Antique Collecting magazine August 2022

A F R I C A N - A M E R I C A N Q U I LT S A C H I P P E N DA L E - E R A B O O KC A S E WATC H E S

AUGUST 2022

Blooming bargains!

All Shook Up

Why Elvis memorabilia is really rocking collectors

ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Experts reveal the UK’s hottest antique-buying locations

VOL 57 N0.3 AUGUST 2022

LIFTING THE LID ON ‘JAR’

Discover the art jewellery of the world’s most elusive designer

7 British Impressionists

You should know about

CHAIR-RAISING REVOLUTION

How Thonet’s bentwood designs turned furniture on its head ALSO INSIDE Guide to collecting walking sticks

• Sale results • Top book offers

SCOTTISH WORKS OF ART & WHISKY

WEMYSS WARE PIGS ‘CLOVER’ PATTERN, POST 1930 Estimates range between £300-1,200 (+ fees)

AUCTION WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST 2022 LIVE ONLINE

Colin Fraser | SILVER & WHISKY colin.fraser@lyonandturnbull.com Kier Mulholland | WORKS OF ART kier.mulhollandl@lyonandturnbull.com

E DINBURG H 0 1 3 1 5 5 7 8 8 4 4 | Viewing times, illustrated catalogue and free online bidding available at www.lyonandturnbull.com

FIRST WORD

Welcome Slumped in front of the TV at the end of the day, I happily slip into the modern-woman’s vital role of ‘double screener’.

Why content myself to the digital output of one source when I can simultaneously feast on the latest TikTok breakfast recipes, or essential Twitter trolling?

How different from the experience of my Scottish mother, who died at the age of 93, and spent every evening darning, knitting and quilting. Inevitably, at the time, I was too busy taping the Top 20 and studying Duran Duran lyrics to take much notice and so all those skills, past down from her mother, were lost.

Luckily, the daughters of many African-American quilters were not as vapid. They followed in the footsteps of the generations of women who preceded them, creating an astonishing body of work which has been described as “some of the most miraculous works of art America has produced.”

The good news is we will all get the chance to see the quilts this month when they go on show at an exhibition at the Birmingham NEC. Anyone in any doubt of their artistic merit should turn to the feature on page 52.

You’ve probably sat on them, rocked on them, or even hung your coat on them. I am referring to the bentwood designs of the Austrian furniture maker Thonet which, almost 200 years on from its first Viennese workshops, is still going strong. Today, the chairs are as stylish, comfortable and affordable as they ever were. Have a look at dealer Edward Rycroft’s feature on page 46 to discover more.

Elsewhere in the magazine, on page 36, we shine a light on the stunning designs of the elusive American jeweller Joel Arthur Rosenthal – known to the gemmology cognoscenti simply as JAR. On page 40 we consider why the Rolex ‘Pepsi’ is the ultimate mouthwatering watch for any discerning collector and, on page 28, Paul Fraser reveals why this summer’s blockbuster film Elvis will prove a shot in the arm for the King’s memorabilia.

Finally, with antiques fairs firmly established once more on every collector’s calendar, nine well-known antiques dealers and TV favourites reveal the hot spots they head to for a bargain. Their revelations, on page 24, may well surprise you.

IN THIS ISSUE

NATASHA RASKIN SHARP on her journey to Bargain Hunt presenter, page 8

DAVID MESSUM

considers the importance of British Impressionism, page 18

ROO IRVINE

reveals her top UK fairs, which always serve up a bargain, page 24

Georgina Wroe, Editor

MICHAEL KOUSAH

presents his highlights from a very special book collection, page 44

KEEP IN TOUCH Write to us at Antique Collecting, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD, or email magazine@accartbooks.com.

Visit the website at www.antique-collecting.co.uk and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @AntiqueMag

Antique Collecting subscription

We love

This mid 19th-century kingwood table, stamped Bertram & Sons, which has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 at Dreweatts’ interiors sale on August 9-10

THE TEAM

Editor: Georgina Wroe, georgina. wroe@accartbooks.com Online Editor: Richard Ginger, richard.ginger@accartbooks.com Design: Philp Design, james@philpdesign.co.uk Advertising: Charlotte Kettell 01394 389969, charlotte.kettell @accartbooks.com Subscriptions: Jo Lord jo.lord@accartbooks.com

£38 for 10 issues annually, no refund is available.

ISSN: 0003-584X

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 3

THIS MONTH

Contents VOL 57 NO 3 AUGUST 2022

6

REGULARS 3

6

Editor’s Welcome: Georgina Wroe 60 Fairs Calendar: Make the most of introduces this month’s issue with a focus the summer with all the latest muston the best UK summer fairs visit events taking place around the UK this month Antique News: Make the holiday season really special with three highly-rated 61 Auction Calendar: Never miss exhibitions and all the latest from the another sale with our up-to-date world of fine art and antiques listings from the nation’s salerooms

10 Your Letters: Concerns over auction house charges and the contents of a skip are the subjects of this month’s letters 12 Around the Houses: An unusual Star Wars outfit and Queen Victoria’s muchloved dominoes set both feature in this month’s sales A F R I C A N - A M E R I C A N Q U I LT S A C H I P P E N DA L E - E R A B O O KC A S E WATC H E S

AUGUST 2022

FEATURES

ANTIQUE COLLECTING VOL 57 N0.3 AUGUST 2022

16 Waxing Lyrical: David Harvey opens the doors on a very special Chippendaleera breakfront bookcase

18 Making an Impression Impressionism isn’t only a purely French affair, British painters also succeeded in the genre

23 An Auctioneer’s Lot: From butterflies to beetles, Charles Hanson digs into insects which delighted Victorian jewellers and their clients

24 Bargain Hunting: Ever wondered where the experts shop for antique bargains? We reveal the fairs that you should be visiting this summer

All Shook Up

Blooming bargains!

Why Elvis memorabilia is really rocking collectors

Experts reveal the UK’s hottest antique-buying locations

LIFTING THE LID ON ‘JAR’

Discover the art jewellery of the world’s most elusive designer

7

British Impressionists

You should know about

CHAIR-RAISING REVOLUTION

How Thonet’s bentwood designs turned furniture on its head ALSO INSIDE Guide to collecting walking sticks

66 Marc My Word: With a summer of political wrangling in prospect, the BBC’s Antique Roadshow expert Marc Allum looks back on the golden age of political satire

• Sale results • Top book offers

COVER

The hall at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, at last year’s Flower Festival, photo credit Janne Ford, for more details on this year’s event turn to page 6

46

30 Citizen Cane: Anthony Moss is the 28 Cool and Collectable: Paul Fraser owner of a staggering 2,600 walking considers the effect the release of this sticks and canes. Ahead of his new summer’s blockbuster film Elvis will have book he shares his collecting tips on the King’s memorabilia

FOLLOW US @AntiqueMag

12

18 56

36 The Belle Jar: The elusive American 34 Subscription Offer: Save a third on designer Joel Arthur Rosenthal the annual subscription price and receive is responsible for some of the finest a book worth £75 free of charge examples of post-war art jewellery.

Antique Collecting discovers more 44 Saleroom Spotlight: a Tudor manual on marking swans is one of the books under the hammer at a very special sale in Essex 40 High Flyers: The Rolex ‘Pepsi’ might sound like a refreshing summer drink, but to watch aficionados it 50 Puzzle Pages: Pit your wits against our is one of the world’s most collectable titan of testing Pete Wade-Wright timepieces on the market 56 Top of the Lots: Silver ware from a 46 Bent in Shape: Dealer Edward 16th-century Norfolk manor house goes Rycroft praises the bentwood designs under the hammer, along with an Edoof the ground-breaking Viennese period suit of Japanese armour furniture maker Thonet 58 Book Offers: The latest titles from our 52 Fabric of Society: African-American sister publisher ACC Art Books make quilts go on show at an exhibition essential holiday reading – plus in Birmingham this month. Antique subscribers save more than a third on the Collecting goes under cover cover price

TO SUBSCRIBE TODAY VISIT WWW.ANTIQUE-COLLECTING.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE WEEKDAYS FROM 9.30AM TO 1PM ANTIQUE COLLECTING 5

NEWS All the latest

WHAT’S GOING ON IN AUGUST

ANTIQUE

news

The latest summer events, as well as three must-see exhibitions Blooming marvellous A popular flower festival returns to the London home of the renowned writer and politician Horace Walpole (17171797) next month.

Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, famous as Britain’s finest example of Georgian Gothic revival architecture, is the backdrop for the three-day Flower Festival from September 23-25. Horace Walpole, the third son of Sir Robert Walpole – Britain’s first prime minister – was an influential author and social commentator.

From 1739-1741, he embarked on a Grand Tour, later building Strawberry Hill House where he curated his vast collection of treasures.

Above A costumed

character at Strawberry Hill House with flowers by the Devon florist Joanna Game, Pigpen flowers and Bee Haven flowers Above right Cromer

resident Sue outside her bookshop with a copy of Van Eyck’s Portrait of Arnolfini, © Siri Taylor Right A Norfolk resident

sketches Holbein’s Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, © Siri Taylor Below left More than 180 outfits by the French couturière will go on show next year, image © V&A London

PICTURE THIS Residents of the Norfolk seaside town of Cromer can channel their inner artist next month when 30 life-size replica artworks go up around the town. From September 2, townsfolk will be able to scan a QR code to discover more about the paintings, which include JWM Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire, 1839; Sandro Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, c. 1485; and Vincent van Gogh’s A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, 1889.

The project, by the National Gallery and Cromer Artspace, hopes to encourage everyone to engage with its national collection.

National Gallery director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, said: “We hope it will bring much delight to visitors and inhabitants of Cromer alike.”

Coco pops Plans for the UK’s first landmark exhibition dedicated to the work of French couturière Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel (1883- 1971) have just been unveiled.

The V&A London will host next year’s display, charting the evolution of the designer’s iconic style from the opening of her first millinery boutique in Paris in 1910 to the showing of her final collection in the French capital in 1971.

Featuring more than 180 outfits, seen together for the first time, the exhibition will feature Chanel’s groound-breaking jewellery, accessories, cosmetics and perfumes.

Key pieces will include outfits Chanel created for the Hollywood legends Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich.

Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto will run from September 16, 2023 to February 25, 2024.

6 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

1

Left Ajarb Bernard

In the frame

Ategwa (Cameroon, b.

1988) Posing with my Parrot, 2021. Private Collection, USA, © Ajarb Bernard Ategwa / Jack Bell Gallery

An exhibition exploring artists’ ongoing preoccupation with women looking out of windows continues at a London gallery this month.

Featuring work from ancient civilisations to today, Reframed: The Woman in the Window is on at Dulwich Picture Gallery until September 4.

The exhibition brings together more than 40 works by artists including Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (16061669), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and David Hockney (b. 1937).

Inspiring emotions from voyeurism to empathy, artists both male and female have been fascinated by women staring out onto the larger world for centuries.

Far right Cecily Brown

(b. 1969), Oinops, 20162017, © Cecily Brown.

Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Galle Right Robert Tavener

(1920-2004), Sussex Boats and Nets, 1971, linocut, © Government Art Collection

3 to see in

August Above right Christopher

Orr (b. 1943) Small Titanic, etching, 1993, © Private Collection Far left Gerrit Dou (1613-

1675), A Woman Playing a Clavichord, c. 1665.

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London Left Pablo Picasso

(1881-1973) La Femme à la fenêtre (Woman at the Window), 1952, © Succession Picasso / DACS, London 2021. Photo Tate

3

More than 50 works celebrating the drama, beauty and strangeness of life at sea continue on show at an East Sussex gallery.

Seafaring, on at Hastings Contemporary until October 30, showcases the work of artists including Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) and Maggi Hambling (b.1945). At the heart of the exhibition is Lost at Sea, a show-within-a-show featuring three oil paintings by the contemporary artist Cecily Brown (b.1969). The trio is shown alongside the works which inspired them: a pencil study

by Delacroix; a plaster maquette by Gericault and JMW Turner’s 1818 watercolour The Loss of an East Indiaman.

Left Sir Thomas

Duke’s hazard

An exhibition featuring the relationships between the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) and the women in his life continues at Apsley House, his former London home. After the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington was one of the most famous men in Europe, famously attracting many female admirers.

Wellington, Women and Friendship, on until October 30, considers how his friendships with women provoked rumour and gossip. In 1816, he became infatuated with the married American Mrs Marianne Patterson (1788-1853), two years later commissioning Sir Thomas Lawrence to paint both their portraits.

2 All at sea

Lawrence (17691830), 1st Duke of Wellington, 1818, © Wellington Collection, Apsley House

Right Sir Thomas Lawrence (17691830), Marianne Patterson, 1818, © Stratfield Saye Preservation Trust

Above Interior of Apsley House near Hyde

Park Corner, the Iron Duke’s London home

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 7

NEWS All the latest SILVER LINING

College grounds A new £135m campus, part of the Royal College of Art, has been revealed – the college’s most significant expansion in its 185-year history.

Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron created the Battersea site including studios and exhibition spaces.

The RCA was founded in 1837, soon relocating to South Kensington on the same site as the South Kensington Museum (later V&A).

Previous students have included Sir Christopher Dresser, Clarice Cliff, Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens.

Above The Royal College of

Art’s new £135m design and innovation campus, designed

by Herzog & de Meuron, photo © Iwan Baan

A silver casket believed to have played a crucial part in the downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1567) has gone on show in Edinburgh after being bought for £1.8m.

The casket was produced by allies of Elizabeth I at a hearing against Mary in 1568 when it was said to contain letters implicating Mary in the murder of her second husband.

Following the hearing, Mary remained in English captivity for 19 years, until she was executed in 1587. The casket is on show at the National Museums Scotland.

Below The silver casket may have played a role in Mary, Queen of Scots’ downfall

was one of 40 illustrations in the white glove sale

Puppy love The 40ft puppy standing outside the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao has had a floral revamp to celebrate the Spanish institution’s 25th anniversary.

The monumental installation, created

by American artist Jeff Koons (b. 1955), has greeted visitors to the museum since 1997.

The West Highland Terrier’s patchwork coat was replanted in white with petunias,

on the BBC2 programme Antiques to the Rescue. One of the producers saw me later on the rostrum and thought I’d be a good fit for the show. © BBC studios

How did you start in the business?

After I graduated in the history of art from Glasgow University my father introduced me to a local auction of contemporary art. At the time I didn’t even know you could buy art at an auction rather than a gallery. But from the start I wanted to have a go on the rostrum. I pleaded with the auction house (McTear’s) for a job and was taken on in the shipping department before moving into the picture department.

How did you get involved in the show?

In 2012, I had been cataloguing at a country house in Selkirk, which appeared

8 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Birds in the colours of the Ukrainian flag were among the pictures by the children’s illustrator Sir Quentin Blake raising some £189,700 for the war-torn country.

The online sale, in aid of the the charity Hope and Homes for Children, tripled its pre-sale estimate, with Birds in Yellow and Blue No. 3, one of 40 illustrations created by Blake for the sale, flying past its guide price of £2,000-£3,000 to sell for £11,000.

Bonhams’ head of sale, Janet Hardie, said: “People came together not only to express their affection for Quentin’s work, but to offer protection to the most vulnerable.”

Above Sir Quentin Blake (b. 1932) Birds in Yellow and Blue No.3,

30 seconds with...

Bargain Hunt’s Natasha Raskin Sharp

Soaraway success

Are any rostrum skills transferable to TV? In a strange way, yes. When you take part in an online sale you have a camera in front of you and wear a mic – so that part is similar.

You also have to have a lot of confidence, which is the same on Bargain Hunt. When you are recording a show at a fair, with the teams and all the crew, you gather quite a crowd so have to be comfortable in front of an audience.

How do you all get on?

We are such a strange bunch and all have such different tastes and styles but genuinely get on really well.

I adore Philip Serrell and always have a soft spot for Charles Hanson – either can floor me with laughter with just a glance. I

begonias and dimorphothecas set to bloom this month.

Koons said: “Puppy has embraced millions of visitors to the museum, so it was an honour to have him as part of the anniversary celebration and greet visitors in this fresh, new way.”

Left Puppy, 1992, © FMGB,

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao 2022, photo Erika Ede

also love my fellow Glaswegian Anita Manning who is exactly the same off camera as on and often seen with her tartan cape and bowler hat. In terms of delivering a profit, Danny Sebastian’s bonus finds are the stuff of legends and Paul Laidlaw really knows his stuff.

Do you collect anything?

My flat is full of contemporary art, fine prints, linocuts and woodcuts, which I buy because I like rather than being by any ‘names’. I don’t think I’ve paid more than £150 for anything.

I love discovering work by the Glasgow School of Art artists who might not have gone on to be famous but whose work is wonderful nonetheless.

The Bargain Hunt Spotter’s Guide to Antiques by Karen Farrington, with a foreward by Natasha Raskin Sharp is published by BBC Books priced £16.99

War-torn painting

TIPPED FOR SUCCESS

Weapons from two Anglo-Saxon hoards have gone on show in Suffolk.

The exhibition, at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, brings together treasures from the famous site, and pieces from the Staffordshire Hoard discovered some 70 years later.

Similar patterns and the quality of craftsmanship suggest some of the objects from the two discoveries were made in the same East Anglian workshops. The display includes cloisonné sword pyramids, the first gold discovered by archaeologist Peggy Piggott at Sutton Hoo’s excavation in 1939.

The Staffordshire Hoard was unearthed by a metal detectorist in a farmer’s field in 2009. Swords of Kingdoms: The Staffordshire Hoard at Sutton Hoo is on until October 30.

Above Cloisonné sword pyramids from the

Staffordshire Hoard are on display in Suffolk

Doubles vision Whisky has taken centre stage at a new museum collection exploring the importance of the drink to Scottish culture.

More than a dozen bottles produced in distilleries from the Scottish Borders to the Inner Hebrides have gone on display in Edinburgh. National Museums Scotland’s Laura Scobie, said: “These items provide an insight into one of our leading industries and reveal a picture of 21st-century Scotland.”

In recent years investing in whisky has become one of the most enjoyable and potentially profitable areas of collecting.

Below Laura Scobie with three bottles from the new collection

A painting of Dunkirk owned by Winston Churchill has gone on public display for the first time at his former home, Chartwell in Kent.

The unveiling follows more than 100 hours of conservation by National Trust experts who used medical-style suturing to repair a 10cm rip.

The oil on canvas was given to the wartime leader in 1947 by the son of its artist Ernest Townsend (1880-1944).

It depicts some of the 300,000 soldiers evacuated from France following Nazi Germany’s invasion.

Churchill’s first weeks in office as prime minister were marked by his famous wartime speech in which he

declared: “We shall fight them on the beaches”, following the evacuation of Dunkirk in MayJune 1940.

Above The painting in transit to the Chartwell

landing where it has gone on display, credit NT Images

WOMEN ON TOP A painting by the Canadian artist Anna Weyant was one of the top sellers at a recent Sotheby’s New York sale, which, for the first time in history, saw women artists outnumber male counterparts.

Falling Woman, 2020, swept past its guide price of $150,000 to sell for $1.6m at the sale, which opened with 10 consecutive lots by women.

Last year Sotheby’s Mei Moses Index revealed that over the previous five years prices for female artists had grown by 32 per cent, outpacing growth for male artists by 29 per cent.

The index also found that in the same period the growth for contemporary female artists had risen by 66 per cent, versus 17 per cent for male artists.

This year’s Venice Biennale also saw women account for over 90 per cent of the exhibits.

Weyant’s paintings blend the Dutch Golden Age with contemporary popular culture and social media.

Above Anna Weyant (b. 1995) Falling Woman, 2020,

was one of the auction’s top sellers

Weaving a path A monumental new public installation has gone on show at King’s Cross, London.

Woven Wonders is by the Nebraskan-born textile artist Sheila Hicks (b. 1934) to coincide with the 87-year-old’s first UK museum retrospective, Off Grid, at The Hepworth Wakefield.

On show between the King’s Cross Academy and the Aga Khan Centre, the installation sees waves of acrylic fabric suspended between two former coal stores.

It is on show until October 16 with the Hepworth exhibition on until September 25.

Above Woven Wonders, 2022, © Sheila

Hicks; photo Cara McCarty

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 9

LETTERS Have your say

Your Letters Regnal titles, a skip find and auction fees are all on readers’ minds this month

I am an ordinary punter with a couple of lines of interest for which I occasionally purchase something, usually at auction.

In the early years of my interest in the 1960s and 1970s, auction charges were 10 per cent to the seller and the same to buyer.

Yesterday I looked at an auction and noted the auction house was charging a buyer 35 per cent on top of the hammer price. I have in my hand the invoice from a well-known provincial auction house dated March 21, 2015 showing the charge to buyer to be 15 per cent. Are we going to see a 40 per cent or 50 per cent charge in the next few years?

It is a concern, from whichever way one looks at it.

Thank you for your excellent magazine as always.

Richard Close, by email Thanks to the team for last month’s jubilee issue, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In the aftermath I can’t help wondering what will happen when Prince Charles becomes king. Will he become King Charles III – ushering in a new Carolean age?

Apparently he is free to choose his regnal title. Edward VII chose Edward, although he was known by his first name of Albert. Edward VIII also chose the same regnal title, although he was known as David. Prince Charles’s christian names are Charles Philip Arthur George. He could chose King Philip, King Arthur or could it be King George VII, heralding in a new Georgian era?

Geoff Jackson, by email

10 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Our star letter receives

a copy of British Designer Silver by John Andrew and Derek Stiles worth £75. Write to us at Antique Collecting, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD or email magazine@ accartbooks.com

Above right Has Gordon unearthed a hidden masterpiece?

Left Are auctions

becoming more expensive? Image courtesy of Sotheby’s, Haydon Perrior Below What will be the name of the new monarch?

I can’t walk past a skip without looking inside and this week, before it rained, I noticed this oil painting in a skip. I have it safe and sound. I don’t suppose any of your readers recognise the painting or who painted it? I can’t see a name on it.

It has a 20mm tear where it was thrown into the skip but is very repairable. Keep up the good work with the magazine which I look forward to seeing every month.

Gordon Day, Bromley, Kent

Answers to the quiz on page 46

Star letter

Q1 (a). It is fondly-held name of the headquarters of the English Rugby Union’s ground at Twickenham named after W. (Billy) Williams who discovered and acquired the site which was formally used as a market garden. Q2 (b). For ladies’ peg-heeled shoes i.e. ‘Heels to bear….’

