7 5AB Kent, 020 8396 6970
www.catherinesouthon.co.uk e e e e e
Cliff ord Cross Auctions Auction Halls, The Chase, Wisbech, PE13 1RF 01945 584200 www.cliffordcrossauctions.co.uk
General Sept 6, 13, 20, 27
Clarke and Simpson, Campsea Ashe, Nr. WickhamMarket, Suff olk, IP13 0PS 01728 746323 www.clarkeandsimpson.co.uk
Weekly Sale, Sept 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Rural Bygones, Sept 21 Interiors and Art, Sept 25
Henry Adams Auctions BaffinsHall, Baffins Lane, Chichester, PO19 1UA 01243 532223
www.henryadamsfineart.co.ukA Maritime and MilitariaAuction to include Antiques and Collectables, Sept 12
The Canterbury Auction Galleries 40 Station Road West, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 8AN, 01227 763337
canterburyauctiongalleries.com
None listed in September.
Catherine Southon Auctioneers
Farleigh Court Golf Club, Old Farleigh Road, Selsdon, Surrey, CR6 9PE, 0208 468 1010 www.catherinesouthon.co.uk
Menagerie: An Auction of Animal Antiques and Collectables, Sept 11
Cheffins Clifton House, Clifton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7EA 01223 213343, www.cheffins.co.uk
The Interiors Sale - The Eve Clarke Collection Pt II, Sept 5
Teddy Bears and Dolls to include Eve Clarke Pt II (Timed Online) Sept 5
The Fine Sale, Sept 18-19
Ewbank’s
London Rd, Send, Woking, Surrey, 01483 223 101 www.ewbankauctions.co.uk
James Bond, Sept 12
Diary Of A Wardrobe - A Celebrity Charity Auction for Marie Curie, Sept 19
Jewellery, Watches and Coins, Sept 25
Silver and Fine Art, Sept 26
Antiques, Asian Art, Stamps, Clocks and Antique Furniture, Sept 27
Excalibur Auctions Limited
Unit 16 Abbots Business Park
Primrose Hill Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, WD4 8FR 020 3633 0913
www.excaliburauctions.com
Diecast and Vintage Toys and Model Railway Collectors Sale, Sept 21
Gorringes
15 North Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2PE, 01273 472503
www.gorringes.co.uk
Weekly Featuring Music and Science, Sept 2
Weekly House and Gardens, Sept 9
Pictures – Old Master to Modern British, Sept 10
Weekly Featuring Mid Century Furniture and Vinyl, Sept 16
Weekly Featuring Fine Wines and Spirits, Sept 23
Weekly Featuring Lux, Sept 30
Hansons The Pantiles Arcade,
49 The Lower Pantiles, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 5TE, 01892 573540
www.hansonauctioneers.co.uk
None listed in September.
Hanson Ross
Unit 1, The Power House, Lumen Road, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7AG, 01763 430 042
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Silver and Fine Art, Sept 6
John Nicholson’s Longfield, Midhurst Road, Fernhurst, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 3HA, 01428 653727
www.johnnicholsons.com
Fine Paintings, Sept 17
Islamic and Oriental, Sept 24
Fine Antiques, Sept 25
Lacy Scott & Knight 10 Risbygate St, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3AA, 01284 748 623 www.lskauctioncentre.co.uk
Home and Interiors, Sept 7, 28
20th-Century Art and Design, Sept 13
Music, Film and Sport
Memorabilia, Sept 13
Fine Art and Antiques, Sept 14
Lockdales Auctioneers
52 Barrack Square, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP5 3RF 01473 627110
www.lockdales.com
The Banknote Sale, Sept 3-4
The Watch Sale, Sept 7
Coins and Exonumia, Sept 10-11 Medals, Militaria and Weapons, Sept 24-25
Mander Auctioneers
The Auction Centre Assington Road
Newton, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 0QX, 01787 211847
