To print, your print settings should be ‘fit to page size’ or ‘fit to printable area’ or similar. Problems? See our guide: https://atg.news/2zaGmwp 7 1 -2 0 2 1 9 1
ISSUE 2485 | antiquestradegazette.com | 27 March 2021 | UK £4.99 | USA $7.95 | Europe €5.50
S
E E R 50years D koopman rare art V A I R N T antiques trade G T H E KOOPMAN (see Client Templates for issue versions)
THE ART MARKET WEEKLY [email protected] +44 (0)20 7242 7624 www.koopman.art
Silver Vaults
to remain but Left: the Yongle period blue and white lotus bud Koopman plans bowl sold for $580,000 (£412,000) at Sotheby’s Mayfair move New York on March 17.
by Laura Chesters
The future of The London Silver Vaults on Chancery Lane is secure thanks to a new landlord but long-time resident Koopman Rare Art is leaving for Mayfair. Flexible office space provider The Office Group (TOG) bought the building around 18 months ago. Unlike the previous owner (Aviva), the group plans to significantly refurbish and redevelop the 150,000 sq ft block rather than pull the building down. This means the tenants of The London Silver Vaults – around 40 dealers – can remain. $35 yard sale find stars ‘Business as usual’ A representative from the Vaults tenancy in Asia Week New York association committee said: “Our leases end at the end of March and tenants are currently Bought for just $35 at a yard sale in Connecticut last year, newly built porcelain kilns of Jingdezhen – perfecting a negotiating new leases. this small Yongle (1403-24) blue and white ‘lotus bud’ bowl smooth porcelain body, an unctuous silky glaze and a recipe “It was a totally different situation with proved one of the star lots of Asia Week New York. for deep blue cobalt decoration. the previous landlord when we were in Given an estimate of $300,000-500,000 at Sotheby’s on The shape known as lotus bud (lianzi) or chicken heart danger. We now have a new landlord who March 17, it sold at $580,000/£412,000 ($721,800 including (jixin) would seem to be purely Chinese. Alongside lotus, will be doing work to the upper building but buyer’s premium). peony, chrysanthemum and pomegranate, blossoms are are happy to keep the vaults. It will be Shortly after making the purchase near New Haven, trefoil motifs borrowed from earlier Khorasan metalwork – business as usual when we can reopen.” the buyer sent photographs of the 6¼in (16cm) bowl to the result of regular contact with the Islamic world. However, Koopman Rare Art, which Sotheby’s Asian art department. “We instinctively had a McAteer added: “The result epitomises the incredible, operates from the ground floor gallery above very, very good feeling about it,” said Angela McAteer, head once-in-a-lifetime discovery stories that we dream about the vaults as well as renting vaults in the of Sotheby’s Chinese art department in New York. as specialists in the Chinese art field... it is a reminder basement, has decided to leave the area and It was later confirmed as one of only a handful of that precious works of art remain hidden in plain sight just will open a new gallery in Dover Street, companion pieces known, including examples in the British waiting to be found.” Mayfair, later this year. Koopman has been Museum and the V&A. Another was sold at Christie’s Hong See Pick of the Week on page 6 for more highlights from in Chancery Lane since the late 1950s. Kong in 2007 for HK$700,000 (£70,000). Asia Week New York. The Yongle court brought a very distinctive style to the Roland Arkell Continued on page 4
www.thedaaf.com The Online Dutch Art & Antiques Fair
The online fair by members of ONLINE ONLY the Royal Dutch Association Opening Friday 9 April 14:00 hrs CET of Art and Antiques Dealers Closing Sunday 11 April 21:00 hrs CET
PAGE 001, 004 2485.indd 1 22/03/2021 09:55:53 Follow us on Twitter
Antiques Trade Gazette is published and originated by Metropress Ltd, Contents@ATG_Editorial Issue 2485 trading as Auction Technology Group Ltd Read top stories every day on our website antiquestradegazette.com auctiontechnologygroup.com Find us on: Follow us on Twitter Chief Executive Officer John-Paul Savant Chief Operating Officer Richard Lewis @ATG_Editorial
Find us on: Publishing Director Matt Ball Editor-at-Large Noelle McElhatton Deputy Editor, News Laura Chesters In The News page 4 Deputy Editor, Features & Supplements Roland Arkell Commissioning Editor Anne Crane Report reveals the pandemic trade impact Chief Production Editor Tom Derbyshire Richard Dennis auction at Worcs saleroom Digital & Art Market Editor Alex Capon Reporter Frances Allitt Marketing Manager Beverley Marshall News Digest page 6-7 Print & ProduCtion Director Justin Massie-Taylor
SUBSCRIPTIONS ENQUIRIES Feature - medals & militaria Polly Stevens +44 (0)20 3725 5507 [email protected] Dunkirk ships memorabilia – plus latest hammer EDITORIAL highlights and previews page 10-17 +44 (0)20 3725 5520 [email protected] ADVERTISING Auction Reports +44 (0)20 3725 5604 [email protected] HAMMER HIGHLIGHTS AUCTION ADVERTISING Treen makes for saleroom dream page 18-19 Charlotte Scott-Smith +44 (0)20 3725 5602 [email protected] ART MARKET NON-AUCTION & FAIRS AND MARKETS Bonhams holds faith with travel sales page 20-22 ADVERTISING Dan Connor +44 (0)20 3725 5605 [email protected] Militaria marvels CLASSIFIED Collection Focus page 23 Rebecca Bridges +44 (0)20 3725 5604 Zeppelin hunters and much more [email protected] INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING BOOKS AND WORKS ON PAPER in a special report including hammer highlights and previews Susan Glinska +44 (0)20 3725 5607 Sinful delights of a crime collection page 24-25 [email protected] page 10-17 Francine Libessart +44 (0)20 3725 5613 [email protected] Previews page 26-27 CALENDAR CONTROLLER Rachel Fellman +44 (0)20 3725 5606 [email protected] Dealers’ Diary page 30-31 ATG PRODUCTION +44 (0)20 3725 5620 Muireann Grealy +44 (0)20 3725 5623
Spotlight: Online Bidding page 32-34 SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES This product is produced from International Events page 35-47 sustainably managed forests and controlled sources. It can be recycled. recycle UK Auction Calendar page 48-52 Antiques Trade Gazette, Make some noise Harlequin Building, Fairs, Markets & Centres page 53 65 Southwark Street, What life was like growing up with London SE1 0HR a gramophone collector dad +44 (0)20 3725 5500 Letters & Obituary page 59 page 23 antiquestradegazette.com Printed by Buxton Press Ltd SK17 6AE
Get your Morning Briefing from Antiques Trade Gazette If you want to keep on top of the latest news in the art and antiques world, signing up to Antiques Trade Gazette’s Morning Briefing email is a must. Free and delivered straight to your inbox on any device – mobile, tablet, laptop – the Gazette Morning Briefing keeps you informed with the latest news while at home and on the move.
Sign up today for FREE and stay one step ahead antiquestradegazette.com/morningbriefing
2 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 002 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 12:50:57 DW ATG AprilBooks 335x244mm Bleed.qxp_Layout 1 18/03/2021 12:41 Page 1
BID ONLINE @ dominicwinter.co.uk
PRINTED BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS MAPS & DECORATIVE PRINTS HISTORICAL AUTOGRAPHS THE BOOKBINDERY OF & DOCUMENTS FAITH SHANNON MBE Wednesday 7 April 2021 at 10am Thursday 8 April 2021 at 10am
Mao Zedong (1893-1976), Very rare blue ink signature Henry VIII (1491-1547), Warrant signed, 1511 Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Warrant signed, 1562 in Chinese, 1960 £15,000-£20,000* £15,000-£20,000* £20,000-£30,000*
Book of Hours (Use of Rome), Northern Bible (Geneva version), London: Paulus Venetus, Expositio in libros Peter Heylyn, Cosmographie, 1652, Oak standing press France, c.1450 Christopher Barker, 1578 posteriorum Aristotelis, 1486 ex libris John Evelyn junior £400-£600* £5,000-£8,000 £3,000-£5,000 £3,000-£4,000 £2,000-£3,000
Thomas Wolsey (1470/1-1530), Louis-Mathieu Langlès, Monuments Duc de Luynes, Voyage d’exploration à la mer Morte, 1874 Christopher Saxton, Norfolciae comitatus, 1579 Document signed, 1513 anciens et modernes de £5,000-£8,000 £2,000-£3,000 £10,000-£15,000* l'Hindoustan, 1821 £1,500-£2,000
All auctions are being conducted online only, with additional telephone and absentee bidding Bid live at this sale at: Each lot is subject to a Buyer’s Premium of 20%, except those marked with an asterisk, in which case the Buyer’s Premium is 24%
Mallard House, Broadway Lane, South Cerney, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5UQ www.the-saleroom.com Tel: 01285 860006 | [email protected] | Illustrated catalogue £15
www.dominicwinter.co.uk www.invaluable.co.uk
PAGE 003 2485.indd 1 18/03/2021 17:37:52 News
Koopman Rare Art to move but Silver Vaults will stay
Continued from front page He added: “We are turning Corporation which sought to London Silver Vaults. against the trend where people keep an institution it describes Chancery House is a unique Director Lewis Smith, who are reducing or moving out of as “historically and culturally building and we look forward to has worked in the building for shops. If you think small you significant”. It told ATG: creating a new work space for 41 years, since the age of 18, will be small. During the “Within the City, there are our members above an iconic said: “The landlords are pandemic we looked for the some specialist retail uses and institution.” working with the dealers and opportunity of vacant premises premises that cannot be found Alistair Subba Row, senior they want them to stay which is in Mayfair and found this elsewhere. These contribute to partner at property agent good news. But we have decided prominent space.” the City’s visitor economy and Farebrother on Chancery to leave. He said Koopman’s current to its cultural distinctiveness Lane, said the redevelopment “Mayfair is where we need to and new shop may be open and should be retained and would be a positive for the be. We have thought about it for concurrently but he expects to promoted.” Vaults’ dealers: “The Office a long time – it was a much- close Chancery Lane by If planning consent is given Group are responsible and considered move. Chancery Christmas. (the application is currently sustainable landlords. The Lane has been difficult to access The London Silver Vaults being assessed), TOG expects much-needed works they will more recently for wealthy began life as the Chancery Lane the redevelopment work to be be undertaking to the building clients in cars from the West Safety Deposit in the 1880s and complete by the end of 2022. will not only raise the profile of End and Belgravia. Our clients was rebuilt in the 1950s after A spokesperson said: “We Chancery House and Chancery have been getting fed up with bomb damage during the war. are currently in discussions Lane but provide great the journey so we have decided The dealers’ cause had been with all tenants regarding the marketing support to the Silver to move.” aided by the City of London Above: The London Silver Vaults. renewal of their leases at The Vaults in the future.”
Online surge as market fell by 22% says annual trade report
by value in 2019 to 25% in the volume of works sold were not all of that can be accounted accounted for just 13% of by Roland Arkell 2020. Alongside the closure of consistent across all price for by a rise in private sales by dealers’ total sales. However, non-essential retail, time segments of the art and the leading auction houses. returning to fairs was the third- The impact of the Covid-19 available for screen surfing as antiques market. These were estimated to have highest priority overall for the pandemic caused the global art people worked from home was There was little change to reached over $3.2bn in 2020 next two years for dealers market to contract by nearly a deemed a key factor. the traditional hierarchy. The (up 36% from 2019). (alongside online sales and quarter, according to the three core art-dealing hubs – Aggregate dealer sales were maintaining relationships with findings of the annual Art Basel A $50.1bn industry the US, UK, and Greater estimated to have fallen by collectors). and UBS Art Market Report. Overall global sales of art and China – continued to account around 20% to $29.3bn in Report author Clare However, buying online surged antiques fell 22% to an for a majority (82%) of the 2020, after a marginal increase McAndrew, of Arts during 2020. estimated $50.1bn in 2020, value of global business in of 2% in 2019. Economics, said: “The Covid- Digital sales of art and compared with the previous 2020. Unique to 2020, most 19 crisis provided the impetus antiques reached a record high year. Sales in the UK declined by business was done without for change and restructuring, of $12.4bn in 2020, effectively As the number of live 22% in 2020 to $9.9bn, their reliance on art fairs. An the most fundamental shift doubling in value year on year. auctions diminished and lowest level in a decade. analysis of 365 international being the roll-out of digital The financial share accounted businesses were forced to Specifically, sales at auction fairs showed two in three (61%) strategies and online sales, for by online sales expanded shutter for much of the year, the were down a total of 30% year- were cancelled – a massive which had lagged behind other markedly from 9% of total sales declines in both the value and on-year at $17.6bn. Some but drop that meant live events industries up to now.”
Richard Dennis anniversary sale at Kinghams Chelsea fair autumn date Worcestershire auction house Kingham & Orme – shortly to be Left: a stoneware model The Chelsea Antiques Fair has confirmed dates for the renamed Kinghams – conducts a sale on April 17 titled Richard of a house modelled by Ian autumn and hired a new director. Dennis: 50 Years Promoting British Ceramics (1971-2021). Gregory for Richard Dennis Organiser Sophie Wood will run the relaunched event The auction marks the half century since Dennis held his as an invitation to his 1978 which is scheduled to take place on September 21-26 with a first selling exhibition (of Doulton art pottery) at his Kensington Martin Brothers exhibition. preview day for collectors on September 20. Church Street galleries – an event mentioned on the front page Estimate £200-300 at Wood joins from LAPADA where she had been since of the first-ever Antiques Trade Gazette. Kingham & Orme. 2018. She has previously worked with a number of The sale, which includes an illustrated talk from the man organisations including Bloomberg and in 2007 was himself, includes objects of the kind Dennis championed, many operations manager at Clarion Events, working on its Arts & from the once neglected field of 19th and 20th century British Antiques portfolio. art pottery. As a leading dealer, scholar and publisher, Dennis The event at the Chelsea Old Town Hall was taken over helped revive interest in a range of Victorian and later potters earlier this year by 2Covet.com founders Steve Sly, Charles such as Royal Lancastrian, William De Morgan, Moorcroft and Wallrock (both dealers) and marketing specialist Zara Rowe the Martin Brothers. from Caroline Penman, who had run the venerable event at The sale will be the first held under the new name of the Chelsea Old Town Hall since the early 1980s. Kinghams. After buying out partner Gary Orme, George Right: Dennis Sly, Wallrock and Rowe created 2Covet.com in 2019 as a Kingham is now the sole owner of the business. at Bermondsey platform for dealers to sell online. Roland Arkell market in 1957. Further information will be announced soon. chelseaantiquesfair.co.uk 4 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 001, 004 2485.indd 2 19/03/2021 14:24:22 View & Bid Online Worldwide Delivery Available
Three Day Antiques & Collectors Antique violins and 26th, 27th, 28th March 2021 9am (over 3 days) other musical items
Viewing by appointment only Thursday 25th March 10am 4pm Over 1,500 lots of Antiques, Furniture, Fine Art, Gold and Collectables from several deceased estates including the late Mr S from Nottingham, late Mrs D from Saxilby, late Mr S from Sleaford and 7 others estates from Newark, Skegness & Lincoln.