Q3 (b). Q4 (d). Q5 (b). They were the first exposure meters (c. 1886), usually in the form of a pocket watch with light sensitive paper. The time taken for the paper to darken to a standard tint was an indication of the light intensity. Q6 (a). An Italian term used in Britain in the late 17th century for these very ornate symbols of opulence. Q7 (d). Q8 (b). Q9 (c). Q10 (b), (c) and (d). The ape was referred to in a popular 17th-century saying, whereas the parrot was an 18th/19th-century Chinese motif.

The anagram ‘toughen us’ could be rearranged to form the word Huguenots. The anagram ‘re-attach pug’ could be rearranged to form the word gutta-percha. The anagram ‘hilt inlay’ could be rearranged to form the word Lithyalin and the anagram ‘a new girth’ could be rearranged to form the word wreathing.

ACFP-v2_ACFP 01/07/2022 16:59 Page 1

Ancient Art, Antiquities & Coins

6 -10 September 2022

GREEK ATTIC BLACK-FIGURE KYLIX EYE-CUP CIRCA 520-500 B.C.

Auctions held quarterly www.timelineauctions.com Mayfair, London

AUCTION Sales round up Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet

The Wheel of Life has a Yongzheng four-character mark (17231735)

AROUND the HOUSES A whistlestop tour of the UK’s auction rooms delivers the sale of early tennis tackle and Queen Victoria’s domino set Dukes, Dorchester A 12th-century celadon Chinese vase, from one of the UK’s finest post-war collections, which had Labels, been expected to make just including Bluett £1,000, sold for £65,000 at the & Sons, showed Dorset auctioneer’s recent sale. the vase’s stellar Dating from the Southern provenance Song dynasty (1127–1279), the 16.5cm tall, malletshaped piece was The Song acquired

by Richard dynasty vase sold for 65 times Luff CBE in 1949. A its low notable collector, estimate in 1973 his family sold a bowl (bought by Luff for £132 in 1946) for £130,000. Today’s price would be more than £20m.

12 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

The friends rescued the lion from Harrods determined to give him a better life

A carved and painted wooden lion, one of 26 lots belonging to the owner of a real-life version of the animal, sold for £240 at the Essex auction house’s sale on June 21.

Australian John Rendall (1945-2022) shot to fame in 1969 when he and a pal bought Christian the lion cub from Harrods for £250, raising him on a diet of steak at their King’s Road flat. Two years later the pair returned the fully-grown 500lb lion to Kenya’s Kora National Park. A year on, when they returned The to Africa to check carved lion on his progress, was once in the they were told collection of John the lion was fully Rendall acclimatised to his life in the wild Lions never and unlikely forget: to remember them. But Christian and his when they met Christian former owners embraced his previous were joyfully owners like old friends. reunited

Mallams, Oxford An atmospheric oil painting by the German-born British artist Walter Sickert (1860-1942) more than tripled its low estimate when it sold for £14,000 at the auction house’s recent sale.

Known as a master of self-invention and theatricality, Sickert took a radically modern approach to painting, transforming Walter Sickert’s (1860- how everyday life was 1942) oil on can- captured on canvas vas Figures in the – often favouring Rain, sold for brutally realist subject £14,000 matter.

Dawsons, Maidenhead A ‘lost’ painting attributed to a follower of Italian Renaissance painter Filippino Lippi (c. 1457-1504), found in the bedroom of a 90-year-old’s bungalow, sold for a “flabbergasting” £255,000 at the Berkshire auctioneers.

Expected to make £3,000-£5,000 the price achieved suggests many of the 20 bidders taking part believed it to be the work of the artist himself.

The Born in Italy in 1457, Lippi studied Depiction of the Madonna and under Sandro Botticelli and worked Child defied all with him and other Renaissance artists on frescoes at Lorenzo de’ Medici’s villa in Spedaletto. pre-sale expectations

Fellows, Birmingham A 9ct gold-and-red enamel ‘Caterpillar Club’ brooch, awarded to a WWII spitfire pilot who ended up in Stalag Lamsdorf, sold for £2,200 The in the Midlands. Such badges ‘CaterpillThe were awarded to pilots who er Club’ brooch small successfully parachuted out had a pre-sale brooch was of their aircraft. Its owner, Sgt estimate of inscribed with William Farmer, parachuted £400-£600 Sgt Farmer’s from his aircraft in July 1942 name when he was hit by machine gun fire over Landerneau.

The Caterpillar Club was formed in 1922 named after the silk worm from which parachutes were made.

Tennants, Leyburn An Edward III (1327-1377) gold half noble sold for £3,500 at the North Yorkshire auction house’s recent sale, almost double its low estimate of £2,000. The coin was minted during the Treaty Period (1361-1369) when hostilities with France were temporarily suspended during the Hundred Years War. The entente cordiale was reflected in the The gold half coin’s omission of ‘Franc’ (a contraction of noble was ‘Rex Francorum’, meaning king of the French) minted during a referring to Edward’s claim to the French lull in the Hundred throne. It was replaced by, ‘ACT’, for his less Years War controversial claim to the Duchy of Aquitaine.

Words referring to Edward III’s claim to the French throne was dropped

Bonhams, Knightsbridge A 1983 demo tape by the Manchester band The Smiths was one of the surprise hits The in the sale of Suffolk 200 lots DJ and broadcaster represented a John Peel’s record small portion of collection, when it the DJ’s sold for £17,850, far above its expected sale collection price of £500-£700. But the top lot was a test pressing of the single Anarchy In The UK / I Wanna Be Me by the Sex Pistols, which sold for £20,400 against a pre-sale estimate of £6,000-£8,000. The 200-lot sale, which offered highlights from Peel’s personal archive sold for a total of £465,783. Peel, who died in 2004 aged 65, helped launch the careers of countless musicians, The Smiths’ including Queen, first demo tape David Bowie and sold for 35 times Nirvana. its low estimate

Sphairistike was the Ancient Greek word for ‘skill in playing ball’

Graham Budd Auctions, London One of the earliest known boxed examples of Sphairistike, also known as lawn tennis, dating from 1876, sold for £18,600, six times its pre-sale estimate, in the sports memorabilia specialist’s recent auction.

Sphairistike, Ancient Greek for ‘skill in playing ball’, was patented in 1874 by the Welsh inventor Major Walter Wingfield who borrowed the net from badminton, the ball from fives, and the scoring from the game racquets.

Graham Budd Auction’s CEO, Adam Gascoigne, said: “The sold box had an estate notice attached from 1876. The original red-painted pine box also contained a net of similar dimensions to those detailed in Major Wingfield’s original 1870s brochure.”

Sotheby’s, London

Did you know?

Queen Victoria’s pearl-encrusted musical domino set sold for £302,400 at the London auctioneer’s sale on July 5, against a pre-sale Dominoes arrived estimate of £250,000-£400,000. in Europe in the Dominoes was said to be one of Queen early 18th century, Victoria’s favourite pastimes, particularly when adapted from a played against her husband Prince Albert, with Chinese version by the game mentioned nearly 40 times in her Italian missionaries returning from the journal between 1839 and 1861.

Far East.

In one entry from December 18 1842, she wrote: “Albert read to me, and we played at dominoes, such a good game.” However, after her husband’s death in 1861, reference to the game ceased and Victoria gave the present set to her youngest son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.

The silk-lined velvet case also features a paper label with the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha coat of arms on the Queen underside.

Victoria was a fan of the popular pub game

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 13

AUCTION Sales round up Kinghams, Moreton-in-Marsh While the fortunes of Staffordshire figures might ebb and flow, there was no doubting their enduring appeal at the sale of Harry Buyers Ryans’ collection, which wanted a totalled £127,000 in the nibble when it Cotswolds. The top lot was a rare pair of a came to lettucelettuce-chewing rabbits, c. 1860, which raced chomping past its pre-sale estimate of £600-£800 to sell rabbits for £5,100.

Dogs and lions were a staple of the potteries with a pair of lions in the sale, c. 1860, proving a roaring success when it beat its low guide price of £400 to fetch £3,200.

Considered rare by collectors, the pair commemorates the UK visit of the American lion tamer Isaac van Amburgh in the 1840s when he caused a sensation with his spectacular act.

The son of a Yorkshire coalminer, Harry Ryans was a wellknown and respected figure in the antiques trade with a pitch on the Portobello Road for many years.

His in-depth knowledge of Staffordshire Lions were figures won him a loyal client base from among the most popular and Europe to America. exotic output of Kinghams’ associate director, Adrian Staffordshire Rathbone, said: “Unprecedented interest potters in the run-up to the auction indicated the collection would far exceed pre-sale estimates.”

Other figures sold varied from victims of the notorious Victorian double murderer James Rush, to a Crimean War figure of General Windham, c. 1855.

Hansons, London A bizarre denim outfit purchased just for fun in the 1970s sold for £9,000 – against a low estimate of £1,000 – at the London saleroom after it turned out to be a costume made for the first ever Star Wars film.

The quirky, short and baggy dungarees were bought in London’s Camden 42 years ago for a fiver by the vendor who didn’t realise the ‘JK’ in the label stood for ‘Joe Kaye, colonel 10545 Star Wars’.

Kaye played a Lutrillian in the first Star Wars film, in 1977, titled Episode IV A New Hope.

The label provided further provenance by supplying the name of the makers, the legendary The costume oddly-shaped dungarees were designers bought in Bermans & Camden for a Nathans, 40 fiver Camden Street, London NW1.

14 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Gildings, Market Harborough A full set of Maundy money sold for £2,400 at the Leicestershire auction house’s recent sale, narrowly beating its pre-sale estimate of £1,500-£2,000.

The cash, which was given out by the Queen at the annual Royal Maundy Service at Leicester Cathedral on April 13, 2017, was comprised of two purses, which were given to 91 men and 91 women at the service, one for each of the monarch’s 91 years.

The service, which traces its origins back to 600AD, takes place every year on the Thursday before Easter Sunday. Recipients are retired pensioners, The Maundy money was who are nominated in recognition of given to 91 men their service to the Church and local and women community. Early in her reign, the Queen representing every decided it should be distributed around year of the the UK and not just London.

Queen’s life

Ewbank’s, Woking

Pictures of the Blitz including the buildings around St Paul’s were included in the archive

A unique archive of aerial photographs taken by the German Luftwaffe as it planned its invasion of the UK sold for £1,700 at the Surrey auction house’s sale on June 24.

The collection, made up of 520 contact negatives covering the whole of the UK, with 16 images of Ireland, belonged to Nigel Clarke author of the book Adolf’s British Holiday Snaps. He said: “For the German air attack to work there was a need for accurate mapping and reconnaissance of landscape.”

Photographing the British countryside started as early as 1930 with much of it undertaken by commercial aircraft, including the Hindenburg. The Croydon in archive also reflects March 1942, the rural nature of including the UK’s only international pre-war Britain. airport

Our next Fine Art & Antique auction will be held on

Wednesday 3 rd August 2022 Public Viewing: Monday 1 st August & Tuesday 2 nd August 9.30am - 5pm

www.trevanion.com

Mallams 1788

THE

• Designer Goods • Decorative Arts • Jewellery • Paintings • Furniture • Ceramics • Watches • Design • Clocks • Books • Silver • Glass

PICTURE SALE 12th October 2022 OXFORD ENTRIES

INVITED

For all enquiries please contact oxford@mallams.co.uk or telephone (01865) 241358 www.mallams.co.uk F R O M T H E E S TAT E O F E D WA R D B A L D W I N , GRANDSON OF PRIME MINISTER STANLEY BALDWIN

Philip Burne-Jones (1861-1926) Portrait of Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley signed with initials and dated 1891, oil on panel, 43 x 33cms £8000 - 12000

M A L L A M S A U C T I O N E E R S , B O C A R D O H O U S E , S T M I C H A E L’ S S T R E E T, O X F O R D O X 1 2 E B

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 15

EXPERT COMMENT David Harvey

Chippendale’s incredibly influential book of designs The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director was first published in 1754 and immediately became a best seller.

Its 161 engraved plates had designs for everything from andirons to windows “in the Gothic, Chinese and Modern Taste.” A virtually identical second edition was issued in 1755, and a third enlarged and revised edition appeared in 1762. My intention is to show that this bookcase was made at the time when Chippendale was working and inspired by the designs in his book.

Waxing lyrical David Harvey reveals the attributes of a magnificent mid 18th-century ‘Chippendale-period’ bookcase

B

ack in the early 1970s when I first became a full-time antique dealer, the trade was shrouded in an aura of mystique. Dealers were the repository of all knowledge and would share their specialisms sparingly. Auction rooms seldom illustrated pieces and, when they did, it was in black and white, with pictures that were matchbox size.

How things have changed – even the language we use has had to adapt to modern norms.

Such were my thoughts when a magnificent mahogany breakfront bookcase arrived at my showrooms this week. I described it as ‘Chippendale-period’ but, in this age of transparency, what does that phrase really mean, and how can I justify it?

16 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Above The mahogany

breakfront bookcase is the latest showroom addition Top right The glazing is seen in The Director Above right

Chippendale’s Chinese railings Right The fine

construction suggests a wealthy client

Left The bookcase may

have been designed for display purposes Right Chippendale’s

designs for Chinese chairs shows the same railings Below Rounded escutcheons date to the mid-18th century

Chinese railings The most obvious evidence is seen in the pattern of the glazing bars of the upper doors. Each of the 15 panes are taken from The Director’s plate XCV, dated 1754, and are a favourite design of Chippendale’s. He uses a number of variations on a theme but I think it is fair to say we can see the inspiration for this in his designs for Chinese railings. Not all designs exactly mirror those in the book.

For the most part The Director served as a template for wealthy patrons to discuss the merits of a piece with their chosen cabinetmaker. Some opted for different elements from individual pages, which is why the chairs have different legs and some breakfront bookcases have different glazing patterns on the outer and central doors.

Elements such as a broken arch pediment would have been modified to suit the pocket of the client, as much as the intended home’s ceiling height.

Technical hints Having established that this breakfront corresponds to glazing patterns used by Chippendale, how do we date it? There are numerous technical hints, but let me pick on just a couple of aspects. The base doors open to reveal banks of drawers, which would have been more expensive than shelves, with each retaining their original

‘‘The Director’ served as a template for wealthy patrons to discuss the merits of a piece with their chosen cabinetmaker. Some opted for different elements from different pages’

Chippendale’s Chinese chairs

Another area where we see the brilliance of Chippendale is in his Chinese chairs, which use much of the same iconography as his bookcase doors, with Chinese railings as part of the seating design. Such were described in The Director as ‘Designs of chairs after the Chinese manner, and are very proper for a ladies dressing-room: especially if it is hung with India paper. They will likewise suite Chinese temples’.

brass handles, backplates and posts.

This is a well-documented, mid 18th-century style and, although it remained very much in vogue for decades, serves as a helpful guide. Open the doors above the base and we see that the shelves are all adjustable with grooves carved into the cabinet sides. The use of holes and pegs to support shelves came in much later and was a cheaper method of providing adjustability.

The construction of the drawers using oak drawer linings and the crisp, accurate and fine dovetailing show it to be a superior piece of cabinetmaking.

Mid-18th century The keyhole escutcheons all have rounded bases which is typical of the mid-18th century. Straight bottoms didn’t come in until the middle of the 19th century and the locks and keys also appear original.

The shelves, which effortlessly slide in and out, are made from solid mahogany which implies the piece may have been used for display purposes – perhaps even showcasing artefacts collected on the Grand Tour.

The selection of choice timbers throughout also puts it in the mid-18th century. So we can confidently say this is ‘Chippendale period’, even if we can’t attribute it to the master himself. Its attributes also mean it was not made later or reproduced as the phrases ‘in the style of Chippendale’ or ‘after Chippendale’ suggest.

It has the solidity of the best furniture, without the extravagance of either the Rococo – borrowed from the French – or the later neo-classical.

David Harvey is the owner of Witney-based W R Harvey & Co. (Antiques) Ltd. For more details go to the website www.wrharvey.com ANTIQUE COLLECTING 17

THE EXPERT COLLECTOR British Impressionism

Making an Impression Impressionism was not an exclusively French affair. Antique Collecting considers the movement’s impact across the English Channel and seven of its lesser-known but most collectable exponents

A

sked to define Impressionism, it is difficult not to bring to mind scenes of late-19th century French life, painted in the open air, with rapid, broken brushstrokes that captured the fleetingness of light. But its influence in the UK if not as profound, is significant.

Impressionism came to Britain, quite literally, via the coast. Even if it was not necessarily born there, it was certainly raised and matured in the many artist colonies that sprang up in numerous seaside towns and fishing villages during the last two decades of the 19th

18 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

century. The most significant of these were found in the traditional communities between Kirkcudbright and Staithes in the north, and Newlyn and St Ives in the south. These rural idylls became home to dozens of artists who found themselves in a hitherto unknown world that to them appeared frozen in the past, and whose attraction lay in the sincerity of their inhabitants and their daily lives, the unindustrialised countryside, and the clarity of the light and air not found in cities.

Its social ethos is best encapsulated by artists such as Stanhope Forbes, George Clausen and John Singer Sargent all at the vanguard of the Modern Movement in Britain.

But the movement also gave rise to many underrepresented artists, including Frederick Jackson, Ernest Rigg and Frederick Stead whose work can kick start a stunning collection.

Frederick Jackson (1859-1918) Above Frederick Jackson

(1859 –1918) Blossom, oil on panel, 34 x 44 cm, signed lower left.

All images courtesy of Messums, London www.messums.com Right Ernest Rigg (1868

–1947) Turnip Pickers, oil on canvas, 70.8 x 91.3cm

10 miles north of Whitby, lies the small and traditional fishing village of Staithes. Its rugged beauty provided the perfect environment for the formation of what became the Staithes Colony of Artists, of which Frederick Jackson was a founder member. The common interest which unified the group was their dedication to the unembellished painting of contemporary life and, by the turn of the 20th century, they had become regarded as an extremely influential force in the history of Modernism in Britain.

As a young man Jackson trained at Oldham School of Art, before being introduced to the Manchester School.

Like the Barbizon artists, the Manchester School rejected the more institutional conventions of Romanticism and the artists that had dominated the French salons of the 19th century.

The Barbizon artists favoured the study of nature, choosing to paint en plein air to capture the atmosphere of the moment, and Jackson developed a reputation for being one of the keenest exponents of plein-airism in the group; he often worked in cold and exposed places in order to paint scenes from nature as they happened.

Ernest Rigg (1868-1947) The introduction of the railway in 1883 brought the outside world to Staithes and, with it, came a second wave of talent to the colony. Unlike the first artists to set up in the village, such as Robert Jobling and Frederick Jackson, many among this new influx of artists brought with them the middle class benefits of Continental training.

Among this later group was Ernest Rigg who had taken lodgings, not far from Frederick Jackson and his wife, in Hinderwell around 1897. Born in Bradford, he had studied at the town’s school of art before travelling to the Académie Julian in Paris.

Here he absorbed the influence of the French Impressionists and the prevailing fashion for painting en plein air. While he enjoyed some notoriety during his lifetime, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy, he did much to promote the arts in Yorkshire and was a founder member of the Yorkshire Union of Artists in 1887, as well as the Staithes Art Club. In 1886, Riggs’ brother, Arthur, began the Arcadian Art Club in Bradford to promote local artistic talent and to encourage the burgeoning middle classes to take more of an interest in modern art.

Above Harold Harvey

(1874 –1941) A Trial of Strength, oil on canvas, 31 x 38cm, signed lower left

Harold Harvey (1874-1941) Harold Harvey, born in Penzance in 1874, was the only Newlyn School artist who could accurately describe the Cornish peninsula as ‘home’. Despite his father’s objections, in the mid-1890s Harvey also travelled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian. Returning to England and to Newlyn, he began to exhibit with some frequency and recognition, securing his first picture in the Royal Academy at the age of 24.

While many of the Newlyn artists brought their own sense of romance to Cornwall, Harvey neither glamorised nor commented on his surroundings.

During WWI it became a criminal offence to be seen painting outdoors, particularly around the South Coast, which initiated his series of post-war interiors.

Like many of his pre-war paintings, A Trial of Strength details the activities of the children of the area and is among his most successful and intimate compositions. With dexterous assurance, he captures coastal life on a summer’s day, using easy little dashes of impasto to illustrate the play of sunshine on their hair, or to illustrate the distant figures on the beach below them.

‘During WWI it became a criminal offence to be seen painting outdoors. particularly around the South Coast, which initiated Harvey’s series of post-war interiors’ ANTIQUE COLLECTING 19

THE EXPERT COLLECTOR British Impressionism The sitter, Lady Busk née Balfour (1861–1941), was a highly-accomplished British botanist and suffragette, widely recognised for her scientific achievements as well as campaigning for women’s equality.

The painting exhibits the signature elements of the French Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet, who was well known for his scenic combinations of young women relaxing by the water or in a garden.

His inclusion of the Anglo-Japanese table and tea set beside the model, and the paper lanterns that hang above her, demonstrate his familiarity with the growing British taste for Japonisme.

Wilfrid De Glehn (1870-1951) Yearning, or nostalgia for a sense of place, is a key element in the landscapes of Sydenham-born Wilfrid de Glehn: with the eastern side of the Lizard Peninsular in Cornwall evoking especially fond memories.

He first visited the area with his uncle in the 1890s and returned there on his honeymoon in 1904. Rarely without his paintbox, Wilfrid produced many beautiful paintings during excursions picnicking on the beaches or high up on the cliffs that line the coast.

Frederick Stead (1863-1940) Frederick Stead was born in the market town of Shipley just north of Bradford in Yorkshire, an area largely shaped by the Industrial Revolution around its 19th-century spinning mills. As the town grew, so too did the fortunes of its population, with large portions of the town given over to villas for prospering middle classes.

Much like Ernest Rigg, Stead had shown great promise at his local art school before proceeding to study at the Royal College in London, where he won a travel scholarship. Rather than take it up, he chose instead to return to his hometown where he became a notable portrait painter of the Bradford’s wealthier residents.

Stead was a champion of the arts in his community, teaching life drawing at the Bradford School of Art and regularly exhibiting alongside Henry Herbert (H.H) La Thangue at Arthur Rigg’s Arcadian Club and the Society of Yorkshire Artists.

Stead was praised for the sensitive handling of his sitters, with none more charming than his paintings of children. Primroses demonstrates his skills as a plein air artist as well as his interest in Edwardian childhood.