www.manderauctions.co.uk
Interiors Sept 14
Parker Fine Art Auctions
Hawthorn House, East Street, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7SX, 01252 203020
www.parkerfineartauctions.com
Fine Paintings and Frames Sept 5
Reeman Dansie
8 Wyncolls Road, Severalls
Business Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 9HU, 01206 754754
www.reemandansie.com
Classic Cars, Vehicles and Automobilia, Sept 7
Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers
Cambridge Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, CM24 8GE, 01279 817778 www.sworder.co.uk
Fine Interiors, Sept 10-11
Homes and Interiors (with Arms and Militaria) (Online) Sept 18
Jewellery (Online) Sept 25
Toovey’s Antique & Fine Art
Auctioneers Spring Gardens, Washington, West Sussex, RH20 3BS, 01903 891955 www.tooveys.com
Fine Art, Silver Plate, Jewellery, Sept 4
Furniture, Collectors’ Items, Works of Art, Needlework, Textiles and Clothing, Rugs and Carpets,Sept 5
Asian and Islamic Ceramics and Works of Art, Sept 12
T.W. Gaze
Diss Auction Rooms, Roydon Road, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4LN, 01379 650306. www.twgaze.com
Blyth Barn Furniture Auction, Sept 3, 10, 17, 24
Antiques and Interiors, Sept 6, 13, 20, 27
W&H Peacock Auctioneers
Eastcotts Park, Wallis Way Bedford, Bedfordshire MK42 0PE, 01234 266 366 www.peacockauction.co.uk
Sporting Guns and Antique Arms, Sept 12
W&H Peacock Auctioneers 24 Newnham Street, Bedford Bedfordshire, MK40 3JR 01234 269082 www.peacockauction.co.uk
The Newnham Street Sale (Online) Sept 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 Specialist Auction: Icons of Sport, Music and Screen, Sept 16-17
Auctioneum Broadlands Fruit Farm, Box Road, Bathford, Bath BA1 7LR, 01225251303 www.auctioneum.co.uk
20th-Century Design and Interiors (Live), Sept 27
Auctioneum East Bristol, Unit 1, Hanham Business Park, Memorial Road, Bristol, BS15 3JE, 0117 967 1000 www.auctioneum.co.uk
Militaria, Sept 20
Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood
St. Edmund’s Court, Okehampton Street, Exeter EX4 1DU, O1392 41310 www.bhandl.co.uk
Exeter Cathedral Auction of Stone (Timed) ends Sept 15
British Bespoke Auctions
The Old Boys School, Gretton Rd, Winchcombe, Cheltenham, GL54 5EE 01242 603005
www.bespokeauctions.co.uk
Art, Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Antiques and Collectables, Sept 26
Chilcotts The Dolphin Saleroom, High Street, Honiton, Devon, EX14 1HT, 01404 47783 www.chilcottsauctions.co.uk
Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Gold Coins, Sept 7
Chorley’s Prinknash Abbey Park, Near Cranham, Gloucestershire, GL4 8EU, 01452 344499 www.chorleys.com
The Ombersley Court Library, Sept 17
Asian and Islamic Art, European Ceramics and Glass, Sept 18
Claydon Auctioneers
The Claydon Saleroom, Calvert Road, Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire, MK18 2EZ, 01296 714434 www.claydonauctioneers.com
None listed in September
Dawsons Unit 8 Cordwallis Business Park, Clivemont Rd, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 4BU, 01628 944100 www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk
Entertainment Memorabilia, Sept 11
Fine Wine, Whisky, Rare Spirits and Cigars, Sept 18
Asian and Oriental Art, Sept 25
Fine Art and Antiques, Sept 26
Dominic Winter
Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 5UQ, 01285 860006 www.dominicwinter.co.uk
Printed Books and Maps and Documents, Sept 11
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.
