A Tale of Two Monkeys Adventures in the Art World, by Anthony Speelman

the rest of the body embalmed and transported for interment in the home or ancestral parish: ‘1577 – Received for the buriall in the quire of Mrs Abington’s intralles and for ringing then 6s – St Martin-in-the-Fields.’

Sometimes I turned a page and it was just to cry, as at this account of Cunozoa Almsbury, a foundling brought into church and baptised at Winchcombe in 1747: ‘This child was exposed – and protected by dogs which defended her from the swine.’

And yet more from my old church of St Michael’s – ghosts! ‘1559: St James’ night, a tempest of lightning and thunder did arise, an uglie-shapen sight appeared to them coming in at the south door.’

Among thousands of stories amusing or heart-rending – and some bordering on the incredible – my favourite is this from Hawkshead, Lancashire, in 1721: ‘For stairs to the pulpit and a trap door – 12/6d.’

Was the preacher judged to have gone on too long (in the way Ysenda Maxtone Graham describes on page 40)? Then, from their pew at the back, the churchwardens operated the mechanism and dispatched him.

Caution: think twice before you pick up this book. You might never be able to put it down again.

New Year Morning in a Chelsea Studio by Sir Alfred Munnings, 1919. From A Tale of Two Monkeys: Adventures in the Art World by Anthony Speelman

Rev Peter Mullen was Rector of St Michael, Cornhill, and St Sepulchrewithout-Newgate in the City of London Anthony was always, it seems, destined for a life in the art world. Still,

Art of the deal after being ‘subjected to museum visits from an early age’, he describes himself GEORGIA BEAUFORT as having little interest in art as a child: ‘I A Tale of Two Monkeys: Adventures would have much rather been throwing a in the Art World tennis ball against the wall in our road.’ His epiphany comes when he is 16. By Anthony Speelman On a family trip to Italy, Christ

Paul Holberton Publishing £30 Blessing, a small painting by Raphael in a museum in Brescia, catches his eye. Anthony Speelman is one of the most ‘Although it was quite dirty, it shone in respected art dealers of his generation. comparison to all the other paintings in He has spent some six decades in the the room. It had a luminosity that I had business, selling paintings to the world’s never seen before in a painting, and I greatest collectors and museums. started to wonder what made it so

His memoir, A Tale of Two Monkeys: superior to anything else.’ Adventures in the Art World, richly He realises then that he will follow in illustrated with reproductions of many of his father’s footsteps. Speelman’s studies the pictures that have passed through his took him to France, Austria, Germany hands, takes Speelman’s readers on a and Italy, where he visits countless galleries Grand Tour of the art business, replete and gets to know one museum so well with vivid descriptions of paintings, that he becomes an unofficial tour guide. people, places and numerous splendid His keen eye for detail is not reserved lunches along the way. only for paintings. He is an observer of all

Speelman’s father, Edward Speelman, things, remarking on the formality of was also a successful art dealer. His playing chess with fellow students in mother, Sally De Casseres, was the Freiburg (‘Your move, Herr so-and-so’) daughter of the gallerist and art dealer and rough shooting in the hills between Arthur De Casseres. Florence and Bologna, where almost all birds are fair game: ‘I witnessed two men coming to blows as they both tried to pick up a thrush.’

His travels for both his studies and his professional life are punctuated with epicurean descriptions: cured ham and grappa in Italy; grilled baby crayfish in Portugal; smoked eel, brown shrimps and steak tartare, washed down with beer, wine and oysters at the Maastricht Art Fair.

But it is the paintings, their provenance and stories that are the real stars of the book.

Under his father’s tutelage, Speelman learns to make accurate attributions, using both instinct and science. Dendrochronological analysis helps him to identify the panel depicting a rare 15th-century Flemish Virgin and Child.

He learns not to be put off by cost. ‘The bitterness of low quality,’ his father tells him, ‘remains long after the sweet taste of a cheap price has vanished.’

His father also teaches him that the relationship between dealer and client is crucial. The great collector Harold Samuel, who once bought a Rembrandt self-portrait to put above his fireplace, would complete deals in a week. He would hang a potential