Arthur Hacker (1858-1919) A contemporary of Stanhope Forbes and H.H. La Thangue at the Royal Academy schools, Hacker travelled to Paris with Forbes in 1880, before embarking on a tour of southern Europe and North Africa. In London, in 1886, he helped found the New English Art Club alongside Forbes and he is now considered to be part of the avantgarde of Modernism.

On the Houseboat was painted around 1895 after Hacker took a studio in the beech woods near Henley.

20 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Above Frederick Stead

(1863-1940) Primroses, oil on canvas, 79 x 99cm, signed lower right Right Arthur Hacker

(1858 –1919) On the Houseboat, 1894, oil on panel, 60 x 38cm, signed lower right

Above Cadgwith depicts the artist’s nieces, Elma and Barbara Marsh and his wife’s niece, Hester Emmet. Elma is the girl lying down while Barbara is on the right. They are looking out to sea across what may be a curiously named local coastal formation known as the Devil’s Frying Pan. It is a fine example of Wilfrid’s preferred painting method which sat neatly between first and second wave Newlynites: that of working en plein air (with all the benefits of painting directly from the subject), combined with a bold congenial use of colour.

Below Wilfrid Gabriel De Glehn (1870 –1951) Above Cadgwith, 1925, oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76.2cm, signed and dated lower right Bottom right Lucy Elizabeth Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) Study of Two Girls Feeding a Grey Pony, 1908, oil on canvas, 111 x 142cm

Lucy Elizabeth Kemp-Welch (1869-1958) Kemp-Welch, one of the best equine artists of her generation, grew up in Bournemouth with the New Forest being a favourite place for family walks.

Lucy and her artist sister, Edith, started their formal art training at the Bournemouth School of Art. In 1891, she took a place at Herkomer’s famous painting schools at Bushey in Hertfordshire, where Herkomer, with his quite revolutionary style of individual art training, encouraged her natural talent for painting animals. While remaining in Bushey, Lucy spent her summers in Devon, a county she described in her diary as a ‘gorgeous place...like Scotland!’

During her time there, she made numerous oil studies from her studio in the little village of Simonsbath, high up on Exmoor including Study of Two Girls Feeding a Grey Pony.

Her fascination with animals was not limited to the portrayal of horses. Through her special affection for the working horse she became familiar with other agricultural animals and the labourers and farmers who tended them. She sealed her fame with her 1915 illustrations to Anna Sewell’s 1877 novel, Black Beauty.

‘During her time in Devon, Lucy KempWelch made numerous oil studies from her study in the little village of Simonbath, including Study of Two Girls Feeding a Grey Pony’

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 21

THE EXPERT COLLECTOR British Impressionism

Q& &A

Art dealer David Messum has been an advocate of British Impressionism for 40 years and is a regular exhibitor of their work at his London gallery Messum’s

Q A

Describe the gallery’s longterm association with British Impressionism, how did it start?

It really stemmed from my interest in the early Newlyn School, which can be seen as the start of English realism.

Impressionism has been made famous by the French but it has existed in this country since Gainsborough. We wrote a book on British Impressionism, which was published in ’85 and was the first book on the subject.

Q

35 years ago you held your first exhibition on British Impressionism, A Breath of Fresh Air. How has the market changed since then?

One of the things that initially attracted me to the early Newlyn School was the fact at the time, 35 years ago, they were less expensive than Victorian paintings and I, frankly, found them very much more exciting.

But when we started, back in 1963, Victorian art was in the ascendancy and most popular among collectors. It took a bit of time for the UK audience to associate themselves with colour and veer away from Victorian paintings – the ‘wall furniture’ considered best suited to the dark interiors of late Georgian and Victorian homes.

But we persisted, because you can never guess what the general public like until it is presented to them. It paid off and very soon we were getting some high prices for Newlyn School artists. I started to spend a lot of time in Newlyn and thereabouts and over time

A

Below Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857-1947) Soldiers and Sailors: The Salvation Army, 1891

22 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

we’ve had some really very important paintings through our hands.

With its rising prices, British Impressionism eclipsed the market in the ‘80s. Now the market has turned to Modern British, which is today achieving very big prices.

But a good lot is a good lot and, as dealers, we find people can be as keen on British Impressionist paintings as they are on Modern British.

Q A

Do you think British Impressionism will ever have the credit it deserves?

British Impressionism is here to stay.

Education plays a part and there’s been several recent good books on the subject. As well as the book we published in ‘85, Professor Kenneth McConkey is a specialist on the subject with a wonderful knowledge of the period.

It is arguable what comes first: research, or the marketplace. My argument, as a dealer, is that the marketplace comes first and research follows shortly after. So there’s every chance – with more books on British Impressionism – the market will remain very strong.

Q A

Is it too late to start a collection?

What tips do you have, which artists would you suggest?

It’s never too late to start, because you need to buy with your heart as well as your head. That’s where dealers like ourselves can be very helpful. Prices for Newlyn paintings range hugely but it’s quite possible to buy a good sketch by Stanhope Forbes for £7,000.

People tend to follow names, but if you are really determined to learn something about the subject, there are any number of artists in any of the coastal groups mentioned in this article who are still not expensive.

For example, many of the Glasgow Boys are still very affordable, but you’d have a hard job now buying a Colourist painting for less than £100,000.

Q A

Do you have a favourite artist from both the ‘top tier’ and the lesser-known names?

As we are centring on the Newlyn School I would have to say Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947), as he is known as the school’s founding father. In the general area of British Impressionism there are a number of artists who can still be bought for a reasonable sum.

One would have to be Wilfrid de Glehn who worked closely with John

Above Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn (1870-1951)

Haystacks at West Burton, oil on canvas, 64 x 76cm

Singer Sargent (1856–1925).

Any collector should aspire to try and buy the best he can, whether it’s a painter who is well known, or not so well known. In most cases after you’ve done your research you can stilI get a very good painting.

Q A

Are there any artists who have fallen out of fashion who deserve to be better known?

While this focus has been on British Impressionsim, I have to say one area that’s fallen back hugely of late is 19th-century art such as the East Coast art.

The prices you used to pay for E.R. Smythe (1810-1899) and other Norwich School painters (and marine art, for which I have always had a great penchant) have hugely fallen away.

In the early days of our business we concentrated a lot on mid 19th-century East Coast painters, including John Crome (1794-1842) and John Sell Cotman (17821842), prices for which have fallen by about a third. To my mind now is probably a very good time to look at them, because they’re wonderful works of art.

David Messum Fine Art, 12 Bury Street, St. James’s, London, SW1Y 6AB, specialises in British Impressionism with a number of works, including several in this article, on sale. For more details call 020 7287 4448 or visit www.messums.com

‘Any collector should aspire to try and buy the best he can, whether it’s a painter who is well known, or not so well known. After you’ve done your research you can still get a very good painting’

EXPERT COMMENT Charles Hanson Throughout history, the symbolism of the dragonfly has drawn on their agile movement and transformative life cycle. In certain cultures it is believed that, like the butterfly, dragonflies represent new beginnings and changes in life – the idea that was adopted by the Victorians to signify the need to embrace change rather than fear it, and move forward into the future, whatever it may bring. Dragonflies were mostly seen in brooches set with seed pearls and gemstones such as ruby, sapphire and turquoise. During the art nouveau era, dragonflies remained popular, often embellished with vivid gemstones and lifelike, transparent enamelling.

Scarab beetle

An Auctioneer’s Lot

T

Redolent of a summer’s day, butterflies and dragonflies are also greatly sought after in the saleroom, writes Charles Hanson

he buzz of insect life is something we all notice in summer but bugs of all shapes and sizes play a formidable role in antique jewellery, too.

Golden spiders with opal bodies and ruby eyes or dragonflies with wings fluttering with amethysts are familiar sights in our salerooms.

These valuable, decorative insects are beauties to behold - and sought after at auction. This type of jewellery was wildly popular, particularly in Victorian times. To have a gem-filled spider brooch attached to your gown was a thing of pride.

This may seem odd now – particularly for arachnophobes - but the Victorian era brought with it huge life changes sparked by the Industrial Revolution, changes that made people hark back to nature.

Increasingly, people moved away from rural villages to work in towns and cities, so much so the countryside became a place of nostalgia. This romanticised memory of rural life was celebrated in insect jewellery. In the face of rapid urbanisation, natural motifs like insects were seen as genteel, nurturing and virtuous.

Above 18ct gold, opal

and ruby spider brooch, all images courtesy of Hansons Above right Early

20th-century gem-set, 15ct gold and amethyst dragonfly brooch, sold for £3,200 Below left Diamond, sapphire and ruby butterfly brooch, it was valued at £4,000-£5,000 in 2019

‘Some Victorian women wore live beetles encrusted with gemstones, kept in tiny gold cages and attached to their clothes or lapels with a pin’

Consequently, the Victorian era saw insect jewellery designs blossom. This was influenced by the British interest in Egypt that accompanied the building of the Suez Canal from 1859-1869. In Ancient Egypt, scarab beetles were a common symbol of good luck and appeared as a motif in jewellery.

In the 1860s, Victorian women began to wear beetles and other insect motifs on their clothes and accessories.

Precious gems were incorporated into insect designs, enhancing the vividness of the pieces as well as adding value. Insect bodies were often represented, with their bodies made of large gemstones.

The Victorians loved them as did the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Deborah Cavendish, one of the famous Mitford sisters. She was the public face of Chatsworth House for decades and a hugely popular Derbyshire personality.

She was known for many things including her love of brooches and wore glittering insect-inspired examples, including butterflies and dragonflies.

Her husband, Andrew, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, sometimes gave her brooches as gifts, one of which – a beautiful diamond and ruby brooch, c. 1880, sold for £62,500 at Sotheby’s in 2016.

Live insects Certain jewellers took this passion one step further by creating live insect jewellery. Some Victorian women wore live beetles encrusted with gemstones, kept in tiny gold cages and attached to their clothes or lapels with a pin.

Even then, this was frowned upon. Mrs H. R. Hawes, author of The Art of Beauty published in 1883, wrote: ‘The large and gaudy insects that crawl over them are cheap and nasty to the last degree… at present, the bonnets and the brains they cover are too often not unfit companions’.

Nevertheless, the Victorians unleashed a natural world of beauty into jewellery, turning bugs, bees, butterflies, dragonflies and even spiders, into sought-after objects of desire.

Any old jewellery gathering dust in drawers really is worth its weight in gold. To book a free jewellery or silver valuation, email: service@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk or call 01283 733988.

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 23

THE EXPERT COLLECTOR the best antiques fairs A regular specialist on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, Lennox Cato deals in 18th and 19th-century antiques and works of art in Kent It is great that antique fairs are back. They were very much missed during the last two years by both the exhibitors and the buying public.

Dealers love to get out there and meet new faces and catch up with regular ones, so please go and support your local fairs as well as the larger London-based ones.

Bargain Hunting

With the mercury creeping up it’s the perfect time to bag some hot bargains at an antiques fair. We asked some leading dealers to tell us their yearround top hunting grounds When she’s not appearing on BBC’s Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, Roo Irvine runs Kilcreggan Antiques on the Clyde Estuary The fun of the fair really kicks in when accompanied by sunny days. Antiques fairs are fantastic all year round, but the summer showcases the best. Events such as the two-day Ardingly Antiques Fair in West Sussex (next event September 5-6) gives you everything you could need, regardless of your own individual taste or style.

The Mona Antique Home and Vintage Fair which takes place twice yearly at Anglesey, Holyhead (next event October 15) is also a great fair and I love the stalls at Edinburgh’s Antiques, Vintage & Collectors Fair.

Arrive early to snap up the best bargains but also stay until the end as dealers give good deals on unsold items – especially if big and heavy – the less the dealers have to pack up the better. Remember to seek out the far-flung dealers with less footfall who are keener to do business. www.kilcregganantiques.com

24 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Above Roo Irvine ready

for the hunt Left Dealer Roo loves to

visit fairs across the UK Right Jen-Tique selling

their fantastic range of antique gardenware at and accessories to many interested buyers at Ardingly Antiques Fair, image courtesy of IACF

You never stop learning when you visit fairs or shops, as dealers are always generous with passing on their knowledge. Today there are several good quality fairs in the provinces where you will meet dealers who also stand at the quality London fairs.

Whatever your interest, there will be a fair for you.

Don’t be intimidated, plan your visit and make the most of the day. Talk to the exhibitors and soak up their information, and most important of all, make a purchase or two! You won’t be disappointed and will look back on a day filled with happy memories.

Kicking off the fairs earlier every year is the wellestablished Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair held at Battersea Park in January followed by the Chelsea Antiques and Fine Art Fair in Chelsea Town Hall during March. Sue Ede of Cooper Events holds the annual Buxton Antiques Fair in May, with the Antiques Dealers Fair Ltd’s Ingrid Nilson the face behind the Petworth Park Antiques and Fine Art Fair in the same month. At the Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia, London, in June you will find some well-known dealers. Also in the capital Masterpiece London is well worth a visit and, further afield, TEFAF in Maastricht has to be viewed. www.lennoxcato.com

Left Buyers attend

Ardingly Antiques Fair to shop all types of antiques, vintage and collectibles for their home or collection Right Treasures on

show at the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair Below left Mark Wells and Kate Hanks enjoy Sunbury Antiques Market Below right Happy

shoppers at an IACF antiques fair

Kate Hanks and Mark Wells of Hanks &Wells bring their backgrounds in musical theatre and gardening to the world of antiques As dealers we are constantly searching for new and wonderful items. Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park Racecourse (on the second and last Tuesday of every month) is a great day out for anyone wishing to be submerged in the world of antiques. With everything from high-end items, to the ‘needs-a-bit-of-love’ pieces, we never leave empty handed.

Our favourite purchases at Kempton have included an Edwardian roll-back Chesterfield-style sofa with original upholstery in remarkable condition, closely followed by a vintage bamboo, garden day-bed in need of restoring with a beautiful custom cushion. We spend a lot of time restoring lots of the items we find so check them out on our website to see the results.

While not a fair, another of our favourite spots is Bambino, described as an ‘emporium of curiosities’, in Crystal Place, London. The owner, Andy, offers a handcurated collection, forever evolving and endlessly eclectic.

If you are further west in the country we recommend the local antiques shops in Hay-on-Wye, which provides beautiful walks, beautiful items and wonderful dealers. www.hanksandwells.co.uk

Ruth Darley at Norfolk-based William James Antiques specialises in high-quality antique furniture Firstly, I would have to recommend the Newark International Antiques and Collectors Fair in Nottinghamshire (next event August 11-12) which serves up a diverse and eclectic mix of dealers offering anything from porcelain to Country House furniture.

It’s best to get there early and make sure you have some sensible footwear as the ground can be hard going. While you’re in Newark you’d be foolish not to pop into Newark Antiques and Interiors, an antiques centre on Kelham Road.

In Suffolk, the Southwold Summer Antiques Fair at St Felix school (August 26-28) offers quality furnishings – and the café is pretty good, too. Finally, no summer is complete for me without visiting the Aztec Norfolk Antique and Collectors Fair held in July. Happy Hunting! www.williamjamesantiques.co.uk

‘Dealers love to get out there and meet new faces and catch up with regular ones, so please go and support your local fairs as well as the larger London-based ones’ ANTIQUE COLLECTING 25

THE EXPERT COLLECTOR the best antique fairs

When she’s not running her Norfolkbased business, antiques dealer Jane Cave appears on the BBC’s The Bidding Room I enjoy going to the IACF fairs, Newark and Ardingly, which have been previously mentioned. Although they may appear overwhelming, you often find a bargain – particularly on one of the outside stands. I also love the shopping arcades there.

I also go to the Déballage Marchand International in Chartres (next event August 9) and the Déballage Marchand Le Mans (next event August 19) which both take place every month. They have unusual items for sale which you just don’t see in England.

Nearer to home I enjoyed this July’s Brocante in the Park at Bayfield Hall in Holt. The estate opened up the parkland with new and established dealers taking part showcasing everything from antique rugs to decorative salvage. Also look out for the Stately Car Boot sale, which takes place in in Sennowe Park in north Norfolk in aid of Norfolk Churches Trust. The sale sees lots of people with large houses clearing out their attics, which is always interesting and throws up some treasures. www.decocave.co.uk

‘With everything from highend items to the ‘needs-a-bitof-love’ pieces, we never leave empty handed’ 26 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Above The Festival of

Antiques in Peterborough is brimming with visitors from all over the world Left Jane Cave finds

many bargains in French brocantes Right Interior designer

Rita Konig shops on London’s Lillie Road Below right Mark

Goodger looks forward to the Chelsea Antiques & Fine Art Fair, image courtesy of Duncan Phillips

London-based interior designer Rita Konig, taking part in this year’s BADA Week from October 3-9, is renowned for her ‘un-done’ style I love shopping on the Lillie Road and Church Street in London. I also go to Tetbury in Gloucestershire. And I use Instagram a lot as I can then see a lot of dealers from around the country. Don’t be timid. It is easy to go out shopping and come home with small things. And also give brown furniture a chance, you can buy it for such good prices and a bit of mahogany is so good for a room. www.ritakonig.com

Antique box specialist Mark Goodger, of Northamptonshirebased Mark Goodger Antiques, started his career on a market stall in Portobello Road If there’s one event which always welcomes serious clients it’s the Chelsea Antiques and Fine Art Fair. The location is perfect on the King’s Road in the heart of London’s most fashionable district.

I’ve shown at the last two Chelsea fairs and business has been very successful. We’re looking forward to the November event immensely. www.markgoodger.co.uk

Left Ceramic pots on

offer in Bath Right Natasha Francis

loves speaking to other dealers Below left Michael

Lines is a regular dealer at Harrogate Pavilions, image courtesy of Duncan Phillips Below These visitors to Newark Antiques Fair carried home some vintage furniture

Natasha Francis is a regular on the BBC’s The Bidding Room as well as running her business The Urban Vintage Affair One of my favourite fairs has to be the Festival of Antiques in Peterborough, a two-day, twice a year event in Easter and September, with thousands of stalls run by oldschool, traditional and international dealers. There’s no fluff, bells or fancy installations getting in the way, just quality, ‘rummaging’ stock. I find silver at trade cost, continental papier-mâché and loads of smalls, fresh to market, through house and factory clearances.

It’s a huge event with halls, stables and marquees.

There are higher-end pieces in the halls but you will generally find me outside, at acres of pitches.

I book into a hotel on set-up day staying for the duration covering the entire event. The fair is a great opportunity to network, as I love speaking to dealers chatting about their products, taking the opportunity to have a conversation and learn more about what I am purchasing. www.theurbanvintageaffair.com

Michael Lines of ceramics and glass specialist John Newton Antiques exhibits at fairs in the north of England

‘Arrive early to snap up the best bargains before they get spotted, but also make sure you stay until the end as dealers give good deals on unsold items – especially if they are big and heavy’

The Pavilions of Harrogate Decorative Antiques and Art Fair, organised

by Cooper Events, has always been a special place for John Newton Antiques. We consider it local and we have traded there for almost 40 years and it’s always lived up to expectations.

Moreover, it is an eagerly-awaited event for customers as well as trade buyers. Even the fair’s excellent coffee shop has its regulars. I laugh when the show opens and so many visitors call out: “See you in a while, Michael, just going for coffee and cake!”. Once refreshed, good sales are abundant.

Over the years, the antiques business has changed a great deal – the stuffy image has gone. Innovative dealers are offering a mixture of antique, vintage and decorative items which are rewarded with good business and sales. John Newton (who founded the business with me in 1978 and passed away in 2017) always said if you can’t create a market, then keep up to date with its changes. It’s a challenge, but one I’ve enjoyed over the past few years. www.johnnewtonantiques.com ANTIQUE COLLECTING 27

MEMORABILIA Elvis Presley Memorabilia

20 per cent rise

Austin Butler as Elvis (left) with director Baz Luhrmann (centre) with Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker (right) at the opening of Elvis

Cool & Collectable This summer’s blockbuster film Elvis is set to make The King’s memorabilia all shook up, writes Paul Fraser

H

ave you seen Baz Luhrmann’s new Elvis Presley film, Elvis, yet? I have, and it’s safe to say: Elvis is back in the building. Of course, to millions of fans around the world he never left. But a whole new audience is now learning why they call him The King.

You saw what happened when the Beatles documentary Get Back was released in 2021. They were discovered by an entire new generation. Suddenly everyone was talking about the Fab Four again. The number of collectors seeking Beatles memorabilia soared.

28 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Now, thanks to the new Elvis film, the market could be set for a significant boost, as new collectors and new money get involved. Not that the Elvis memorabilia market needs much invigorating.

This is a world where an empty prescription bottle that once belonged to Elvis can sell for £5,000.

The 2022 figures for the PFC40 Autograph Index reveal Elvis-signed photo prices have risen by an average 20 per cent a year since 2000. A top-of-the-line signed photo is today worth £4,000. In 2000, you could have picked one up for £750.

It’s amazing to think this is the first major Elvis Presley biopic ever made for the big screen. After all, he’s been described as “the greatest cultural force of the 20th century.”

When Elvis hit the scene it was like a musical ‘Big Bang’. The birth of rock and roll. And when you’re investing in the rare collectibles market – or simply buying what you love with an eye on the future – that’s exactly what you want. A ‘blue chip’ figure with their own chapter in the history books.

Revered by collectors

Top right Elvis Presley’s 1958 handwritten letter to his first cousin, Patsy Presley, dated 1958 while he was serving with the army in Germany, sold for $100,000, image courtesy of GWS Auctions Above The King’s

hair – clipped by his personal barber, Homer Gill Gilleland – sold for $72,500 last year, image courtesy of GWS Auctions Right Elvis Presley’s

custom made diamond and solid 14ct yellow gold TCB ring, sold for $440,625, image courtesy of GWS Auctions

That’s why key artists like the Beatles or Bob Dylan are so revered by collectors. They set the musical blueprint for everyone who came after them. Their memorabilia isn’t just highly collectible – it’s historically important. And that makes it truly valuable.

But who set the blueprint for them? Who inspired them to pick up guitars and change the world? Elvis Presley. “Nothing affected me until I heard Elvis,” said John Lennon. “Without Elvis, there would be no Beatles.”

So if we’re talking about artists who transcend the music world as genuine cultural icons...Elvis Presley has to be #1 on your list.

First NFTs So recent sales prove the market is strong. But what about the future?

Earlier this year Elvis Presley Enterprises released the first official Elvis non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and began hosting a series of virtual fan events.

So it’s safe to say the Elvis market is moving confidently into the 21st century.

But for me, and for countless others, nothing will beat owning tangible pieces of Elvis’ story.