Dreweatts Donnington Priory
Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2JE 01635 553 553
www.dreweatts.com
Interiors, Sept 4
Books and Works on Paper (Online), Sept 5
Fine Furniture, Sculpture, Carpets, Ceramics and Works of Art Day One, Sept 10
Fine Furniture, Sculpture, Carpets, Ceramics and Works of Art Day Two, Sept 11
Fine Clocks, Barometers and Scientific Instruments, Sept 12
An Important Private Wine Collection from a Fine Wiltshire House, Sept 17
Fine Wine, Champagne, Vintage Port and Spirits (at Donnington Priory), Sept 18
Modern Literature (Online), Sept 19
18 South Street: The Mayfair Home of Fatima and Eskander Maleki, Sept 25
Fine Pens and Luxury Accessories, Sept 26
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper, Sept 26
Duke’s Brewery Square, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1GA, 0105 265080
www.dukes-auctions.com
Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Currency, Sept 11-12 Interiors, Sept 26
Gardiner Houlgate 9 Leafield Way, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 9SW, 01225 812912
www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk
The Guitar Auction (Four-Day Sale), Sept 3-6 Musical Instruments, Sept 6
Hansons Auctioneers
49 Parsons Street, Banbury, Oxford, OX16 5NB, 01295 817777
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
None Listed in September.
Harper Field Auctioneers
The Stroud Auction Saleroom Ebley Road, Stonehouse, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL10 2LN 01453 873800
www.harperfield.co.uk
Jewellery, Silver, Watches, Clocks, Coins, Bijouterie, Designer Goods
and Textiles and Asian and Tribal Art, Sept 11-12
Kinghams 10-12 Cotswold
Business Village, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucester, GL56 0JQ, 01608 695695
www.kinghamsauctioneers.com
Silver & Objects of Vertu Sept 6
Jewellery, Watches and Designer Goods, Sept 20
Lawrences Auctioneers Ltd
The Linen Yard, South St, Crewkerne, Somerset, TA18 8AB, 01460 703041
www.lawrences.co.uk
Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photography, Sept 6
Silver and Vertu, Sept 24
Pictures, Sept 24
Jewellery and Watches, Sept 25
Ceramics, Glass and Oriental
Works of Art, Sept 24
Collectors and Sporting, Sept 26
Furniture, Clocks and Rugs, Sept 26
Lay’s Auctioneers Alverton Road, Penzance, Cornwall. TR18 4RE. 01736 361414
www.davidlay.co.uk
Cornish Art and Fine Art Sale, Sept 5
Studio Pottery, Sept 6
Lay’s Auctions Lay’s Auctioneers, Church Row, Lanner, Redruth, Cornwall, TR16 6ET, 01736 361414
www.davidlay.co.uk
Antiques and Interiors Day One, Sept 12
Day Two, Asian Antiques, Sept 13
Mallams Oxford
Bocardo House, St Michael’s St, Oxford, OX1 2EB, 01865 241358
www.mallams.co.uk
None Listed in September.
Mallams Cheltenham
26 Grosvenor St, Cheltenham. Gloucestershire, GL52 2SG 01242 235 712
www.mallams.co.uk
None Listed in September.
