Antiques

VISITORS

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

It has been just over two years since we went into lockdown, not that you need me to remind you.

At least we seem to be returning to a degree of normality. I recently travelled abroad for a couple of days and I even went to a party without feeling too guilty, although I did take a lateral flow test before and after.

Like a lot of people, COVID and lockdown will have a lasting effect on me, but I think the one thing I have missed is having friends visiting, either spontaneously when passing the house or planned for the weekends.

These days, when meeting friends it is usually via a text, phone call, Messenger or WhatsApp message. It has been many years since someone wrote to me asking to stay for a weekend or to arrange popping out for a meal, but back in the 19th century, this is how people communicated.

It was much more formal in the 19th century, and I am not just talking about sitting up straight at the dining table. Guests would arrive at a house to be greeted not by the owner but by the staff and depending on the size of the house depended whether you had a butler or a maid who would answer the door.

On the basis you made it through the door and into the hall you would then generally give them your visiting card. Depending on how much money you had would depend on what you carried your visiting cards around in. Visiting cards cases came in all sorts of materials from papier-maché, tortoiseshell, mother of pearl and of course silver, with some fancy and some plain.

In our 5th May specialist silver, jewellery and watch auction, we have a group of early to mid-19th century silver visiting card cases. They have been amassed by a Dorset gent who took up silver collecting when he retired from the police force several years ago.

They provide an insight to the lengths people would go to make an impression when presenting themselves at a house. My personal favourite is a silver doublesided ‘castle top’ visiting card case. Decorated in high relief, one side has a view of Windsor Castle with the opposing side Kenilworth Castle.

Today these are sought after by collectors with an interest in silver, craftsmanship and design. Whilst I have always quite liked the idea of owning a visiting card case, I’m not quite sure it would survive too well knocking around in my briefcase and I’m also not quite sure what some of the houses I visit would make of it either!