So my suggestion is this: if you’re looking to add a high-quality Elvis item to your collection, now is a great time to do it. You can get in early before the demand increases and prices go up.

And buy with confidence for the years ahead, safe in the knowledge that Elvis Presley will always be the King.

Strong demand Now, Elvis was always extremely generous to his fans, signing countless autographs and giving away personal items throughout his career. (Although some pieces, such as signed albums, are considerably harder to find than others.)

So it’s not rarity which keeps the price of Elvis memorabilia strong. It’s his enduring popularity and the demand from collectors.

Over the past two years alone, impressive auction results have included: A belt Elvis wore on stage - $298,000 The Martin guitar used by Elvis during his early Sun Studios sessions - $1.3m Elvis’ first custom-made ‘TCB’ gold ring - $440,625 A guitar used during Elvis’ 1968 televised ‘comeback special’ - $625,000 Elvis’ jumpsuit and cape from his 1972 Madison Square Garden performances - $1m

• • • • •

So in the middle of a global pandemic and financial turmoil... Elvis memorabilia went from strength to strength. Now, imagine what could happen if that market was supercharged by a major Hollywood movie...

Above far left A

Hagstrom Viking II electric guitar, used by Elvis Presley during his legendary 1968 televised ‘comeback special,’ sold for $625,000, image courtesy of GWS Auctions

‘The 2022 figures for the PFC40 Autograph Index reveal Elvissigned photo prices have risen by an average 20 per cent a year since 2000. A top-of-the-line signed photo is today worth £4,000. In 2000 you could have picked one up for £750’

Above left Elvis wearing the ‘TCB’ ring on stage, image courtesy of GWS Auctions Above The King played

the guitar during the opening segment and one of the live “standup” portions of the 1968 show Right A belt Elvis

wore on stage sold for $298,000, image courtesy of Heritage Auctions Far left Elvis Presley’s

stage-worn Madison Square Garden eyelet jumpsuit sold for $1m, image courtesy of GWS Auctions Left The cape was part

of the stage-worn twopiece outfit worn at Madison Square Gardens in 1972, image courtesy of GWS Auctions Below left Cover of Presley’s live album Prince From Another Planet made up of songs from the four sold-out shows

But what to buy?

Depending on budget you could opt for an autograph (£1,500+), an original concert poster (£15,000), a ticket stub (£100+), or perhaps even some stage-worn clothing.

At Paul Fraser Collectibles, we always have a revolving collection of Elvis stock. We’ve sold out of our Elvis-signed photos, but do have a hugely rare, twice-signed LP available for £15,000. As well as £399 strands of Elvis’ hair from his celebrated haircut when he entered the Army.

And I should mention… in stock we also have Elvis’ rhinestone jockstrap -– made for Elvis by a fan.

The price on that one is £29,950.

Memorabilia expert Paul Fraser is the founder of Paul Fraser Collectibles, for more details go to www.paulfrasercollectibles.com ANTIQUE COLLECTING 29

COLLECTING GUIDES Walking sticks

Citizen Cane Over 25 years Anthony Moss has amassed a collection of 2,600 walking sticks, ranging from the ingenious to the downright artistic. On the eve of the publication of his book on the subject he shares his passion

In essence walking canes can be categorised into eight distinct types: country, city, professional, defence, decorative, system, automaton, and folk art (which includes prisoner-of-war canes). However, as with all classifications, there is inevitably some cross-over. A close relation of the walking cane is the umbrella, in some ways the ultimate system cane.

Some city canes feature timepieces; others are perfect for the bordello; some conceal fans or hold perfume or powder; others contain lighters, small cigarette cases, vestas, or bottle openers; some are even specially adapted for opening train carriage doors. A gardener’s cane might contain a pair of shears to remove tops from flowers or hide a saw for removing unwanted branches.

Sticks and bones Professional canes denoted their wearer’s occupation.

Physicians in the 17th and 18th centuries never left their homes without a walking cane. It may contain a ball filled with perfume (a pomander), a medieval invention used by physicians and undertakers to ward off infection and foul odours. However, in time, medical canes were also made for public use. Some held medicine, while others were made especially for the hard of hearing or those with failing sight who needed to be publicly visible.

Street life By the start of the 18th century, London streets were buzzing with taverns, pleasure gardens, public promenades, shops, gaming houses, brothels, theatres, and exhibitions. These new social and cultural spaces gave rise to new forms of walking. The main occasions for social walking were Sundays, holidays, and special festivities.

However, the novel leisure activity of window shopping became an important activity, frequently enjoyed by the new, rising middle-class. In London,

Did you know?

F

rom the stylised staffs carried by high-ranking Roman Catholic prelates, to the canes of the 18th-century London Dandy, walking sticks are embedded in the culture of almost every country around the globe. They have journeyed with mankind for millennia, from their initial use as a humble digging stick, to ingenious designs housing gadgets ranging from telescopes to knives.

The word ‘cane’ was first applied to the walking stick around 1500, when Malacca palm was introduced. After the 1600s, canes became highly fashionable for men and were often very elaborate, made of ivory, ebony and whalebone, as well as wood. Most featured decorated and jewelled knobs and iron or brass ferrules to prevent the foot of the cane from splitting.

30 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Above A mermaid

cane with ivory handle.

Germany, c.1890, rosewood shaft, with brass and ivory ferrule.

An example of a ‘narrative’ cane, where the handle represents a story Above right French

silver-handled walking cane, made for a physician and containing a range of bloodletting fleams encased in tortoiseshell within the handle and mounted on an ebony shaft, c.1860

‘Rabology’ is the term for the scientific study of walking sticks, coming from the Greek word rabdi, meaning stick or rod.

The difference between a walking stick and a cane One wears a cane and walks with a stick. The former is a dress accessory and, in essence, was modelled as a replacement for a nobleman’s sword. As a commoner in the 17th century, you could not carry a sword, but a walking cane was acceptable and similarly indicated status and wealth.

Left An ivory-handled

cane shaped like a greyhound’s head and encrusted with tourmaline sapphire cabochons and other coloured stones. It was owned by the prominent French banker and aristocrat Alex von Rosenberg-Rede, 3rd Baron von RosenbergRede (1922–2004). The gold collar is inscribed Arturo Lopez-Wilshaw, his lover Right A lady’s cane

which opens to reveal a vanity mirror and watch in silver gilt interior, mounted on a hardwood shaft, retailed by Asprey & Sons of Bond Street, c. 1905

fashionable society promenaded daily and from 1714 to c. 1830–1837, the Georgian era gave rise to the gold and porcelain canes’ milord knob, handled on a malacca shaft.

With many roads and pavements in a sorry state, it was necessary to carry a strong walking cane with a long ferrule, both for support on slippery surfaces and possibly even as a weapon of self-defence.

Below left A ‘Dandy’ cane featuring a silverframed two-sided vanity mirror, mounted on a long thin bamboo shaft, French, c. 1860

Masculine appeal

Below right A brass

Walking canes during the 18th and 19th centuries characterised masculine appeal, making a fashion statement and reflecting the owner’s status. They were an especial favourite of the ‘dandy’, a self-made man aspiring to the aristocratic lifestyle and influenced by the skilfully elegant George Bryan ‘Beau’ Brummell in the early 19th

court cane, Germany, c.

1700, with an opera knob depicting a bearded gentleman. It is mounted on a malacca shaft with a long tapered brass ferrule bearing an iron tip

WOMEN’S CANES The 16th century saw the rise of women’s canes, which tended to be more delicate and were mainly made of ebony and decorated with mother of pearl. In France, as fashions evolved, women soon began to use them to steady themselves while wearing the high heels and towering wigs that had also become fashionable under Louis XIV’s reign.

In the UK, women wore a cane as part of an outfit, often covered with fabric which was called a parasol or an umbrella.

Women also carried canes which may have been given to them by a love interest, with a picture hidden in the handle. In the 18th and 19th centuries fashionable ladies wore gadget canes to house necessities including perfume atomisers and bottles.

century. Canes reflected masculine pursuits and vices including smoking, hunting, horse racing, loose women, drinking and gambling. Fashionable folk wore a gadget city cane – a bit like the Swiss Army knife of today – which would house necessities such as snuff boxes, perfume atomisers, watches, opera glasses, pipes, ponce pots, nutmeg graters, powder compacts, whisky bottles, knives, whistles, harmonicas and even hidden cameras.

A well-dressed man would wear a specific cane in the morning, a day or city cane for business and change canes again for the evening.

‘The walking cane reflected masculine pursuits and vices including smoking, hunting, horse racing, loose women, drinking and gambling.’

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 31

COLLECTING GUIDES Walking sticks Building a collection

NOTABLE STYLES

Momento mori canes

Mortality was an obsession during the 19th century and exhibited in many ways. As well as being reflected in jewellery, there was a fashion for walking canes with handles half displaying a person in the fullness of youth and half in death in the form of a skull.

Memento mori canes remained popular in Britain, France, Germany and across Eastern Europe and America from 1850 until WWI, often worn in memory of a loved one, as well as a reminder that the wearer will also have to die.

Folk art canes

Folk art canes are handmade and generally carved from a single piece of wood, cane, or branch. Unlike the more formal or professionally-made walking canes, folkart canes were one-offs by untrained artists. Many display magical or mystical symbols along the shaft, or feature patterns recounting an event of historical significance. One such example is in the alligator canes of America, made as tourist souvenirs.

Cane manufacture Early quality cane shafts were made of malacca, fruit woods, bamboos, or rattans. In the 17th century, oak, maple, chestnut, walnut, rosewood and ebony became more popular. With the advent of whaling in the 19th century, shafts of whalebone, teeth or jaws, or shark vertebrae threaded onto a metal rod were used. Later in the century, more exotic timbers were used, including snakewood. Even cabbage was used as a cane shaft. As canes became more sophisticated, a wider variety of other materials, including various organic materials were used.

Wear and tear During the 17th century, ferrules ranged from 9-20cm (2-4in). Most were made of tapering sleaves of brass or copper and were often decorated with simple lines or dots, with an iron tip to preserve them from wear. As time went by and roads were paved, the ferrules became shorter.

32 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

The best way to gain knowledge as a collector is to handle items and talk to dealers. You may make many mistakes, but getting a feel for walking sticks and canes is the best way to learn your trade. A collector should be selective and look for quality and rarity at a fair price.

It does not matter if the cane is a ‘marriage’ (when the handle has been acquired separately from the shaft, or made from parts of other canes) as most cane handles were purchased separately. Also look out for a cane that the seller has classified incorrectly, these can be real hidden gems.

When I started collecting I looked for craftsmanship and beauty but over time, I became more selective looking for rarity, artistry, and missing examples to make my collection representative of walking from the 15th century to the present day.

Besides auctions, eBay and fairs, I am in touch with a network of dealers in the UK, USA, Holland, Germany, Belgium, France, and Italy.

After 1850 the ferrule length was about 5cm (2in); however, some could still reach 19cm (4in). As a general rule, the longer the ferrule, the older the walking cane. A blacksmith usually made the ferrules in early canes.

With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, machineturned ferrules were made, mostly of brass with an iron tip to prevent wear and tear. Similar to the replacement of soles on shoes, it is not unusual to see replaced metal ferrules.

From about 1850 to the 1920s it was also possible to find ivory and horn ferrules.

Cane makers Fabergé and Tiffany produced the most celebrated decorative canes,with renowned retailers, jewellers and designers later following their example, especially during the art deco Top An art nouveau memento mori cane, and art nouveau periods. c.1900, with a boxwood Most of the elaborate designs were exclusive and silver-gilt handle and to the dress cane category. Many were true malacca shaft, maker works of art, with handles made of precious Lauer & Wiedmann jewels, intricately carved ivory, inlaid enamel Above Handmade cane and hand-painted porcelain. The leading cane in fruitwood, depicting manufacturers were based in Paris, Vienna and London, an imp, c. 1900. Folk art canes are handmade and which boasted some 60 walking cane shops alone. Other generally carved from one significant makers included Thomas Brigg & Sons and single piece of wood Swaine Adeney in London; Magasin Antoine of Paris and the Meyer family in Hamburg and Berlin.

Above right An ivoryhandled cane depicting Henry Howell & Co. billed themselves as the world’s a Man in the Moon, largest manufacturer of walking sticks, operating from a mounted on a silver collar on an ebonised hardwood large factory employing 550 in London’s Old Street. shaft, London, 1919 In addition to the major players in the industry, there were many jewellers and designers producing canes for Left Art nouveau jester an exclusive clientele. They included such names as the or joker cane, France, c.

Wiener Werkstatte, Wolfers Freres, Georg Adam Scheid, 1900, with silver handle and blackthorn shaft Gerrard & Co. and Franz Bergmann.

Q& &A We asked collector Anthony Moss what sparked his walking cane obsession

Q A

Above A silver-handled walking cane,

St Petersburg, 1898–1908, with the maker’s maker in Cyrillic I.P for Julius Alexandrovitch Rappoport

20th-century canes Before WWI, fashion dictated that a rustic cane in gnarled wood, with a leather braid, should be worn in the morning but not used after 10am. If a man wanted to be very fashion-conscious, he would wear a pistol grip cane with an ivory knob; the shaft made of tropical wood with a square cut. A theatre cane would be appropriate for the evening, made of precious wood, with a thin and straightforward ivory knob.

Should a man want to show some finesse, a rhino horn handle was the ultimate prize, as they were both rare and costly. During this period, sculpted heads, rounds or operas were passé, as they had lost their appeal by this time. Yet, one classical model remained fashionable: the crutch or crook, which one could hold firmly or hang from the arm when lighting a cigarette. However, when the use of horse-drawn vehicles faded and the motor car took hold in 1915, it negated the daily walk where one usually sported a cane; by now the umbrella had become king.

Why did you start collecting walking canes?

Collecting has always been my craving, starting at the tender age of nine, collecting books. In the 1970s, I became fascinated with writing instruments, nibs, pencils and early pens.

Throughout 57 years of marriage, my wife, Deanna, and I have collected a wide variety of antiques and collectables from nutcrackers, treen, bronzes, whistles, counter bells to modern first editions. However, there comes a time when you are looking for a new area of memorabilia. In 1998, Deanna made the mistake of buying me a few walking canes, and thus my passion as a rabologist began. We found that the people who collect or sold walking canes were fascinating and had incredible knowledge.

of different genres. Some were country canes, some were folk art, while others are of the finest quality. Some of them have swords inside, others move or are automated, and others hide cigarettes and matches or alcohol.

Q A

Do you have a favourite cane?

There are many but my favourite is a German narrative cane, dated 1895, with a carved ivory handle depicting a mermaid and a girl on a beach.

Our most amazing gadget walking cane, dated about 1850, is an escritoire set with a watch in the handle as well as two ink wells, a pen and pencil. I especially like it as I also collect antique writing instruments.

Below The gadget cane has an escritoire writing set containing a small candle and a vesta case for matches within the handle Bottom The cane is fitted with an interior mirror, two glass ink bottles with gilt metal lids, a penknife, gilt metal pen, cylindrical metal case containing leads and a seal stick with a perpetual calendar

Q A

What makes a good collection?

Initially, our motivation was to collect a representative example of every kind of cane and walking stick made. However, in the end, we had to be practical. Some collectors only buy the rarest and most expensive examples.

Nevertheless, while we wanted quality and were selective, we decided to create a broad-based collection from the mid-17th century to the present day. This entailed buying canes from different eras and

Anthony Moss’s book, A Visual History of Walking Sticks and Canes is published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, priced £58.

‘Should a man want to show some finesse, a rhino horn handle was the ultimate prize’ ANTIQUE COLLECTING 33

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34 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

JEWELLERY | WATCHES | MAKERS | DESIGNS | COLLECTING

IN THE

Loupe We lift the lid on one of the world’s best – and most elusive – art jewellers and reveal why a Rolex ‘Pepsi’ continues to get collectors’ mouths watering

A multi-gem and diamond Vitrail Fleurde-Lys brooch by JAR, sold for £375,000 at Christie’s magnificent jewels sale on June 8, image © Christie’s Images Limited 2022

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 35

IN THE

Loupe

Above A multi-gem

The Belle Jar Dubbed ‘the Matisse of our time’, pieces by the elusive jeweller known only by his initials JAR soared in a recent sale. Antique Collecting shines a light on the publicity-shy designer

W

hen the appearance of a handful of pieces of contemporary jewellery on the market rocks the worldwide gem cognoscenti you know you are dealing with something special. Such was the case when 12 jewels recently came under the hammer at Christie’s New York. The maker was the 78-year-old Americanborn jeweller, Joel Arthur Rosenthal, better known as JAR (with no punctuation) and also considered by many to be the modern-day Peter Carl Fabergé.

36 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

coloured diamond bouquet brooch by JAR, expected to make $150,000-$250,000 sold for $302,400 at Christie’s magnificent jewels sale on June 8, all images unless otherwise stated © Christie’s Images Limited 2022 Below A pair of sapphire, diamond and green garnet earrings by JAR, expected to make $200,000-$300,000, sold for $352,800 at the same sale

The pieces came from the estate of Ann Getty, the San Francisco-based philanthropist and interior designer (and wife of the son of J. Paul Getty’s son) whose 20-plus year interest in JAR allowed her to buy many pieces directly from the maker in the ‘90s. Part of the collection – her Shell and Tulip brooches – have been lent for a number of significant exhibitions across Europe and America. The group, which had a pre-sale guide in the region of $1.5m, sold for more than $5m.

Daphne Lingon, Christie’s Americas head of jewellery, said: “Ann Getty’s jewels told the story of a woman pursuing ideal beauty and a lifelong appreciation of craftspeople. Only works by JAR achieve the balance of nature, colour and form that she loved so much.”

Closed book In an era of digital media, brand ambassadors, highprofile advertising campaigns and flashy websites, there is something almost other worldly about Joel A. Rosenthal.

He is particular about who he sells to (many clients who lent pieces to recent exhibitions demanded anonymity).

Loyalty and devotion is characteristic of JAR collectors.

Jewellery by JAR Stories abound of the difficulty of entering his small coterie of customers. It is claimed new clients need an introduction from a current customer and even once on the list, the decision over the gemstones chosen rests with the jeweller tather than his client.

Prior to his landmark London exhibition, a feature in French Vanity Fair devoted to the jeweller went ahead, despite his refusal to participate.

Rosenthal never advertises, rarely gives interviews and maintains the same blackenedwindow atelier around the corner from the Paris Ritz that he has worked in for decades.

Ms Lingon continued: “JAR only creates about 70 pieces a year, so there simply isn’t enough to meet the worldwide demand, which adds to the urgency of buying a piece on the secondary market.”

Understandably, once a collector owns a piece of jewellery by JAR she or he is extremely reluctant to sell – another of the reasons some pieces in the recent Christie’s sale shattered their pre-sale guide prices.

‘Rosenthal never advertises, rarely gives interviews and maintains the same blackenedwindow atelier around the corner from the Paris Ritz that he has worked in for decades’

JAR records When the actress Ellen Barkin sold her 17-piece collection of JAR jewels at Christie’s in 2006 (at which two pieces broke the $1m mark), crowds lined up around the block in the Rockefeller Center to catch a glimpse of the cult jeweller’s pieces. Six years later at the same auction house’s Geneva saleroom, the Brazilian philanthropist Lily Safra’s 18-piece collection sold for $11.5m, with a poppy brooch of diamond, pink and green tourmaline fetching $1,27m against a $500,000-$700,000 estimate. But the real star of the show was a life-sized camellia brooch with 170 carats of rubies which sold for $4.3m, a record for the most expensive JAR design ever sold at auction.

Above right Ellen Barkin

at Cannes in 2010, image Shutterstock Above A multi-gem and

diamond leaf brooch by JAR, expected to make $500,000-$700,000, sold for $504,000 at the same sale Below A pair of sapphire, diamond, tourmaline and green garnet Green Orchid brooches by JAR, expected to make $100,000-$150,000 sold for $302,400 at the same sale Below right A multi-

gem, diamond and lacquer ‘Parrot Tulip’ brooch, expected to make $200,000-$300,000, sold for $831,600 at the same sale

New York born So who is this elusive jeweller about whom few are aware, other than high-end jewellery collectors? Joel Rosenthal’s upbringing was a far cry from the glitzy salons he would later frequent. He was born in Brooklyn in 1943, the only child of a postal worker father and biology teacher mother.

Aspiring to be an artist he went to the High School of Music and Art (now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts) while spending endless hours at the city’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum.

According to the catalogue of the 2012 exhibition Jewels by JAR at the Met, the museum was where the young Rosenthal sketched favourite paintings while gaining a fascination for metals and minerals at the Natural History Museum. In the forward of the exhibition catalogue, by the London dealer, Adrian Sassoon, it was at museums that Rosenthal “started seeing.”

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 37

IN THE

Loupe Left A pair of citrine,

garnet and diamond Pansy earrings by JAR, expected to make $100,000-$150,000, sold for $352,800 at Christie’s sale on June 8 Right An agate,

Master of technique Rosenthal’s apparent lack of formal jewellery training has instilled a disregard for centuriesheld rules. Much like René Lalique at the end of the previous century, he blurred the boundaries between sculpture and jewellery.

Drawing his inspiration from everything from nature to medieval architecture, JAR became known in the 1980s for pavés of small, circularcut stones shaped according to colour gradient, from light to dark – like a painting. Flowers and butterflies, which often appear in the form of brooches, are recurrent themes.

At the same time JAR developed a new metal alloy blending silver, gold and nickel, which created a dark coloured background against which his gems could shine.

Perhaps inspired by his time in the needlepoint shop, JAR’s celebrated ‘thread’ designs feature complex strands of refined pavé work that often serve as a mount for a single stone.

His favoured gems are often set in titanium, platinum, silver, steel and white gold. Refusing requests to open shops in London and America, JAR’s workshops remain based in Paris, the south of France and Geneva, producing pieces that take anything from a few weeks to two-and-a-half years to create.

Move to Paris Rosenthal went on to spend a term at City College studying linguistics (he speaks French, Italian and Yiddish) before completing apprenticeships in Rome with Fabiani, the couture house, and in Paris with Christian Dior and Nina Ricci. In 1963, he graduated from Harvard with a degree in art history and philosophy.

Soon after he moved to Paris, initially working for Otto Preminger, the film director, editing scripts. It was in the French capital he met Swiss-born Pierre Jeannet who was to become his business partner. Together the pair visited antique shops, museums, galleries and auction houses discovering antique jewellery and gaining an appreciation of diamonds, pearls and coloured stones.