Mallams Abingdon
Dunmore Court, Wootten Road, Abingdon, OX13 6BH, 01235 462840
www.mallams.co.uk
The House and Garden Sale, Sept 23-24
Moore Allen & Innocent Burford Road Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5RH, 01285 646050
www.mooreallen.co.uk
Vintage And Antique Furniture Auction, Sept 18-19
Vintage And Antique Furniture Auction (Timed), Sept 20-29
Nesbits Auctioneers & Appraisers 7 Clarendon Road, Southsea, PO5 2ED, 023 9229 5568
www.nesbitsauctions.co.uk
General Auction, Sept 4
Netherhampton Salesrooms
Salisbury Auction Centre, Salisbury Road, Netherhampton, SP2 8RH. 01722 342044
General Household Furniture and Effects, Sept 13-18
Sporting Goods, Sept 26-Oct 2
Philip Serrell Barnards Green Rd, Malvern, Worcestershire. WR14 3LW, 01684 892314 www.serrell.com Interiors, Sept 5
Fine Art and Antiques, Sept 26
Special Auction Services
Plenty Close, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5RL 01635 580 595 www.specialauctionservices. Antiques, Collectables and Fine Art, Sept 3
Dolls and Teddy Bears, Sept 10 Select Modern Diecast, Pocher and Partwork Model, Sept 17
Jewellery, Pens and Silver, Sept 19
Music and Entertainment, Sept 24
The Cotswold Auction Company Bankside Saleroom, Love Lane, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1YG, 01285 642420 www.cotswoldauction.co.uk
Asian, Silver, Jewellery, Whisky, Antiques & Interiors, Sept 10-11
The Cotswold Auction Company
Chapel Walk Saleroom, Cheltenham, Gloucesterhire,
GL50 3DS, 01242 256363
www.cotswoldauction.co.uk
Books, Medals, Militaria, Coins, Stamps & Collectables, Sept 24
The Pedestal
The Dairy, Stonor Park, Henley-onThames, Oxfordshire RG9 6HF, 01491 522733 www.thepedestal.com
None listed in September
Wessex Auction Rooms
Westbrook Far, Draycot Cerne, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 5LH, 01249 720888
www.wessexauctionrooms.co.uk Coins, Sept 5
Jewellery, Silver and Watches, Sept 6
Antiques, Collectables and Furniture, Sept 14, 28 Toys, Sept 19-20
Woolley & Wallis
51-61 Castle Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 3SU, 01722 424500
www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk
British and Continental Ceramics and Glass, Sept 3
Old Masters, British and European Paintings, Sept 4
Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas,Sept 17-18
EAST MIDLANDS: Inc.
Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Sheffield
Bamfords The Derby Auction House, 46 Nottingham Road, Spondon, Derby DE21 7NL 01332 210 000
www.bamfords-auctions.co.uk
Antiques, Interiors, Estates and Collectables, Sept 4, 18
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, Sept 25
Gildings Auctioneers The Mill, Great Bowden Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire,
LE16 7DE. 01858 410414
www.gildings.co.uk
Jewellery and Watches Sept 24
Golding Young & Mawer
The Bourne Auction Rooms, Spalding Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9LE 01778 422686
www.goldingyoung.com
Bourne Collective Sale, Sept 25-26
Golding Young & Mawer
The Grantham Auction Rooms, Old Wharf Road, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG31 7AA, 01476 565118
www.goldingyoung.com
Grantham Asian Art Sale, Sept 11
Grantham Collective Sale, Sept 18-19
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, Sept 4-5
Hansons Heage Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire, DE65 6LS 01283 733988
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Derby September Coins, Banknotes and Historica Auction, Sept 4
Derby September Music Memorabilia and Film Auction, Sept 11
Derby September Iconic Design Auction: 1860 to the Present Day, Sept 12 Autumn Auction of Toys, Diecast and Model Railway, Sept 17
Irita Marriott Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd, William’s Yard Derby Road, Melbourne, Derbyshire, DE73 8JR 01332414848
iritamarriottauctioneers.co.uk
Antiques, Sept 12
John Taylors Auction Rooms
The Wool Mart, Kidgate, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9EZ 01507 611107
www.johntaylors.com
Antiques, Sept 3
WEST MIDLANDS: Inc. Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire
Bigwood Fine Art Auctioneers
The Old School, Tiddington, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 7AW 01789 269415
www.bigwoodauctioneers.com
Antiques and Collectibles
Sept 13, 27
Cuttlestones Ltd
Pinfold Lane, Penkridge Staffordshire ST19 5AP, 01785 714905
www.cuttlestones.co.uk
Antiques and Home, Sept 5, 19
