A NTIQUE news

Above A gure of de Vries’ Rake, alongside e Arrest by William Hogarth, photo by Sylvain Deleu

Right Mary Beale (16331699) Portrait of a Young Man, c.1685. Courtesy Dulwich Picture Galley.

Below Umberto Giunti (1886-1970), forgery in the manner of Sandro Botticelli (1444/14451510), Virgin and Child, 1920s, e Courtauld, London

Forging ahead

Forgeries claiming to be masterpieces by artists including Sandro Botticelli, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, John Constable and Auguste Rodin go on display this month at e Courtauld in London.

Featuring around 25 drawings and seven paintings, Art and Arti ce: Fakes from the Collection from June 17 to October 8, tells the fascinating stories behind the works and the discovery of their deception.

Some were known forgeries and given to the gallery to help students learn from them. Others were the pride of collectors whose donations were later unmasked through technical examination and historic research.

Others required less scrutiny. A supposed painting by Botticelli of Virgin and Child was revealed as a fake due to the Virgin’s resemblance to a 1920s lm star and the detection of modern pigments.

Beale Good Factor

Curator Lucy West this month presents a lecture on the “secret” techniques of the trailblazing female artist Mary Beale (1633-1699).

The talk on June 15 accompanies Dulwich Picture Gallery’s ongoing exhibition Mary Beale: Experimental Secrets, running until September 3.

Beale was part of a small band of female professional artists working in London and the main financial provider for her family. She was also a highly-experimental and technicallypioneering painter.

The lecture traces the nature of her acclaimed portraiture business, shedding light the art world of 17th-century London where the discovery of new painting techniques was closely guarded by artists.

Left Jean Cooke (19272008) rough the Looking Glass, 1960, © Estate of Jean Cooke, © Royal Academy of Arts

Right John Minton (19171957) e Hop Pickers, 1945, image courtesy e Ingram Collection, © Estate of John Minton, All Rights Reserved, Bridgeman Images 2023

Below right John Craxton (1922-2009) Greek Dancer, 1952, image courtesy e Ingram Collection, © John-Paul Bland, © Estate of John Craxton, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2023

1Good Cooke

e rst exhibition of the under-rated artist Jean Cooke (1927-2008) opens this month at the Garden Museum in London. With more than 30 works, Ungardening, from June 21 to September 10, showcases an artist better known as the wife of the artist John Bratby (1928-1992) who she married in 1953.

Bratby’s overbearing jealousy towards his wife meant he destroyed some of her work and only allowed her to paint for a few hours a day. e large scale works on show have been unseen in public for nearly 50 years.

to see in June

Below right Keith Vaughan (1912-1977) e Garden at Ashton Gi ord, 1942, image courtesy e Ingram Collection, © John-Paul Bland, © Estate of Keith Vaughan, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2023

Far left Jean Cooke (19272008) Self-portrait, 1959, © Estate of Jean Cooke

Left Jean Cooke (19272008) Toujours en Fête, 1969, © Estate of Jean Cooke, Courtesy of Piano Nobile, London

2Essex boys

3e work of a group of artists who worked in northwest Essex from the 1930s to ‘50s, known as British neo-romantics, goes on show this summer. e Fry Gallery in Sa ron Waldon, Essex, is unveiling A World of Private Mystery: British Neo-Romantics from July 8 to October 29. e movement is explored in 30 works by a band of celebrated artists including Graham Sutherland (1903-1980), John Piper (19031992), Keith Vaughan (1912-1977), John Minton (1917-1957), Robert McBryde (1913-1966) and Robert Colquhoun (1914-1962).

3Going Bunburying

Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, the Su olk town in which the artist was born, stages an exhibition this month o the work of Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811), one of the most popular amateur artists of the late-18th century.

Drawn from the gallery’s large collection of prints, drawings and manuscripts, the exhibition from June 17 to October 29, showcases Bunbury’s satires and caricatures of Georgian society.

Bunbury’s role in laying the foundations for the modern comic strip and cartoons is also explored, as well as the extreme fashions of the day including that of the “Macaroni” – the precursor to the Regency dandy whose outré style was frequently lampooned. e exhibition will also explore the role of the Grand Tour and the beginning of horse racing culture.

Below right Henry William Bunbury (1750–1811) Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Sir Toby Belch and the Clown, 1792, watercolour over pencil, image courtesy of Gainsborough’s House

Below Henry William Bunbury (1750–1811) e Full Blown Macaroni, 1772, etching, image courtesy of Gainsborough’s House

Hair today

Hair, both human and animal, is the focus of a new exhibition in Sheffield.

Hair: Untold Stories, at Weston Park Museum until October 29, explores the cultural significance of locks as well as the remarkable qualities of hair as a material.

Highlights of the exhibition include intricate clothing and jewellery made from hair by Naga people in India, historic and contemporary hair jewellery from Sweden and artwork by the Sheffield artist Kedisha Coakley, which examines African Caribbean natural hair and its place in women’s lives.

Cabinet o ce

e European elite’s obsession with the cabinet of curiosities and the role it played on global trade in the 16th and 17th centuries is put in the spotlight at a new exhibition in London.

Known as wunderkammer in Germany and studioli in Italy, the cabinets held anything deemed unique, exotic or valuable enough to collect.

Using 10 objects, Strawberry Hill

Chair raising

The presiding officer’s chair from what would have become the Scottish Parliament building in the event of a vote for devolution in the 1979 referendum has been acquired by National Museums Scotland.

The sleek black chair, made in a futuristic style which typified the decade of its creation, was once intended to be the focal point of the new devolved parliament sitting at the former Royal High School building on Calton Hill in central Edinburgh.

30 seconds with...

Martin Green, head of the new whisky department at Northamptonshirebased Graham Budd

Auctions

How did you start in the business?