In 1973, the pair opened a needlepoint shop on the rue de l’Université. For Rosenthal, needlepoint was an expression of artistic endeavour – using wool as a palette, he created images, mainly of flowers, on a white canvas, foreshadowing his later jewellery designs.

The needlepoint shop lasted only 11 months, but

38 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

diamond and sapphire zebra brooch by JAR, expected to make $50,000-$70,000, sold for $554,400 at the same sale Below right A pair

of pink topaz and diamond earrings by JAR, expected to make $60,000-$80,000, sold for $176,400 at the same sale

during its tenure Rosenthal was called on to re-set clients’ jewellery, nudging his attention once more back to gemstones. In 1976, Rosenthal moved back to New York to work with Gianni Bulgari but returned to Paris and decided to open his own jewellery business under his initials, JAR.

Rising star The location was an atelier on the Place Vendôme. At the start, it was run by a team of only two—Rosenthal and Jeannet. The clientele broadened from local Parisians to a range of international clients and, in 1987, Rosenthal and Jeannet relocated to a larger space next door to their original shop—the same space from which they operate today. In 1987, JAR had his first exhibition at the National Academy of Design in Manhattan. It was an invitation-only affair

Jewellery by JAR

Top right JAR sent pairs of Pansy earrings in coloured aluminium to clients Above right The JAR

signature is different from his high-end pieces Above Three diamond,

ruby and coloured sapphire Fleur Pompons brooches by JAR expected to make $200,000-$300,000 sold for $579,600 at Christie’s magnificent jewels sale on June 8 Left A coloured sapphire

at which guests used flashlights to see the works in a dimly lit room. Whether by accident (some say it was the result of the wrong lighting turning up) or design (others claim the designer wanted torches to better showcase his creations) the publicity that followed was a turning point in JAR’s business.

In 2002, the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House showcased an exhibition of 400 of JAR’s works, which were once again displayed in near darkness with visitors using torches to view the jewels one at a time By that time JAR had launched his own fragrance which scented the gallery rooms to which only 60 people were admitted at any time. At the time Rosenthal explained: “You are given a torch and you do your own exhibition. You concentrate on whatever you like. We have all decided that the most important thing is not to squeeze the maximum number of people in during the next three months but to let those people that come to see it, see it in absolutely the best conditions.”

and spinel shell brooch

by JAR, expected to make $80,000-$120,000, sold for $151,200 at the same sale Below A pair of multigem and diamond oak leaf earrings by JAR, expected to make $100,000-$150,000, sold for $504,000

JAR collecting guide While most of JAR’s jewellery remains firmly beyond the reach of most collectors there are some pieces almost within grasp.

The Somerset House exhibition (for which the 720-page catalogue is now a collector’s piece) sold four styles of limited-edition JAR earrings in aluminium and gold for £250. This ‘accessible’ range of anodised aluminium and titanium earclips were modelled as flowers, leaves, petals and fans. JAR also sent each of his 145 clients who loaned jewels for the 400-piece show, a pair of Pansy earrings in coloured aluminium. The gift was symbolic: the French word for pansy is ‘pensée’, which also translates as ‘thought’ – the motif is traditionally used in French jewellery to indicate thoughtfulness.

As strictly limited-edition works, the range became hugely collectable. In 2021, a pair of twotone green geranium leaf earclips sold for $19,000 in Sotheby’s New York.

Met show

For the Met exhibition in 2013, JAR again created a range of limited-edition pieces, including earrings made of resin, aluminum, titanium and Venetian glass.

Carnaval à Venise earrings with gold-leafed, glass marbles on titanium wire sold at the museum’s shop for $2,000; pairs of resin gardenias were on sale at the museum shop priced $4,000; while Tickle Me Feather earrings available in purple or black resin sold for $4,000, with goldplated aluminium versions carrying a $7,500 price tag. In April 2020, two pairs of Tickle Me Feather earclips outstripped their $5,000-$7,000 estimate with the black resin pair selling for $12,000 and the gold-plated aluminium pair fetching $15,000.

Wilson 55’s jewellery specialist, Liz Bailey, said: “Somewhat removed from the stratospheric prices of JAR’s fine jewellery, these statement earrings are among some of the most desirable, nonprecious metal jewellery on the market.”

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 39

IN THE

Loupe

High Flyers Pepsi, root beer and Coke might sound like refreshing summer drinks but to watch aficionados they represent some of the most collectable Rolexes on the market

T

o understand the appeal of the Pepsi Sea Master we have to go back some 70 years to a time when commercial air travel was in its infancy and the world was opening up. Pan Am had become the the first airline to provide intercontinental flights without a stopover and it challenged Rolex to create a watch equipped to display two time zones – for both the departure city and destination – simultaneously. It was a gauntlet readily accepted by the Swiss watchmaker in a decade which would see the release of the Explorer, the Submariner, the Day-Date and the Milgauss.

Rolex’s answer was the GMT Master ref.

6542 which allowed the fourth hand to be set to Greenwich Mean Time (the standard from which all time zones are measured – hence the name). Despite the change to UTC (Universal Time Coordinates) in the 1970s the watch continued to be called the GMT. The ref. 6542 featured a luminous Bakelite bezel insert and was powered by the calibre 1036 automatic movement with a GMT complication. The bezel’s two colours corresponded to daytime (red) or night time (blue) hours. It soon went by the nickname the Pepsi bezel and, going further, the watch itself became know simply as the ‘Pepsi.’

40 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

The Rolex GMT Master Opposite page The

GMT Master is called the ‘Pepsi’ after its distinctive red and blue bezel, image courtesy of Rolex Right The Batman’s blue

and black bezel is a good fit for the footballer Left The GMT Master’s

distinctive lug with the Rolex crown, image courtesy of Rolex

Right A 1960 GMT

Master ‘Pepsi’, ref.

6542, expected to make £40,000-£60,000, sold for £53,220 at Bonhams’ New Bond Street sale on June 15, image courtesy of Bonhams

Bakelite bezel

Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was seen wearing the 2021 GMT Master Ice during the 14th Dubai International Sports Conference, writes Ewbank’s watch specialist Nick Orringe.

At around £485,350 it is the most expensive new Rolex you can buy – depending on the market price for diamonds at the time. Another sportsman, Roger Federer, is one of the most well-documented owners of the GMT Master II Batman. The tennis legend wore a black and blue bezel GMT Master II 116710BLNR when he won the 2017 Australian Open. The musician and watch collector, John Mayer, also owns the same model.

Other fans include the Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, both recently photographed at press events with a Batman GMT Master II. The Batman GMT’s signature blue noir bezel perfectly matches both the Leicester and Real Madrid shirts.

Sarah Fergusson, said: “On the wrist, the Bakelite dial is markedly different from the later iterations and materials.

Now comparatively muted, and dark, they demand a second look that confirms, yes, that’s the rare one.”

The original GMT bezel lends itself to much discussion, not just in terms of colour and design, but also in its materials. According to a 1959 Rolex advert, just over 600 of the original model 6542 GMTs (exported for sale in the US) had Bakelite bezels – a heat resistant innovation popular among other well-known watch makers including Bulova and Omega. Bakelite was popular in not just the watch industry, but in almost every industry. It was popular on dive watches in the mid-20th century, but also pilots’ watches with rotating bezels. The radioactive metal emits light in darker conditions (such as a cockpit) making the bezel easier to read. Bakelite was further favoured by pilots over metal as being less distracting when flying.

Pussy Galore The GMT Master soon caught on with high flyers both in the air and on the ground, the most notable of whom was James Bond’s private pilot in the 1964 film Goldfinger – Pussy Galore.

The ref. 6542 graced the wrist of Honor Blackman – possibly one of the first women to wear a man’s watch – earning the model the nickname of the character.

In 1959, the ref. 6542 was replace by the ref. 1675, which remained in production until 1980 and remains one of the most highly sought-after GMT Master models among collectors. In 1981, the watch was updated with the introduction of the ref. 16750, the era also saw the

Watch recall Bakelite was not the cure-all Rolex might have hoped for. Not only was it prone to cracking , soon after the ref.

6542’s launch, the US Atomic Energy Commission issued a recall on all of the Rolex GMT-Masters sold in the US with radium in the bezel, as it was deemed too radioactive. The 1959 recall referred to a GMT Master that cost $240 - now they sell for multiples of the price. Rolex offered to replace the bezels with aluminium versions, free of charge to the owners. Today it is these early GMT Master models with Bakelite bezel intact that command the highest prices because of their rarity. Lyon & Turnbull’s watch specialist,

Who wears them?

Right Honor Blackman,

who played James Bond’s personal pilot, wore the iconic watch in Goldfinger

‘Today early GMT Master models with Bakelite bezel intact command the highest price tags because of their rarity’ ANTIQUE COLLECTING 41

IN THE

Loupe

replacement of the earlier matt dials with glossy style dials which are still seen in today’s GMTs. Consequently, matt dials are rare and command a premium in the market.

GMT II In 1983, Rolex introduced the GMT-Master II, ref. 16760, which was affectionally known as the ‘fat lady’ due to its thicker case size. The new GMT-Master allowed wearers to keep track of three time zones simultaneously since the new movement calibre 3085 permitted the independent adjustment of the twelve-hour hand. It was only issued with a red and black bezel and soon got the other nickname ‘Coke’. Like the GMT-Master, the GMT II enjoys cult-status among Rolex aficionados.

The Batman In 2013, Rolex launched GMT-Master II, ref. 116710BLNR, which was quickly named after its black and blue ceramic bezel, which was reminiscent of Batman’s classic comic book colours. This was the first time Rolex had succeeded in creating a two-tone bezel from ceramic.

This simple fact alone has made the Batman Rolex a valuable item among collectors. Unlike the older references it has 64 clicks as opposed to 120. The bracelet has a polished centre link and, most obviously ‘ROLEX’ engraved on the inner bezel ring. The watch also held the proud title of being Rolex’s only stainless steel model with a bi-coloured bezel for the next few years, as the red and blue Pepsi GMT was transitioned away from stainless steel to 18ct white gold that same year. This made the Batman sought after virtually overnight.

Above left GMT Master II ‘Root beer’ ref. 126711, 40mm, in gold two tone, image Shutterstock

Know your GMT nicknames Pepsi (red and blue), Root Beet (brown and gold), Coke (red and black), Batman (blue and black), Batgirl (blue and black on a jubilee rather than an oyster bracelet), Fat Lady (so named due to the more substantial case used).

42 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Above Rolex GMT Master

II ‘Batman’, 40mm with blue-black bezel steel, image Shutterstock Left The GMT Master

II, first released in 1983, came with another bezel (in black and red) and another nickname – the ‘Coke,’ image Shutterstock

LOOK OUT FOR: The GMT Master ref. 6542 with a bakelite insert is hard to find, as is the ‘Tropical’ ref. 6542, which can go for as much as £90,000, writes Ewbank’s watch specialist Nick Orringe.

Ghost bezels, where the colour of the bezel has faded and patinated over time, are also sought after. Expect to pay between £15,000-£20,000 for a ref. 1675 from the 1980s and between £25,000£40,000 for general watches from the 1960s. A GMT Master I and II can also be purchased for around the £10,000 mark.

Asian Art: 28 July Vintage Fashion: 28 July Antique & Collectors’: 17 August Fine Wines & Spirits: 18 August Vinyl Records for the Collector: 18 August Vintage Posters: 19 August

COTSWOLD AUCTIONEERS & VALUERS SPECIALISTS IN SINGLE-OWNER COLLECTIONS NATIONWIDE VALUATIONS & ADVICE

• Designer Goods • Decorative Arts • Jewellery • Paintings • Furniture • Ceramics • Watches • Design • Clocks • Books • Silver • Glass

The Harry Ryans Collection of 19th Century Staffordshire chimney ornaments.

Totalled a Record £127,000

10-12 Cotswold Business Village, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, GL56 0JQ 01608 695695 adrian@kinghamsauctioneers.com www.kinghamsauctioneers.com

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 43

ANTIQUES UNDER THE HAMMER in August

swan marks, followed by 19 pages of manuscript notes concerning the ‘Laws and Ordinances regarding swan’.

Status symbol

SALEROOM SPOTLIGHT A Tudor guide to marking swans is one of the highlights of a map and book collection going under the hammer in Essex

S

wans—questions about who owns and breeds them has sparked courtroom and bitter arguments since the Middle Ages. To prove the point, one of the highlights of Sworders’ 250-lot sale of the late Wisbech dealer Peter Crofts, is a rare twovolume Tudor guide to keeping the regal bird.

The first volume, dated 1566, contains more than 600

Above In 2019, the

Fitzwilliam Museum recreated a feasting table, c.1650, conceived and made by Ivan Day with taxidermy by David Astley © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Top right The second volume is dated 1834 and includes notes on swan marks, followed by 84 pages of marks and an index of swan owners Right Dealer Peter

Crofts became a double amputee in 1944 Left The first volume of

Laws and Ordinances regarding swan, dated 1566, contains more than 600 swan marks.

It has a guide price of £8,000-£16,000 at this month’s sale

44 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Alleged royal ownership of the country’s swans – and the the idea that only the Queen is allowed to own them – is a popular misconception. The connection may derive from the fact that, from the 12th century onwards, owning swans signalled nobility. The birds were eaten as a special dish at feasts, served as a centrepiece in their skin and feathers.

To maintain their exclusivity, in 1482, the crown ordained that only landowners of a certain income could keep swans. Ownership was recorded by a code of marks nicked into the beak of the bird; any birds that didn’t bear a mark were automatically the property of the crown.

This effectively meant that only the monarch, wealthy landowners and some large institutions like trade guilds, cathedrals and universities could afford swan ownership.

A Swan-Master was appointed both to care for the royal swans and to oversee and regulate swan-keeping throughout England. He was assisted by deputies with responsibility for a specific and manageable region. In 1570, the Order of Swannes, a legal document setting out the rules relating to the birds, recorded that: “if any person do raze out, counterfeit or alter the mark of any swan [they …] shall suffer one year’s imprisonment.” Such is the subject of the 1566 manual up for sale on August 23 at Sworders with an estimate of £8,000-£16,000.

Peter Crofts The two-volume book is one of 250 lots from the estate of the late Wisbech dealer, Peter Crofts (1924-2001), who became a double amputee in WWII a day before his 21st birthday following a flying accident. After three years in hospital, the Stamford dealer, Major Bernard Edinburgh, took him under his wing and Crofts set up in trade. In 1958, he was elected a member of the British Antique Dealers’ Association.

Signals manual Another historic manual from the same collection appearing on the rostrum in Stansted Mountfitchet is Jonathan Greenwood’s The Sailing and

American interest The sale includes a rare example of a watercolour scene painted on the edge of a book. The 1843 copy of Thomas Campbell’s Poetical Works shows the waterfronts of Boston and Philadelphia depending on the way the pages are flicked. Such decoration was common from the late 17th to 19th century but examples of the double fore-edge technique is rare.

The cities depicted had nothing to do with the book’s content but were intended to appeal to east coast American tourists. It has an estimate of £300-£600 at this month’s sale.

AUCTION fact file

WHAT: Books and Maps from the Peter Crofts collection and a few other rare books from selective clients When: August 23 Where: Sworders, Cambridge Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, CM24 8GE Viewing: Aug 19 10-4pm, Aug 21-22 10-1pm and the morning of the sale.

Also online at www.sworder.co.uk Left Fanned one way the

edge of the book shows a scene of Boston Below left The book can be fanned the other way to reveal a picture of Philadelphia

Fighting Instructions or Signals as they are observed in the Royal Navy of Great Britain. The 18th-century guide is considered the first naval signal book printed in the English language.

The example on sale, with instructions for ‘Signalls in fogg’ and ‘Signalls at night’, retains all its 72 engraved leaves, most of them with hand-coloured illustrations. It has a pre-sale guide price of £1,500-£3,000.

Far left Pages from

Jonathan Greenwood’s The Sailing and Fighting Instructions or Signals as they are observed in the Royal Navy of Great Britain Left The book, dated

c. 1715, has a pre-sale estimate of £1,500-£3,000 Right Emerson’s evocative photo etching comes from Marsh Leaves, which has an estimate of £5,000£10,000

‘A Swan-Master was appointed both to care for the royal swans and to oversee and regulate swankeeping throughout England. He was assisted by deputies with responsibility for a specific and manageable region’

IN MY OPINION...

We asked Sworders’ rare books and maps specialist Michael Kousah for his sale highlights How much of the Peter Crofts’ collection relates to East Anglia?

I would say up to 50 per cent would be of especial interest to readers in those counties.

I have lived in Cambridgeshire for 51 years and owned an antiquarian bookshop in Ely for 14 years and, as such, am yet to come across such a comprehensive collection of books and manuscripts relating to the area.

Do you have a personal highlight?

I have two. The first is an 18th-century manuscript by Henry Motz who was the commissary in charge of the eastern district of England from 1797-1799 charged with preparations ahead of a possible Napoleonic invasion. The manuscript is titled The preparation without expense for repelling the French invasion and concerns the movement & provisions of live & dead stock etc. in case of a French invasion, covering: Lincolnshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk & Cambridgeshire. It has an estimate of £500-£1,000. The other is a 500-page Ely school teacher’s diary, dated 1870-1898, which reflects the county’s ruralness. One entry reads: “Only 7 in the first class instead of 15, the other girls assisting their parents to prepare for the Harvest.” It is expected to make £200-£400.

From where will interest likely come?

The scope of the collection is so broad I am expecting the interest to be worldwide. For example, the collection includes books by, and about, the leading abolitionist Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) who was born in Wisbech and attended the grammar school.

Any lots for the experienced collector?

The sale has an author-signed, limited-edition copy of Peter Henry Emerson’s (1856–1936) book of 16 photo etchings called Marsh Leaves, 1895, containing impressionistic works of winters on the Fens. When researching his books Emerson lived in East Anglia hoping to produce “truthful pictures of East Anglian Peasant and Fisherfolk Life, and of the landscape in which such life is lived.”

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 45

COLLECTING GUIDES Thonet’s bentwood designs

B

entwood furniture is one of the most iconic furniture types of Europe. Made in the millions and supplied throughout Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, designs were made to be practical, simple, affordable and elegant. They ticked all the right boxes when they were made and, in many people’s opinion, still do today. One of the most common designs are the chairs, but other items were made, ranging from coat stands to rocking chairs.

Bentwood revolution Bentwood furniture can be traced back to Michael Thonet, the founder of the bentwood movement. Born in Germany in the last few years of the 18th century, Thonet would be responsible for almost singlehandedly initiating a whole new approach to furniture design and manufacture in the 19th century. When he died in 1871 at the age of 75, the one-time small town cabinetmaker left behind an industrial empire of factories and sawmills, vast holdings of forests and a network of company showrooms in 25 capital cities.

His innovations led to an entirely new furniture industry and, after his original patents expired in 1869, other companies began producing the same furniture.

As a whole, in the first decade of the 20th century, the industry employed more than 35,000 people. But it all began in the most humble way. Thonet started his career in parquet flooring in his own workshop in 1819. This was the era of heavy, impractical Biedermeier furniture, and by 1830 Thonet had began experimenting with ways to make the furniture lighter, stronger and more portable.

In the following decade he succeeded in making, firstly, chair parts and, later, entire chairs by bending and heating thick bundles of veneers, saturated with glue, in prepared wooden moulds. He had, in effect, created a type of plywood which was simple, affordable and very strong.

It would also be the foundation of bentwood furniture.

A Thonet No. 14 chair. The most simple chair of the initial 14 launched in Thonet’s first catalogue of 1859

Bent into SHAPE

As comfortable as they are stylish, Thonet’s bentwood furniture designs have been in production for two centuries and are still in demand today, writes Lancashire-born furniture valuer Edward Rycroft 46 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Royal approval Thonet’s burgeoning skills did not go unnoticed. In 1841, Thonet met Prince Metternich, then Europe’s mightiest statesman. The prince, visiting his Rhenish estates, saw some of Thonet’s new furniture at a local fair, recognised its potential and told its maker he would

Tubular designs never fully realise his invention in the narrow confines of his hometown. Vienna, the prince maintained, was the only place for a man of his calibre. In 1842, Thonet moved his family to Vienna and for four years he and four of his sons were under contract to a Viennese cabinetmaker, commissioned to manufacture parquet floors and furniture for the remodelling of the Liechtenstein Palais.

In 1849, Thonet opened his own workshop, with chair No. 14 one of the first designs in his new catalogue. The

Above The No. 14 was

made of six pieces: a caned seat, two front legs, leg brace, back insert and a single piece for the rear legs and back. The chair was shipped flat-packed, 36 to a square metre and was assembled on site with 10 screws and two washers (also manufactured

by Thonet), image Shutterstock Above right Marcel

Breuer’s cantilever classic, the S 64, made by Thonet Left Thonet bentwood

chairs in use in a café, image courtesy of Thonet

By the 1920s outsiders entered the design field, particularly architects in search of furniture to fit their new houses. The architect Marcel Breuer, then a young master at the Bauhaus in Dessau, came up with the idea of bending tubular steel into continuous loops to form the frames for chairs and tables. The idea was said to have come to him while riding his bicycle, and, in 1925, Breuer constructed the first tubular steel chair.

For three years the design, which had been conceived for mass production, had to be made piece by piece in a small metal shop. In 1928, Thonet took over the design and was soon manufacturing Breuer’s chair in Germany and France. Others followed with Mart Stam’s S 33, the first ever cantilever chair; Mies van der Rohe’s S 533; as well as Breuer’s cantilever classics, the S 32 and the S 64.

Below left Thonet’s No. 14 chair became known as the ‘Vienna’ chair, due to its proliferation in the Austrian capital Right An early

20th-century Thonet bentwood side table which sold at auction for £100 in 2019, image courtesy of Sworders

‘In 1851, the Thonet No. 18 chair debuted at the first world fair, the Great Exhibition which took place in the Crystal Palace. The jury awarded a prize medal to the chairs but described them as “curious”. Despite the rather lukewarm praise, Thonet returned to Vienna with an overflowing order book’ ANTIQUE COLLECTING 47

COLLECTING GUIDES Thonet and the bentwood revolution

Successful expansion A few years later, the company had set up factories in Czechoslovakia and Hungry, as well as the main factories in Vienna. From here, the furniture could be made at mass and exported around Europe and the Americas.

Throughout the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, Thonet’s bentwood furniture continued to be manufactured at mass. The relatively inexpensive nature of beechwood, the manufacturing process and repeated use of the same designs all meant that the furniture could be made quickly and in a factory.