Fellows Augusta House, 19 Augusta Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6JA , 0121 212 2131
www.fellows.co.uk
Clocks and Scientific Instruments: The Baker Collection, Sept 4
Pawnbrokers, Jewellery and Watches, Sept 4, 18
Fine Jewellery, Sept 4
Jewellery, Day 1, Sept 10, 24
Jewellery, Day 2, Sept 11, 25
Watches and Watch Accessories, Sept 12
Gemstones, Sept 17
Silver and Plated Ware, Sept 19
Fieldings
Mill Race Lane, Stourbridge, DY8 1JN 01384 444140
www.fieldingsauctioneers.co.uk
Antiques and Interiors, Sept 12
Jewellery and Watches, Sept 13
Everyday Antiques (Timed Online), Sept 18-25
Doves for Peace A Charity Auction, Sept 19
Paintings, Prints and Sculpture, Sept 26
Halls
Bowmen Way, Battlefield, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 3DR 01743 450700
www.hallsgb.com/fine-art.com
Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Sept 11
Pictures, Ceramics and Collectables, Sept 18
Hansons Auctioneers
Bishton Hall, Wolseley Bridge, Stafford, ST18 0XN, 0208 9797954
www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk
Bishton Hall September Dolls, Teddy Bears and Toys: Antique
Textiles and Fashion, Sept 6
Potteries Auctions
Unit 4A, Aspect Court, Silverdale Enterprise Park, Newcastle, Staffordshire, ST5 6SS
01782 638100
www.potteriesauctions.com
Antiques, Pottery, Jewellery, Sept 13
Potteries Auctions
The Cobridge Saleroom, 271 Waterloo Road, Cobridge, Stokeon-Trent, Staffordshire, ST6 3HR 01782 212489
www.potteriesauctions.com
Antiques, Pottery, Jewellery, Sept 29
Trevanion
The Joyce Building, Station Rd, Whitchurch, Shropshire, SY13 1RD, 01928 800 202 www.trevanion.com
Fine Art and Antiques, Sept 11
Warwick & Warwick
Chalon House,Scar Bank, Millers Road, Warwick CV34 5DB. 01926 499031
www.warwickandwarwick.com
Collectables Auction, Sept 4
NORTH: Inc. Cheshire, Co. Durham, Cumbria, Humberside, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Sheffield, Yorkshire
1818 Auctioneers
Junction 36 Auction Centre
Crooklands, Milnthorpe, Cumbria, LA7 7FP, 015395 66201
www.1818auctioneers.co.uk
Antiques, Vintage and Collectables including Objet d’Art (Timed) ends Sept 15, Sept 12-29
Antiquarian Rare and Collectable Books,(Timed) ends Sept 15
Antique, Vintage and Later Furniture and Furnishings Auction(Timed) Sept 5-22
Paintings Artworks and Imagery inc Affordable Art (Timed) Sept 5-22
The Green Sale(Timed) Sept 5-22
Antique, Vintage and Retro Textiles (Timed) Sept 12-29 Vintage Wines and Spirits, (Timed) Sept 12-29
Adam Partridge Auctioneers
Withyfold Drive, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2BD 01625 431 788
www.adampartridge.co.uk
Fine Art and Northern Art with Sporting and Militaria, Sept 25-27
Adam Partridge Auctioneers
The Liverpool Saleroom, 18 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 OBP, 01625 431 788
www.adampartridge.co.uk
Photographic and Scientific Equipment, Silver, Jewellery, Antiques and Collectors’ Items, Sept 4-5
Anderson and Garland
Crispin Court, Newbiggin Lane, Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 1BF, 0191 430 3000 www.andersonandgarland.com
The Comics Auction, Sept 3
The Militaria Auction, Sept 11
The Collectors’ Auction, Sept 12
The Modern Art and Design Auction, Sept 25
Capes Dunn
The Auction Galleries, 40 Station Road, Heaton Mersey, Cheshire, SK4 3QT. 0161 273 1911 www.capesdunn.com
Interiors, Vintage and Modern Furniture, Sept 2, 16, 30
Jewellery, Silver, Watches and Gold Coin, Sept 3
Collectors, Sept 17
Hawleys Auctioneers,
Albion House, Westgate, North Cave, Brough, Beverley, East Yorkshire, HU15 2NJ 01482 868193
www.hawleys.info
None listed in September
David Duggleby Auctioneers
The Gallery Saleroom, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 1XN, 01723 507 111 www.davidduggleby.com
The Autumn Art Sale, Sept 20
The Country House Sale, Sept 21 Militaria, Weapons and Sporting Guns, Sept 27
Duggleby Stephenson
The Saleroom, York Auction Centre, Murton, York, YO19 5GF,01904 393 300 www.dugglebystephenson.com
Traditional Persian and Oriental Handmade Rugs, Sept 4
Jewellery and Watches, Sept 5
Antiques and Collectors, Sept 5 Collectors and Clearance, Sept 5
Fine and Affordable Art, Sept 6
Furniture, Rugs and Interiors, Sept 6
Elstob Ripon Business Park, Charter Road, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 1AJ, 01677 333003 www.elstob.co.uk
Fine Art and Antiques Sept 11
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.
