world of
a magazine of art, design & collecting history
Antiques & Art MUSEUMS ACROSS THE CONTINENTS: WHERE TO GO AND WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO SEE
NEW COLLECTING DIRECTIONS: CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART A GROWING TREND CONTEMPORARY TIBETAN ART, ONCE NEGLECTED NOW A NEW FRONTIER
EXCEPTIONAL TITLES: ANDREW LAMBRITH REVIEWS THE LOVE LETTERS OF JOHN NASH AN EXTENSIVE AND DIVERSE RANGE OF RECENT RELEASES FOR THE COLLECTOR REVIEWED
ASCRIBING VALUE: WHEN A HUMBLE CHAIR BECOMES A CABINET MAKER’S MASTERPIECE FEBRUARY 2008 - AUGUST 2008 ISSUE 74 AUSTRALIA $16.95 NZ $20.95 SINGAPORE $20.00 UK £7.00 US $13.00 €10.50
NORTHERN ITALIAN ART OF THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURY RE-EVALUATED
CONTENTS ACQUISITIONS 155 156 158 160 162 164 166 167 168
170
Kitaoji Rosanjin, Hiramuko (flat dish), 1950 Hamilton Art Gallery Australian silver, 19th century-early 20th century National Gallery of Australia Meissen Porcelain Factory National Gallery of Victoria John Spooner: political cartoons and caricatures Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Sparkes cup, c. 1800-1801 National Museum of Australia Hanson cup and salver, c. 1862 Art Gallery of South Australia Donald Friend, A Brisbane bedroom, 1944 Queensland Art Gallery Françoise Pompon, Polar bear, 1933 National Gallery of Victoria S T Gill, Views of Burra Burra, 1847-1850 Art Gallery of South Australia
AROUND THE AUCTIONS Auction highlights from the major houses
4
HERITAGE 24 70
96
110 132 136
PROFILES 50 74
36 46
54 60
65 78 88
Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape painting Lucina Ward, Christine Dixon, Niki van den Heuvel The landscapes of Claude Lorrain Anne T Woollett Masterpieces from the Louvre: The collection of Louis la Caze Steven Duffy Secret Faces: unseen portrait miniatures Emma Rutherford The Duchess of Curiosities: the life of Margaret, Duchess of Portland (1715-1785) Lisa Gee Andy and Oz: parallel visions Deborah Hart Coming of Age: American art 1850s-1950s Ian Dejardin New light on three paintings in the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Gordon Morrison
Sydney’s mayoral insignia Margaret Betteridge China at the court of the Emperors: from Han tradition to Tang elegance Sabrina Rastelli The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle: a French museum in the English countryside Howard Coutts Australian people, politics and pop! Martin Terry Assembling a museum collection Louis Le Vaillant Queensland’s visual art heritage Glenn R Cooke
200 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
ART 10
EDITORIAL
106
114
Maurizio Canesso and Galerie Canesso Roberta Bartoli Alison Watt: associate artist at the National Gallery E M Bray Rossi and Rossi – leading the field in contemporary Tibetan art Elspeth Moncrieff Olyvia Kwok: London’s latest contemporary Chinese dealer Stephen George
LIBRIS 143 144
Andrew Lambirth reviews World War I love letters between John Nash on the front and his sweetheart in England Helen Proudfoot reviews a wide selection of recent releases including a range of titles on artists’ depictions of and contributions to Australian life from first settlement through to contemporary works
NUMISMATICS 102
The Sydney Bank and Thomas Horton James Peter Symes
PHOTOGRAPHY 119
191
ART NEWS
18
A selection of international events to diarise plus a look at the summer season of arts in London
82
Performing the past: photoworks by Pushpamala N. Anne O’Hehir Vues de Java: Walter Woodbury in Java Gael Newton
CONTRIBUTORS
DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN 22 30 40
92
Researching Windsor chairs Michael Harding-Hall The Art of Drinking Philippa Glanville Stylistic influences of coins on jewellery from the Eastern Mediterranean to Bactria Monica M Jackson Thomas Hope (1769-1831): Regency designer Frances Collard
2 WORLD OF ANTIQUES & ART
COVER Pushpamala N. and Clare Arni, Yogini (after Deccani (Bijapur school) miniature painting, circa 16th century), 2001 from the series The native types: a series of photographs illustrating the scenery and the mode of life of the women of South India, 2000-2004, Type C colour photograph, 55.8 x 44 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
decorative arts and design
The Percival Compton Chairs: a remarkable set of provenanced English Windsor chairs Although a humble relation of the more elaborately designed and crafted pieces made by the great eighteenth-century English cabinet makers, the Windsor chair is important for its unique expression of craftsmanship and comfort. There are very few surviving documented examples so finding examples with a specific provenance is of especial interest. MICHAEL HARDING-HILL 1
1 Detail of under seat showing inscribed brass plaque and trade label for John Pitt 2 Comb back Windsor chair (English) attributed to John Pitt of Slough (died 1759), cherry wood with elm seat, present whereabouts unknown
2
IN 1998, a Windsor chair came up for
‘Wheelwright and Windsor Chair
Wycombe Museum at High Wycombe,
auction at Christie’s salerooms in
maker... at SLO... DSO.’ These letters
Buckinghamshire. This lacquered black
London. A brass plate screwed under
form part of the words Slough &
chair has an armorial of the Somerset
the seat stated, This chair went with
Windsor and were of more importance
city of Bath painted on the splat.