Designs expanded with the the first bentwood rocking chair produced in 1860, followed by a bentwood armchair in 1870. When he died on March 3, 1871, Michael Thonet left behind a successful, stable company with factories and branches throughout Europe.

design was met with great public acclaim, with another chair, the ‘S’ shaped No. 4 used by the city’s Café Daum.

Great Exhibition In 1851, the Thonet No. 18 chair debuted at the first world fair, the Great Exhibition which took place in the Crystal Palace. The jury awarded them a medal but described them as “curious”. Despite the lukewarm praise, Thonet returned to Vienna with an overflowing order book.

From that point on there was no stopping the company. On November 1, 1853, Michael Thonet transferred the business to his five sons and together they managed it under the name “Gebrüder Thonet”. When reports from overseas clients reached Thonet that the glue couldn’t withstand the rigours of tropical climate, the company started to experiment with designs without using glue. In 1856, he succeeded in processing solid wood without the use of glue by using steam to bend rods of beechwood into the desired shape. Thonet quickly patented the efficient processing method, which marked the start of the company’s industrial breakthrough.

Above A Thonet table and chair sold for £60 in 2017, image courtesy of East Bristol Auctions Above right Workers at

the Thonet factory, image courtesy of Thonet Right A Thonet bentwood

coat stand, probably made around the turn of the 20th century. With its original label to the underside it sold for £120 earlier this year, image courtesy of Charterhouse Auctions Far right Thonet design plate 1859, image courtesy of Thonet Left Michael Thonet

and his five sons, image courtesy of Thonet

48 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Left A Bentwood rocking

chair, after a design by Thonet, sold in Glasgow in April for £160, image courtesy of McTear’s Below left Thonet’s stamp Wien (Vienna), image courtesy of Thonet Bottom left A set of

four Thonet designed bentwood chairs, probably dating to the early 1900s, and associated coat stand sold for £80 this year, image courtesy of Bamfords

When the patent ran out for the No.14 in 1880 other firms from the Habsburg Empire were quick to copy and list it in their own catalogues using the same name of a ‘Vienna’ chair, which, by 1900, had been produced more than 40 million times. By 1890, the Thonet began producing a great variety of goods other than furniture. Its catalogues soon included hat stands, wallbrackets, picture frames and easels, walking sticks, wash stands and hoops as well as baby chairs and cribs.

DESIRABLE ATTRIBUTES All Thonet designs are created to achieve the following criteria:

Practical element

Bentwood furniture designs had one very important attribute – their usability. They were made in a way which had practicality at the heart of the designs. The chairs were lightweight, durable, didn’t take up much space and could be used daily. Their practicality has kept them popular for well over a century and still makes them desirable today.

Ergonomic design

The chairs especially are made to suit the human form, being curved where needed and – though generally made with no upholstery – comfort is created through the shape and support of the frame. The seats are often canework or made from pressed plywood which are concave in form, providing comfortable seating. The rocking chairs are also made to be comfortable and accommodating to the human form.

Aesthetic look

Bentwood furniture is very aesthetically designed. Being lightweight, well proportioned and well balanced, the curvilinear nature of the furniture allows it to be attractive when viewed from any angle.

Durable beechwood

Durability is also a major factor in the manufacture of Thonet furniture. It is achieved by a combination of attributes. Most bentwood was produced using beechwood which was easier to steambend. Another advantage of the wood is that it is fine grained and a hardwood, making it resistant to warping and heat changes.

Unlike Thonet designs, poorly balanced furniture is likely to suffer damage to joints because of a disproportionate amount of stress on particular sections.

Affordable to all

Just as the furniture was affordable when it was first produced, it remained so when it was made in the millions, as it is today. This applies not only to chairs, but tables, hat stands and rocking chairs, all of which can be bought for less than £200 in shops and auctions.

Neutral design

The simple and light, curvilinear design of Thonet’s bentwood furniture means that it can be used to furnish rooms with a traditional theme, or stripped to a lighter, beech colour for use in more contemporary settings. Bentwood designs fit very well into most interiors as they are unintrusive and sit alongside other furniture designs. This makes them appealing to many people who live in a wide range of interiors.

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 49

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Puzzle TIME

Taking a summer break? Keep the cogs moving with the latest puzzlers from our testing titan Pete Wade-Wright

Send your answers to Crossword, Antique Collecting magazine, Sandy Lane, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD, UK. Photocopies are also acceptable, or email your answer to: magazine@ accartbooks.com. The first three opened by August 10 will win a copy of Jackson’s Hallmarks, Pocket Edition: English Scottish Irish Silver & Gold Marks From 1300 to the Present Day, worth £6.95

AUGUST QUIZ ton truck, (d) a war-time medal for driving.

Q1 If you collected sporting memorabilia associated with ‘Billy Williams’s Cabbage Patch’, would your interest be in? (a) rugby, (b) cricket, (c) tennis, (d) football Q2 An issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1776 printed the following verse ‘____ to bear the precious charge,/More diminutive than large,/ Slight and brittle, apt to break,/Of the true Italian make.’ What was it about? (a) chamber pots, (b) shoe heels, (c) walking sticks, (d) duelling pistols.

Q10 Which of the following animals (more than one) were most often used as a symbol in the Western Middle Ages of a parody of man? (a) parrot, (b) ape, (c) owl, (d) cat.

Q1 The site of which

famous sporting arena was once a market garden?

Q3 What was given the name ‘leg of mutton’? (a) late Victorian female swimming attire, (b) 1830s female puffed sleeves, (c) 1780s large, over-ornate table legs, (d) Medieval large-headed kitchen mallets.

Q4 In 1893, Viscount Lewisham appeared in the House of Commons wearing a fashion that caused a sensation for being too ‘racy’. Was it? (a) a gypsy neckerchief, (b) zip-up boots, (c) an early ‘tank top’, (d) trousers with turn-ups.

Q5 In which pursuit was an actinometer employed? (a) sketching, (b) photography, (c) golf, (d) theatre productions.

Q6 What was a girandole? (a) a wall bracket with lights, (b) a Victorian doll, (c) a gravy sieve, (d) a dinner-plate cover.

Q7 What are/were friggers? (a) late 19th-century sports trouser-wear, (b) early Victorian fryingpans, (c) pencil-thin writing implements, (d) a glassblower’s end-of-day frippery.

Q8 If you held something from Grödnertal, is it most likely to be? (a) a book, (b) a doll, (c) a plaster-cast funerial hand, (d) an ornately illustrated WWII train-ticket.

Q9 What was a ‘Model AA’? (a) a Steiff bear prototype, (b) a Victorian scythe, (c) a 1930s 1½

50 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Anagram (a) A tureen by

Paul de Lamarie (16881751) one of the famous group of artisans

Finally, here are four anagrams: toughen us, re-attach pug, hilt inlay and a new girth rearrange them to form, in order: (a) The name of the French Protestants (pl.) who settled in England and the Netherlands and brought with them their skills in silversmithing, weaving, etc. (b) Rubbery material used to make dolls’ bodies and heads…and early golf balls and hose-pipes. (5-6) (c) A type of opaque and usually marbled glass patented in 1829 and intended to imitate hardstones. (d) Spiralling indented rings caused by a potter’s fingers on thrown work.

For the answers turn to page 10 1 6

SOLUTION TO LAST MONTH’S CROSSWORD:

The letters in the highlighted squares could be rearranged to form ‘Limbourg’.

The winners, who will each receive a copy of the book, are: Estelle Jones, Conwy, by email; Terry Stonemason, by email and TP Hurd, Dorset.

M

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ACROSS CLUE

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Left What is

the name of this navigational device?

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Across

1 Specialised cow-shaped vessel. John Schuppe’s 18thcentury silver ones are rare and collectable. (7) 5 Hardwood with wide open grain favoured since the 16th century by some cabinet makers. (3) 7 Small box for scissors, spoons, tweezers etc. often using 2-down. (sing.) (4) 8 Projecting prongs to hold jewellery gemstones. (pl.) (5) 9 Salvador Dali’s sister. ____ Maria’s portrait in Figura de perfil (Figure in Profile). (3) 11 Navigational instruments (pl.) said to have been invented around 1730 using mirrors to measure angles.

Mostly made in London. (7) 12 General name for small household items made from carved or turned wood. (5) 15 Carved coral, shell etc. showing a design against a background of contrasting colour. (5) 16 Milan’s iconic opera house. (2, 5) 19 Where 11-across and 10-down would be used. (3) 20 Italian (fem.) for ‘beautiful’ and as Stefano della _____ (1610-1664) a renowned Italian engraver. (5) 21 Man-eating monster of fairy tales. (4) 22 Longcase clock with a ____ -and–a–quarter seconds pendulum. (3) 23 Final studio album title (1970) by the Beatles. The vinyl is very collectable. (3, 2, 2)

Down

Above Salvador Dali’s portrait of his sister sold at Bonhams for £1.8m in 2017, but what was her first name?

1 Mixed drinks. Shakers in novel forms are sought by collectors. (pl.) (9) 2 Form of decoration using fired metal oxides on glass, ceramics etc. (6)

16

ACROSS CLUE Right Angelo

Inganni’s (1807-1880) portrayal of the opera house, 1852

3 Charles James _____ (1791-1856) who patented a durable, white stoneware in 1813. (5) 4 The right-hand page of an open book. (5) 5 _____ Uglow (1932-2000). British painter of nudes and still-life (4) 6 The long (rather than the short ‘fuzz’) raw cotton fibres. (4) 10 Another (ancient) navigational instrument but developed by the Portuguese in the 15th century (anag. ‘abort sale’). (9) 13 Charm worn to ward off evil. (6) 14 ___ back chair. Modern term for the 16th/17th-century wainscot chair. (5) 15 John ____ (c. 1425-1500) who set sail from Bristol in 1497 to discover new lands. The last stamps issue of Newfoundland (before joining Canada) commemorated him. (5) 17 A vast division of geological time (accepted spelling). (4) 18 An old, wise person, a colour and a herb (4) Finally, rearrange the letters in the highlighted squares to form the name of a celebrated French-born art deco glassmaker (1860-1945) (4, 7). One letter of his name is missing from the grid. You are invited to write it into the centre.

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 51

THE EXPERT COLLECTOR African-American quilts

F

FABRIC OF SOCIETY

An extraordinary collection of early AfricanAmerican quilts takes centre stage at an international convention this month. Antique Collecting goes undercover Above Maker unknown,

Double Wedding Ring, c. 1970, hand pieced and quilted, possibly made in Pickens County, Alabama. All quilts, unless stated, come from the Robert and Helen Cargo Collection, courtesy of the International Quilt Museum, Nebraska Left Unknown maker,

Housetop / Courthouse Steps, variation c. 19501997, from an African American household, found in San Francisco, cotton, hand-dyed feedback backing. From the Roderick Kiracofe collection. Photo Josef Jacques

52 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

or centuries around the world quiltmaking has been the method for handing down a material and cultural legacy – none more so than in the African-American communities in the US Deep South. Made predominantly by women and passed down through the generations since the early days of America, quilts celebrate bold patterns of African culture, as well as personal or historical stories of struggle and emancipation. At a time when it was illegal for slaves to write or read, the quilts were a valuable historic record of oral traditions.

In 2000, Nebraska’s International Quilt Museum acquired a 156-piece collection from Dr Robert Cargo, professor emeritus of the University of Alabama and owner of the Folk Art Gallery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This month’s Festival of Quilting at the NEC in Birmingham will showcase a portion of his collection, which started in the 1950s when he inherited his grandmother’s and great grandmother’s quilts. Dr Cargo went on to become a champion of self-taught artists and quiltmakers from his home state – and later, other states of the Deep South, including the now-famous Gee’s Bend.

It is particularly important internationally because the majority of the quilts are by known makers. In most instances quiltmakers rarely signed their pieces – especially in the case of African-American makers.

Collections curator at the International Quilt Museum in Nebraska, Carolyn Ducey, said: “Early on, as quiltmaking history developed, people assumed they could tell an African-American quilt by its construction or materials, but this is simply not the case.”

Building his collection by dealing directly with the makers or their families, Dr Cargo was able to carefully document the makers, ensuring his collection is one of the largest and best-curated available.

Carolyn Ducey continued: “Robert Cargo grew up with quilts in his home and collected mainstream styles.

When he encountered quilts hanging outside homes, on clotheslines in the counties around Birmingham, Alabama, he was completely wowed by what he saw.

“As an ardent collector of all types of folk art, he was especially appreciative of the individual expressions he saw in the quilts.”

Early quilts In early America quilting was both functional and artistic, forming an essential need for warmth and comfort as much as interior decoration. While African-American slaves were called on to spin, weave, sew and appliqué quilts for their mistresses, research reveals how the same highly-skilled makers would also make bedding for their own families. Without access to quality fabrics and materials, the women were highly resourceful, turning scraps of “throw away” goods, such as faded or worn clothing and food sacks, into stunningly complex designs.

Modern-day quilter, Michael A Cummings, said: “They demonstrated the survival abilities of people who had to undergo suppression and rejection.

“These early quilts were made by people who weren’t allowed to read or write, so with their own capabilities and from what they remembered from the past and what was passed down to them, they created quilts that gradually

Harriet Powers

grew into different forms becoming increasingly creative.

When it came to quilt tops, a lot of makers demonstrated a skill level and knowledge of appliqué and patchwork that nobody, particularly the slave owners, knew they had.”

Patterns they developed included Sawtooth, Durnkard’s Path, Railroad Crossing, Tree of Paradise, Ocean Wave, Feathered Star and Nine Patch. Another common practice was to create ‘string quilts’, in which thin scraps of leftover fabric were stitched together to create larger panels that could then be sewn into a quilt.

Gee’s Bend One of the quilting community’s which recently came to prominence was that of Gee’s Bend in Wilcox County.

Situated some 30 miles southwest of Selma at the tip of a

Above left Unknown maker Concentric Frames, c. 1950-1975, found in Pennsylvania, cotton, brocade sateen.

In the Deep South this pattern is typically referred to as Housetop.

This northern example resonates with Josef Albers 1949 Homage to the Square. From the Roderick Kiracofe collection. Photo Sharon Risedorph Above right Harriet

Powers’ Pictorial quilt (1895–1898), not in the exhibition, currently on show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Left Jennie Pettway and

another girl, with the quilter Jorena Pettway, Gee’s Bend 1937, image Wikicommons Right Gee’s Bend

quilters Mary Lee Bendolph, Lucy Mingo und Loretta Pettway, image Wikicommons

One of the most prominent quiltmakers of the era was Harriet Powers (1837-1910), who was born into slavery in Athens, Georgia and is known as the “mother of African-American quilting”. Her celebrated story quilts, of woven Biblical or secular tales with a moralising message, are among the most celebrated works of art in history. Notable designs include her iconic Pictorial quilt (1895–1898) and her Bible quilt (1885–1886). Powers overcame the invisible barrier between quilting and art and her influence continues to be felt today.

Modern American quiltmaker, Michael A Cummings, said: “Harriet Powers was considered the first maker to have a story quilt where each block showed an event that took place in her lifetime in the 1800s. One even shows a meteorite going across the sky which was documented by scientists.”

thumb of land demarcated by a deep loop in the Alabama River, the community has been isolated for most of its existence by geography, poverty and outside indifference.

Gee’s Bend was named after Joseph Gee, the first white man to stake a claim there in the early 1800s on land that had previously belonged to the Creek Indians.

When Gee died in 1845, the plantation was sold to Mark Pettway, and most present-day residents are descendants of slaves on the former Pettway plantation. Their forebears continued to work the land as sharecroppers and tenant farmers after emancipation, and many eventually bought the farms from the government in the 1940s.

‘These quilts are celebrated for their skills and innovative designs, hailed recently by Michael Kimmelman, of The New York Times, as “some of the most miraculous works of art America has produced”’ ANTIQUE COLLECTING 53

THE EXPERT COLLECTOR African-American quilts Of necessity, the women of Gee’s Bend pieced quilts to keep their families warm. Using scraps of everyday fabrics like cotton sheeting, corduroy, and denim, which was often salvaged from well-worn work clothes, the women created quilts of astonishing beauty and originality. In design, the quilts are equally remarkable.

The Bricklayer pattern and the Housetop design – favourites among Gee’s Bend artists – highlight the importance of the environment, including its architecture and landscape, in the quilts’ designs.

Wider recognition Gee’s Bend became briefly known for its quilts during the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s when the Episcopal priest Francis X. Walter, recognising the quilts’ economic potential, helped the women establish a quilting cooperative. Quilts began to appear in upmarket department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales but the need to produce standardised quilts, which did not suit quilters’ individualistic styles saw orders tail off. Gee’s Bend today is a community of about 750 residents, with the quilting traditional at its heart.

Carolyn Ducey said: “In the 1970s, collectors and historians understood quilts function as records of the makers’ lives and experience. They highlight the existence of underrepresented groups – including women, AfricanAmericans, the Hmong people of southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Native Americans. Previously there simply wasn’t widespread recognition for the art created by people outside mainstream fine arts.”

Miraculous works The area celebrates multi generations of quilters, originated by slave women, who learned their craft from their mothers or grandmothers, but placed special emphasis on individuality and innovation with each new quilt they produced.

Celebrated for their innovative designs, The New York Times’ Michael Kimmelman called them: “Some of the most miraculous works of art America has produced.”

African-American Quilts from the Robert Cargo Collection from the International Quilt Museum, Nebraska will be on show along with Michael A. Cummings’ exhibition at The Festival of Quilts at the NEC Birmingham from August 18-21. For more details go to www.thefestivalofquilts.co.uk

Above Leola Pettway

(1929-2010) Fan Wheel, c. 1985-1990, made in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, hand pieced and quilted.

Robert and Helen Cargo Collection, International Quilt Museum Right Pieced by

Anna Pearl Jackson Washington (19121993), Star of Bethlehem, quilted by Roberta Jemison (1928- ), c. 1995, made in Greene County, Alabama Left Mary Maxtion

(1924-2015) Log Cabin variation, c. 1994, hand pieced and quilted, made in Boligee, Greene County, Alabama

54 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Left Mary Maxtion

(1924-2015) Mule, c.

1990, hand pieced and appliqued, hand quilted, made in Greene County, Alabama Below left Yvonne Wells (1939- ) Triangles, c.

1980-1985, hand pieced and quilted, made in Tuscaloosa, Alabama Below right Michael

A. Cummings, Henri Matisse in Harlem’s Cotton Club, 2018 Bottom right Michael

A. Cummings, President Obama Goes to India, 2015

US Quilting Today An exhibition by leading African-American quilter, Michael A. Cummings, is part of this month’s event Which works have you chosen to show at the NEC event in Birmingham?

One quilt will be Henri Matisse in Harlem’s Cotton Club which explores the artist’s visits to the famous Harlem jazz club which was exclusively white, but put on shows by Black performers. Then there’s President Obama Goes to India, in which I show Obama as the Indian deity, Shiva, along with the famous South African singer Miriam Makeba.

Is there a subject you are yet to explore?

I would like to get more into the civil rights era.

I was a teenager at the time and have only made one Martin Luther King quilt. I really want to reflect the activity of people marching and the interaction with the police in the south.

Then there’s a fun theme for me that I would like to embrace reflecting on growing up in Los Angeles. I later moved to the east, and east and west America are so different in terms of climate, architecture and the way people live.

Who have been your main influences?

I have to include the Gee’s Bend quilters because I love modern and abstract art, and their quilts are beautifully constructed with blocks of colour.

I was honoured to meet them at an exhibition of their work at the Whitney Museum in New York some years ago.

When I told them I was a quilt maker, they looked me up and down and said, “Oh, that’s nice!” I tried to recreate one of their favourite designs called Housetop. It’s about 10ft by 6ft with blocks of colour – but a very intricate white.

After I finished it I said: “Wow, the Gee’s Bend quilters had to do all of that in their mind.”

It looks so easy – but I really struggled. It made me realise how complex their thinking was to create what they did, and all with no exposure to art schools, Modern Art, or anything.

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 55

ANTIQUES UNDER THE HAMMER Lots in August

TOP of the LOTS

Silver ware by the renowned 19th-century maker Paul Storr, with an estimate of £100-£200, is among the treasures on offer this summer A Pilkington’s Lancastrian ‘St George and the Dragon’ charger has an estimate of £5,000 to £8,000 at The Cotswold Auction Company’s Cheltenham saleroom on August 9.

The blue-ground lustre piece was designed by the English artist and illustrator Walter Crane (1845-1915) and painted by William Slater Mycock. With a date mark of XI 1911, the inner rim reads Un Chevalier Sans Peur et Sans Reproche (the knight without fear and beyond reproach). The base has the marks ‘WSM’, with ‘P’ for Pilkington and a bee mark.

Did you know?

Pilkington’s Tile & Pottery Co. Ltd was founded in 1891, near Salford, Greater Manchester.

Partly based on his research into ancient designs, William Burton and his brother Joseph, developed the glazes for which the company became famous.

Above The charger was designed by Walter Crane (1845-1915)

A watercolour of the interior of Temple Newsam, a TudorJacobean estate in Leeds, commissioned by the house’s last resident, Emily Charlotte Meynell Ingram (1840-1904), has an estimate of £300-£500 at Dreweatts’ timed online fine art sale from August 10-26.

Widowed at 30, Mrs Ingram inherited the house along with a yacht Ariadne and its 30-staff crew in which she cruised the Mediterranean. Records from Leeds Art Collections Fund suggest the Picture Gallery was redecorated with crimson flock wallpaper in 1826-1827 as seen in the painting.

Dreweatts’ head of sale, Francesca Whitham, said: “The painting is by an artist called ‘G. Holland’, who we believe was female but about whom we know very little. It is a valuable record of the history and design of the building.” Temple Newsam is now one of Leeds Museums and Galleries’ sites.

Above The painting shows the Picture Gallery at Temple Newsam

56 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

An Edo period (1603-1868) suit of Japanese armour, mounted on a wooden display stand set on a carved table, has an estimate of £4,500-£5,500 at Wilson 55’s firearms, shotguns, airguns, arms and militaria sale on August 25.

It is topped by a suji bashi kabuto (helmet) with arrow fletchings and fukigaeshi (side wings). The peaceful Edo period meant fighting equipment was no longer required and Samurai armour became a showcase for the skills of metalworkers, embroiderers and weavers.