A very rare The Marvel Penny in the Slot A Stanley theodolite and Polyphon with 26” discs many other instruments (more images to left)
A fine 6ft long 4 ft 6” high tin hull galleon A very rare The Marvel Penny in the Slot Polyphon with 26” discs ALL SALES AVAILABLE ONLINE. VIEWING BY APPOINTMENT. Victorian Symphonium Visit www.unique auctions.com for catalogues and auction details with 5 3/4 “ discs A large single owner Items to include: Antique Furniture; Bronzes; Victorian Music items including a very collection of stamps to be sold as one lot. Comprising rare The Marvel Penny in the Slot polyphon playing 26 inch discs with accompanying many albums, many boxes, triangle and drums; Edison Bell phonograph; early 19th C violin and other musical and trays of stamps. Including Victorian, instruments; a large early 5ft galleon plus 6 other ships; a horse drawn 2 wheel trap in European, Commonwealth, good order; a selection of The Beatles records, posters etc; old cameras; old film Worldwide etc. projectors; selection of Dinky and other cars; early Victorian revolving gilded book Pottery including Moorcroft Collection of rack; selection of Lorna Bailey pottery and cats; Royal Crown Derby, Victorian bisque puppets figures; over 60 albums of old postcards; over 30 good lots of cigarette cards; large collection of old stamps and stamp albums; large collection of gold, silver and costume jewellery; a rare and early 20th Stanley theodolite; writing boxes; jewellery boxes; Victorian mahogany display cabinet; advertising display cabinets; old mantel clocks to Large collections of coins include brass and marble; Victorian mahogany Chest of Drawers; grandfather clocks; and bank notes large collection of paintings and watercolours; Victorian prints and other prints; selection of Del Prado cavalry and soldiers; table hand wind Victorian symphonium with 5 3/4” discs; collection of Victorian and later bisque dolls; puppets including The Victorian Bisque Collection of Figurines dolls Devil and Mr Punch; a selection of old 1950s slide projectors and slides etc; collection of old samplers dating from 1850s; Ephemera; collection of silver and silver plate; col- lection of china to include Quimper, Doulton, Moorcroft and china tea sets; Victorian furniture to include sets of chairs, chiffoniers etc.; magic lantern slides; rare set of tall Carlton Ware Golly band; selection of Masons china; Victorian 3 bottle tantalus; many A horse drawn 2 wheel trap Masonic items; selection of bevelled mirrors; pine furniture to include bedside tables, chairs, tables, wardrobes etc. NOT TO BE MISSED.
A large collection of Lorna Bailey Join us in 2021 for our regular Antiques & Collectors Auctions.
A collection of Del Prado soldiers
Over 10,000 cigarette cards and over 5,000 postcards (sold in large lots)
Collection of Masonic robes and medals Many statues, bronzes and figurines
A good selection of Victorian furniture including display Many model ships and models cabinets, chiffonier, dressers, wind out tables, chairs etc. Cased Asprey carving set Head Office, Valuation Centre and Auction Rooms, Vincent Court, Turnstone Road, Teal Park, Lincoln, LN6 3AD,UK Tel: +44 (0) 1522 690444 or +44 (0) 1522 695820 Email: office@unique auctions.com Web: www.unique auctions.com
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 5
PAGE 005 2485.indd 1 18/03/2021 17:10:30 News Digest
Pick of the week Shang shines in two New York auctions The Shang period (c.1600-1045 BC) is the first of China’s many epochs from which written documents survive. These take the form of inscribed oracle bones used for divination and a few bronzes cast with Left: late Shang gui with historic inscription – ancestor dedications which mention historic events. $4.5m (£3.2m) at Sotheby’s New York. the Renfang or Yifang. Shang X has An archaic bronze ritual food vessel or gui offered been identified as a region roughly Above: the Luboshez Gong – $7.2m (£5.11m) by Sotheby’s on March 17 is one of these exceedingly corresponding to modern Jiyuan at Christie’s New York. rare vessels of historic significance. Its unusually long county in Henan (the Shang capital 34-character inscription reads: ‘On the guisi day Hua was Anyang, Henan) and Xiaozi X, collection of Daniel Shapiro. rewarded Xiaozi ‘X’ ten peng of cowries at Shang ‘X’. a commander in the royal army who These included the Luboshez Gong It was that he had been ordered to mount a military led the campaign. Di Xin would be (estimate $4m-6m), a remarkable ritual campaign against ‘X’ of Yifang. He used it to make the last Shang ruler, losing the battle wine vessel dating to the 13th-12th century this sacrificial vessel to honour Father Ding. At the of Muye in 1045BC against the Zhou BC modelled as a fantastic creature that is fourteenth month, ju.’ and with it his dynasty. half owl and half pouncing tiger. The inscription has been known and studied since Few early Chinese bronzes can be dated so Acquired by Captain SN Ferris Luboshez (1896- 1935. However, it was research by the Beijing Palace precisely as this 11in (28cm) gui. Its significance was 1984) in China prior to 1949 – and sold from his Museum scholar Wei Xinying published in 2015 that recognised with an estimate of $600,000-800,000 and collection by Sotheby’s in 1982 – it is one of only six unlocked its full meaning. a hammer price of $4.5m (£3.2m). similar 12in (30cm) vessels known. Shapiro bought The event it describes is a nine-month long military Shang bronzes provided the headline prices at this it from JJ Lally & Co, New York in 1996. The hammer expedition taken c.1072BC by king Di Xin (c.1086- season’s sales. Christie’s showpiece sale the following price at Christie’s was $7.2m (£5.11m). 1046BC) against an enemy tribe in the east known as day comprised five ancient ritual bronzes from the Roland Arkell
respective categories. Olympia backs Richmond, London; Portchester Weitzman, who will donate cultural institutions Castle, Fareham, Hampshire; proceeds from the sale towards Royal Botanic Garden, medical research, higher Olympia Auctions is planning Edinburgh; The Bishop’s Palace,
Photo: SquareMoose. Photo: education and art projects, to raise money for cultural Wells, Somerset; Ulster Folk Precious said: “I had a life-long dream of institutions suffering due to the Museum, Cultra, Belfast; metals collecting the single greatest coronavirus pandemic. A Woodhorn Mining Museum, rarities in the two great percentage of the commission Ashington, Northumberland. On Friday, March 19, collecting areas of stamps and from the sale of lots will be coins.” donated by the firm to a Michael Bloomstein of The three lots are a 1933 number of charities. Brighton was paying the Scotland: lockdown Double Eagle 20-dollar coin, a The three auctions that are following for bulk scrap easing detailed 1856 British Guiana one-cent part of the charity campaign against a gold fix of: Magenta (both estimated at are in April, May and June. Scotland’s First Minister $1737.20 €1458.74 £1246.79 $10m-15m each) and a 24-Cent Beneficiaries will be Nicola Sturgeon has announced ‘Inverted’ Jenny plate block, Westminster Abbey, The the phased ending of lockdown. Gold pitched at $5m-7m. Wallace Collection (to support From April 5 click and collect 22 carat: £1102.89 per oz ongoing research into the services from non-essential (£35.46 per gram) Top: the 1933 Double Eagle collection of arms and armour retail can operate. From April 20-dollar coin – estimate from India, Iran and the 26 non-essential retail, 18 carat: £902.36 (£29.01) Art weekend $10m-15m at Sotheby’s. announces dates Ottoman Empire) and The museums, galleries will reopen. 15 carat: £751.97 (£24.18) Above: the British Guiana one-cent Grange Festival in Hampshire. From May 17 small-scale Magenta – estimate $10m-15m. Mayfair Art Weekend has indoor and outdoor events can 14 carat: £701.84 (£22.57) announced new dates for its resume subject to capacity 9 carat: £451.18 per oz Trio could set upcoming events. Antiques Roadshow constraints and from early June The Mayfair Sculpture Trail ready to roll attendance at events can (£14.51 per gram) auction records will run from June 2-27, a increase, subject to capacity 12 Month High: ▲ £18.32 Sotheby’s is staging a three-lot special late evening viewing The BBC’s Antiques Roadshow constraints. Numbers at events 12 Month Low: ▼ £14.22 sale of exceptional items from with galleries open until 8pm has released the locations for will be able to increase from the the collection of luxury shoe will take place on June 25, and the recording of its programmes end of June and some office staff Hallmark Platinum designer Stuart Weitzman this then the full MAW will take this summer. It is taking only will be able to return. £23.52 per gram summer. place on June 25-27 with free online submissions for items For more details visit the Together a US gold coin, talks, tours, performances and that potential guests wish to Scottish government website. Silver British Guiana stamp and family activities across the bring. If an item is shortlisted ‘Inverted Jenny’ plate block are participating galleries. for filming, a member of its £15.30 per oz for 925 estimated to raise up to $37m The full programme of live team will contact the person to Wright promoted standard hallmarked (£26.6m). If they achieve their events will be announced on discuss dates. by Bonhams US 12 Month High: ▲ £17.65 predicted prices at the sale on the MAW website in June and The locations listed are: Aston June 8, the three objects would will be planned in line with Hall, Birmingham; Dyffryn Bonhams has promoted Leslie 12 Month Low: ▼ £8.55 set auction records in their government guidelines. Gardens, Cardiff; Ham House, Wright as chairman, North 6 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 006-007 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 14:15:04 Bid Barometer Online buying: realised prices at auctions on thesaleroom.com
TOP SELLING LOTS
America, overseeing Fine Arts, Roseberys, London, March 17 Luxury Lifestyle and A 19th century Italian parchment Collectables. She joined Sefer Torah on parcel gilt silver- Bonhams in 1994. She built the Right: mounted wood and bone rollers in an US Trust and Estates team and Leslie Most read associated 20th century breakfront has been involved in the Wright of parcel gilt arc, both apparently consignment of many of the Bonhams. unmarked, 18in (46cm) high. major estates Bonhams has sold. The most viewed stories for Estimate: £2000-4000 In 2008, Wright assumed week March 11-17 on Hammer: £19,000 responsibility for Bonhams, antiquestradegazette.com West Coast team and added new sale categories. EX.Paris and will run from 1 Pick of the week: November 27-December 5 at Mouseman figures the Grand Palais éphémère (a squeak for themselves Biennale replaced temporary exhibition hall in the 2 Antiques Roadshow with an EX factor Champ de Mars). The venture locations released for was put together by The Arts summer 2021 but The new name and dates for the and Fine Crafts Foundation coronavirus replacement art and antiques with event specialists Alexis guidelines remain fair after the demise of Paris Cassin, Fabienne Lupo and Stride & Son, Chichester, March 12 Biennale (Biennale des Antiquaires) Henri Jobbé Duval, Patrick 3 Designer Stuart Probably early 20th century Chinese carved and pierced has been announced. Bazanan and SNA vice- Weitzman’s treasures hardwood throne chairs and matching table. The new event will be called president Mathias Ary Jan. at Sotheby’s could set Estimate: £1200-1400 records for any coin Hammer: £15,000 and stamp Seal gave status to 4 Consultation on Halls, Shrewsbury, March 17 exemption process for Song Dynasty Jian ware Ivory Act launched ‘hare’s fur’ bowl, lustrous illegitimate offspring black glaze suffused with 5 The Open Art Fair ochre streaks, 4in (10cm) A wax seal matrix bought at auction by National Museums loses court appeal diameter. Scotland has revealed how James V of Scotland (1512-42) treated over early closure Estimate: £400-600 one of his illegitimate sons. Hammer: £13,000 James Stewart was the eldest son among at least nine illegitimate children of James V and the half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots. This 16th century seal indicates Stewart’s HIGHEST MULTIPLE OVER TOP ESTIMATE position of commendator of Melrose and Kelso abbeys, bestowed on him by his father. Bamfords, Derby, March 12 As commendator of two affluent abbeys during the 1540-50s, D-Day map of a section of the Stewart would have had significant status in the Borders region to In Numbers Normandy beaches marked exert his authority over the lands and income. The role also made Defences Ryes. Sheet 37/18 him responsible for local defence at a time of Anglo-Scottish SW Top Secret. hostilities. Estimate: £50-60 The seal features the arms of Stewart (born c.1529) with an 97 Hammer: £2000 altered royal arms of Scotland (debruised with a bendlet to denote illegitimacy) and a crosier to denote his office of Commendator of Number of years an Easter egg Kelso and Melrose. given to the late Christine Lilian Dr Anna Groundwater, principal curator of Renaissance and Metcalf has remained uneaten. Wessex Auction Rooms, Chippenham, Early Modern History at National Museums Scotland, said: “This The ‘doll’ March 13 has a direct connection to the royal Stewart dynasty and moreover egg had A bottle of Lagavulin Island of Islay Malt shows how James V was prepared to give status and financial been Whisky together with a bottle of security to his illegitimate offspring, while also protecting his given to Glenmoriston Old Farm Scotch Whisky. regional interests.” her when Estimate: £30-50 It was purchased at Lyon & Turnbull’s Jewellery, Watches and she was Hammer: £1500 Silver sale on March 9 for £5000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) two years against an estimate of £1000-2000. It will be added to the Scottish old by her History and Archaeology collections of National Museums Aunty Poll Scotland. in 1924. The public last had an opportunity to see it in 1901 when it was Lilian’s Bellmans, Wisborough Green, displayed at the Glasgow International Exhibition of Scottish History son and West Sussex, March 10 & Life, when it was loaned by the Scott Plummer collection (of daughter decided to sell it at Late Qing Thai market Sunderland Hall, Hansons on March 12 with an benjarong porcelain cadogan Selkirkshire). estimate of £200-300. The teapot together with an It stayed in egg was hammered down at extensively broken teapot and this collection £800 to Torquay museum cover with similar decoration. and then via Bygones, which houses more Estimate: £80-120 descent to the than 100,000 items from the Hammer: £2400 vendor. Victorian era to the 1960s. Laura Chesters Source:Source: Bid Bid Barometer Barometer is isa snapshot a snapshot of sales of sales on thesaleroom.com on thesaleroom.com for January for March 8-16, 201910-17,. 2021. ‘Highest‘Highest pricemultiple over overestimate’ top estimate’= Our selection = Our of selection items from of theitems top from10 highest the top hammer 20 highest prices hammeras a pricesmultiple as of a the multiple high estimate of the high paid estimateby internet paid bidders by internet on thesaleroom.com bidders on thesaleroom.com ‘Top‘Top sellingselling lots’ lots’ = =Our Our selection selection of itemsof items from from the top the 10 top highest 20 highest hammer hammer prices paidprices by internetpaid by internetbidders on bidders thesaleroom.com on thesaleroom.com
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 7
PAGE 006-007 2485.indd 2 19/03/2021 14:15:41
Lot 302. A William III ebonised cased and gilt metal double basket topped chiming and quarter repeating table clock £7,000-10,000 The T. H. Arber-Cooke (c.1905-1993) collection of (plus 27.6% BP*) Fine Art, Antiques & Collectables South East Asian coins and amulets Lot 157. China, a rare set of eight bronze amulets, Sale 30th March late Qing dynasty Online only sale £500-800 (plus 27.6% BP*) Trade viewing by strict appointment only Lot 238. A fine and rare Chinese bamboo-root ‘boys Lot 451. Théodore and fish bowl’ Frère, oil on wooden brush washer, Lot 81. A Meissen porcelain panel, Figures and 18th/19th century monkey teapot and cover, circa camels beside a £600-800 1735, modelled by J.J. Kaendler watering hole, signed (plus 27.6% BP*) £4,000-6,000 (plus 27.6% BP*) and dated 1855, 3 10 x 15 ⁄4in £7,000-10,000 (plus 27.6% BP*) Lot 29. Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716-1799), a white marble figure after the Antique Medici Apollo (Apollino), height 28in. £3,000-5,000 (plus 27.6% BP*)
One of 30 lots from the collection of Leonard Russell Staffordshire & Yorkshire pottery Lot 57. A Staffordshire Lot 508. A rare George II Galway pearlware group of a Dandy Lot 379. An Alvar Aalto for Finmar Ltd octagonal silver waiter or Lot 588. An early 1970’s 18ct gold modernist and Dandizette with seated model 31 cantilever chair small salver, 10oz rustic bracelet by Alan Martin Gard dog, c.1820-30 £2,000-3,000 (plus 27.6% BP*) £6,000-9,000 (plus 27.6% BP*) £4,000-6,000 (plus 27.6% BP*) £300-500 (plus 27.6% BP*)
BP* - Buyer’s premium of 27.6% incl. VAT @ 20% - Lots marked ARR will be subject to an additional fee - for full details see table in ATG Auction Calendar To view our catalogue visit our website at www.gorringes.co.uk and www.thesaleroom.com Catalogues £10 (£12 by post)
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/gorringes 15 North Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2PE Tel: 0800 083 8745 Fax: 01273 479559 Email: [email protected]
ONLINE ONLY TOY SALE - TUESDAY, 30TH MARCH AT 10AM NO PUBLIC VIEWING - Further images and condition reports provided on request, Please Email: [email protected]
TEL: 01325 462559 | EMAIL: [email protected] | www.thomaswatson.com
The Gallery Saleroom, 11 Northumberland Street, Darlington, Co. Durham, DL3 7HJ
Still buying, still selling, but now in New Bond Street. After over 100 years in Hatton Garden, we have moved to new offices in the West End
Antique English solid silver 18th century George II chinoiserie tea caddies, Thomas Heming 1752
Free global insured shipping Please get in touch for with professional packaging 100+ fine silver items We buy and sell all types of fine jewellery, silver and objets d’art. We sincerely look forward to serving you PLEASE EMAIL OR CALL: Landsberg & Son (Antiques) Ltd. [email protected] • 07578 761640 Second Floor, 45-46 New Bond Street, London W1S 2SF. www.artisanantiques.net Tel: 020 7404 4945. Fax: 020 7430 1853. Email: [email protected] Web: www.landsbergandson.co.uk
8 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 008 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 17:23:19 A curated selection of American & European Art, Old Master Paintings, Drawings Featuring over 400 lots of fine art, antiques, Asian porcelain, www.HelmuthStone.com estate jewelry, bronzes, glass, sculpture and more. Featuring contents from an important Bay Area collector. Sunday April 18, 2021 Telephone and Absentee bidding accepted. Bidding is also available through thesaleroom.com, LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, Bidsquare, Epailive and 51BidLive. Visit www.HelmuthStone.com for more information.