Cap. Cook around the world.
to students of Windsor chairs than the
Unfortunately, it has not been possible
connection with Captain Cook.
to substantiate this claim. Maybe the
This information garnered from the
This armorial feature is also found on a set of early chairs known as the Perceval Compton Chairs. The first of
connection can be uncovered in
label enabled the distinctive early comb
these distinctive Windsor chairs was
Australia. Next to the brass plate on
back design to be attributed to a
acquired by the Victoria and Albert
the underside of the seat was a badly
specific maker, John Pitt (1714-1759).
Museum, London in the 1970s, at
worn trade label. The label declares the
Just four other Pitt chairs are known,
which time it was a hitherto unknown
maker to be John Pitt and continues,
and each is well recorded. One is in the
design. The faded red polychrome
22 WORLD OF ANTIQUES & ART
heritage
The thriving settlement of Sydney was granted the status of being a city with the Royal Warrant in 1902 and with this came the important decision on how best to garb the city’s first lord mayor. Setting the appropriate standard had already occupied the Municipal Council back in 1842 and now there was the challenge of providing insignia worthy of the elevated office. MARGARET BETTERIDGE 1
Sydney’s mayoral insignia THE INSIGNIA associated with public
decoration. They were intended as
office are the markings, signs and
sacred vestments, denoting their
symbols which have traditionally
appointment as priests in God’s
identified the authority of
service, to be worn in the Tent of
parliamentary, judicial, mayoral,
Meeting and when they approach the
ecclesiastical or academic office. Their
altar to serve in the sanctuary, as a
origins are steeped in ancient customs
precaution against incurring
and rituals, and their intent was
mortal guilt.
always to denote authority or status. The wearing of ecclesiastical
Aaron’s insignia included a small golden bell which would sound to
vestments, we learn as recorded in
denote his presence and authority;
Exodus, was an instruction from God
and a breastplate, set with gold and
to Aaron on his consecration to
precious stones. The stones, engraved
priesthood, to give ‘dignity and
with the names of the sons of Israel,
magnificence.’ The instruction
were secured with twisted gold chain
included detailed advice on the
and rings, securing them into position
colours, materials, designs and
to ensure that whenever Aaron
significance of the garments for Aaron
entered the sanctuary, those names
and his sons, and on the embroidered
were closest to his heart.
1
24 WORLD OF ANTIQUES & ART
1 Dress collar, made by Angus and Coote, 1958. Sydney Town Hall Collection 2 Detail from the Sesquicentenary mace, made by John Hale and presented to the City of Sydney by the Friends of Town Hall. In 1908, Thomas Hughes was successful in obtaining the endorsement of the College of Arms in London for the city’s coat of arms. Sydney Town Hall Collection 3 Sydney’s first lord mayor was Sir Thomas Hughes (1863-1930) (left with Mrs Hughes) who held the office of lord mayor in 1902, 1903, 1907 and 1908. On right are the first Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Samuel Gillott and his wife Lady Gillott. City of Sydney Archives 4 Enamelled medallions presented to the City of Sydney by the Sydney Chamber of Commerce (top) featuring the unofficial badge of New South Wales. The larger medallion below was presented by Hughes and is decorated with the City’s unofficial coat of arms, granted in 1908. Sydney Town Hall Collection
acquisition
John Spooner (1946- ), The Aspirational Arms, 2004, pen, ink and wash, 15 x 22 cm (image). Gift of the artist through the Cultural Gifts Program, 2006
John Spooner: political cartoons and caricatures Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER of works
this unusual new career and has never
by Melbourne artist and well-known
looked back. Spooner won his first
cartoonist for The Age newspaper, John
Walkley Award in 1982 and another
Spooner, has been acquired by
two in 1994. In the 1980s he won five
Mornington Peninsula Regional
Stanley Awards (including the Gold
Gallery. Donated under the Cultural
Stanley for Black and White Artist of
Gifts Program, these twenty-two works
the Year) and in 2003 received the
from the artist’s own collection reflect
Graham Perkin Award for Australian
a range of issues significant to
Journalist of the Year.
contemporary Australia. They also complement a growing collection of social and political drawings, cartoons and caricatures held by the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG).
His works are featured in Spooner: Drawings, Caricatures and Prints (1982), in the Works (1999). Exhibiting in both group and solo shows regularly since the 1980s, John Spooner is represented in public, private, national
Spooner began drawing for The Age in
and international collections,
1974. By 1977 he had given up law for
including the National Library of
WORLD OF ANTIQUES & ART
funny is a broad term. You can have wincing funny or bellylaugh funny. But there’s another ingredient too; when the cartoon makes you look at an idea in a way you’re not used to.’ John Spooner, 2004
Bodies and Souls (1989) and A Spooner
Working as a lawyer by day, John
160
‘The best cartoons are funny, but
Australia, National Gallery of Australia and National Gallery of Victoria. The twenty-two works donated by Spooner cover a wide range of styles and approaches. There are examples of
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