Gazette - Late Spring 2015 - Issue 43

DISS AUCTION ROOMS GAZETTE LATE SPRING 2015 ISSUE 43

The Saturday Select Page 2

The mechanical age page 3

The vintage age page 7

The Saturday Select Saturday 11 July Hands up all those who enjoy viewing an auction?

Hands up all those who view our auctions after work on Thursdays?

Hands up those who leave prospective bids because, due to other week-day commitments they cannot attend auctions on Fridays?

Hands up those enthusiasts who simply think the more auctions available to attend each week, the better?

Auctioneers respond well to lots of hands up in the air.We are therefore pleased to announce the launch of a brand new auction in our expansive calendar of sales: The Saturday Select Sale.

Select because our specialists will choose what qualifies entry and select because overall quality will be higher than our regular larger auctions.

The intention is that this will be a showcase sale encompassing fine examples from any of our special categories; it will be an eclectic mix, the only stipulation to the dynamic being a higher threshold of value.

Consequently, each sale will be “free-form”, pre-empted by expectation and excitement.

You are warmly invited to join us for our first Saturday Select Sale on 11 July, when we hope you will discover many more tempting reasons to put your hands up.

Contact Regional Valuer Edward Smith, Lisa West or Elizabeth Talbot for more details

On Wednesday 10 June we are pleased to welcome back the Diss Business Forum.

EVENING OF TREASURES SUMMER DRINKS & AUCTION PREVIEW An opportunity to enjoy drinks outisde at the auction preview of the Silver with Antiques & Modern Design Auctions Guests tickets £10 with concessions for members of the Diss Business Form, see website for details www.dbf.org.uk Sponsored by Spire Solicitors

Rural & Domestic Bygones Saturday 23 May from 10am One of the many joys of the Diss Auction Rooms’ rural location is during spring; how enlivening it is to drive to work observing a palette of spring greens emerging in the surrounding fields.

Perfectly straight uniform lines stretch across the horizon as new crops break through the winter earth.

100 years ago the seasonal events would be exactly the same but the scene would be markedly different, as until then managed land was reliant on the variances of human and (genuine) horse power.

By 1900 static engines had been powering the automation of agriculture for some time but it was with the development of the tractor, from the Latin “trahere “ to pull, that things really started to change. Much like the motorcar before it, tractors were slow to be adopted, the cost of development making the end product well beyond the pocket of those most likely to

benefit. It should therefore come as no surprise to discover that the man whose mass produced method had so popularized the car industry should also revolutionise the farming industry; Henry Ford.

Building experimental tractors out of automobile components his firm, Henry Ford & Son Inc., were able to launch a prototype known as the Model B in August 1915. Dedicated tractor designs would follow and these would capture the market with a lightweight reliable design, low and

affordable pricing, widespread dealership network and a production capacity for large numbers.Trading under the brand name Fordson they would dominate the tractor market both in America and England for several decades. By the outbreak of World War II the model in full production was the Fordson Model N Standard. Produced almost exclusively at Dagenham it was probably the most important tractor in the United Kingdom at this time with more than 136,000 produced during the war.

Our next Rural Bygones auction will feature one Fordson Model N Standard. Made in 1944 it comes complete with original engine cover.This fine example was running several years ago and has been barn-stored by the current owener.

This would provide a good chance to own some farming history, a reminder of the time when precision and power arrived in agriculture and shaped many of the views we enjoy today.

Contact Robert Kinsella for details.

Doulton & Co

By Lesley Smith Prior to the 1870s, Doulton & Co. was known mainly for its utilitarian stoneware including flagons, mugs and jars for house and farm and transportation barrels for trade consignments; plus, pipes and sanitary ware. In 1870 Henry Doulton, son of the firm’s founder, began a new art venture.

Doulton set up a studio in Lambeth, South London, specifically to produce handcrafted, decorated ceramics.The Studio’s production becoming known as Doulton Lambeth ware.

The studio employed designers from the nearby Lambeth School of Art. Henry Doulton was a relatively relaxed and liberal employer. He pioneered the employment of female staff and gave the designers great freedom, allowing them to choose the shape and decoration of each vessel they worked on.The link with the Lambeth School proved to be very fruitful with the Doulton studio employing a series of very

talented designers, including Frank Butler, Emily Edwards, George Tinworth, Robert Walter, Edwin Martin and the Barlow siblings.

Hannah Barlow (1851 – 1916) was the first female artist employed at Doulton’s London factory in 1870/71 and one of two prominent Barlow sisters to work there, Florence being the other; she worked there from 1873 until 1909. Two other siblings worked for Doulton; their brother, Arthur, who died young, and their lesser-known sister Lucy who was a more lowly decorator of borders.They were four of nine children born to Benjamin Barlow (18131866), a bank manager, and his wife Hannah (1816-1882) in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire.

Hannah Barlow, along with several other students (including her brother Arthur) were initially employed by the Doulton Lambeth pottery to decorate salt glazed stoneware. She worked for Doulton from

The Hannah Barlow signature

the studio’s founding and enjoyed a very successful career there, leaving the firm in c.1913. Her brother Arthur also joined in 1870 and her sister Florence followed a short time later.

The Barlows produced designs for a variety of Doulton wares, which were made from saltglazed brown stoneware, including vases, pitchers, bowls and cups. Hannah quickly became known for her incised work, known a sgraffito.

Sgraffito is the Italian word meaning

“scratched” and is a technique used in painting, pottery, and glass, which consists of putting down a preliminary surface, covering it with another, and then scratching the superficial layer in such a way that the pattern or shape that emerges is of the lower colour.

Hannah’s sgraffito designs drew firmly on her love of nature and usually featured a group of animals, usually amidst a rural landscape.