Jon Corbino (1905-1964), ‘Nude’, Jon Corbino (1905-1964), ‘Horses and Rider’, Henri Matisse (1869-1954), ‘Virgin and Child Standing’, oil/mixed media painting, 24 x 15in. oil on canvas, sight size: 18 x 20in. lithograph on chine appliqued to wove paper, signed in pencil, numbered 195/200, with full margins.
Important Chinese blue and white Meiping Jesus Soto (1923-2005), Donald Mosher (MA, 1945-2014), ‘Boston Public Garden’, porcelain vase, Qianlong mark ‘Multiple III’ 1969, clear perspex with screenprint in oil on canvas, sight size: 30 x 36in. and of the period, height: 13in. black and white, with steel bars and nylon sculpture, 141/300, height: 193⁄4in. ‘Multiple II’ 1969, clear and yellow perspex with steel bars and nylon sculpture. 141/300, height: 193⁄4in.
Online bidding via:
Helmuth Stone Gallery | 1467 Main Street, Sarasota, FL 34236, #AB 3714 | Tel: (941) 260-9703 | Email: [email protected]
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 9
PAGE 009 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 15:47:01 Feature Militaria & medals Little wonders 1 A New York auction offered reminders of the vital work carried out by ships of all backgrounds, shapes and sizes during the Dunkirk evacuation, as Tom Derbyshire reports
Between May 27 and June 4, 1940, the Medway New Medway Steam Packet Company. Queen made seven trips to the beaches of Dunkirk, She was requisitioned by the Royal rescuing 7000 soldiers and even shooting down Navy in September 1939 and became a three German planes. minesweeper. As her name suggests, however, this was no With the announcement of Operation purpose-built warship but a paddle steamer for Dynamo she was fitted with a 12-pounder gun pleasure cruises – one of the unlikely vessels that and two machine guns. 2 performed heroics during Operation Dynamo. She continued in military service during The Medway Queen’s Royal Navy Auxiliary the war. Due to be scrapped in 1963, she Service woollen Blue Ensign, flown on those was rescued to become a nightclub. In 1985 crossings was one of several lots of strong the Medway Queen Preservation Society was British interest offered by Bonhams (27.5/25% formed, and she received a £1.8m National buyer’s premium) in New York in an online sale Lottery grant to restore the hull, which was titled Conflicts of the 20th Century held from completed in 2014. collecting for 60 years. He lends pieces out to January 19-29. She is the only surviving active estuary paddle museums.” Sold together with a string of bunting flags that steamer left in the UK (the Waverley is the last were used on board the Medway Queen during the sea-going paddle steamer). A restoration plan is Airship hunter 10-year anniversary celebrations of Dunkirk, the ongoing – see medwayqueen.co.uk. Early First World War aviation lots at Bonhams lot was secured by a ‘private US flag buyer’ for NY included a two-handled silver cup presented $3800 (£2770) against an estimate of $800-1200. Patient wait to Captain Leefe Robinson (1895-1918) of the Also sold at Bonhams NY was a Red Ensign flown Royal Flying Corps. He was only the second flyer Paddle steamer repurposed from the stern of the freighter SS Aruluen on her to receive a Victoria Cross and the first to shoot The Medway Queen was built in Ailsa in Scotland trip to Dunkirk. down a German airship over British territory. in 1924, as a passenger paddle steamer for the Due to the shallow waters, she had to stand off It was engraved Presented to Captain Flight the beach at Dunkirk and a famous photograph of Commander W Leefe Robinson VC in commemoration of soldiers waiting in line hundreds of yards offshore his achievement on September 3rd 1916 from Charles F was taken from her decks. Part of an interesting Wright and a few friends in Shoreditch. group related to Chief Officer Robert Turner of The cup was offered together with a red and the Aruluen, the 2ft 9in x 5ft 11in (84cm x 1.85m) blue lithographed recruitment poster, depicting flag was offered with his Merchant Marine jacket. Rex Warneford (the first British pilot to shoot The lot sold dipped under estimate at $1200 down a Zeppelin over Belgium in May 1915, (£875), also going to the flag collector. also awarded the VC), inviting new recruits to The group included a letter by Turner’s sister the Sportsman Battalion, a pals unit of famous Marjorie describing how Aruluen rescued more sporting personalities. than 600 British and French troops. It noted: Robinson, now considered a celebrity pilot, “For interest my brother Robert was lost when his spent much of the war in a desk job, so that he ship, MV Underwood, was torpedoed by a German could attend RFC events. He died in December E-boat while in convoy on January 6, 1944.” 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Warneford was killed in an air accident not long after his VC US collector was awarded. Both these Dunkirk lots came to auction The cup was acquired by collector Norm provenanced to ‘The War Museum’. Bonhams Flayderman and sold in his Aviation History sale specialist Tom Lamb explained: “He is a private at Butterfields in November 2000, where it was 4 collector in Massachusetts and he has been bought by the vendor here. At Bonhams it sold 10 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 010-17 2485.indd 2 18/03/2021 17:43:23 wiki photo by Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent, www.clemrutter.net Kent, Rochester, Rutter, Clem by photo wiki Luxury liner turned The Medway Queen in 2016. into beast of burden
A car boot sale find 25 years ago has revealed how a luxury cruise liner was converted for transporting thousands of troops during the Second World War. Costing just £25 in 1996, the plans are now estimated at £3000-4000 at Ewbank’s auction in Send, Surrey, on March 26. The owner said he bought them after learning that the vendor intended to put them on a bonfire when he got home if they did not sell. The full set of plans relating to the requisitioned RMS Queen Mary – one of the three grandest liners of the period – comprise 14 individual sheets (see picture below for an idea of length), packed with intricate details of how the ship was stripped to make way for nearly 17,000 men including the crew. The Queen Mary arrived in New York as Britain declared war against Germany on September 3, 1939, and remained there in berth alongside the Normandie for the next six months before being joined by the Queen Elizabeth, which had made a dash across the Atlantic from Clydebank. The plan was to use the ships as troop carriers, but the Normandie was destroyed in a fire during the conversion process. The Queen Mary left for Sydney in Australia where the Admiralty’s plan for conversion went ahead with a view to her transporting troops from Australia and New Zealand. On October 2, 1942, as she set off with thousands of American troops to join the Allied forces in Europe, the Queen Mary accidentally ploughed a course directly across the deck of her cruiser escort, HMS Curacoa off the Irish coast. The Curacoa sank with a loss of 239 lives. Just under a year later, the Queen Mary set a record for the largest number of passengers ever transported on a single vessel when she carried 15,740 soldiers and 943 crew. Further duties included carrying Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to the US for meetings. When the war came to an end, the Queen Mary was refitted and went back to her duties as an Atlantic cruise liner. She is now moored in Long Beach and used as a hotel. ewbanks.co.uk 3
for a mid-estimate $5500 (£4010). 1. The blue ensign of the Medway Queen and other American pioneer items – $3800 (£2770) Best-seller in the auction was a section of painted at Bonhams New York. side fabric from the Nieuport 28 plane flown by 2. The silver cup Alan Winslow, the first American pilot in an presented to Captain American squadron to shoot down an enemy Leefe Robinson (1895- aircraft in the First World War. 1918) of the Royal The 94th Aero Squadron is the oldest unit Flying Corps – $5500 in the USAF, organised in August 1917 at Kelly (£4010) at Bonhams Field Texas, with two officers and 150 men. In NY. It was sold with September they left for training in England, and this recruitment poster, by April 1918 had been sent to the front at Toul depicting Rex Warneford, in north-eastern France, their planes adorned the first British pilot to with their new insignia representing the phrase, shoot down a Zeppelin. Above: a detail of the Queen Mary plans estimated at £3000-4000 at throwing one’s ‘Hat in the ring’. Ewbank’s on March 26. 3. The red ensign of the On April 14 two pilots, who had yet to see SS Aruluen and other Below: Ewbank’s head of valuations Jack Wallis, left, holds up one of the combat, Douglas Campbell and Winslow, took off items – $1200 (£875). 11ft long Queen Mary plans with Ewbank’s partner Andrew Ewbank. to hunt down two enemy aircraft in the vicinity, and somehow just minutes later they were back at 4. A section of painted base with two victories. side fabric from the Winslow was shot down in July 1918 and ended Nieuport 28 plane flown up a POW until the end of the war. by the first American This fabric, which went to a US private buyer pilot in an American on top estimate at $20,000 (£14,600), was taken squadron to shoot down by an unknown operative working in the aircraft an enemy aircraft in disposal unit at Colum Bay, France, in late 1918- the First World War – 19, and later sold with various plane insignia to a $20,000 (£14,600). Californian antiques shop. Six of these plane sides were bought by the vendor here. n antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 11
PAGE 010-17 2485.indd 3 18/03/2021 17:45:42 Feature Militaria & medals
Debut sale includes an early honour
An early issue Queen’s Gallantry Medal was one of chronicling the circumstances giving rise to the the highlights as specialist David Douglas held his award of the QGM. The Elstob first militaria auction section at North Yorkshire & Elstob saleroom Elstob & Elstob (22% buyer’s premium). Blaze of glory militaria also The honour awarded to the late Acting Flight Oldroyd’s medal was awarded jointly with his included a Sergeant William Barker Oldroyd, Royal Air Commanding Officer Acting Squadron Leader large Gordon Force Provost and Security Services, for action RA Chasemore for their actions on July 21, Highlanders group during the Cyprus emergency of 1974, was 1974, when the pair dealt with a fire next to a from a private local vendor, a collector of over 50 offered with Oldroyd’s RAF Long Service and petrol store at the civilian location of Nicosia years. It was sold without reserve. Good Conduct Medal and matching miniature International Airport and while under enemy fire David Douglas said: “As the sale progressed, it was medals, together with a comprehensive portfolio from Turkish aircraft. clear that there was much interest from Australia and The QGM had been instituted just a month North America – not surprising as both continents earlier, on June 20, to replace the Order of the have deep roots in Scottish military traditions even to British Empire for Gallantry and the British this day.” Empire Medal for Gallantry and was intended to The GH was a line infantry regiment of the British award gallantry for non-military acts of bravery or Army, from 1881-1994, whose origins go back to military acts in situations where the country was 1787. Pictured above is a ‘very rare’ post-1881 bullion not officially ‘at war’. wire officer’s pattern peaked forage cap badge of Consigned by a local private client, it sold in the 2nd Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, retaining Ripon on low estimate at £10,000 to a UK phone the pre-1881 LXXV symbol (The Gordon Highlanders buyer on February 20. were created during the Childers Reforms of 1881 by merging the 75th and 92nd Regiments of Foot). The badge made a four-times top estimate £400, Left: the Queen’s Gallantry Medal to Acting Flight going to a private buyer on thesaleroom.com. Sergeant William Barker Oldroyd – £10,000 at Elstob & Further items from the Gordon Highlanders Elstob. Oldroyd is also pictured. collection will be offered at a later sale, including a bullion embroidered officers’ pouch of the Banff Volunteers, possibly the only surviving example.
