CHAPTER ONE Onwards and Upwards
Facing page: Three Rabbis, c.1897, by Isaac Snowman. Oil on canvas. SOTHEBY’S IMAGES
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Wartski, as a family name, probably derives from a town to the east of Warsaw, the Polish capital, called Ostrow Wartski. At the centre of medieval Europe, Poland abutted Germany and Russia and was situated below the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Consequently, it was ideally placed to take advantage of the rich natural resources of the north and, later, the rapid expansion of commerce and industry following the Industrial Revolution. In the case of the Wartski family, it was the nascent textile industry that was Ostrow Wartski’s main attraction. Poland’s rich resources fostered a thriving Jewish community, whose history is more than a thousand years old. Eventually Poland became the home of the largest Jewish population in Europe and by the midsixteenth century eighty percent of the world’s Jewish population lived there. Because of its reputation for tolerance Poland was given the Hebrew name of “Po Lin”, the place of peace. However, this happy situation was to change radically after the destruction of the Polish state in 1795. The partition meant that many of its territories were absorbed by an increasingly antiSemitic Russia. New constraints were applied to the Polish Jews: they were forbidden to own land, and the scale of settlements was limited by law. They were also heavily taxed and forcibly conscripted, sometimes for several decades. Occasionally, Jews were victims of terrible cruelty, and some of the worst cases took place in Kiev and Odessa during the summer of 1881. Only some months later, the most appalling atrocities followed in Warsaw. In December 1881, 1,500 Jewish residences, business premises and houses of prayer were destroyed and twentyfour people were wounded, while the monetary loss amounted to several million roubles. The message was clear: the Russian Empire, including Poland, was no longer a place of peace, and for the Jews it was very dangerous. Three million emigrated between 1881 and 1917, and the majority went to the United States. The Wartski family were among the one hundred thousand or so who set their sights on the United Kingdom. Tradition has it that the present business of Wartski was founded in Poland in 1865. However, the earliest mention of its foundation in the United Kingdom is in 1876, when the firm was under the direction of Morris Wartski. Morris was born on Saturday, 28 April 1855 in Tureck, near Karlisch, Poland (then part of Imperial Russia). He was the son of Shemaya Wartski and Rosa Darlski, both of whom described themselves as “naturalborn subjects of the Russian Empire”. We know little about his early life and education but he was certainly intelligent and charming. At 6’2’’ in height, broadly built with piercing blue eyes, ruddy complexion and a small beard, Morris Wartski was an extrovert, and keeping his volatile nature in check was one of the greatest challenges of his lifetime. Thankfully, he had many attributes that served him well, and perhaps the most valuable was a remarkable aptitude for languages. He never lost his Polish accent but, undeterred, he learned a number of different tongues, including Welsh. Morris Wartski, with his brothers Joseph and Philip, had been sent from Poland to Liverpool but why he chose to settle in North Wales is something of a mystery. It was all the more surprising given that the Caernarvon royal charter of 1284 expressly
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CHAPTER ONE Onwards and Upwards
Facing page: Three Rabbis, c.1897, by Isaac Snowman. Oil on canvas. SOTHEBY’S IMAGES
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Wartski, as a family name, probably derives from a town to the east of Warsaw, the Polish capital, called Ostrow Wartski. At the centre of medieval Europe, Poland abutted Germany and Russia and was situated below the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Consequently, it was ideally placed to take advantage of the rich natural resources of the north and, later, the rapid expansion of commerce and industry following the Industrial Revolution. In the case of the Wartski family, it was the nascent textile industry that was Ostrow Wartski’s main attraction. Poland’s rich resources fostered a thriving Jewish community, whose history is more than a thousand years old. Eventually Poland became the home of the largest Jewish population in Europe and by the midsixteenth century eighty percent of the world’s Jewish population lived there. Because of its reputation for tolerance Poland was given the Hebrew name of “Po Lin”, the place of peace. However, this happy situation was to change radically after the destruction of the Polish state in 1795. The partition meant that many of its territories were absorbed by an increasingly antiSemitic Russia. New constraints were applied to the Polish Jews: they were forbidden to own land, and the scale of settlements was limited by law. They were also heavily taxed and forcibly conscripted, sometimes for several decades. Occasionally, Jews were victims of terrible cruelty, and some of the worst cases took place in Kiev and Odessa during the summer of 1881. Only some months later, the most appalling atrocities followed in Warsaw. In December 1881, 1,500 Jewish residences, business premises and houses of prayer were destroyed and twentyfour people were wounded, while the monetary loss amounted to several million roubles. The message was clear: the Russian Empire, including Poland, was no longer a place of peace, and for the Jews it was very dangerous. Three million emigrated between 1881 and 1917, and the majority went to the United States. The