After leaving school, I got a good grounding working for a company of motor auctioneers before moving to Christie’s as an administrator when I was 21. After the successful introduction of whisky to the fine wine sales we started devoted whisky sales, the first of which being the collection of one of the directors of Ballintine’s whisky – the starting block for many to come.

House in Twickenham explores how diverse natural materials, from coconuts to rock crystal, expanded trade networks between Europe and the Far East.

Highlights include a 16th-century English ewer, a tankard from southern Germany and an owl-shaped cup made from a coconut Treasures from Faraway is on at Strawberry Hill until July 19.

Covid Booster

Online art and collectable sales grew six per cent in 2022, generating an estimated $10.8bn according to a new report. Data from the Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2023 suggests that the pandemic provided a $5.4bn boost to annual online art market sales.

However, 30 per cent of collectors plan to make fewer online purchases in the next 12 months as a result of the cost of living crisis and shrinking disposable incomes. Just over a quarter (26 per cent) of new art buyers said they were likely to buy art in 2023 as compared to 57 per cent in 2022.

What has been your most memorable sale to date?

When I was at Bonhams we sold a Macallan-60 year old-1926 for £848,750 in 2018, the highest price paid for any artwork/item sold at auction in Scotland. But it’s when something sells for more than expected that really sticks in the memory. A Glenfiddich-55 year old-1955, Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve sold for £47,500 in 2011, more than the estimate of £30,000.

Which whiskies should we look for?

Among single malts look out for Ardbeg, Auchentoshan, Balvenie, Bowmore, Brora, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Clynelish, Dallas Dhu, Dalmore, Glen Grant, Glen Moray. Also Glendronach, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie, Glenturret, Highland Park, Hillside, Isle of Jura,

Knockando, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Linkwood, Longrow, The Macallan, St. Magdalene and Talisker.

Whiskies from distilleries that have closed or been mothballed are in high demand. 19th and early 20th-century blended whiskies can be quite valuable, too. Names to look out for being Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal. Sometimes an ordinary bottle can have a surprising value.

Which is your favourite tipple?

I have never tasted a bad single malt. Among my favourites though are whiskies matured in sherry casks. I’ve tasted some amazing old Bowmore, Dalmore, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich and Macallan.

Graham Budd’s next whisky auction is on October 19.

Mercury rising

is summer Queen fans can view 1,500 personal possessions owned by Freddie Mercury ahead of a series of six auctions in September. From August 4 to September 5, (which would have been the singer’s 77th birthday) lots from the sale can be seen at Sotheby’s London gallery.

For over 30 years, Freddie Mercury’s London home, Garden Lodge, which he bequethed to his ex- ancée Mary Austin, was left untouched as a shrine to the singer who died aged 45 in 1991.

e sale will showcase the singer’s taste

Bent Into Shape

An artist who bent a full-sized roller coaster into the skeletal form of a woolly mammoth is among four nominees shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize.

Oxford-born, 41-year-old Jesse Darling’s exhibition No Medals, No Ribbons also used plastic bags and mobility aids bent into different shapes and scattered on the floor to highlight the “precariousness of power structures” and express the “messy reality of life”.

She joins Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker whose work will be exhibited at the Towner Eastbourne from September 28 before the jury’s final choice in December.

Tate Britain drector, Alex

Commercial break

Vintage and classic car lovers should head to Warwickshire this month to feast on one of the largest events in Europe.

and amboyance, with pieces ranging from Victorian paintings to 20th-century artists, as well as glasswork, and Japanese art and fabrics.

Other lots will include the working lyrics for We Are e Champions and Killer Queen, his1975 Martin D-35 acoustic guitar, and an 1880 painting by James Jacques Tissot ofthe artist’s muse and mistress, Kathleen Newton (estimated to fetch up to £600,000) as well as works on paper by Picasso and Matisse. A Tiffanyand Co. silver moustache comb, owned by Mercury, will also go under the hammer.

Above left Mercury wore the out t for the nal rendition of God Save the Queen, which ended the band’s last live performance at Knebworth in 1986, © Denis O’Regan

Above Mercury’s crown, modelled on St Edward’s crown, and his red velvet cloak is expected to make £60,000-£80,000

Farquharson, who is also chair of the Turner prize jury, called it a“fantastic shortlist” for a prize that “offers the public a snapshot of British artistic talent today.”

Seek Goddesses

Divas from Ellen Terry to Grace Jones take centre stage at a new exhibition at the V&A London this summer.

Highlights include the fringed black dress worn by Marilyn Monroe as Sugar “Kane” Kowalczyk in the 1959 lm Some Like it Hot; the towering Louis XIV-inspired wig and train worn by Elton John on his 50th birthday; and the costume worn by prima ballerina Tamara Karsavina as Salomé performed by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1913.

DIVA runs at the London museum from June 24 to April 7, 2024.

Bard Times

e rst museum devoted to William Shakespeare is set to open next year on the remains of the Curtain Playhouse, one of London’s earliest theatres.

e new Shoreditch museum, located three metres underground, will use AI technology allowing visitors to walk across the stage as it would have been in 1598.

e British Motor Museum in Gaydon is staging its Classic and Vintage Commercial Show on June 10 and 11 made up of hundreds of hundreds of pre-2003 commercial vehicles.

e vehicles on show range from Ford Transits and Morris Minors to AECs, Atkinsons, ERFs, Fodens and Leylands. For vehicle restorers the event promises a large commercial autojumble selling vehicle spares, photos and brochures.

e musuem houses the world’s largest collection of historic British cars.

e Curtain Playhouse, which opened in 1577, was the largest and longest-standing of the early-Elizabethan playhouses housing 1,400 visitors with a 14m stage.

Below e Curtain Playhouse excavation, courtesy of Museum of London Archaeology