Kent counts at auction
The medal group of a colonel who is believed to be the most heavily decorated Military Police officer in the history of the corps sold for a mid-estimate £2400 at Gloucestershire saleroom Tayler & Fletcher (18% buyer’s premium). However, that was not the main draw for the successful bidder on February 18. As is often the case in medal collecting, Lt-Col Alfred Scott Hewitt’s (1876-1955) original regiment proved much more important. Henry Forcer Evans from Tayler & Fletcher said: “The buyer, a collector of medals to the Royal West Kent Regiment for the last 40 years, bid over Remedy the phone. He told me he was prepared to pay quite a bit more than he did, as only about 30 1914 Stars were issued to officers of the regiment. to make a “He had over a hundred gallantry groups and around 300 groups and singles – from a man who died in Egypt in 1882 to a man who died in high price Cyprus in 1958 and men from campaigns in between.” Hewitt’s First World War honours with the Royal West Kent Regiment Major Henry Milligan of the Royal Army Also, the fact that these First World War featured a DSO, OBE, Order of the Crown of Italy and Croix de Guerre. Medical Corps not only won a Military Cross awards were offered in their original named Before then, his distinguished career included 14 months in South Africa for bravery in the First World War in 1917, but boxes, remaining unworn and unmounted. with the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles and battles at Biddulphsberg, gained another one, announced in the London They combine with the respective ribbon bars Witteberg and Caledon River. Gazette in 1919. and box of dress miniatures. In 1924 he was appointed Deputy Provost Marshal (CI BB) in the Corps The MC and bar featured in a large group The MC and bar have been engraved with of Military Police (Rhine) and retired in 1926 as a lieutenant-colonel. offered at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) his name, which would have been taken place in West Sussex on March 8-11. later unofficially. Sold together with Milligan’s RAMC tunic, As for the RAMC tunic itself with officer’s belt and officer’s peaked cap, all consigned by rank cuffs and single crown badge, Thurlow family descent, it was estimated at £200-300 added: “Indicative major cuff rank uniforms but sold for £5600 online to UK private buyer. are rare due to the wearing of them being The lot also included his Coronation and Silver withdrawn as they highlighted officers as Jubilee medals among other items. targets for the opposition.” Bellmans medals specialist Stephen He said: “With low savings rates and more Thurlow said the main factor behind that time spent at home there seems to be an impressive price was the “uniqueness and increase in spend on lot items for investments completeness of the collection all having and also for personal collection and for survived together, providing a story”. nostalgic purposes.” 12 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 010-17 2485.indd 4 18/03/2021 17:46:35 Stargazing search pays off at last for collector
A long search for an 1914-15 Star had a happy ending after the Dix Noonan Webb (24% buyer’s Right: the 1914-15 premium) auction in London on February 17. Star awarded to The medal awarded to Lt Basil Worswick, Lt Basil Worswick who was killed on April 29, 1916, at the Guinness – £1300 at Dix Brewery in Dublin during the height of the Easter Noonan Webb. Rising by a guard who thought he was a Sinn Fein spy, sold for £1300. The 1914-15 Star plus copied research was being sold by a private collector and was expected to fetch £400-500. Christopher Mellor-Hill, head of client liaison (associate director) of DNW, said: “The medal attracted a lot of interest and was bought by a collector who had owned Lt Worswick’s other two Above: a First World War medals for over 30 years and has group of been looking for his 1914-15 Star all this time, so at him, knocked the man down. The guard, seeing Indian army we are very pleased to have been able to reunite this, and believing Worswick also to be a Sinn abstinence them at long last.” Fein spy, killed him instantly. medals – Worswick served with the King Edward’s Horse The Company Quartermaster Sergeant in £4700 at on the Western Front in 1915 and went with the charge of the party of Dublin Fusiliers, Robert Hannam’s. 2nd Battalion to Ireland following the outbreak of Flood, was subsequently court-martialled for the Right: a detail the Easter Rising. deaths of lieutenants Lucas and Worswick, but of the medals. At the brewery he went to investigate after a was acquitted, his actions attributed to the general jumpy guard of Royal Dubliners shot dead the confusion and panic that surrounded Dublin night clerk of the brewery and Lt Lucas of the King during the Easter Rising. Flood was subsequently Edward’s Horse. Challenged and searched by a killed in action on the Dorian front in Macedonia Have a medal sergeant of the Dublin Fusiliers, Worswick rushed the following year. instead of a drink, mate
Soldiers are often associated with hard drinking – but rarely temperance. However, an extensive abstinence movement existed in the British Army in India during the 19th century, as obvious from a lot sold at Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) of Selborne, Hampshire, on February 23. It was comprised of up to 140 abstinence medals in various forms and sizes. With much of the army’s crime and indiscipline Mesopotamian service stemming from alcohol abuse, regiments in India and at home in Britain tried hard to tackle the temptations of the bar and canteen. The postponed January auction at Gloucestershire One of the earliest army temperance societies was saleroom Chorley’s will take place on March 23-24. established in Burma by Lieutenant (later General Sir) Among the medals on offer, estimated at £300-500, Henry Havelock of the 13th Regiment in 1823. The is a First World War group awarded to Sister Annie first such society in India was founded in Calcutta Brumwell of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing on August 29, 1832, and by 1836 it was believed that Service Reserve. there was barely a regiment without one. It includes a By 1844 it was recorded that 3551 soldiers had Honouring a nurse Royal Red Cross joined such groups before Wellington dealt the cause (above), 1st Class, a body blow by outlawing regimental temperance A group of medals awarded to a highly respected ‘in recognition societies. figure in the nursing profession, Ruth Eveline of valuable It was 15 years before such activity began again Darbyshire (1860-1946), is offered at Bishop & Miller service with the in the army, societies being formed in India and in in Stowmarket on April 30, estimated at £1000-1500. British Forces in the Cape, and in 1862 the Soldier’s Total Abstinence Among her many honours are the CBE, Royal Red Mesopotamia’. Association was founded and spread widely. Cross 1st Class and Kaisar i Hind Medal 1st Class in Brumwell, born In 1867 silver medals began to be awarded to Gold for her First World War services. in Chippenham, abstainers of 12 months’ standing and by 1874 it was Her posts included Matron of the 2nd London Wiltshire in 1880, estimated there were more than 8000 abstaining General Hospital Territorial Army Nursing Service was mentioned in soldiers. and member of The Army Nursing Board. She was dispatches (see The medals at Hannam’s had been bought at a US also a founder member of the College of Nursing. London Gazette, auction by the vendor. Estimated at £80-100, the lot bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk June 5, 1919). sold for £4700 to a UK buyer via thesaleroom.com. chorleys.com antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 13
PAGE 010-16 2485.indd 4 19/03/2021 17:44:26 Feature Militaria & medals
From D-Day to Hollywood
A Second World War beret sold at Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) was not only one of the famous maroon British paratrooper examples but had star billing of its own. Adding to the collectable kudos of such an elite regiment was the provenance: this hat belonged to actor Richard Todd, who served with 7th Battalion Parachute Regiment on D-Day, helping Major Howard and his glider force from the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry to hold Pegasus Bridge on Above: British paratrooper beret and June 6, 1944. Royal Artillery Colonel Patrick Anthony Porteous, accompanying items owned by later Remarkably, as a Hollywood star Todd even wearing the beret sold by C&T for £2000. Hollywood actor Richard Todd – £7000. portrayed Howard in the film The Longest Day (1962), wearing this very beret, it is believed. It was accompanied by a signed autograph Light Regiment RA with which he served in as such we thought that we would have a lot of album page by Todd and three document folders Palestine from November 1945 to March 1946, interest from both the trade and private collectors. with personal correspondence and paperwork. then HQ RA 16th Airborne Division until January They eventually sold to a private collector online, Todd was discharged from the army in 1946 1947 as Brigade Major. From February 1948 to beating our strong commission bids and phone and continued to pursue his love of acting. This April 1949 he was Battery Commander with the bidder from France. finally paid off and he became one of England’s 33rd Airborne Light Regiment. “The smock also performed well considering its most famous actors of the early 1950-60s etc. His Part of the lot was an original handwritten and condition and date being 1945, which is not always first major film role was his portrayal of Wing signed letter from Porteous to the current vendor popular with collectors. This sold to an internet Commander Guy Gibson VC in The Dam Busters gifting him this beret on October 12, 1977. bidder from the UK.” (1955). This beret and paperwork was all discovered Dress to impress when his property was cleared after his death in Also in this sale, a rare 1945 pair of special pattern Left: special pattern 2009 and had been in a private collection since. battle dress trousers issued to British paratroopers battle dress trousers Estimated at £3000-5000 in the February 17-18 more than doubled top estimate at £6200. Special issued to British auction, the beret sold online for £7000 to a private features included a leg pocket for the famed paratroopers – UK-based collector. Fairbairn Sykes knife. £6200 at C&T. The same owner’s British airborne forces VC hero Denison smock made £520, just over estimate. Another British airborne beret sold to the UK The smock – a coverall jacket – was designed to be trade for a low-estimate £2000 had belonged worn over ordinary battle dress and webbing but to Royal Artillery Colonel Patrick Anthony under the parachute harness, to prevent snagging. Porteous. He won the Victoria Cross during the C&T director Matthew Tredwen said: “These disastrous 1942 Dieppe Raid while attached to the two items were handed into a charity shop in No 4 Commando. Essex along with a quantity of other various He was badly wounded at Dieppe but was later unrelated military clothing. They were brought posted to No 1 Air Landing Light Regiment RA. to us for evaluation and eventually consigned. In June 1945 he was posted to 53 Air Landing “The trousers are very rare to find and
Shot down by Princess Margaret’s later lover Townsend
Princess Margaret’s lover Flight Lieutenant Peter it was brought down over Whitby. The bomber had Townsend (1914-95) has been introduced to a new been on an anti-shipping sortie. These items had generation of TV viewers due to Netflix TV been collected from the crash site by a relative of the series The Crown – but militaria lots sold vendor, who lived close by. at auction also underline his renown as an One lot estimated at £500-800 included the RAF ace. Heinkel’s wireless aerial post and fuselage fragment, Dawsons (23% buyer’s premium) of the former marked Wireless Aerial Post From Heinkel Maidenhead offered fragments from a Bomber Shot Down At Bannial Flat Farm. It sold for Heinkel HE-111 bomber and a Luftwaffe £950. lifejacket on December 9 among other The Luftwaffe lifejacket worn by a member of flying-related items in two separate lots. the crew, type SWp 734 dated 1-3-1939, retained its They came from a plane that was the first original gas cannister and valve and mouthpiece German bomber shot down on English inflater. Part of a group lot guided at £300-500, it soil in the Second World War – and also sold for £2000. marked Townsend’s first success. Townsend claimed 11 kills in total and was a He had joined the RAF in 1933 and squadron leader in the Battle of Britain. On one by January 1939 had been promoted to flight occasion he had to be rescued by a trawler after Above: Luftwaffe lifejacket – lieutenant. On February 3, together with two other ditching his damaged Hurricane in the sea and £2000 at Dawsons. Hurricanes from 43 Squadron at RAF Acklington on another he was shot down while taking on a in Northumberland, he intercepted the Heinkel and Messerschmidt.
14 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 010-17 2485.indd 6 18/03/2021 17:53:01 ANTONY CRIBB LTD
Spring Virtual Fine Antique Arms & Armour auction
Tuesday 30th March at 10am This is a virtual only auction with no public bidding or viewing. Collection will be on a ‘Click & Collect’ basis, strictly by appointment. Live bidding is available via our own bidding platform, the-saleroom.com and liveauctioneers.com Buyer’s premium 22% plus VAT. Live bidding platform fees apply for the-saleroom.com and liveauctioneers.com
All enquiries to: [email protected] • Tel: 01635 47979 Antony Cribb Arms & Armour Auctions, 39A Kingfisher Court, Hambridge Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5SJ www.antonycribb.com
PAGE 015 2485.indd 1 18/03/2021 17:57:39 Feature Militaria & medals
Navy commander became birdwatcher
If you are a birdwatcher, you need a good pair thesaleroom.com for £4400 against an estimate of of binoculars. Sir Peter Scott, founder of the £1500-2000. Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, An online bidder also bought a pair of naval Gloucestershire, in November 1946, had a decent ship-mounted binoculars/sights catalogued idea of how to find them. as ‘marked with plaque to top with indistinct Scott (1909-89) – son of Scott of the Antarctic writing, but appears to be German, probably by – served on HMS Broke during the Second World Schneider KQC 25 x 105 anti-aircraft binocular War, rising to the rank of commander before he (with damage)’. was discharged from his naval duties. They sold for £1350 (estimate £300-500). He must have possessed a fine knowledge of A large pair of Carl Zeiss naval mounting ship naval and aircraft optics and had the opportunity binoculars, no 218214, in grey painted pine case, to purchase both German and Japanese examples. went to a London trade bidder for £950 (estimate Instruments acquired by Scott either during £200-300). Above: German binocular transit box – or just after the war in order to carry out wetland £4400 at Cotswold Auction Company. bird surveys in and around the Cotswolds came Goose counting for sale at the Cotswold Auction Company In the 1950s Slimbridge led the world in (22% buyer’s premium) on February 9. The undertaking wetland bird surveys. Scott worked out consignor was the trust, which had been sorting that the best way to count shelduck and barnacle out storerooms. geese was from the air using wing-mounted cameras Auction house director Lindsey Braune said: developed in the war for surveillance work. “Bidders were particularly interested in the U-Boat A set of two US Airforce Fairchild K-20 aircraft binocular transit boxes because of the remaining camera cases in boxes went for £240. fittings (for example glare guards or rain tubes and Braune added: “We had a huge amount the mounting), despite the fact that none of them of interest from collectors ranging from the actually contained binoculars. Apparently, they Caribbean and US to Belgium, are very rarely found with fittings.” and other international as Top-seller was the well as the UK. Seven phone example pictured top lines were manned and right, with glare guards there was active bidding (no 332893) by Carl Zeiss from all of them.” in a grey-painted box marked D.F.8X60 mit Stativaufsatz, Above: Carl Zeiss naval mounting ship which sold to a collector via Left: naval ship-mounted binoculars – £1350. binoculars, in grey painted pine case – £950.