Above right The Edo period saw armour showcasing wealth and prestige

A gold George III mourning ring, which may contain hair of the ‘mad’ monarch, has an estimate of £800-£1,200 at Fellows’ fine jewellery sale on August 4. The oval-shaped hair panel is surrounded by garnets and has shoulders embossed with a thistle and roses. The reverse is engraved with a crown and motto A Relic of Geo. III. Many later Georgian mourning rings were designed in locket form, often with lozenge-shaped bezels housing locks of hair under rock crystal. The new style implied a more reflective and romantic approach to mourning.

Above right The mourning ring is purported to contain the hair of George III Above far right The reverse is inscribed A Relic of Geo. III

A Lalique frosted-crystal Luxembourg bowl with a relief of cherubs joined by a garland of laurel leaves has an estimate of £1,000-£1,500 at Dawson’s sale on July 28.

The French jeweller-turned-glassmaker René Lalique (1860–1945) produced bowls, perfume bottles and other vessels with motifs and intricate reliefs. Lalique built a glassworks at Wingen-sur-Moder in Alsace in 1921, which remains the source of all his famous glass objects.

Above The large bowl is 32cm wide and 22cm in height

Silver and jewellery from a 16th-century Norfolk manor house goes under the hammer in Cheffins, Cambridge, this month.

Wood Hall, Hilgay, near Downham Market, has been referred to as the county’s ‘Downton Abbey’ after Mollie Moran (19172014), a former scullery maid wrote a bestselling book on her time there called Aprons and Silver Spoons.

The August 4 auction of silverware, jewellery and watches, follows the sale of more than 100 lots of furniture, antiques, art and collectables from the hall on June 22-23. The highlight of that sale was an early 20th-century bronze statue of Mercury, after the Flemish sculptor Giambologna (15291603), which achieved £26,000, against a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-£12,000.

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Silver highlights

This month’s sale includes typical country house items, such as Georgian silver pieces and an impressive suite of three Victorian silver jardinières.

Cheffins’s head of jewellery, silver and watches, Steven Collins, said: “The sale provides a great buying opportunity for silver collectors as well as the trade. The jewellery from the house is illustrative of the house’s historic past, with a number of Victorian and earlier pieces on offer.”

In the same sale, but not from Wood Hall, is a George IV cast silver spice caster, with the mark of the renowned silversmith Paul Storr (1771-1844), stamped London 1834, which has a low estimate of just £100.

Steven Collins, continued: “Storr is incredibly sought after by collectors who usually have to spend a king’s ransom to acquire a piece but, as this is quite a modest example, the estimate is just £100–£200, putting it in the range of much more people, and providing a really rare opportunity to acquire a piece of Storr’s silverware.”

An enamelled memorial locket, one of the hall’s jewellery lots, is also in the sale with an estimate of £400-£600.

The Wood Hall collection is part of Cheffins’ jewellery, silver and watches sale on August 4, for more details go to www.cheffins.co.uk 1 A George III 18th-century silver beer jug, has an estimate of £800-£1,200 in the sale on August 4 2 The 16th-century Norfolk manor house of Wood Hall in Norfolk 3 A brace of early 20th-century German metalware silver pheasants, has an estimate of £2,000£4,000 4 An enamelled memorial locket, part of the jewellery collection from Wood Hall, has an estimate of £400-£600 in the same sale 5 Paul Storr (1771-1844) George IV cast silver spice caster, marked London 1834 (not taken from Wood Hall) has an estimate of £100-£200 in the same sale 6 An early George III 18th-century silver two-handled cup and cover has an estimate of £1,000-£2,000 7 A Victorian silver plated table centrepiece with a pair of candelabra and fitted travelling trunk has an estimate of £1,000£2,000 at the same Cambridge sale

4

3

5 7

6

‘A George IV cast silver spice caster with the mark of the renowned silversmith Paul Storr (17711844), stamped London 1834, has an estimate of just £100-£200’

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 57

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Milton Greene, Douglas Kirkland, Lawrence Fried, Terry O’Neill, Al Satterwhite and Eva Sereny are among the photographers who worked with Newman on and off-set across his career. From the essential 1980s drama Absence of Malice to the great success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Newman’s movies were an essential part of American culture. With comment and contributions from the photographers, this book gathers together portraits, stage, car racing and on-set photography — including never-beforeseen images — in a celebration of an actor who was always…cool.

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JANE AUSTEN’S ENGLAND – A TRAVEL GUIDE

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ISBN 9781788840354 RRP £15.95 OFFER PRICE £9.75 Walk in Jane Austen’s footsteps with this unique travel guide the first book to explore England in relation to its most beloved Regency author. Rambling across the rolling fields of Hampshire, along the bustling streets of London and around the golden crescents of Bath, Jane Austen’s England is the perfect companion for any Janeite planning a pilgrimage.

THE BICYCLE – A MISCELLANY ON TWO WHEELS PETER ASHLEY

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THE SLOW TRAIN – A RAILWAY MISCELLANY

Sit back and coast downhill with this irreverent collection of cycling memorabilia. The Bicycle is packed with pictures, fun facts, and light-hearted commentary, gathering photographs of vintage bikes, John Bull puncture repair kits, and misspelled signs rejecting the rights of ‘Bycicles’ to be locked to railings. Crossing the country from Cumbria to Cambridge, this quaint, pocketsized manual is a compendium of all things two-wheeled.

BY PETER ASHLEY

ISBN 9781788840927 RRP £12.00 OFFER PRICE £7.80 Take an amble across the countryside with this book, which celebrates a time when our railway network was more than a permanently delayed omnishambles of overcrowded and overpriced trains. Country stations and lonely halts, milk churns and coal yards, enamelled signs and platform clocks - these are the fragments of a more leisured age, from a time when the local station was a well-loved institution at the heart of so many communities. Here are gas-lit rural stations, oil lamps on level crossing gates, enamelled signs, waiting room fires, timetables and luggage labels. Less a clattering, steamy ride into the past than a touchstone for joyous memories of such a vital and well-loved institution, The Slow Train harks back to a more measured, considered era.

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 59

FAIRS Calendar Because this list is compiled in advance, alterations or cancellations to the fairs listed can occur and it is not possible to notify readers of the changes.

We strongly advise anyone wishing to attend a fair especially if they have to travel any distance, to telephone the organiser to confirm the details given.

LONDON: Inc. Greater London Etc Fairs 0871 942 9222 Bloomsbury Ephemera Fair, Royal National Hotel, 38-51 Bedford Way, WC1H 0DG, Aug 28 Sunbury Antiques 01932 230946 www.sunburyantiques.com Sunbury Antiques Market, Kempton Park Race Course, Staines Road East, Sunbury-onThames, Middlesex TW16 5AQ, Aug 9, 30 SOUTH EAST AND EAST ANGLIA: including Beds, Cambs, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex.

Arun Fairs 07563 589725 www.antiques-atlas.com Rustington Antiques & Collectables Fair, The Woodland Centre, Woodlands Avenue, Rustington, West Sussex, BN16 3HB, Aug 7 Black Dog Events 01986 948546 wwwablackdogevent.com Grande Brocante, Woolverstone Hall, Woolverstone, Suffolk, IP9 1AZ, Aug 28 Continuity Fairs 01584 873634 www.continuityfairs.co.uk Epsom Antique and Collectible Fair, Epsom Racecourse, Epsom Downs, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 5LQ, Aug 16 Love Fairs 01293 690777 www.lovefairs.com Brighton Antiques, Collectables and Vintage Fair, Brighton Racecourse, Freshfield Road, Brighton, BN2 9XZ, Aug 28 Lomax Fairs 01379 586134 www.lomaxfairs.com

60 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

St Felix School, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6SD, Southwold Summer Antiques Fair, Aug 26-28 Marcel Fairs 07887648255 www.marcelfairs.co.uk Marcel Fairs. 07887648255 www.marcelfairs.co.uk Antique & Collectors Fair, Sarratt Village Hall, The Green, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 6AS, Aug 14 Melford Antiques Fair 07837 497617 www.melfordantiquesfair.co.uk Long Melford Antiques & Vintage Fair, The Old School, Hall Street, Long Melford, Suffolk, CO10 9DX, Aug 27, 28 Suffolk’s Graham Turner Antique Fairs 01379 897266 Long Melford Village Hall, Chemists Lane (Opposite Bull Hotel), Long Melford, Suffolk, CO10 9LQ, Aug 3 SOUTH WEST including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire.

AFC Fairs 07887 753956 www.antiquefairscornwall.co.uk The Lostwithiel Antique Fair, , Lostwithiel Community Centre, Pleyber Christ Way, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0HA, Aug 28 Pensilva Antique & Collectors Fair, Millennium House, Princess Road, Pensilva, Liskeard, Cornwall, PL14 5NF, Aug 14 Royal Cornwall Showground Wadebridge, Whitecross, PL27 7JE, Aug 27, 28 Arun Fairs 07563 589725 www.antiques-atlas.com Emsworth Antiwques and Collectors Fair, Emsworth Community Centre, North Street, Emsworth, Hampshire, PO10 7DD, Aug 14

Cameo Fairs 07790 126967 Corfe Castle Antiques & Vintage Fair, Village Hall, East Street, Corfe Castle, Dorset, BG20 5EE, Aug 7 Minstead Antique Fair, Village Hall, Minstead, Hampshire, SO43 7FX, Aug 21 Cooper Events 01278 784912 www.cooperevents.com Westonbirt School, Tetbury Gloucestershire, GL8 8QG, The Cotswolds Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair, Aug 12-14 EAST MIDLANDS including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland.

Arthur Swallow Fairs 01298 27493 www.asfairs.com Antiques and Home Show, Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, LN2 2NA, Aug 13 IACF 01636 702326 www.iacf.co.uk Newark International Antiques and Collectors Fair, Newark and Nottinghamshire Showground, Notts, NG24 2NY, Aug 11, 12 WEST MIDLANDS including Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire B2B Events 01636 676531 www.b2bevents.info Malvern Flea and Collector’s Fair, Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcs, WR13 6NW, Aug 29 Continuity Fairs 01584 873634 www.continuityfairs.co.uk Bingley Hall, Stafford Showground, Stafford, ST18 0BD, Aug 27-28 Coin and Medal Fairs Ltd. 01694 731781 www.coinfairs.co.uk The Midland Coin Fair, National Motorcycle Museum, Bickenhill, Birmingham, B92 0EJ, Aug 14 Mark Carter Militaria and Medal Fairs, 01753 534777 Yate (Bristol) Militaria & Medal

Fair Yate Leisure Centre, Kennedy Way, Yate, near Chipping Sodbury, Bristol, BS37 4DQ, Aug 14 NORTH including Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Yorkshire.

Arthur Swallow Fairs 01298 27493 www.asfairs.com Antiques and Salvage Market, Clay House Farm, Flittogate Lane, Cheshire Showground, Tabley, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 0HJ, Aug 13 Jaguar Fairs, 01332 83044 www.jaguarfairs.com/wetherby The Great Wetherby Racecourse Antiques Fair, Wetherby Racecourse, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS22 5EJ, Aug 6 V and A Fairs 01244 659887 www.vandafairs.com Nantwich Town Square Antiques Market, Nantwich Town Centre Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 5DH , Aug 13 Antiques Market, Civic Hall Nantwich, Beam Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 5DG, Aug 29 WALES Derwen Fairs 07790 293367 Llandeilo Antiques Fair, Civic Hall, Crescent Road, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, SA19 6HY, Aug 6 SCOTLAND Ayr Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair 07960 198409 Citadel Leisure Centre, South Harbour Street, Ayr, Ayrshire, KA7 1JB, Aug 27 Glasgow, Antique, Vintage & Collectors Fair 07960 198409 31 Bellahouston Drive, Glasgow, G52 1HH, Aug 14 IRELAND Medal Society of Ireland 00 353 8724 47522 Medals, Militaria & Collectables Fair, Knox Memorial Hall, 97 Monkstown Road, Monkstown, Dublin, Ireland, Aug 6

AUCTION Calendar Because this list is compiled in advance, alterations or cancellations to the auctions listed can occur and it is not possible to notify readers of the changes.

We strongly advise anyone wishing to attend an auction especially if they have to travel any distance, to telephone the organiser to confirm the details given.

LONDON: Inc. Greater London Bonhams 101 New Bond St, London W1S 1SR, 020 7447 7447 www.bonhams.com None listed for August Bonhams Montpelier St, Knightsbridge, London, SW7 1HH, 020 7393 3900 www.bonhams.com Knightsbridge Jewels (Online), Aug 5-16 Chiswick Auctions 1 Colville Rd, Chiswick, London, W3 8BL, 020 8992 4442 www.chiswickauctions.co.uk Books and Works on Paper, Aug 4 Christie’s 8 King St, St. James’s, SW1Y 6QT, 020 7839 9060 www.christies.com None listed for August

Elmwood’s 101 Talbot Road London, W11 2AT 0207 096 8933 www.elmwoods.co.uk None listed for August Forum Auctions 220 Queenstown Road, London SW8 4LP, 020 7871 2640 www.forumauctions.co.uk Books and Works on Paper (Online) Aug 18 Hansons Auctioneers The Normansfield Theatre, 2A Langdon Park, Teddington TW11 9PS, 0207 018 9300 www.hansonsauctioneers.com August Fine Art & Antiques Auction, Aug 27 Lyon & Turnbull Mall Galleries, The Mall, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5AS, 0207 930 9115 www.lyonandturnbull.com None listed for August

Malvern Flea & Collectors Market Up to 400 inside & outside exhibitors.

If your passion is up-cycling, recycling, salvage, decorative or collecting then the Flea Market is the place to visit, with inside and outside dealers a whole host of unusual and useful items can be found.

Sunday 24th July Holiday Monday 29th August Entrance: 7.30am-3.30pm - £5 Three Counties Showground, Worcestershire, WR13 6NW Please check www.b2bevents.info in case dates have changed or been cancelled

Tel: 01636

676531

www.b2bevents.info

Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) 16 Bolton St, Mayfair, W1J 8BQ, 020 7016 1700 www.noonans.co.uk Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, Aug 17 Banknotes, Aug 25

Bellmans Newpound, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, RH14 0AZ, 01403 700858 www.bellmans.co.uk August Including Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, Aug 2-4 The Friday 500, Aug 5 Wines and Spirits, Aug 15

Olympia Auctions 25 Blythe Road, London, W14 OPD, 020 7806 5541 www.olympiaauctions.com None listed for August

Burstow & Hewett The Auction Gallery, Lower Lake, Battle, East Sussex,TN33 0AT, 01424 772 374 www.burstowandhewett.co.uk None listed for August

Morton & Eden Nash House St. George Street, London W1S 2FQ , 020 7493 5344 www.mortonandeden.com None listed for August Phillips 30 Berkeley Square, London, W1J 6EX, 020 7318 4010 www.phillips.com None listed for August Roseberys Knights Hill, Norwood, London, SE27 0JD 020 8761 2522 www.roseberys.co.uk Traditional and Modern Home, Aug 18 Sotheby’s New Bond St., W1 020 7293 5000 www.sothebys.com None listed for August SOUTH EAST AND EAST ANGLIA: Inc. Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex Bishop and Miller 19 Charles Industrial Estate, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 5AH, 01449 673088 bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk Timed Coins and Stamps, Aug 7 Selected Antiques, Aug 10, 14 Fine Ceramics, Pottery and Glass, Aug 11 Monthly Jewellery and Silver, Aug 17 The Explorer: A Collection of Objects from Around the World, Aug 25 Music (Timed), Aug 28

The Canterbury Auction Galleries 40 Station Road West, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 8AN, 01227 763337 canterburyauctiongalleries.com Two Day Fine Art & Antique Sale, Aug 6-7 Catherine Southon Auctioneers Farleigh Court Golf Club, Old Farleigh Road, Selsdon Surrey, CR6 9PE, 0208 468 1010 www.catherinesouthon.co.uk None listed for August Cheffins Clifton House, Clifton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7EA 01223 213343, www.cheffins.co.uk The Jewellery, Silver & Watches Sale, Aug 4 The Interiors Sale, Aug 16 Durrants Auctions The Old School House, Peddars Lane, Beccles, Suffolk, NR34 9UE, 01502 713490 www.durrantsauctions.com None listed for August Ewbank’s London Rd, Send, Woking, Surrey, 01483 223 101 www.ewbankauctions.co.uk Antique & Collectors’ Inc. Silver, Aug 17 Fine Wines and Spirits, Aug 18 Vintage Posters, Aug 19 Excalibur Auctions Limited Unit 16 Abbots Business Park Primrose Hill Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, WD4 8FR 020 3633 0913 wwwexcaliburauctions.com Movie, TV and Music Posters and Memorabilia, Aug 13 ANTIQUE COLLECTING 61

AUCTION Calendar Because this list is compiled in advance, alterations or cancellations to the auctions listed can occur and it is not possible to notify readers of the changes.

We strongly advise anyone wishing to attend an auction especially if they have to travel any distance, to telephone the organiser to confirm the details given.

Gorringes 15 North Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2PE, 01273 47250 www.gorringes.co.uk Weekly, Aug 1 Horners the Auctioneers Old Norwich Road, Acle Norwich, Norfolk, NR133BY 01493 750 225 www.horners.co.uk Antiques & Collectibles, Jewellery, Modern Furnishings, Electronics, Household Effects, Aug 11 John Nicholson’s Longfield, Midhurst Road, Fernhurst, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 3HA, 01428 653727 www.johnnicholsons.com None listed for August Lacy Scott & Knight 10 Risbygate St, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3AA, 01284 748 623 www.lskauctioncentre.co.uk Homes and Interiors, Antiques and Collectables, Aug 20 Homes and Interiors, Pictures and Furniture, Aug 20 Toys and Models, Aug 26 Lockdales Auctioneers 52 Barrack Square, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP5 3RF 01473 627110 www.lockdales.com The Banknote Sale, Aug 6-7 The Fine Sale, Aug 31 to Sept 1 Parker Fine Art Auctions Hawthorn House, East Street, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7SX, 01252 203020 www.parkerfineartauctions.com None listed for August Reeman Dansie 8 Wyncolls Road, Severalls Business Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 9HU, 01206 754754 www.reemandansie.com Fine and Affordable Art (Timed Online) Aug 12-21 Summers Place, The Walled Garden, Billingshurst West Sussex, RH14 9AB, 01403 331331 www.summersplaceauctions.com None listed for August

62 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers Cambridge Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, CM24 8GE 01279 817778. www.sworder.co.uk Homes and Interiors (Online), Aug 9, 30 Books and Maps, Aug 23 Jewellery, Aug 31 Toovey’s Antique & Fine Art Auctioneers Spring Gardens, Washington, West Sussex, RH20 3BS, 01903 891955 www.tooveys.com Coins, Banknotes and Medallions, Firearms and Edged Weapons, Militaria, Medals and Awards, Aug 2 Prints, Maps and Posters, Decorative Pictures, Silver and Plate, Jewellery, Aug 3 Furniture, Objects of Vertu, Collectors’ Items, Works of Art and Light Fittings, Rugs and Carpets, Aug 4 T.W. Gaze Diss Auction Rooms, Roydon Road, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4LN, 01379 650306. www.twgaze.com Blyth Barn Furniture Auction, Aug 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Antiques & Interiors, Aug 5, 12, 19, 26 SOUTH WEST: Inc. Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood St. Edmund’s Court, Okehampton Street, Exeter EX4 1DU O1392 41310 www.bhandl.co.uk Sporting and Collectors Auction, Aug 16 British Bespoke Auctions The Old Boys School, Gretton Rd, Winchcombe, Cheltenham, GL54 5EE 01242 603005 www.bespokeauctions.co.uk Timed Sale, Aug 18-25 Chippenham Auction Rooms Unit H, The Old Laundry. Ivy Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire. SN15 1SB, 01249 444544 chippenhamauctionrooms.co.uk None listed for August

Chorley’s Prinknash Abbey Park, Gloucestershire, GL4 8EU 01452 344499 www.chorleys.com None listed for August David Lay Auctions Penzance Auction House , Alverton, Penzance, Cornwall 01736 361414, TR18 4RE www.davidlay.co.uk Cornish Art & Fine Art, Aug 4-5 Jewellery, Silver, Watches and Objet d’art, Aug 18 Around Cornwall in 38 Churns (Online), Aug 27 to Sept 21 Dawsons Kings Grove Estate, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 4DP 01628 944100 www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk Jewellery, Silver and Watches, Aug 18 Antiques and Asian Art, Aug 18 Dominic Winter Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 5UQ, 01285 860006 www.dominicwinter.co.uk Printed Books, Maps, Ephemera, Decorative Prints and Watercolours, Aug 17 Dore & Rees Auction Salerooms, Vicarage Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1PU, 01373 462 257 wwwdoreandrees.com None listed for August Dreweatts Donnington Priory Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE 01635 553 553 www.dreweatts.com Jewellery, Silver, Watches, Pens and Luxury Accessories (Timed Online), ends Aug 3 Interiors Day 1 (Live Online), Aug 9 Interiors Day 2 (Live Online), Aug 10 Fine Art (Timed Online), Aug 10-26 Duke’s Brewery Square, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1GA, 01305 265080 www.dukes-auctions.com None listed for August

East Bristol Auctions Unit 1, Hanham Business Park, Memorial Road, Hanham, BS15 3JE, 0117 967 1000 www.eastbristol.co.uk Jewellery, Gold and Silver, Aug 10 Antiques, Collectables and Interiors (Ceramics and Collectables) (Timed), Aug 15 Fine Art, Antiques and Wine, Aug 25-26 Gardiner Houlgate 9 Leafield Way, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 9SW, 01225 812912 www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk None listed for August Greenslade Taylor Hunt The Octagon Salerooms, 113a East Reach, Taunton, Somerset TA1 3HL 01823 332525 www.gth.net Antiques Sale, Jewellery, Silverware, Collectables, Furniture, Pictures, Books, Oriental, Ceramics, Sporting, Aug 3 General Sale, Aug 18 Hansons Auctioneers 49 Parsons Street, Banbury, Oxford, OX16 5NB, 01295 817777 www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk August Fine Art & Collectors Auction, Aug 6 Killens Mendip Auction Rooms, Rookery Farm, Roemead Road, Binegar, Somerset BA3 4UL, 01749 840770 wwwmendipauctionrooms.com Interiors and Collectables, Aug 9 Fine Art, Antiques, Militaria, Coinage and Stamps, Aug 13 Kinghams 10-12 Cotswold Business Village, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucester, GL56 0JQ, 01608 695695 www.kinghamsauctioneers.com None listed for August Lawrences Auctioneers Ltd. Crewkerne, Somerset, TA18 8AB, 01460 703041 www.lawrences.co.uk None listed for August

Mallams Oxford Bocardo House, St Michael’s St, Oxford, OX1 2EB 01865 241358 www.mallams.co.uk None listed for August Mallams Cheltenham 26 Grosvenor St, Cheltenham.