Omega Auctions Ltd
Sankey Valley Industrial Estate, Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside WA12 8DN, 01925 873040
www.omegaauctions.co.uk
Vinyl Highlights, Sept 3
Audio Equipment and Music Memorabilia, Sept 17
Rare and Collectable Vinyl Records, Sept 18
Richard Winterton
Lichfield Auction Centre, Wood End Lane, Fradley Park, Staffordshire, WS13 8NF, 01543 251081
www.richardwinterton.co.uk
St Giles Hospice March of the Elephants, Sept 24
Richard Winterton
Tamworth Auction Rooms, 34 -35 Church Street, Tamworth, B79 7BX, 01827 217746
www.richardwinterton.co.uk
None listed in September.
Ryedale Auctioneers Cooks
Yard, New Rd, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, YO62 6DZ, 01751 431 544
www.ryedaleauctioneers.com
Antiques, Interiors and Collectables, Sept 5-7 Country House Sale, Sept 20
Sheffield Auction Gallery
Windsor Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 8UB, 0114 281 6161
www.sheffieldauctiongallery.com
Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Sept 5
Specialist Collectable Toys, Sept 5
Antiques and Collectables, Sept 6
Fine Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Sept 19
Vinyl records, Premium Audio and Music Ephemera, Sept 19
Antique, Fine Art and Collectables, Sept 20
Shelby’s Auctioneers Ltd
Unit 1B Westfield House, Leeds LS13 3HA, 0113 250 2626
www.shelbysauctioneers.net
Antiques and General Sale, (Online)
Sept 10, 24
The Auction Centre, Harmby Road, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 5SG, 01969 623780
Fine Wine and Whisky, Sept 4
The Swinton Sale, Sept 13
Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Sept 14
Country House Sale, Sept 14
Militaria and Ethnographica, Sept 18
Antiques and Interiors, Sept 20
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. Sept 2
Vectis Auctions Ltd Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton on Tees, TS17 9JZ, 01642 750616
www.vectis.co.uk
Teddy Bears and Associated, Sept 3
Dolls, Dolls Houses and Accessories, Sept 4
Vinyl, Music and Associated Items, Sept 11
Specialist Diecast and Tinplate Auction, Sept 12
Military, Civilian Figures, Equipment and Accessories, Sept 24
Wilkinson’s Auctioneers
The Old Salesroom, 28 Netherhall Road, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN1 2PW, 01302 814 884
wilkinsons-auctioneers.co.uk
Decorative Arts, Sept 28-29
Wilson55
Victoria Gallery, Market St, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5DG 01270 623 878
www.wilson55.com
Fine Jewellery and Watches, Sept 12
Bonhams 22 Queen St, Edinburgh, EH2 1JX 0131 225 2266 www.bonhams.com
Autumn Home and Interiors, Sept 9-18
Lyon & Turnbull
33 Broughton Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3RR, 0131 557 8844
www.lyonandturnbull.com
Five Centuries, Sept 4-5
Asian Works of Art, Sept 12
Silver and Objets de Vertu, Sept 17
Jewellery, Sept 18
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps and Photographs, Sept 19
McTears Auctioneers
31 Meiklewood Road, Glasgow, G51 4GB, 0141 810 2880
www.mctears.co.uk
Cabinet of Curiosities, Sept 3
Coins and Banknotes, Sept 4
Jewellery, Sept 4
Watches, Sept 4
Antiques and Interiors, Sept 5, 19
Whisky, Sept 11
The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction, Sept 12
Toys, Models and Pop Culture, Sept 25
British and International Pictures, Sept 25
Clocks and Instruments, Sept 26
Fine Furniture and Works of Art, Sept 26
Sporting Medals and Trophies, Sept 26
Thomson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, Irongray Road Industrial Estate, Dumfries, DG2 0JE, 01387 721 635 www.thompsonroddick.com
Homes, Furnishings and Interiors, Sept 3
Antiques and Works of Art, Sept 17
Thomson Roddick Callan
The Auction Centre, 118 Carnethie Street, Edinburgh, EH24 9AL 0131 440 2448 www.thompsonroddick.com
None listed in September.