Popular subjects were horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and donkeys, domestic

Doulton Lambeth vase £150-200

cats and dogs, boar hunting, wild and exotic animals such as lions and kangaroos and birds such as storks. She typically worked in blues, browns, greys and greens, the usual palette of Doulton Lambeth ware, and often adorned the neck and base of her wares with foliate decoration. John Sparks, head of the Lambeth Art School where Hannah studied, said of her: ‘Miss Barlow’s quick sketches of animals show an intense feeling for the spirit of the beasts and birds represented.These etched out figures are, so to speak, instantaneous photographs of the creatures. She possesses a certain Japanese facility of representing the largest amount of fact in the fewest lines, all correct, and embodying in a high degree the essential character of the subject.’

Florence was also a lover of nature; her designs featured flowers and birds.The two women were leading lights in the field of decorative arts long before Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper and the quality of their type of work could not be bettered. Hannah’s pieces are among the most sought after of all Doulton’s artists’ designs.

Meanwhile,Arthur’s work featured mainly foliate patterns.

Despite losing the use of her right hand she was able to use her left hand just as proficiently and became one of Royal

Doulton’s most prolific artists. Each of her pieces was first drawn as a sketch then incised into the wet clay before firing. Hannah Barlow decorated the animalia band around the vases and left the remaining decoration to other designers and assistants.

Her output was considerable and she would often produce 20 top quality vases per day.

Hannah Barlow marked most of her wares with a distinctive monogram, which is easily recognizable once you have seen it. However, the style and quality of her work shines through even when the monogram is missing or illegible.

When Hannah died on 15 November 1916 she was buried in Norwood Cemetery and her sketch books are now safely housed in Stoke on Trent.

Our special Quarterly Antiques Sale at in Diss on Friday 15 May will contain a private collection of Doulton Lambeth vases from the 1880’s, including a selection of work by Hannah, Florence and Lucy Barlow and depicting some of the most iconic designs featuring horses, sheep and deer.

For details of this and all weekly auctions please see www.twgaze.co.uk

Clocks & Watches It’s nearly time! The next Clocks & Watches auction is just round the corner. So it would seem appropriate to remind you of the new format for this popular sale.

The auction will start at 5pm on Thursday 2 July with viewing from 2pm on the same day.

The sale will be hosted, as with much of our special calendar, on the-saleroom.com and will therefore enable you to fully engage with the auction should you not be able to attend.

Our horological expert Oliver Allen is currently inviting appointments from consignors. So should there be any timepiece you are thinking of selling, now is the time to contact him.

Oliver can be reached on 01379 650306 or o.allen@twgaze.co.uk .

Vintage Industrial Furniture Friday 5 June 9.30am in The Blyth Barn Contact Lawrence Baynes or Louis Smith

Vintage Fashion & Furnishings Post Sale Report by Debra Brown What a great way to start the summer with a fabulous collection of vintage frocks from the golden era of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s to wear at a gorgeous tea party, a classical summer concert or a country fete.

Classic names were walking out of the door including 70’s iconic Mushroom label (B) and Biba (C). 1940’s fashions were top of the list for gentlemen’s attire. A striped 3-piece suit sold for (A) £140 and four men’s shirts got a “hot under the collar” price of £90. A boater perfect for a tea party and silk top hats ideal for a summer concert were also featured. A sporting theme featured with a pair of vintage black leather riding boots and a pair of beautiful shoe trees from Tom Hill of Knightsbridge, London walking home for a handsome £95.

A

A series of bygone shop mannequins were poised to sell well: a “Lube” of Paris torso mannequin (D) £170, a 1930’s linen tailor’s dummy for the couture sew room made £130 and a French 1920’s female torso mannequin complete with a beaded silk shoulder cape and hat made £120.

Amongst a vast array of ladies and gentlemen’s fashions fromVictorian silk ensembles to Prada minimalism we also dressed our saleroom with large pairs of country house curtains; ranging from floral linens, lined and interlined that reached a fabulous price of £280, luxurious blue Zoffany silk curtains at £260 and Nina Campbell linens at £160. Persian wool rugs covered our floors and a spectacular wall hanging wool tapestry from Lahore, Pakistan displayed well.

Next Sale Saturday 26 September

B C

D

aiming for success

by Louis Smith, Valuer

Saturday 27 June is the date for the second Militaria auction of the year; this time set to include a private collection of live firing and obsolete firearms.

The sale will feature firearms from all around the world, spanning from the end of the 19th Century, through to the Second World War. One of the most recognised of the group is an American Springfield rifle. With production originating around 1907, this rifle was chambered in 30-06 and saw use in the First World War when the USA entered in 1917. Officially being replaced by the M1 Garand in 1937, the Springfield remained in service during WWII due to shortages.

Also amongst the consignment is one of the most historically

important rifles ever made; the Carcano M38 short rifle. This type of rifle achieved notoriety as it was reputedly used to assassinate John F Kennedy in 1963, a world-changing event.

Other names in the sale include Lee Enfield, Mauser, Mosin Nagant and Schmidt-Rubin.

This significant section of weaponary will be set against the usual Militaria backdrop.

Featuring a mix of headwear, uniforms, edged weapons, medals, badges, ephemera and collectables, For further information on the firearms featuring in the sale, please contact me, Louis Smith. To consign lots for the Militaria or for any further sale information, speak to my colleague, Ed Taxil-Webber.

Left to right A Lee Enfield MK.III £320-420 A Carcano M38 £300-400 A Springfield M1903 £600-800 GAZETTE Issue 43/latespring’15

Diss Auction Rooms, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4LN 01379 650 306 auctions@twgaze.co.uk www.twgaze.co.uk