Famed military family Why CC41 was the in-thing By 1941, wartime Britain was facing severe shortages of both the raw materials and Stowmarket saleroom Bishop & Miller’s first Military, the labour force needed to make clothing. Prices had rocketed, and the need to ration Medals & Weapons auction of 2021, on April 30, features commodities led to the British Board of Trade launching a Utility Products scheme in a wide array of items from Major General Sir Archibald which the government controlled the import of raw materials. Galloway KCB (1779-1850), a soldier from a distinguished They sold them to manufacturers who made clothes, footwear and furniture that Victorian military family. The extensive Galloway complied with austerity regulations. Prices to the public could also be kept low but a collection includes uniforms and documentation such reasonable standard maintained. as a full-dress General Officer’s uniform, c.1840sright ( , Each item was marked as CC41 – a distinctive logo standing for Controlled estimate £1000-1500), and journals. Commodity 1941. The scheme lasted until 1952. Galloway joined the East India Company as an Ensign A group lot of 12 CC41 items of costumes made in the 1940s were included in the in 1800, fought in the 2nd Anglo Maratha War, was knighted by February 13 Costume, Acessories & Textiles auction at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) Queen Victoria, and rose to become Chairman of the Honourable of Leyburn. Consigned by the UK trade, they sold via thesaleroom.com to a UK private East India Company. buyer at £1000, five times the top estimate. His journals are a useful source of information on the operations of the East India Company at the beginning of the 19th century. Also included in the auction are the midshipman’s uniform jacket worn c.1870 (left, estimate £600-1000) and a large quantity of personal and official papers belonging to Admiral Arthur Galloway (1855-1918). The grandson of Sir Archibald, Arthur’s father was in the Indian Civil Service and serving as Magistrate of Delhi when he was killed during the Indian Mutiny. Admiral Galloway, who was also the grand-nephew of Sir Colin Campbell of Peninsular and Waterloo fame and Vice Admiral Sir Patrick Campbell, a distinguished Above: four of 12 items of CC41 wartime naval officer of the Napoleonic Wars, joined the Royal Navy clothing – £1000 at Tennants. in 1869 and his papers give an intimate insight into the workings of the navy in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Inset: the CC41 clothing label. bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk 16 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 010-16 2485.indd 6 19/03/2021 14:42:09 EST.2013 Regular Auctions of Militaria Next Fine Militaria Auction CONTEMPORARY C&TAUCTIONEERS VALUERS Wednesday 16th May 2021 & POST-WAR ART KENT PRINTS & MULTIPLES
Historically Important British Paratroopers Beret Belonging to British Army Officer and Later Hollywood Actor, Lieutenant Richard Todd OBE, Hammered at £7,000, February 2021 www.candtauctions.co.uk Please contact our Military Specialist Matthew Tredwen for more information regarding consignments and valuations: Tel: +44 (0) 1233510050 Email: [email protected]
BRITTON AT WAR
I have over 35 years experience of collecting and selling militaria, from late 1900s BRITTONS to modern 1980s inclusive BADGES
New items being added weekly to Selling a vast array of genuine badges our websites from WWI and WWII. RAF, Navy, Home Front, sweetheart and other badges of interest. www.brittonatwar.com www.brittonsbadges.co.uk Tel: Steve Britton on 07974 819620 Tel: Julie Britton on 07308 025604 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
AUCTION WEDNESDAY 07 APRIL EDINBURGH • 10AM to advertise CLEVE GRAY (AMERICAN 1918-2004) PLEASE CONTACT REACH #2 [DETAIL] | 128.25cm x 172.27cm (50.5in x 68in) £10,000-15,000 + fees
Charlotte Scott Smith Dan Connor Susan Glinska Find sale details, illustrated catalogue & free online UK Auctions Fairs & Dealers International bidding at www.lyonandturnbull.com • 0131 557 8844 charlottescottsmith danconnor susanglinska @antiquestradegazette.com @antiquestradegazette.com @antiquestradegazette.com +44 (0)20 3725 5602 +44 (0)20 3725 5605 +44 (0)20 3725 5607
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 17
PAGE 017 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 17:39:21 Auction Reports Hammer highlights
Treen captures the imagination On themes from Brighton Pavilion to a cat’s backside, well-known collection creates a stir
by Terence Ryle 2 3 Like other niche collecting fields, treen has some immunity to devastating swings of fashion and when a good group comes to market the enthusiasm and the money are much in evidence. This was the case when Wilkinson’s (20% buyer’s 1 premium) opened its tri-annual 7 period oak furniture sale with 209 treen lots from the collection of Graham Cutts, a well-known Norfolk enthusiast who is diversifying his collection. His material included some 30 5 6 18th-19th century metal or bone items, among which was the one failure, a pair of 18th century steel tongs. Everything else sold and generally well above expectations. “The collection really captured 8 people’s imagination,” said auctioneer Matt Gibson after the February 27-28 Doncaster sale. “It had some of highest prices we’ve ever 4 seen for treen, as well as some of the highest prices seen by some of the avid collectors.” Estimated to fetch £50,000- 80,000, it totalled £163,000. Most items went to private UK buyers – the sort of sum seen for others in of hose was an industry providing against interest from the trade and recent years. employment for thousands in the collectors bidding from the US, the Love spoons carved by swains north. Far East and Europe. for their sweethearts are a Welsh No fewer than 36 featured in the Most areas of modest domestic life tradition but one that spread to other Cutts offering, including a ‘ball & of centuries past were covered. areas. The best example at Doncaster cage’ fruitwood example. The 8½in The collection had was probably a sailor’s work, the (21.5 cm) long chip-carved sheath Full of beans some of the highest base being pierced with a central with ‘violin’ scroll terminal bore Topping the collection was a 14in “ anchor (signifying steadfastness). scratch-carved initials MC and date prices we’ve ever (37cm) high 17th century English seen for treen Made in fruitwood and an impressive 1777, and quadrupled hopes at £1900. lignum vitae coffee mill. With typical 14½in (37cm) tall, it was inset to the engine-turned decoration, it was a top with a mirror featured a heart Major draw complete example in fine condition flanked by the initials GA. It took a The 55 snuff boxes in a wide variety of and went to a private buyer at £6300 quadruple-estimate £3200. woods and depicting a wide range of against a £300-500 estimate. Similar, if rather more intimate, subjects were a major draw. Staying with the catering, the best love tokens, were stay busks. Usually A 19th century boxwood example of four biscuit moulds was an early made of whalebone (a baleen carved as a 4¼in (11cm) high squatting 19th century folk art example, a 7¼ scrimshaw example in the Cutts monkey eating an apple opened the x 4in (18.5 x 10 cm) fruitwood block Collection trebled expectations sale and set the pace. Pitched at naively carved as a seated cat to the at £1700), these torturous corset £500-750, it sold at £2500. front and an indecorous depiction of stiffeners also came in wood. Going well above the estimate of its rear to the rear. It took a 10-times One such at Doncaster was a 12½in £800-1200, a 4½in (11 cm) long 19th estimate £3200. Another mould with (32 cm) sycamore busk with bifoil century fruitwood box in the form of a chip-carved elephant improved finial and apexed front featuring a black rat sold at £3100. similarly bringing £1900. hearts and geometric chip carving, An effortlessly folksy early 19th Going to America was a 19th the back inscribed Mary T S Mg 1785. century box was naively carved as a century turned and painted spice It sold above estimate at £950. lady whose skirt was hinged at the box in the form of Brighton Pavilion Knitting sheaths, essentially back to form the lid. Standing 5½in – the type of ‘whitewood’ wares tools to allow people to continue (14cm) tall with painted hair and associated with Tunbridge Wells. The knitting while walking or standing, brass buttons to her jacket, she was 8in (20cm) tall box was estimated at Above: boxwood snuff box – were widely used in the 17th and estimated at £1000-1200 and sold to a lowly £100-200 but sold at £1700 £2500 at Wilkinson’s. 18th centuries when home knitting a US collector at £4900, more than 18 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 018-19 2485.indd 1 18/03/2021 16:10:17 Right: Morris, Marshall and Faulkner panels – £7500 at Littleton.
9 Panels treated as an investment Highlights from the Graham Cutts 10 collection of treen sold by Wilkinson’s on Morris, Marshall and Faulkner were not the only suppliers of windows during the great February 28-29. stained-glass revival of the Victorian period – Clayton & Bell, Powell & Sons, Lavers & Barraud, and Heaton, Butler & Bayne were also prolific – but the company did dominate 1. Pendant fruitwood candlelight – £4300. the market in the latter third of the century. 2. Lignum vitae coffee mill – £6300. Its designs for both an ecclesiastic and secular context were typically supplied by artist from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood including Ford Madox Brown, Edward 3. Fruitwood knitting sheath – £1900. Burne-Jones and Gabriel Rossetti. 4. Carved love spoon – £3200. This pair of Morris, Marshall and Faulkner panels, above, mounted as fire screens with Arthurian subjects flanked by foliate borders, probably date from the 1860s. They 5. Brighton Pavilion spice box – £1700. came for sale from a local clearance at Worcestershire firm Littleton Auctions (17% 6. Hinged-skirt snuff box – £4900. buyer’s premium) on February 20 without reserve. 7. Sycamore punch bowl and ladle – Despite a few condition issued (a number of elements were cracked), they were £4800. picked up by Arts & Crafts specialists and an NHS worker in Cornwall and taken way above expectations. The hammer price, bid by the latter as an investment, was £7500. 8. Fruitwood black rat snuff box – £3100. Roland Arkell 9. Sycamore stay busk (two views) – £950. 10. Biscuit mould carved as a seated cat (two views) – £3200. Right: a Churchill: feet up, rosewood cigar box used four times the top estimate. by Churchill Also going to America way above smoke and a drink – £61,000 at expectations was a rare 18th century Duke’s. fruitwood pendant candlelight, In the same month an oil painting by Sir Winston Churchill hanging on a height adjustable (1874-1965) sold at £7m (see News, ATG No 2483), three other ratchet intricately decorated with items intimately associated with the two-times British prime chip-carved panels of chip and minister performed strongly at UK regional sales. scratched depictions of birds on trees. Two were offered at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) A documentary piece, inscribed in Sussex on March 9 on behalf of a vendor who had bought Robard Hearn Feby 04 1773, it sold at them in the Political Sale at Sotheby’s in July 1998. The £4300, more than 10 times the mid consignor 23 years ago was the Churchill family. estimate. Churchill’s midnight blue velvet evening slippers from the Toast of a selection of drinking 1950s were monogrammed with his initials WSC and stamped vessels was an 8¼in (21cm) diameter N Tuczek for the Mayfair shoemaker. Estimated at £10,000- punch bowl with ladle linked by 15,000, these were hammered down at £32,000. After an to the lid, it included two cigars in cases, an amber and gold a chain all carved from a single online contest between bidders in the UK and the US, a private cigar holder and a personalised mother of pearl penknife also sycamore block. The exterior of the UK collector was successful. inscribed Winston LS Churchill. 18th century piece was decorated Churchill’s c.1960 brandy balloon, with large tulip-shaped It had been owned by Churchill’s personal valet Norman in the chinoiserie style of porcelain bowl decorated in white enamel featuring monogram WSC McGowan and came with a photocopy of a previous auction bowls of the age, the interior a shade and signed E Pope, was estimated at £7000-10,000 and sold catalogue description stating its provenance. less social climbing, being inscribed at £15,000. The Devon vendor bought it from a London dealer 15 years with the drunkard’s motto One more ago as a gift for her father. bowl and then... Estimated at £400- Cigar box With competition from bidders on the 600, it sold at £4800. On March 11, an Art Deco-style cigar box once used by phone and online (five parties quickly drove A suitable companion was an early Churchill was sold at Duke’s (30% the price up to £30,000), it was hammered 18th century sycamore or fruitwood buyer’s premium inc VAT) of down to a private British collector well above goblet. Turned on a pole lathe and Dorchester for £61,000. the estimate of £5000-7000. carved to the concave underside of Made in inlaid rosewood with Roland Arkell the foot with the initials SI, the 4½in the emblem of Cuban cigar maker (11cm) high vessel went more than Montecristo Habana and the name Left: Winston Churchill’s velvet evening five times above the top estimate, The Hon Winston Churchill inscribed slippers – £32,000 at Bellmans. selling at £2100. n antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 19
PAGE 018-19 2485.indd 2 18/03/2021 16:11:43 Auction Reports Art market
Journey that is far from over Bonhams holds faith with specialist travel and exploration auctions including art
by Alex Capon details are known about him other than he exhibited at the Royal Academy several times from 1859-85, Has the boat already sailed for travel each work being a landscape. and exploration pictures? The once The picture here was believed to buoyant market has had its ups and date from the early 1860s – an old downs over the years but it is a matter label on the stretcher gave the artist’s of some debate whether the sector is address in Notting Hill where he now past its heyday or if its best days lived during this period. lie ahead. No reference exists that he ever In a less-than bullish sign, left the UK but, although it cannot Christie’s confirmed at the end of last be said for certain that Drabble ever year that it was ending its stand-alone travelled to India himself, Webster topographical auctions in London felt the 2ft x 3ft (61 x 92cm) signed after 52 years and incorporating the oil on canvas gave the impression of specialist department into the 19th somebody who had experienced the century picture department (see hustle-and-bustle and atmosphere of News, ATG no 2467). life by the Ganges. Furthermore, Sotheby’s last held It had a what appeared to be an one of its The Art of Travel sales in authentic hazy quality as well as some December 2019 and it is unclear if well-observed architectural elements, and when these will re-emerge. but the rare subject matter lifted this While both still offer separate work in to an altogether different sales in related categories such commercial category than simply as Orientalist, Indian and a work by an obscure artist with South East Asian art, Bonhams seemingly no track record at auction. (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s The mosque in Varanasi (also premium) has kept dedicated travel known as Benares) was built in 1669 and exploration auctions. by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, The auction house clearly believes who named it the ‘Alamagir Mosque’ some mileage remains and its after his own honorific title. It was latest specialist event took place on built on the site of one of the most February 10. And in a move perhaps sacred temples and stands near to the targeted to catch a few consignments Gyan Vapi (Wisdom Well) where it from the big two, Bonhams is now was said the god Shiva had cooled his upping the number of sales in this fiery lingam. category from one to two per year, Estimated at £6000-8000, the next being on September 14. the combination of the location The most recent offered 191 lots: depicted and topographical appeal a typical mixture of pictures, books, sparked strong competition before journals, photographs, maps and it sold at £20,000 to a US dealer on a few objects. It performed better strong performance of the 23 works thesaleroom.com. The price not only than some might have expected with Top: The Mosque of Aurangzeb, with Indian subjects, all of which sold ‘introduced’ Drabble at a high level 84% of the lots sold for a premium- Benares, as seen from the Ganges by for a combined £94,000 with a large on the secondary market but also inclusive £880,000 total. By value, Richard Robert Drabble – £20,000 at proportion comfortably outstripping showed the “renewed vitality” in the 87% of the lots found buyers. Bonhams. their estimates. market for Indian subjects, according Pictures made up over the half Above: Udaipur, 1916, one of seven “Where previously the market to Webster. of the lots and contributed a hefty woodblock prints by Charles William was driven by British and European chunk of the overall total. Bartlett that sold together for £7000. collectors, we are now finding a Self-taught amateur much larger number of Indian buyers Among the other works in the Indian Online accessibility entering the market,” said Webster. section drawing strong bidding was a The specialist in charge of the sale “This is probably the key reason group of hand-coloured engravings by Leo Webster said: “The results of for the increase in prices achieved. Captain Robert Melville Grindlay the sale were very healthy across the The reason for this extra engagement (1786-1877), a self-taught amateur board and we can definitely attribute with buyers in India is likely due to the artist who served with the East India some of that to the accessibility that Where previously the accessibility offered by online bidding Company’s military service. online has granted. market was driven by platforms – it has become a lot easier Depicting scenes from the western “What we are seeing is increased “ for these buyers to bid with us.” regions of India, the lot exceeded a British and European interest across the sector, whether it collectors, we are now One of the sale highlights was £2000-4000 estimate and sold for be for prints, photographs, paintings, an intriguing view of the mosque of £7000. or watercolours – professional or finding a much larger Aurangzeb in Uttar Pradesh by the Another selection of prints amateur.” little-known British artist Richard number of Indian buyers Continued on page 22 In particular he pointed to the Robert Drabble (fl.1859-85). Few 20 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 020-22 2485.indd 1 18/03/2021 16:18:13 Send your art news to Alex Capon at [email protected]
1. The Great Comet as seen on Chislehurst Common, Oct 4th 1858 by George Buchanan Wollaston – £3000 at Roseberys. 2. Soldiers, a watercolour by Robert Arthur Wilson – £2000. 3. Farm landscape by Rowland Hilder – £4000.