Gloucestershire, GL52 2SG 01242 235 712 www.mallams.co.uk Modern Living, Aug 17 Mallams Abingdon Dunmore Court, Wootten Road, Abingdon, OX13 6BH, 01235 462840 www.mallams.co.uk Homes and Interiors, Aug 15 Michael J Bowman Chudleigh Town Hall, Chudleigh Newton Abbot, Devon TQ13 0HL, 01626 295107 www.michaeljbowman.co.uk None listed for August Moore Allen & Innocent Burford Road Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5RH, 01285 646050 www.mooreallen.co.uk Vintage and Antique Furniture with Home Interiors (Live), Aug 3-4 Vintage and Antique Furniture with Home Interiors (Timed), Aug 5-10 Philip Serrell Barnards Green Rd, Malvern, Worcestershire.

WR14 3LW, 01684 892314 www.serrell.com Interiors, Aug 18 Stroud Auctions Bath Rd, Trading Est, Bath Rd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 3QF 01453 873 800 www.stroudauctions.co.uk Guns and Weapons, Medals and Militaria, Taxidermy, Sporting, Ceramics and Glass, Cameras, Scientific Instruments and Weights and Scales, Aug 10-11 Special Auction Services Plenty Close, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5RL 01635 580 595 wwwspecialauctionservices.

Antiques and Collectables (Charity Auction), Aug 2 Collectors Auction, Aug 9 Natural History, Aug 11 Toys for the Collector, Aug 16 Photographica and Cameras, Aug 23

The Cotswold Auction Company Bankside saleroom Love Lane, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1YG, 01285 642420 www.cotswoldauction.co.uk None listed for August The Cotswold Auction Company Chapel Walk saleroom, Chapel Walk Cheltenham, Gloucesterhire, GL50 3DS, 01242 256363 www.cotswoldauction.co.uk Vintage Fashion, Textiles & Decorative Arts, Aug 9 The Pedestal The Dairy, Stonor Park, Henley-onThames, Oxfordshire RG9 6HF, 01491 522733 www.thepedestal.com None listed for August Wessex Auction Rooms Westbrook Far, Draycot Cerne Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 5LH, 01249 720888 www.wessexauctionrooms.co.uk Toys, Aug 11-12 Antiques, Collectables and Furniture, Aug 13, 27 Vinyl Records, CDs and Memorabilia, Aug 25-26 Wokingham Auctions Wokingham Town Hall Wokingham, Berkshire RG40 1AS, 07446 802450 www.wokinghamauctions.com None listed for August Woolley & Wallis, 51-61 Castle Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 3SU, 01722 424500 www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk None listed for August Wotton Auction Rooms Tabernacle Road Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire GL12 7EB 01453 708260 wottonauctionsrooms.co.uk Antiques and General Auction Aug 22-24 EAST MIDLANDS: Inc. Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Sheffield Bamfords The Derby Auction House, Chequers Road, Derby, DE21 6EN, 01332 210 000 www.bamfords-auctions.co.uk None listed for August

Batemans Ryhall Rd, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 1XF, 01780 766 466 www.batemans.com Monthly Antiques and Specialist Collectors including the Stilton Estate Collection of Early English Oak, Aug 6 Jewellery & Watches, Silver & Gold, Coins & Banknotes Summer, Aug 19 Golding Young & Mawer The Bourne Auction Rooms, Spalding Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9LE 01778 422686 www.goldingyoung.com None listed for August Golding Young & Mawer The Grantham Auction Rooms, Old Wharf Road, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG31 7AA, 01476 565118 www.goldingyoung.com Grantham Collective Sale, Aug 3-4 Golding Young & Mawer The Lincoln Auction Rooms, Thos Mawer House, Station Road North Hykeham, Lincoln LN6 3QY, 01522 524984 www.goldingyoung.com None Listed for August Hansons Heage Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire, DE65 6LS 01283 733988 www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk August Antique and Collectors Auction, Aug 18 August Toy and Camera Auction, Aug 24 WEST MIDLANDS: Inc. Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire Bigwood Fine Art Auctioneers The Old School, Tiddington, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 7AW 01789 269415 www.bigwoodauctioneers.com None listed for August Cuttlestones Ltd Wolverhampton Auction Rooms, No 1 Clarence Street, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV1 4JL, 01902 421985 www.cuttlestones.co.uk Antiques and Interiors, Aug 17

Cuttlestones Ltd Pinfold Lane, Penkridge Staffordshire ST19 5AP, 01785 714905 www.cuttlestones.co.uk Antiques and Interiors, Aug 10, 24 Fellows Augusta House, 19 Augusta Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6JA 0121 212 2131 www.fellows.co.uk Fine Jewellery, Aug 4 Pawnbrokers, Jewellery and Watches, Aug 4 The Luxury Watch Sale, Aug 8 Jewellery, Aug 9 Fieldings Mill Race Lane, Stourbridge, DY8 1JN 01384 444140 www.fieldingsauctioneers.co.uk The August Sale, Aug 25-26 Halls Bowmen Way, Battlefield, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 3DR 01743 450700 www.hallsgb.com/fine-art.com Militaria (Timed Online), Ends Aug 2 Hansons Auctioneers Bishton Hall, Wolseley Bridge, Stafford, ST18 0XN, 0208 9797954 www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk August Fine Art & Antique Auction: Including Toys & Nostalgia, Aug 31 Potteries Auctions Unit 4A, Aspect Court, Silverdale Enterprise Park, Newcastle, Staffordshire, ST5 6SS, 01782 638100 www.potteriesauctions.com Two Day Fine Art Auction of 20th Century British Pottery, Jewellery, Watches, Works of Art, Collectors’ Items, Antique and Quality Furniture, Aug 12-13 Potteries Auctions The Cobridge Saleroom, 271 Waterloo Road, Cobridge, Stokeon-Trent, Staffordshire, ST6 3HR, 01782 212489 www.potteriesauctions.com 20th-century British Pottery, Collectors Items, Household Items, Antique and Quality Furniture, Aug 28 Trevanion The Joyce Building, Station Rd, Whitchurch, Shropshire, SY13 1RD, 01928 800 202 www.trevanion.com Fine Art and Antiques, Aug 3 ANTIQUE COLLECTING 63

AUCTION Calendar Because this list is compiled in advance, alterations or cancellations to the auctions listed can occur and it is not possible to notify readers of the changes.

We strongly advise anyone wishing to attend an auction especially if they have to travel any distance, to telephone the organiser to confirm the details given.

NORTH: Inc. Cheshire, Co. Durham, Cumbria, Humberside, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Sheffield, Yorkshire Adam Partridge Withyfold Drive, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2BD 01625 431 788 www.adampartridge.co.uk Three Day Auction of Boutique, Silver, Jewellery & Watches, Books, Stamps & Ephemera with Furniture and Interiors, Aug 3-4 Adam Partridge The Liverpool Saleroom, 18 Jordan Street, Liverpool, L1 OBP 01625 431 788 www.adampartridge.co.uk Rock and Pop with Antiques and Collectors’ Items, Aug 3-4 Anderson and Garland Crispin Court, Newbiggin Lane, Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 1BF, 0191 432 1911 www.andersonandgarland.com Homes and Interiors, Aug 2, 16 Capes Dunn The Auction Galleries, 40 Station Road, Heaton Mersey, SK4 3QT. 0161 273 1911 www.capesdunn.com Interiors, Vintage, & Modern Furniture, Aug 8, 22 Collectable Books, Maps, Prints and Affordable Art, Aug 9 David Duggleby Auctioneers The Gallery Saleroom, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 1XN, 01723 507 111 www.davidduggleby.com Jewellery, Watches and Coins, Aug 11 The Silver Sale, Aug 11 Decorative Antiques and Collectors, Aug 12 Collectors and Clearance, Aug 12 Affordable Art, Aug 13 The Furnishings Sale – Furniture, Interiors and Clocks, Aug 13 Militaria, Antique Weapons and Sporting Guns, Aug 26

64 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

David Stephenson Auctioneers The Saleroom, York Auction Centre, Murton, York YO19 5GF, 01904 393 300 www.dugglebystephenson.com Jewellery, Watches and Silver, Aug 4 Antiques and Collectors, Aug 4 Fine and Affordable Art, Aug 5 Furniture, Clocks and Interiors, Aug 5 Elstob & Elstob Ripon Business Park, Charter Road, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 1AJ, 01677 333003 www.elstobandelstob.co.uk Antiques and Furniture, Aug 5 Pictures and Sculpture, Aug 10 Sheffield Auction Gallery Windsor Road, Heeley, Sheffield, S8 8UB, 0114 281 6161 www.sheffieldauctiongallery.com Silver, Jewellery and Watches, Aug 4, 18 Antiques and Collectables, Aug 5, 19 The Sheffield Sale plus Vinyl Records and Music Ephemera, Aug 18 Omega Auctions Ltd Sankey Valley Industrial Estate, Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside WA12 8DN, 01925 873040 www.omegaauctions None listed for August Tennants Auctioneers The Auction Centre, Harmby Road, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 5SG. 01969 623780 www.tennants.co.uk Antiques & Interiors, to include Beswick & Border Fine Arts, Aug 6 Coins and Banknotes, Aug 10 Antiques and Interiors, Aug 20 Costume, Accessories and Textiles, Aug 20 Vectis Auctions Ltd Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton on Tees, TS17 9JZ, 01642 750616 www.vectis.co.uk Diecast and James Bond Sale, Aug 9 Diecast and Tinplate Sale, Aug 16 Dolls and Teddy Bear Sale, Aug 17 Specialist Diecast Sale, Aug 18 Modern Train Sale, Aug

Diecast Sale, Aug 19 General Toy Sale, Aug 30 Lego Sale, Aug 31 Warren & Wignall The Mill, Earnshaw Bridge, Leyland Lane, Leyland, Lancashire, PR26 8PH, 01772 369884 www.warrenandwignall.com Collectors Sale, Aug 3, 24 General, Antiques and Interiors, Aug 10, 31 Wilkinson’s Auctioneers The Old Salesroom, 28 Netherhall Road, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN1 2PW, 01302 814 884 wilkinsons-auctioneers.co.uk None listed for August Wilson55 Victoria Gallery, Market St, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5DG 01270 623 878 www.wilson55.com Modern Interiors and Collectables, Aug 4 Fine Wines and Spirits, Aug 18 Firearms, Shotguns, Airguns, Arms and Militaria, Aug 25 SCOTLAND Lyon & Turnbull 33 Broughton Place, Edinburgh.

EH1 3RR, 0131 557 8844 www.lyonandturnbull.com Contemporary and Post-War Art (Live Online), Aug 10 Prints and Multiples (Live Online), Aug 10 Scottish Works of Art and Whisky (Live Online), Aug 17 McTears Auctioneers 31 Meiklewood Road, Glasgow, G51 4GB, 0141 810 2880 www.mctears.co.uk A Cabinet of Curiosities: including an Important Natural History Collection, Aug 10 Coins and Banknotes, Aug 11 Jewellery, Aug 11 Watches, Aug 11 Antiques and Interiors, Aug 12, 26 Whisky, Aug 19 The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction, Aug 21

Thomson Roddick The Auction Centre, Irongray Road, Dumfries, DG2 0JE, 01387 721635 www.thompsonroddick.com Home Furnishings and Interiors, Aug 2, 16, 30 Thomson Roddick The Auction Centre, 118 Carnethie Street, by Edinburgh, EH24 9AL 0131 440 2448 www.thompsonroddick.com Silver, Jewellery, Paintings, Oriental, Furniture and Decorative Arts, Aug 11 WALES Anthemion Auctions, 15 Norwich Road, Cardiff, CF23 9AB. 029 2047 2444 www.anthemionauction.com General Sale, Aug 10 Jones & Llewelyn Unit B, Beechwood Trading Estate, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, SA19 7HR, 01558 823 430 www.jonesandllewelyn.com General Sale, Aug 6 Rogers Jones & Co 17 Llandough Trading Estate, Penarth, Cardiff, CF11 8RR, 02920 708125 www.rogersjones.co.uk Jewellery and Collectables, Aug 19 Rogers Jones & Co Colwyn Bay Saleroom, 33 Abergele Road, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, North Wales LL29 7RU, 01492 532176 Fine Art and Interiors, Aug 9, 16, 23 IRELAND Adam’s 26, Stephens Green, Dublin 2, D02 X665, Ireland 00 353-1-6760261 www.adams.ie None listed for August Whyte’s 38 Molesworth St. Dublin D02 KF80 Ireland 00 353- 1-676 2888 www.whytes.ie None listed for August

LENNOX CATO ANTIQUES & WORKS OF ART EST: 1978

•WANTED• ~ WANTED ~

for epic East Yorkshire Georgian townhouse restoration.

For East Yorkshire town house renovation.

Labelled/ stamped branded furniture from Georgian to Victorian, eg Thomas Butler, Morgan & Sanders, J Alderman, Ross of Dublin (pictured), Gregory Kane, Wilkinson of Ludgate Hill, Robert James of Bristol, James Winter, W Priest, Samuel Pratt and many others. Tables all types, chairs, bookcases, , Davenport. mirrors etc. Campaign shower.

Georgian chamber horseIVexercise chair (pictured) Signed and unusual furniture. Georgian, Regency, William . Sofa / Pembroke / side tables, library furniture / bookcases. Also Victorian campaign chests, armchairs etc.

Ross of Dublin, Morgan & Sanders, Williams & Gibton, James Winter, Hill & Millard Unusual to William IV architectural features andGeorgian many others. eg doors, door frames, over door pediments. 18th century

J Alderman. Daws and George Minterspindles recliningand chairs.

Shoolbred/ Hamptons staircase handrail needed.

Anything/ Cornelius Georgian Smith Victorian with armchairs. or Regency lots of character considered.

Marble fire surrounds. Georgian / Regency/ William IV. Bullseyes etc.

Exceptional Georgian / Regency fire grates

Rectangular Georgian fanlight.

Sash windows x 4 identical. Georgian reclaimed. Approx 58” high x 36” wide.

Four identical reclaimed Georgian wooden sash windows Wide reclaimed floorboards.

Approx 100 m2. with boxes, 60 highwall x 37orwide.

Early decorative oil / gas / electric light fiapprox ttings. Ceiling, table.

Early gasoliers. Colza lamps. Gimble lamp.

1 The Square, Church Street, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 5BD 01732 865 988 or 07836233473 cato@lennoxcato.com

www.lennoxcato.com

•WANTED• •WANTED•

Roland Ward, VanMarble Ingen fire taxidermy.

Human skull. surrounds fromskull.

1750Hippopotamus to 1850ish. White or coloured.

Stuffed crocodile / alligator.

Bullseyes, William IV styles etc. Brass Regency reeded fire

insert and Victorian griffin grate (pictured)

Quirky architectural features. Regency columns, corbels, marble and stone pieces, over door pediments, folding/rolling multi part Georgian room dividing doors.

Human skull, stuffed crocodile/ alligator.

Victorian canopy shower bath. Decorated toilets etc Unitas, Simplicitas, Deluge etc.

Grand tour souvenirs.

Decorated basins x 3.

vintagejewellery@yahoo.co.uk ororteltel07958 vintagejewellery@yahoo.co.uk 07958333442 333442

The centres are open 7 days a week 10am - 5pm

VINTAGE VINTAGE WRISTWATCHES WRISTWATCHES Omega Seamasters and pre-1980s Omegas in general.

Omega Seamasters and pre-1980s Omegas in general.

IWC and Jaeger LeCoultres, all styles. Looking for Reversos. American market filled IWC and Jaeger LeCoultres, all styles. Looking for Reversos. American market filled and 14k pieces possibly, at the right price. and 14k pieces possibly, at the right price.

Breitling Breitling Top TopTimes, Times,Datoras Datorasand and806 806Navitimers.

Navitimers.

Pre-1960s Pre-1960s Rolex Rolex models, models,with withaafocus focusin inpre-war pre-wartanks, tanks,tonneaus tonneausetc. etc.

Gold Gold or or silver/steel. silver/steel.Also AlsoWorld WorldWar WarIIRolex Rolex13 13lignes lignesetc. etc.Princes.

Princes.

Over 6000 items to view!

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www.hemswell-antiques.com Tel: +44 1427 668389 Email: enquiries@hemswell-antiques.com Hemswell Antique Centres, Caenby Corner Estate, Hemswell Cliff Gainsborough, Lincolnshire DN21 5TJ

Longines, Tudors Tudors and and Zeniths, Zeniths,pre-1970. pre-1970.Even Evenbasic basicsteel steelmodels modelsininnice nicecondition. condition.

Longines, All the the quirky quirky oddities oddities like like Harwoods, Harwoods,Autorists, Autorists,Wig WigWag, Wag,Rolls Rollsetc, etc,and andWorld WorldWar WarI I All hunterand andsemi-hunter semi-hunterwristwatches. wristwatches. hunter Early, pre-war pre-war ladies’ ladies’ watches watchesalso alsowanted wantedby byRolex, Rolex,Jaeger JaegerLeCoultre LeCoultreetc. etc.Prefer Prefer Early, 1920s/30s deco decostyles, styles,but butearly earlydoughnuts doughnutsalso alsoconsidered. considered.

1920s/30s

PM Antiques & Collectables are a modern and innovative antiques retailer based in Surrey.

Specialising in a wide array of collector’s items, including contemporary art, entertainment and memorabilia, vintage toys, decorative ceramics, watches and automobilia.

We Buy & Sell pm-antiques.co.uk Contact us: phil@pm-antiques.co.uk 01932 640113

Yorkshire based, based, but but often oftenin inLondon Londonand andcan caneasily easilycollect collectnationwide. nationwide.

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vintagejewellery@yahoo.co.ukor ortel tel07958 07958333442 333442 vintagejewellery@yahoo.co.uk

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ANTIQUE ANTIQUECOLLECTING COLLECTING 65 65

LAST WORD Mark Allum reading material can be quite useful in a toilet and in a way, many of these ‘cartoons’ were the toilet humour of their time. They were generally sold as single sheets, often hand-tinted with watercolour. They might also have been retailed in folios and would have been passed around as after-dinner entertainment, no doubt causing much hilarity and debate as different political views were batted around over the port and candle-lit sparkling cut glass.

Spitting Image

Marc My Words With a summer of political wrangling in prospect, Marc Allum finds some light relief in 18th and 19th-century satirical prints

M

any of us are suffering from political fatigue. Recent events have been unprecedented in British political history and the weight of this disruption has wrought a heavy price on the country, yet it also illustrates that dissent is alive and kicking.

Of course, not all political dissention is readily tolerated (even our own government recently moved to curb the freedom of expression) but the art of dissent has for many centuries endured in the form of the satirical cartoon.

My favourites are the wonderfully provocative and cloaked attacks on the excesses of royalty and the upper classes. Such prints were the Private Eye of their day, serving up damning and often wicked comments on everything from the Prince Regent’s expanding waistline to the size of the Duchess of York’s feet.

To the modern eye they can be difficult to decipher, but a knowledge of history helps. I love Gillray’s famous image of the new emperor Napoleon sitting opposite William Pitt while the pair carves up a large ‘global’ pudding between them. The Plumb-Pudding in danger is a classic but you’ll have to have deep pockets for a first edition at a rather hefty £10,000!

When Spitting Image first pushed the limits of political satire with their puppets in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, it felt like a three-dimensional revival of the ‘golden age’ and the genre seemed alive and well. It created a storm but after all, it’s important that cartoon and caricature remain as a powerful blunt weapon in the freedom of speech.

I wonder what Boris Johnson’s legacy will be when the dust settles? Will the power of caricature today make images of the former PM as collectable as those of Napoleon and Pitt in 200 years’ time?

Marc Allum is an author, lecturer and specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. For more details go to www.marcallum.co.uk

Golden Age Its origins are said to lie in the 16th-century pastime of ritratti caricati, the art of the ‘loaded portrait’ or caricature. This stylised, comical and exaggerated illustrative form of comment has a strong tradition in the pages of newspapers and magazines and is still alive and well today. My favourite period for political caricature is known as the golden age and dates from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The contemporary collector of satirical prints might often be characterised as a rather old-fashioned, academic type but, in the 18th century, people would clamour and queue outside the windows of London print sellers to secure the latest outrageous editions by famous protagonists of the genre. Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), James Gillray (1756-1815) and George Cruickshank (1792-1878) feature amongst the best of this witty, sometimes spiteful and perfectly exaggerated form of printed physiognomy.

Toilet humour I have lots of satirical prints and one room in particular (a toilet) is lined with them. Of course, the odd bit of

66 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

Above James Gillray

(1756-1815) The Plumbpudding in danger; - or - State Epicures taking un Petit Souper, 1805 Right Thomas

Rowlandson (1756-1827) Boney the Second or the little babboon created to devour French monkies, 1811

‘The contemporary collector of satirical prints might often be characterised as a rather oldfashioned, academic type but, in the 18th century, people would clamour and queue outside the windows of London print sellers to secure the latest outrageous editions by famous protagonists of the genre’

What could it be worth?

ONLINE AND IN-PERSON EXPERT VALUATIONS HOME VISITS ALSO AVAILABLE

A FINE ANTIQUE VICTORIAN DIAMOND AND ENAMEL MOURNING LOCKET BROOCH, 19TH CENTURY sold for £9,100

ALDO CIPULLO FOR CARTIER, A VINTAGE DIAMOND DRESS RING, 1971, sold for £5,460

HENNEL, AN IMPORTANT ART DECO ROCK CRYSTAL, EMERALD AND DIAMOND BRACELET, 1929 sold for £39,000

FINE JEWELLERY & WATCH AUCTIONS ZERO FEES for selling EXCEPTIONAL PRICES achieved SPECIALIST sales WEEKLY auctions NATIONWIDE valuations

101 Talbot Road, London, W11 2AT 0207 096 8933 valuations@elmwoods.co.uk www.elmwoods.co.uk

A LIFE CHANGING RESULT

A 16TH CENTURY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE PAINTING DISCOVERED IN A NORTH LONDON HOME A 16TH CENTURY ITALIAN OLD MASTER PAINTING SOLD FOR £255,000 DISCOVERD IN A NORTH LONDON HOME Connect with us info@dawsonsauctions.co.uk www.dawsonsauctions.co.uk 0207 431 9445

SOLD FOR £255,000

Connect with us info@dawsonsauctions.co.uk