Thomson Roddick Callan
22 Smith Street, Ayr KA7 1TF 01292 267 681 www.thompsonroddick.com
None listed in September
Anthemion Auctions, 15 Norwich Road, Cardiff, CF23 9AB, 029 2047 2444 www.anthemionauction.com
Monthly General Sale of Ceramics, Glass, Paintings, Furniture, Works of Art, Books, Sporting Memorabilia, Sept 11
Jones & Llewelyn Unit B, Beechwood Trading Estate, Carmarthenshire, SA19 7HR, 01558 823 430 www.jonesandllewelyn.com
General Sale, Sept 7, 21
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, Sept 3, 24
Jewellery, Collectables and Fine Art, Sept 10
Rogers Jones & Co 17 Llandough Trading Estate, Penarth, Cardiff, CF11 8RR, 02920 708125 www.rogersjones.co.uk
Jewellery and Collectables, Sept 20
Adam’s 26, Stephens Green, Dublin 2, D02 X665, Ireland 00 353 1 6760261 www.adams.ie
At Home, Sept 2
Fine Jewellery and Watches, Sept 10
Important Irish Art, Sept 25
DeVeres 35 Kildare Street Dublin, D02 X088. Ireland www.deveres.ie 00 353 (0)-1676 8300
None listed in September.
The Square, Durrow, Co. Laois, R32 FN88, Ireland 00 353 (0)57 874 0000 www.sheppards.ie
Legacy of the Big House, Sept 11
Whyte’s 38 Molesworth St. Dublin D02 KF80 Ireland 00 353- (0)1-676 2888
www.whytes.ie
Important Irish Art, Sept 30
Omega Seamasters and pre-1980s Omegas in general.
IWC and Jaeger LeCoultres, all styles. Looking for Reversos. American market filled and 14k pieces possibly, at the right price.
Breitling Top Times, Datoras and 806 Navitimers.
Pre-1960s Rolex models, with a focus in pre-war tanks, tonneaus etc. Gold or silver/steel. Also World War I Rolex 13 lignes etc. Princes. Longines, Tudors and Zeniths, pre-1970. Even basic steel models in nice condition. All the quirky oddities like Harwoods, Autorists, Wig Wag, Rolls etc, and World War I hunter and semi-hunter wristwatches.
Early, pre-war ladies’ watches also wanted by Rolex, Jaeger LeCoultre etc. Prefer 1920s/30s deco styles, but early doughnuts also considered. Yorkshire based, but often in London and can easily collect nationwide.
Labelled/ stamped branded furniture from Georgian to Victorian, eg Thomas Butler, Morgan & Sanders, J Alderman, Ross of Dublin (pictured), Gregory Kane, Wilkinson of Ludgate Hill, Robert James of Bristol, James Winter, W Priest, Samuel Pratt and many others. Tables all types, chairs, bookcases, , Davenport. mirrors etc. Campaign shower.