Comet interest proves to be a
vendor’s streak 1 2 of good luck An architect and botanist, he was also 13cm) signed work had a label on the back (1905-93) farm landscape pitched at a talented draughtsman having been for London dealer Liss Fine Art. £200-300. Those fascinated by the streaks of an apprentice in the office of Augustus Its early futuristic style, which pointed Signed and dated 1944, the 14½ x 19¾in light caused by a flaming meteor over Pugin no less. He had a strong connection towards the works of his contemporaries (37 x 50cm) watercolour was a typical work Gloucestershire earlier this month may well with the locality – his family had lived in CRW Nevinson and William Roberts, and by an artist who appears frequently on the be aware that it was just the latest sighting Chislehurst for many generations and his the estimate of just £100-200 ensured that market. of an interplanetary body flying high across grandfather was the local vicar. it generated a high level of interest. It sold With its good date, pleasing subject the night’s sky in Britain. Measuring 8¾ x 13¼in (23 x 35cm), the for £2000, a price that appears to be an and use of light and shadow attracting Among the most famous sightings in watercolour emerged at auction earlier this auction record for a print by the artist. admirers, it sold at £4000, a sum that was the 19th century was the appearance of year when it shot to prominence itself at Also commanding attention thanks to above average for the artist whose main Donati’s Comet that passed brightly across south London saleroom Roseberys (25% a modest estimate was a Rowland Hilder output was views of Kent. the country in 1858. The first comet to be buyer’s premium) on January 27. photographed, it was by all accounts an It was estimated at £80-120, a level in extraordinary spectacle and was referred line with the handful of auction results that to as The Great Comet at the time. are recorded for Wollaston, but the subject The Herbert Kennard As well as astronomers, vast swathes matter ensured fervent competition and it of the public marvelled at its presence was knocked down at £3000 – a sum 15 Collection and many artists were inspired to paint it times higher than any previous work by the including William Turner of Oxford (1789- artist sold at auction (source: Artprice by Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers Friday 26 March, 11am 1862), who depicted it over the Thames Artmarket). Valley, James Poole (1804-86), who painted Any view of Donati’s Comet is rare – and it over the Little London Dam in Sheffield people won’t have a chance to view it again and William Dyce (1806-64) who included for a long time. Due to its long elliptical it in his painting Pegwell Bay, Kent – a orbit, it will not pass by Earth again until Recollection of October 5th 1858, a work approximately the year 3597. now in Tate Britain. Another artist who was evidently Colourful study fascinated by The Great Comet was Among the other watercolours at George Buchanan Wollaston (1814-99). Roseberys bringing strong competition He saw it from Chislehurst Common on was a small but colourful wartime study by October 4, 1858, and recorded the view in a Robert Arthur Wilson (1884-1979). A George III satinwood and A Victorian satinwood cased library clock small watercolour. Dating from 1917, the 5½ x 5in (14 x rosewood crossbanded writing table by Frodsham and Baker, circa 1860 £700 - 1,000* £1,000 -1,500* 3
A selection of over 50 tea caddies on offer
Visit the website for more information : www.roseberys.co.uk 70/76 Knights Hill, London SE27 0JD | [email protected] | +44 (0) 20 8761 2522 *Plus Buyer’s Premium +VAT (30% inclusive of VAT)
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 21
PAGE 020-22 2485.indd 2 18/03/2021 16:19:18 Auction Reports Art market
Bonhams keeps faith with dedicated travel auctions
a busy market scene by Indonesian Continued from page 20 artist Anak Agung Gede Sobrat catching the eye were a group of (1911-92), a painter best known for seven woodblock prints by Charles his views of village life and Balinese William Bartlett (1860-1940) which Left: dances. It came to auction from a also included attractive subjects such A ghost gum on Danish vendor and was estimated at as the Taj Mahal at sunset and the Washwood Stn. £6000-8000 but took £11,000. Golden Temple at Amritsar. (Mt. Bowman), Selling to a different buyer was a The works were produced after watercolour by watercolour of the Tamsui River in the artist met the Japanese publisher Albert Namatjira northern Taiwan by Ran In-Ting Watanabe Shozaburo while living in – £16,000 at (1903-79) – an artist whose name is Tokyo. The latter adapted Bartlett’s Bonhams. also spelt ‘Lan Yinding’. vivid sketches and watercolours Dating from 1958, it had good into a series of prints with simple provenance having been acquired designs and flat areas of rich directly from the artist by the colour – a collaboration of modern vendor’s father, a naval attaché in and traditional techniques which Formosa from 1956-59 who played produced some striking results. Right: an important diplomatic role liaising Most individual examples of these Tamsui River, between the British government prints that have emerged before have Formosa by and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s sold for prices in the hundreds of Ran In-Ting – leader General Chiang Kai-shek. pounds, but here the £1500-2000 £10,000. Indeed, the 15 x 22in (38 x 56cm) estimate was easily surpassed and the watercolour had been a gift from lot went for £7000. In-Ting who had depicted the Although the artist’s views of vendor’s parents standing outside Hawaii can certainly make more, the their house. average price per print here (£1000) Works by the Taiwanese artist are appears to be one of the highest for an attractive commercial prospect in Indian subjects by the artist. any case and this example, which was signed, inscribed and dated, proved In the outback to be exactly that as it exceeded Outside of the Indian works, a good a £3000-5000 estimate and was bidding battle came for a vintage painter are said to function as “maps received against its £8000-12,000 knocked down at £10,000 to a landscape of the Australian outback of his sacred ancestral land for which pitch. After a decent battle, it sold for private south-east Asia buyer. by Albert Namatjira (1902-59). he was custodian”. £16,000 to a private UK buyer – a The fact that these sales command A ghost gum on Washwood Stn. As with some of his other works, sum in keeping with previous auction plenty of overseas interest is no doubt (Mt. Bowman) was an 11 x 15½in this one demonstrated his interest in results for these distinctive works. another reason behind Bonhams (28 x 39cm) signed watercolour photography with the use of the ghost doubling its dedicated sales. depicting a view near Haasts Bluff in gum tree to crop the scene and focus Market scene After Christie’s closed its central Australia. According to the the viewer’s gaze. It came to auction Among a decent number of lots department, you might call it a catalogue, works by the Aboriginal from a UK collection and was well selling to south-east Asian buyers was welcome boost for global Britain. n
If a bid is placed in the final few Timed auctions on thesaleroom.com minutes before the auction closes for that lot, the time period will be extended by a number of minutes. The auction house can set the Bidding made easy number of minutes, usually 10. In a timed auction, there is no As a bidder, you can enter a max your maximum bid with the This is to stop ‘sniping’ – a practice auctioneer taking bids from a live bid – the most you are willing auctioneer, the seller or other used by bidders on some other audience in a room. Instead, all to bid, using our set bidding bidders. websites whereby they rush to the bidding takes place online. increments and we do the rest. You’ll see your ‘current bid’ when place bids in the last few seconds Timed auctions have an end-time We will bid intelligently for you, you log in and view the lot. If to prevent other bidders being displayed on the lot page. bidding only enough for you to someone bids higher than your able to respond before the auction You can bid at any point from meet the reserve or stay in the lead. maximum, we will send you an closes. when the auction opens to Your max bid stays secret in ‘outbid alert’ via email, so you can when it closes. our system. We won’t share decide whether to bid more. thesaleroom.com
22 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 020-22 2485.indd 3 19/03/2021 11:23:31 Collection Focus
1. Two rare EMG Mark Xb gramophones with original 2 huge papier-mâché horns, the first (left) clockwork, estimate £1000-1500, and the second an electric Tropical example, estimate £2000-2500, at Adam Partridge on May 13-14. 2. Norman Roland’s children, Lisa and Adam, 1 pictured in 1973 with the two EMGs. Living and laughing out loud Collector’s daughter describes what it was like to grow up amid huge musical machines
Coming to auction on May 13-14 at Before long our parents were Adam Partridge in Macclesfield is being driven in the back of a tomato the Norman Roland collection of truck to a remote village. With no mechanical music. Roland was a one speaking the other’s language it devoted collector of gramophones, was quite a mystery tour. The truck barrel pianos and much more. came to a halt outside an old barn, Here, in her own words, he is the door was flung open and there described by his daughter, Lisa, covered in straw in a dark corner was who, along with her brother Adam, 3 what would be dad’s dream purchase. grew up surrounded by these We still have the lengthy exchange wonderful machines. of letters written by the farmer who owned the barrel piano and dad – 3. The Luis Casali with translations scrawled over it House discovery 4 barrel piano (left, – plus complex correspondence with My father’s astonishing mechanical 5 estimate £300- the shipping company and Liverpool music collection began in 1962 when 500) and being docks. Quite a transportation he went to look at a house to buy played by Norman masterplan. with bride-to-be Jill. Roland soon after I recall neighbours coming onto He didn’t fancy the property it arrived. the street to watch it finally being in the end but did like the look of 4. H Peters & Co unloaded into its new home. the EMG with the giant papier- Palace Raby 19 His other big love was the “mother mâché horn abandoned in the 5/8in polyphon – of plastic” AMI jukebox. He had garage... so he bought it. Mum was estimate £3000- been after one for ages – and finally flabbergasted – but equally wowed by 5000. found one for sale just two miles it (fortunately!). And so it began. away. Not technically mechanical Dad’s love for music boxes, 5. Roland in later music but still fabulous, and polyphons, gramophones, years with some of definitely another eye-opener for phonographs – anything that played his gramophones. unsuspecting visitors. music mechanically – grew from that Sadly, in August 2109, our moment and pretty soon included a wonderful dad passed away at the second awesome EMG. age of 93 – enjoying his passion My brother, Adam, and I grew up It was only when friends came right up to the end. Listening to his thinking it was perfectly normal to collection continued to bring a smile have rooms filled with these pieces “round and their jaws dropped we to his face, particularly the huge of wonder. It was only when friends realised it maybe wasn’t the norm sound of his old pal, the barrel piano. came round and their jaws dropped Now it’s time for others to share we realised maybe it wasn’t the norm. that joy. While my brother and I have The reputation of Dad’s collection managed to keep quite a few pieces grew as fast as its contents and we answered his advertisements. I’m not Mum and dad went on a four-day from dad’s collection – in an ideal recall him regularly playing every quite sure kids today would regard trip to Barcelona in 1973. During a world we would have shared them all single machine to a succession it as the exciting adventure we did visit to a flea market they approached between us – we just don’t have the of impressed fellow aficionados but Dad’s enthusiasm was utterly a stallholder selling a small music space for everything. while mum supplied the tea and contagious. box. Dad had longed to own a barrel It was an impossibly difficult sandwiches. Among the family’s favourite piano and he got mum onto the case. decision to part with so many I clearly remember us all piling machines was the fabulous Spanish Using her two words of mechanical wonderful items but we really hope into the Peugeot estate most barrel piano made by Luis Casali. music Spanish she approached the these fabulous machines will bring as weekends and driving round the The story behind its discovery is man, asking tentatively “grande much pleasure to whoever buys them country to see people who had as impressive as the machine itself. organillo?” as they have done to us. n antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 23
PAGE 023 2485.indd 2 19/03/2021 14:44:07 Auction Reports Books and works on paper
How to get away with murder Collection offered in London auction included Agatha Christie and other crime classics
by Ian McKay
Agatha Christie was a major attraction in an online sale of crime fiction that ended on February 4 at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium). This was an auction in which a great many of the more significant lots came from the collection of the late Alexis Galanos (1940-2019), an English-educated, Greek Cypriot politician and bibliophile. 1 3 The most expensive of them was 2 a copy of Christie’s The ABC Murders of 1936, which along with a few other top lots was published under the ‘Collins Crime Club’ banner. Formerly in the extensive crime and fantasy collections of a South African collector, Ronald Segal, it had made £8500 in his Sotheby’s sale of 2000. However, the £38,000 paid this time was an auction record, as were the sums achieved for all of the Christie books noted here – and indeed for all those works by other writers that follow. Many made far more than expected and estimated at just £1500- 2000, another CCC title of 1937, 4 5 6 Murder in the Mews and Other Stories – all four of which feature Hercule Poirot – reached £24,000, while a copy in a professionally restored and second of his Richard Hannay novels, the Dead, in which George Smiley repaired jacket of Lord Edgware Dies of 1. The ABC Murders by Agatha and the Galanos copy in a slightly made his debut, realised £10,000, 1933 made £22,000. Christie – £38,000 at Sotheby’s. soiled, repaired and later issue jacket and the author’s A Murder of Quality of The latter book had been mostly 2. Murder in the Mews and Other made £2600. the following year, £8500. written on the Greek island of Stories by Christie – £24,000. The binding was skewed and Rhodes, where the author spent bowed, the jacket frayed at the Bond mixed fortunes the autumn of 1931 before joining 3. Lord Edgware Dies by Christie – extremities with some loss, but a 1931, Not part of the Galanos collection her archaeologist husband, Max £22,000. Gollancz first of Dorothy L Sayers’ were two James Bond lots. Mallowan, at Nineveh. 4. Murder on the Orient Express by The Five Red Herrings realised £3000, Ian Fleming’s extensively The Mysterious Mr Quin of 1930 Christie – £11,000. while Henry Wade’s Constable Guard corrected and revised typescript for realised £16,000 and a copy of Thyself! of 1934, its jacket with tape You Only Live Twice, which in the same 5. The Cask by Freeman Wills Crofts Murder on the Orient Express of 1934 repairs to the reverse, made £2000. rooms in 2016 had made £38,000, – £12,000. that still sported its ‘Crime Club A Shilling for Candles by Josephine was left unsold on an estimate of Book of the Month’ wrap-around 6. A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey, published by Methuen in 1936, £80,000-120,000. band reached £11,000. Tey – £3200. had a jacket that was soiled, chipped Sold at a low-estimate £40,000, The earliest of these Christie 7. Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler – £4000. and creased at edges, and as often however, was an uncorrected proof record-breakers was a 1923, UK first happens, had seen the price cut from copy for the 1963, first English of The Murder on the Links, at £6000. the upper flap. As the first book edition of that book which had been written under that pseudonym by heavily marked up prior its serial Beyond Christie Elizabeth Mackintosh, however, it publication in Playboy. In a rarely seen jacket and signed on made £3200. Sotheby’s noted that as well as the title-page, a 1920 first of The Cask, Published that same year, a copy authorial corrections and revisions the first published work of Freeman Many lots came from of Eric Ambler’s first book, The Dark in red ink to 53pp, there were Wills Crofts, made £12,000. The the collection of an Frontier, that had made £2600 as part further extensive corrections and novel is regarded as both the writer’s “ of the Segal collection in the same emendations by the Playboy copy finest achievement and a significant English-educated Greek rooms in 2000 raised £4000 on its editor – including about 16,000 landmark in the genre as a whole. Cypriot politician and return. words marked for deletion. Published just four years earlier, bibliophile Among works of later vintage, a On a previous outing at Sotheby’s, John Buchan’s Greenmantle was the 1961 first of John Le Carré’s Call for in 2012, it had realised £30,000. n 24 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 024-25 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 11:23:09 Send your books news to Ian McKay at [email protected]