Wartski family were among the one hundred thousand or so who set their sights on the United Kingdom. Tradition has it that the present business of Wartski was founded in Poland in 1865. However, the earliest mention of its foundation in the United Kingdom is in 1876, when the firm was under the direction of Morris Wartski. Morris was born on Saturday, 28 April 1855 in Tureck, near Karlisch, Poland (then part of Imperial Russia). He was the son of Shemaya Wartski and Rosa Darlski, both of whom described themselves as “naturalborn subjects of the Russian Empire”. We know little about his early life and education but he was certainly intelligent and charming. At 6’2’’ in height, broadly built with piercing blue eyes, ruddy complexion and a small beard, Morris Wartski was an extrovert, and keeping his volatile nature in check was one of the greatest challenges of his lifetime. Thankfully, he had many attributes that served him well, and perhaps the most valuable was a remarkable aptitude for languages. He never lost his Polish accent but, undeterred, he learned a number of different tongues, including Welsh. Morris Wartski, with his brothers Joseph and Philip, had been sent from Poland to Liverpool but why he chose to settle in North Wales is something of a mystery. It was all the more surprising given that the Caernarvon royal charter of 1284 expressly
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Facing page: The Peacock Egg by Fabergé. Given by Emperor Nicholas II to his mother, Marie Feodorovna, in 1908. In common with the Swan Egg, this amusing, animated object was inspired by an automaton made by the London goldsmith James Cox (d.1788). The hinged shell of the Easter Egg is carved from two rock crystal panels that close to encase the mechanical peacock. When removed from the tree the enamelled gold bird walks slowly, opens and closes its tail and turns its head from left to right. This delightful object was also bought and sold by Wartski for an unrecorded sum before 1934. FONDATION EDOUARD & MAURICE SANDOZ (FEMS), PULLY SWITZERLAND. PHOTOGRAPH BY RENO STERCHI
Right:Wartski’s advertisement in Connoisseur magazine, October 1934, in which Fabergé’s Peacock Egg is used to introduce a treasure recently acquired in Russia.
Russian records reveal that the decision to sell some of the collection of Fabergé Easter Eggs seized from the Imperial Family in 1917 was made by the People’s Commissariat for Finance, a decade later, on 17 June 1927. It was not until 1930, however, that the Antiquariat’s expert valuation commission selected twelve eggs to be sold for the benefit of the Foreign Currency Fund. Owing to the loss of the Llandudno archives, it is impossible to say exactly which of the eggs were acquired by Wartski or by Emanuel Snowman privately, but it is certain that a round dozen of these implausible objects were bought and sold by Wartski, and by the Snowman family on its own account. In an article in The Evening News dated 9 October 1934 a spokesman, almost certainly Snowman, stated that both the Swan Egg (see page 93) and the Peacock Egg (see facing page) had been sold by Wartski, but no record of the transaction has survived. However, there is mention of the Peacock Egg in a later stockbook entry when it was sold with other goods to a W. Magalow for £6,000 on 12 September 1947. Circumstantial evidence suggests that its owner, one Hirst, had left it on consignment to Wartski. The Swan Egg was described in The Connoisseur magazine of November 1933 as “a modern Russian Enamel” that was at Wartski the same year.
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Facing page: The Peacock Egg by Fabergé. Given by Emperor Nicholas II to his mother, Marie Feodorovna, in 1908. In common with the Swan Egg, this amusing, animated object was inspired by an automaton made by the London goldsmith James Cox (d.1788). The hinged shell of the Easter Egg is carved from two rock crystal panels that close to encase the mechanical peacock. When removed from the tree the enamelled gold bird walks slowly, opens and closes its tail and turns its head from left to right. This delightful object was also bought and sold by Wartski for an unrecorded sum before 1934. FONDATION EDOUARD & MAURICE SANDOZ (FEMS), PULLY SWITZERLAND. PHOTOGRAPH BY RENO STERCHI
Right:Wartski’s advertisement in Connoisseur magazine, October 1934, in which Fabergé’s Peacock Egg is used to introduce a treasure recently acquired in Russia.
Russian records reveal that the decision to sell some of the collection of Fabergé Easter Eggs seized from the Imperial Family in 1917 was made by the People’s Commissariat for Finance, a decade later, on 17 June 1927. It was not until 1930, however, that the Antiquariat’s expert valuation commission selected twelve eggs to be sold for the benefit of the Foreign Currency Fund. Owing to the loss of the Llandudno archives, it is impossible to say exactly which of the eggs were acquired by Wartski or by Emanuel Snowman privately, but it is certain that a round dozen of these implausible objects were bought and sold by Wartski, and by the Snowman family on its own account. In an article in The Evening News dated 9 October 1934 a spokesman, almost certainly Snowman, stated that both the Swan Egg (see page 93) and the Peacock Egg (see facing page) had been sold by Wartski, but no record of the transaction has survived. However, there is mention of the Peacock Egg in a later stockbook entry when it was sold with other goods to a W. Magalow for £6,000 on 12 September 1947. Circumstantial evidence suggests that its owner, one Hirst, had left it on consignment to Wartski. The Swan Egg was described in The Connoisseur magazine of November 1933 as “a modern Russian Enamel” that was at Wartski the same year.