Georgian chamber horse exercise chair (pictured)
Unusual Georgian to William IV architectural features eg doors, door frames, over door pediments. 18th century staircase spindles and handrail needed. Anything Georgian or Regency with lots of character considered.
Rectangular Georgian fanlight.
Four identical reclaimed Georgian wooden sash windows with boxes, approx 60 high x 37 wide.
Marble fire surrounds from 1750 to 1850ish. White or coloured. Bullseyes, William IV styles etc. Brass Regency reeded fire insert and Victorian griffin grate (pictured)
Human skull, stuffed crocodile/ alligator. Grand tour souvenirs.
Selling antiques is a nuanced business and buyers shouldn’t expect an Amazon-style next-day delivery, writes Antiques Roadshow expert Marc Allum
September comes o the back of four weeks of what is traditionally a bit of a lull in the auction world. I nd myself in a re ective mood, as I muse over a very busy year. Working in this eld can be stressful, with the typical day throwing up di culties ranging from di erences of opinion on condition, to internet bidding problems.
e advent of the keyboard warrior (people who continually send emails and won’t take ‘no’ for an answer) has come to de ne the internet age, and with it the growth of a more litigious way of settling disagreements.
is less pragmatic approach means sorting out the aftermath of an 800-lot sale can be complicated – to say the least.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the business, and most people are wonderful to deal with. I also don’t want to make it sound as if the day-to-day art and antiques world is fraught with negativity. I suppose it’s the human condition that our interactions are sometimes not straightforward – for whatever reason.
However, I have noticed of late a propensity for people to absolve themselves of any responsibility for their own purchasing decisions. Buyer’s remorse – as we call it.
Most times it is manifested in their disappearance into the ether after the auction and failing to pay the bill. e most frustrating thing about it is there is no post-sale interaction. Polite reminders go unheeded and the poor vendor who watched their item sell above estimate ends up being sorely disappointed.
I could write a book about the excuses I’ve encountered over the decades, the nancial losses incurred by disputed transactions and the sometimes sad and unpredictable consequences.
Not every bad situation occurs through malice or intransigence though. I remember on one occasion, decades ago, when I was auctioning a marine sale. An attendant lady dressed in a rather nautical manner (I should have spotted the warning signs) totted up a purchase worth £20,000 – a fortune in those days – only to confess she was going through a traumatic divorce and, in a tearful outburst, announced she couldn’t pay.
Above Buying from an auction will luckily never be the same as purchasing from the behemoth of Amazon, image Shutterstock
As a young auctioneer I also learnt lessons the hard way. I recall one episode releasing goods without payment before the ‘buyer’ ed the country leaving a £10,000 black hole in our accounts.
ere were no UK assets in his name, and we were forced to write the debt o . C’est la vie!
Of course, today the potential pitfalls have multiplied, as we endeavour to deliver thousands of lots a month to a world-wide audience while providing a good service.
In a world where your reputation is everything, the Google review is an easy way for people to voice their discontent and cause the recipient no end of anxiety. Luckily, most people post positive comments.
So, in this age of armchair shopping, if you don’t provide an Amazon-style next-day delivery service it can generate a moody reaction.
And yet, when wearing the buyer’s hat myself, and making my own arrangements to collect an auction purchase, my decades of experience has taught me to be pragmatic if things don’t go exactly as planned.
Luckily, many other auction-goers still behave in the same way, reminding me that, despite the stress, there is joy in this business which is fuelled by passion, creativity and interesting personalities. Not all of whom expect next-day delivery.
Marc Allum is an author, lecturer and specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. For more details go to www.marcallum.co.uk
‘I
could write a book about the excuses and situations I’ve encountered over the decades, the financial losses incurred by disputed transactions and the sometimes sad and unpredictable consequences’
Prints & Multiples
Wednesday 4 September
Jewellery & Watches
Tuesday 24 September
Preview of Roseberys’ forthcoming auction calendar
Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art
Thursday 5 September
Silver
Wednesday 25 September
Modern British & 20th Century Art
Wednesday 11 September
Fine & Decorative
Wednesday 2 October