Right: John Faber’s British and Irish book auctions posthumously published 4 mezzotint version of a Mar 23* 82-lot Book Section, mostly large boxed lots, Reeman Dansie - Colchester 01206 754754 4 portrait by John Vanderbank Mar 23* Comics Section [mostly US], Capes Dunn - Manchester 0161 432 1911 4 of Nicholas Saunderson Mar 23* 5 lots Books & Ephemera, Rogers Jones - Colwyn Bay 01492 532176 4 (1682-1739) – £1600 at Mar 23* 4-lot Map Section, Roseberys - London 020 8761 2522 4 Dominic Winter. Mar 24 Library of Spetchley Park, Worcs. Pt.1 [150 lots], Chorley’s - Prinknash Abbey 01452 344499 Mar 24 4 Personal Library of the late JW Jackson of Zozimus Books, Purcell - Birr +353 57 912 0270 Mar 24* 4 6 lots Maps, John Nicholson’s - Haslemere 01428 653727 Mar 24* 4 Books, Autographs & Works on Paper, Chiswick Auctions - London 020 8992 4442 ends Mar 24* 4 Single lot: Steve Jobs - Job Application, Charterfields - Manchester 03302020116 Blind but Mar 24, 26 & 31* 4 Autographs, Chaucer Auctions - Folkestone 0800 1701314 Mar 25 4 Fine Books, MSS & Works on Paper, Forum Auctions - London 020 7717 5092 brilliant Mar 25* 4 50-lot Book & Map Section, Greenslade Taylor Hunt - Taunton 01823 332525 Mar 25* 4 43-lot Book Section, Roseberys - London 020 8761 2522 at science Mar 25* 4 20-lot Book Section, Dawsons - Maidenhead 020 7431 9445 Mar 25* 4 16 lots Books & Maps, Shouler & Son - Melton Mowbray 01664 560181 Mar 25* 4 7 lots Books & Maps, Ryedale Auctioneers - Kirkbymoorside 01751 431544 John Faber’s mezzotint Mar 25* 4 5 lots Books & Maps, Duggleby Stephenson - York 01904 393300 version of a portrait by John Mar 26* 4 41 lots Maps + 16 lots Book & Ephemera, Ewbank’s - Woking 01483 223101 Vanderbank of Nicholas Mar 26* 4 12-lot Book Section Herbert Kennard Collection, Roseberys - London 020 8761 2522 Saunderson (1682-1739), a Mar 26* 4 4-lot section including 3 Florence Nightingale Letters, Bamfords - Derby 01332 210000 celebrated blind scientist Mar 26-27* 4 Comics Section, Sean Ecrett - Portlaiose +353 57 686 26290 and mathematician, was Mar 27* 4 11 lots Books & Ephemera, Stamford Auction Rooms - Stamford 01780 411485[ bid to 10 times the high Mar 27* 4 5-lot Book Section, Tennants - Leyburn 01969 623780 estimate in a Dominic Winter (20% Meet the All Blacks Mar 27* 4 8 lots Books & Ephemera, Michael J Bowman - Newton Abbot 01626 324071 buyer’s premium) general clear-out sale Again well over estimate, the day’s ends Mar 27* 4 Sports Ephemera Sections, Midland Sports Auctions - West Bromwich 07966 961852 on February 17. top lot, sold at £4400, included on ends Mar 28* 4 30-lot Book Section, William George - Loughborough 01733 667680 Born in Yorkshire in 1682, he lost his two sheets of paper the signatures ends Mar 28* 4 Book & Ephemera Sections, Southgate Auction Rooms - London 020 8886 7888 sight through smallpox when only a year of 30 rugby players and the words Mar 29-30* 4 33-lot Books & Ephemera Section: Football Sale, Stacey’s - Rayleigh 01268 777122 old, but as he grew up he developed ‘New Zealand Football Team’s visit to Mar 30* 4 Private Press, Antiquarian & other Books Section, Aldridges - Bath 01225 462830 ways to calculate without pencil and Northampton, 28 September 1905’. Mar 30 4 Book Sale for Michael Sobell Hospital Charity, Chaucer Auctions - Folkestone 0800 1701314 paper and in many other ways proved a These were ‘The Originals’, or rather Mar 30* 4 18-lot Book & Ephemera Section, Special Auction Services - Newbury 01635 580595 fine scholar. the original ‘All Blacks’, who in the years Mar 30* 4 8-lot Book Section, Bamfords - Derby 01332 210000 Later, at Cambridge University, he 1905-06 toured Britain, France and North Mar 30* 4 7 lots Book Section: Arms & Armour Sale, Antony Cribb - Newbury 01635 447979 was recognised as an excellent teacher America. They beat Northampton 32-0 Mar 31 4 Fine Books & MSS, Bonhams - London 020 7393 3828 and in 1711 elected Lucasian Professor and on a 35-match UK tour defeated all Mar 31* 4 68-lot Book Section, James & Son - Fakenham 01328 855003 of Mathematics, a post previously held opponents and won all bar one of their Mar 31* 4 Islamic MSS Section, Roseberys - London 020 8761 2522 by his friend Isaac Newton. test matches. They lost 3-0 to Wales at 4 Possessing acute senses of hearing Cardiff Arms Park but overall scored 976 ends Mar 31* 20-lot Book Section, William George - Bournemouth 01733 667680 4 and touch and able to mentally resolve points and conceded just 59. ends Apr 1* 11-lot Book Section, William George - Louth 01733 667680 4 long and intricate mathematical ends Apr 4 Antiquarian & Rare Books, 1818 Auctioneers - Milnthorpe 01539 566201 4 calculations, Saunderson also devised Churchill fan Apr 7 Harry Potter: 1sts & Signed Books, Memorabilia, Hansons - Wolseley Bridge 01889 882397 4 a calculating machine or abacus that Some 50 lots in a December 17 sale Apr 7-8 Books & MSS, Documents, Maps, Bindings etc, Dominic Winter - Sth Cerney 01285 860006 4 enabled him to perform arithmetical and of military and aviation history held Apr 9* Large Book Section, Whitton & Laing - Exeter 01392 252621 algebraic operations by touch alone. in South Cerney included a collection Sales marked with an * are those in which books and ephemera form part of a Known as his “palpable arithmetic”, it formed by the late Major Alan Taylor- larger sale. Sales marked 4 are viewable on thesaleroom.com was described in his posthumously Smith, who on retirement from the published Elements of Algebra. computing world opened a bookshop Auctioneers are asked to send details of specialist book sales, as well as those In 2006, Saunderson’s life was turned specialising in Churchilliana in sales that may contain significant book and ephemera sections, to: into a musical, No Horizon, by Andy Westerham, close to his hero’s much Ian McKay Tel: +44 (0)1795 890475 email: [email protected] Platt, headmaster of Springvale Primary loved private residence at Chartwell. School in Penistone, the Yorkshire Highlights included, at £3800, market town at whose free grammar an 1898 first of The Story of the school Saunderson had learned French, Malakand Field Force... with manuscript Latin and Greek. It was also performed corrections attributed to Churchill, and that same year at an Edinburgh Festival a 47-volume collection of his works, ‘Fringe’ event. mostly firsts and uniformly bound in The mezzotint sold for £1600. red morocco by Sotherans, that made Fine Books, Manuscripts & £22,000. The latter included a first Works on Paper Auction Colonial edition of ...Malakand Live ‘behind closed doors’: Thursday 25th March
Field Force, signed and presented Hamilton (Alexander) Madison (James) and John Jay The Federalist; a Collection of Essays written in favour of the new Constitution, by Churchill to Regimental as agreed upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787, 2 vol., first edition, New York, Printed and sold by J. and A. McLean, 1788. Sergeant Major W Brown of the Est. £60,000-80,000 4th Hussars. Full catalogue and forthcoming sale calendar at: forumauctions.co.uk Left: signatures of 30 rugby players, the original Forum Auctions, 220 Queenstown Road, London SW8 4LP ‘All Blacks’ – £4400. Contact: +44 (0) 20 7871 2640 | [email protected]
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 25
PAGE 024-25 2485.indd 2 19/03/2021 11:26:40 Previews Our weekly selection from salerooms
This painted oak advertising board for South London auction house the Gaiety Theatre has a guide of Roseberys has been instructed £80-120 at Brighton & Hove Auctions to sell the collection of Herbert on March 26. The Gaiety on Park Kennard on March 26. Kennard, who Crescent Place in Brighton was died last year aged 100, still lived in demolished in 1930. the apartment in which he was born, brightonandhoveauctions.co.uk* although he had travelled extensively and worked abroad. A close friend, Ian Turner offered the following memories: “You never visited Herbert but were rather received by him, as he was always seated in a large armchair in his entrance hall. Time keeping was paramount. Five minutes early was unacceptable, and ten minutes late was a total disaster. Herbert’s collecting seemed to have started in earnest, some 40 years ago, when Helen, his Governess, passed away. He adored her, but she didn’t like the idea of Herbert collecting.” Kennard had a deep affection for 18th century English furniture, satinwood in particular and associated works of art such as boxes, tea caddies and trays. Working in Berkeley Square, he made purchases from leading antiques dealers often at the top fairs. This Louis Wain pen and ink sketch is titled This pair of Regency parcel gilt and painted satinwood occasional tables/pole screens Here’s a penny, now go and play on the lawn bought from Ronald Phillips in June 2006 come with an estimate of £2000-3000. next door. Can’t Mum! They have just given roseberys.co.uk* me sixpence to play on yours. To the reverse of the frame is a label for the Brook Street Art Gallery reading This 4ft 6in (1.37m) version of Original Annual drawing by Louis Wain. the well-known BP Motor Spirit At Truro Auction Centre on March 25-26 Union Jack enamel sign by the it is expected to sell for £300-500. Falkirk Iron Co Ltd has a guide of cornwallauction.co.uk* £350-450 at a Collectors Auction held by Special Auction Services in Newbury on March 30. specialauctionservices.com*
This Victorian mahogany adjustable bergere steamer bed has an estimate of £100-200 at Gardiner Houlgate in Corsham, Bath, on March 25. gardinerhoulgate.co.uk*
This 31oz silver askos form claret jug is stamped to the edge of the footrim Storr & Mortimer 134. It has a maker’s mark for John Samuel Hunt (who joined the partnership of Paul Storr and John Mortimer in 1826) and the London date letter for 1838. At Michael Bowman in Newton Abbot, Devon, on March 27 the estimate is £3000-5000. michaeljbowman.co.uk*
In the final two decades of his life, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) frequented Rouen to explore the A rare Penny in the Slot pictorially rich harbour city with its Polyphon called The many striking motifs. This work on Marvel comes for sale offer at Bonhams in London was on March 28. probably executed on one such It is designed trip in either 1896 or 1898. in an ornamented Rouen, bateaux à quai sur walnut case, featuring la Seine is a 9 x 11½in (22.5 x steel tongues and 29.5cm) watercolour and crayon harmonium reeds, on paper signed and inscribed triangle and drum with Rouen C Pissarro to the lower right. an equally ornate stand. Bonhams notes that ‘Dr The stand contains Joachim Pissarro has kindly confirmed that this work will be included in the forthcoming several discs measuring catalogue raisonné of drawings by Camille Pissarro’. Consigned from a private collection, it 2ft 2in (66cm) in diameter. was acquired from JPL Fine Arts, London, in January 1991. The polyphon is estimated at £12,000-15,000 in this sale held by Unique Auctions The estimate on March 25 is £10,000-15,000. of Lincolnshire. bonhams.com* unique-auctions.com* 26 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 026-26 2485.indd 1 18/03/2021 17:35:42 * BID LIVE AT thesaleroom.com Send your previews three weeks in advance of sale Place a max bid before the auction or bid to [email protected] live for these items on thesaleroom.com
Tennants of Leyburn conducts a single-owner sale titled The Curious Collector on March 27. The 400 lots are an eclectic mix of fine art, antiques and design-led furnishings put together with an eye for the unusual and a sense of humour. This ‘cow horn’ day bed by contemporary French designer Michel Haillard has an estimate of £2500-3500. tennants.co.uk*
This unmarked silver counter box made c.1632 is a type associated with the workshops of Simon and Willem de Passe. The Sovereigns of England boxes, pierced to the cover with a bust of Charles I and to the base with Henriette Maria, were originally sold with 36 counters each depicting English monarchs from Edward the Confessor to James I, plus Mary Queen of Scots and other Stuart royals. This example retaining 31 counters comes for sale at Chiswick Auctions in west London on March 31 with a guide of £2000-3000. chiswickauctions.co.uk*
The Dawsons auction in Maidenhead on March 25 includes a collection of Chinese porcelain The March 25 sale at Rendells of Ashburton collection from a London client. includes this unusual Victorian diorama of Elements of the collection were those unsold in a cow and her calf. The animals, made in 1918 when The AF Bowman Collection of Old Chinese painted and carved wood and gesso, are Porcelains was offered across three days in New York. housed in a glazed display case. The name Bowman was chosen by the auctioneers Estimate £80-120. at the time; a westernised version of Adolf Fredrik rendells.co.uk* Bohman, the collector’s real name, given the context of First World War. This Qianlong famille rose porcelain cornucopia wall pocket has an estimate of £400-500. dawsonsauctioneers.co.uk* Islamic Arts & Manuscripts This oil sketch titled Battleships at Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers Wednesday 31 March, 12 noon anchor has been authenticated by Angela Weight, keeper of paintings at the Imperial War Museum from 1981-2005, as the work of Sir John Lavery (1856-1941). Lavery was one of the most prolific official war artists of the First World War and probably painted this scene somewhere along the coast of the Firth of Forth. He painted there in September 1917, in the summer of 1918 and again after the Armistice when the German Grand Fleet was interned at Rosyth. The 10 x 15in (25cm x 37cm) painting is included in a March 28 sale held by Swan Fine Art in association with The Auction Room London with an estimate of £5000-8000. theswan.co.uk*
This George III mahogany Gothic side chair, c.1760, is on offer at Dreweatts of Donnington Priory on March 30-31 from the family of well-known local collector Daisy Fellowes. Her home Donnington Grove was built in 1763 for the historian and antiquarian James An Iznik pottery footed bowl, Turkey, 17th century Pettit Andrews and designed in Strawberry Hill £1,500- £1,800* Gothic style. The chair bears many similarities with chairs Please visit our website to view the fully illustrated catalogue designed by Richard Bentley and made by the www.roseberys.co.uk London cabinet-maker William Hallett. Estimate £3000-5000. 70/76 Knights Hill, London SE27 0JD | [email protected] | +44 (0) 20 8761 2522 dreweatts.com* *Plus Buyer’s Premium +VAT (30% inclusive of VAT)
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 27
PAGE 026-26 2485.indd 2 18/03/2021 17:37:07 Everyone
has a book It’s called an in them autobiography
It’s the one no one else can write
The day you became a collector
The chance with Thomas encounter Chippendale that changed your next 50 years
“What are all these things?” ask the grandchildren
It’s time to tell your story
The gift of a lifetime
LifeBook is the world’s leading autobiography and memoir service, and more than 8000 people already own the life story of someone they love. Now through 12 face-to-face or video interviews, you can tell yours and create a unique piece of family treasure. Your very own handcrafted, hardback book, to share with generations to come. This winter it’s time to tell your story. Find out more by calling us on 0800 084 1376 or visit lifebookuk.com
PAGE 028 2485.indd 2 18/03/2021 17:05:00 Now the country’s largest High Street outlet antiques centres, Antiques On High opens in Bowness on Windermere, offering dealers a unique opportunity to maximise sales across the UK. Unrivalled in our unique ability to offer you three premier high street locations for your stock: High Street, Oxford, Fore Street, Sidmouth (Devon) and now Crag Brow, Bowness on Windermere, you will not need to venture any further afield than your local store. HOW DOES IT WORK? Take a full cabinet or equivalent space in any one of our three stores and you are automatically offered a cabinet or equivalent space in both other stores (subject to stock lines) for just £10 a month (per store) plus one day a month working in the store closest to you. Your stock is taken to the additional stores and set up for you, in your cabinet. You are provided with photographic updates upon request. We travel between stores, as does our area manager, transporting stock to where it is needed most, meeting the effects of supply and demand as much as is possible. Bucking the trend, our stores are fully carpeted, regularly decorated, equipped with L.E.D. lighting and in the winter are fully heated, making them a warm and inviting environment for the customer to venture into. Oxford benefits from air conditioning which is more than welcome in the summer months. Your stock is protected by ADT alarms and CCTV, both of which can be accessed ‘live’ from mobile devices. Each store has a continuous slideshow of stock pieces run on a screen in the window along with a Google Home device instore for making all manner of questions more of an interaction with the customer. All our stores are proudly sponsored by National Business Communications, powering our internet and telephone lines. We run three social media accounts for each store which are updated on a daily basis and linked into our website and we also advertise in local press at no cost to you. Naturally we take all major credit and debit cards.