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Lena Horne (19172010) was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer. Her family was a mixture of AfricanAmerican, EuropeanAmerican and NativeAmerican descent, and each belonged to what W.E.B. du Bois called “The Talented Tenth”, the upper stratum of the middleclass, welleducated ethnic minority. Horne visited Wartski on 2 May 1961, when she bought a pair of antique diamond earrings for £230. TIME LIFE PICTURES/DMI/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
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Elisabeth Welch (19042003) singing Stormy Weather in The Tempest (1979). One of Lena Horne’s most famous songs, Stormy Weather was revived by Welch in Derek Jarman’s film. These talented women shared not only the same richly diverse ethnic background but also a taste for antique jewellery, which they could satisfy at Wartski. In the case of Elisabeth Welch, known as Britain’s first black star, this was a slowburning passion; her first visit to Wartski was in her ninetyseventh year. She was introduced by her friend, William Tallon, Steward to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother GILES PETARD/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
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Lena Horne (19172010) was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer. Her family was a mixture of AfricanAmerican, EuropeanAmerican and NativeAmerican descent, and each belonged to what W.E.B. du Bois called “The Talented Tenth”, the upper stratum of the middleclass, welleducated ethnic minority. Horne visited Wartski on 2 May 1961, when she bought a pair of antique diamond earrings for £230. TIME LIFE PICTURES/DMI/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
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Elisabeth Welch (19042003) singing Stormy Weather in The Tempest (1979). One of Lena Horne’s most famous songs, Stormy Weather was revived by Welch in Derek Jarman’s film. These talented women shared not only the same richly diverse ethnic background but also a taste for antique jewellery, which they could satisfy at Wartski. In the case of Elisabeth Welch, known as Britain’s first black star, this was a slowburning passion; her first visit to Wartski was in her ninetyseventh year. She was introduced by her friend, William Tallon, Steward to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother GILES PETARD/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
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Above: A gold tiara set with emeralds and diamonds in silver, from the French Crown jewels. It was made by Evrard and Frédéric Bapst between September 1819 and July 1820 for the Duchesse d’Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI. Made up in part from stones from the crown collection, it was a favourite of Empress Eugénie. The tiara was sold at auction by the French government in 1887. WARTSKI PHOTOGRAPH Right: A model posed to show some of the best jewels in stock at Wartski. She is wearing the impressive diamond tiara/necklace subsequently bought by Lord Lambton. After Lord Lambton purchased the jewel, Lady Lambton wore it off its frame, as a necklace, in the photograph by Cecil Beaton on the facing page. Facing page: Lady Lambton (née Belinda (Bindy) Blew Jones) (19212003) wearing the diamond necklace, convertible to a tiara, bought by her husband at Wartski with no less than six bracelets and a diamond ring. She was also the owner of the magnificent emerald and diamond tiara illustrated above. Belinda Lambton is also shown wearing an impressive array of gemset bracelets. She often wore the emerald tiara from the French Crown jewels with matching plastic earrings known as the “sham emeralds”. Famous for her eccentricity, Belinda was the wife of the Conservative Defence Minister, Lord Lambton (19222006), and the mother of the television presenter, Lady Lucinda Lambton. The emerald tiara was kept in Wartski’s safe for many years before it was lent to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Shortly before Lord Lambton’s death it was sold to the Musée du Louvre in Paris. CECIL BEATON/SOTHEBY’S
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Above: A gold tiara set with emeralds and diamonds in silver, from the French Crown jewels. It was made by Evrard and Frédéric Bapst between September 1819 and July 1820 for the Duchesse d’Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI. Made up in part from stones from the crown collection, it was a favourite of Empress Eugénie. The tiara was sold at auction by the French government in 1887. WARTSKI PHOTOGRAPH Right: A model posed to show some of the best jewels in stock at Wartski. She is wearing the impressive diamond tiara/necklace subsequently bought by Lord Lambton. After Lord Lambton purchased the jewel, Lady Lambton wore it off its frame, as a necklace, in the photograph by Cecil Beaton on the facing page. Facing page: Lady Lambton (née Belinda (Bindy) Blew Jones) (19212003) wearing the diamond necklace, convertible to a tiara, bought by her husband at Wartski with no less than six bracelets and a diamond ring. She was also the owner of the magnificent emerald and diamond tiara illustrated above. Belinda Lambton is also shown wearing an impressive array of gemset bracelets. She often wore the emerald tiara from the French Crown jewels with matching plastic earrings known as the “sham emeralds”. Famous for her eccentricity, Belinda was the wife of the Conservative Defence Minister, Lord Lambton (19222006), and the mother of the television presenter, Lady Lucinda Lambton. The emerald tiara was kept in Wartski’s safe for many years before it was lent to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Shortly before Lord Lambton’s death it was sold to the Musée du Louvre in Paris. CECIL BEATON/SOTHEBY’S
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