If you want an unrivalled opportunity to market and sell your stock in the country’s largest High Street antiques retail outlet contact us at [email protected] Or telephone us direct on 07473 007474 Locations:
Antiques On High Antiques On High Sidmouth Antiques On High Oxford Bowness on Windermere 85 High Street, Oxford 26 Fore Street, Sidmouth Crag Brow, Bowness on Windermere OX1 4BG EX10 8AQ LA23 3BX
NB. Folio strap (left or right) - to include date and ATG url etc...
PAGE 029 2485.indd 2 19/03/2021 13:49:22 Dealers’ Diary
There once was an artist called Lear...... whose painting skill is now clear... as a first selling exhibition for 30 years underlines
by Gabriel Berner
Though he is best known today for limericks and sending the owl and the pussy cat to sea in a beautiful pea green boat, Edward Lear (1812-88) was an artist by trade. It was not until the Royal Academy held a major show of his work in 1985 that his achievements with the paintbrush were brought to the attention of the general public. A selection of works from the Edward Lear exhibition at Guy Peppiatt Fine Art: Since then, exhibitions have been Above left: Study of two Water Shrews, a 4½ x 10in (11 x 24cm) watercolour – £8500. held at the Ashmolean Museum Above right: Corfu Town from Vido with Agioi Deka in the distance, a 12 x 18in (30 x 46cm) watercolour – £30,000. and on the island of Corfu (where he later lived), while the first major Below left: There was an old Lady whose Folly Induced her to sit upon Holly, 9 x 7in (23 x 18cm), pen and brown ink – £12,500. biography on Lear as an artist was Below right: Pallanza, Lago Maggiore, a 7 x 15in (18 x 38cm) watercolour – £24,000. published in 2017. Now, the first selling exhibition dedicated to Lear’s pictures for at least 30 years is under way at St James’s gallery Guy Peppiatt Fine Art. The online-only show, which runs until April 9, includes more than 30 drawings and watercolours covering his artistic career. “Lear’s paintings and drawings have over the years become better known,” says the gallery’s Guy Peppiatt, although he admits to being surprised by the lack of recent exhibitions on his work. “His distinctive style, which evolved out of his desire to rapidly American ornithologist John James limerick drawings, the earliest of completed in the studio and on-the- capture the myriad subjects before Audubon and has prompted David which date from his time entertaining spot sketches. him, and his dynamic use of colour in Attenborough, a collector of Lear’s children at Knowsley Hall while The exhibition contains a few of both oil and watercolour are a visual work, to describe him as “probably he was under the patronage of the Lear’s early landscape drawings such reflection of the man, his insatiable the best ornithological illustrator Earl of Derby. Published in the Book as two views of Koblenz and Geneva curiosity and his individuality.” that ever was”. of Nonsense, it is inscribed with the drawn on his way to Rome in 1837 This early period is represented limerick: There was an old lady whose and a finished drawing of nearby Born survivor in the exhibition by a watercolour folly/Induced her to sit upon holly;/ Tivoli from 1841. Lear was born into a middle- of two water shrews drawn when Whereupon, by a thorn/Her dress being Lear’s early drawings are class family in north London, the Lear was 20, probably executed at torn,/She quickly became melancholy. distinguished by the use of pencil penultimate of 21 children and the the Zoological Society Gardens in At the age of 25, failing eyesight heightened with white bodycolour youngest to survive. He suffered Regent’s Park (which later evolved caused Lear to give up his detailed in the manner of the popular ill health, including epilepsy, and into London Zoo). The shrews ornithological work, and in 1837, he Victorian drawing master James at the age of four was sent to live may have originally belonged to set off for Rome. Duffield Harding. with his elder sister Ann, who the artist’s patron, Thomas Bell Apart from a period in the early Views drawn on Corfu where Lear encouraged his natural talent for (1792-1880), who was a professor of 1850s, he would never again live lived from 1850-64 include a large drawing and painting. zoology at King’s College in London. in England. For the next 50 years, finished watercolour he worked up in Lear was already drawing “for Also included are two of his famous he travelled all over the world his studio of Corfu Town and Agioi bread and cheese” by the time he supporting himself through his Deka, the island’s second-largest was 16 and soon developed into a drawings, watercolours and writings. mountain. serious ornithological draughtsman. A number of late Italian works He was employed by the Zoological Lear landscapes show views drawn at Monte Society and then in the early 1830s Today, Lear’s landscapes are rated Generoso and Lago Maggiore, not far by the Earl of Derby, who had a highly on the secondary market. from Lear’s home at San Remo where private menagerie. David Attenborough Prices range from high six-figure he lived from 1870 until his death. His first publication, Illustrations “describes Lear as sums for his best oils (Christie’s Drawings from his trips to Egypt, of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots ‘probably the best set an auction record for the artist Malta, Jerusalem and the Holy (1830) was published when he was when it sold an Egyptian view for Land, and Corsica also feature in 19. It was favourably compared ornithological illustrator £820,000) to four and three-figure the show. n to the works by renowned that ever was’ sums for finished watercolours he peppiattfineart.co.uk 30 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 030-31 2485.indd 1 18/03/2021 16:47:19 Send your dealer news to [email protected]
The web shop window Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.
The Manhattan Rare Book Company is offering this first-edition copy of An Elementary Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus from the personal library of Lord Byron’s daughter, the scientist and mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-52). Written by French mathematician Silvestre François Lacroix (1765-1843), the book was Above: large group of Roman bronze figures – estimate £8000-12,000 a key text driving the advance of English at Roseberys on March 24. science and logic during the first half of the 19th century. It was translated into English in 1816 by Charles Babbage and two other Just a Few things you students at Cambridge University. The book is Lovelace’s copy from that first English edition and has around 35 ink may be interested in annotations in her hand, plus some 20 pencil annotations by her tutor, the mathematician Items assembled by well-known returned home in the holidays. Augustus De Morgan. antiques dealer Ted Few will go “My curiosity and enthusiasm Lovelace’s initials, AAL, are shown in gilt on the spine and the blind stamps of under the hammer at London have always been aroused by things East Horsley Towers, seat of the Lovelace family, appear on the endpaper and title. auction house Roseberys. which have a distinctive personality This mathematical text is priced at $135,000. The sale, to be held online on or move me in some way,” he says. March 24 under the title Ted Few: An Estimated at £8000-12,000 is a manhattanrarebooks.com Idiosyncratic Eye Collection, includes large group of Roman bronze figures, more than 400 lots of objects and 6th century BC-3rd century AD, paintings collected throughout the with provenance to Sigmaringen dealer’s long career. Castle in Germany. Few, who is indeed well known for The group may have begun his idiosyncratic style and taste, is in the 19th century with Prince 5 Questions among a number of dealers to sell via Karl Anton of Hohenzollern- auction recently as fair cancellations Sigmaringen (1811-85). His son and shops closures have made Leopold, who travelled through Esther Fitzgerald Bloomsbury group in the UK and the trading difficult. many of the regions in Italy where handles textiles Algonquin Round table in the USA. He began dealing from an early the bronzes originate, is thought to from across the She sold a work for £400 in 1925. She age, buying art and objects from have added to it. globe covering was published in The Studio Magazine, antiques shops and markets near The group comprises 27 figures a time span of Vogue and Time Magazine – a very Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, principally of Hercules, but others 2000 years. She impressive woman. has been trading where he was at school, and selling include Diana, Mars and Cupid. 4 them to local dealers when he roseberys.co.uk for three decades What is one challenge that buyers and is based in Hampstead, London. and/or collectors currently face? estherfitzgerald.com Seeing the object and the dealer in one place. 1 How do you define the field you Sickert view trade in/your area of expertise? 5 One question it is important for I deal in rare textiles from all cultures people to ask before buying? of ‘Kikely’ from the 1st century through to Does it enhance my life? Post-modernism. I have written two Walter Sickert (1860-1942) first met Cicely Hey books on the The Seed and Spirit of at a public lecture in 1923. The very next day Modernism looking at the textiles of Hey arrived at his studio in Fitzroy Street and that period. continued to sit for Sickert over the next decade. A striking model, though not in the conventional 2 What is one little known fact sense, Hey (or ‘Kikely’ as Sickert nicknamed her) about your field? Or dealing in was described by the writer, Frances Partridge, as general? “rather elfin or pixie-like” in appearance. That history of textiles is older, deeper Sickert was less flattering, writing in a letter to and wider than the history of art. Hey “God made your face with a chopper”, although he also wrote of her “funny little beautiful, sane dear face”. 3 One great discovery you’ve Hey was an artist of note in her own right, having studied at the Slade and, made? towards the end of the 1920s, she exhibited at the Lefevre Gallery which included her Gosh, only one. I discovered an own drawings of Sickert and Duncan Grant among others. embroiderer called Marian Stoll Above: textile work by Connecticut- This 23½ x 17½in (60 x 44cm) portrait of Hey by Sickert (above right) has resided (1879-1960) who straddled both the born embroiderer Marian Stoll. in a private collection and is for sale at Skymeadow Gallery in Essex, a specialist in Modern British art, priced at £15,000. If you would like to be featured in 5 Questions, please contact skymeadowgallery.com [email protected]
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 31
PAGE 030-31 2485.indd 2 18/03/2021 16:48:04 Spotlight Online bidding
The key moment Fifteen years ago an auction was held which heralded the online transformation in the bidding process and opened sales up to potential buyers across the world, as Matt Ball reports
A unicorn perched on top of an antique piano in an entrance hall greeted the 10,000 visitors who viewed the contents of a recent country house sale. None of them had come in person, of course. We soon grasped that the Due to the current lockdown, they were all rhythm and flow of the auction perusing the vast collection of eclectic items online “ thanks to a special virtual tour that enabled them had started to change forever to walk through every room in the house and see the lots in situ. The tour was just one of a host of online Broadband boon Ahead of its first live online auction, initiatives undertaken by Dreweatts, the auction By 2006 faster connections were widely available however, one communication challenge house running the Aynhoe Park country house sale and thesaleroom.com – which had been spun out remained. “Our primary concern at the in January this year, to ensure that as many people of antiquestradegazette.com (and was, and still time was the practical reality of both multi- as possible would browse the catalogue and bid. is, owned by ATG’s parent company) – was ready second latency and the inherent instability of The two-day live online-only auction turned to host live sales in addition to the online auction ADSL internet connectivity,” says Ludwig. out to be a white-glove sale. With so many bids catalogues it had been providing. “Happily a dedicated ‘leased line’ resolved this from 3000 online registrants and two rooms of A number of auction houses were ready to concern, albeit the monthly BT bill to connect staff taking phone bids, it proceeded more slowly try out the new service from mid-March with Donnington Priory to the Reading exchange than usual and the auctioneers on the rostrum took Dreweatt Neate, as it was known at the time, the probably outweighed the incremental income regular breaks, to be replaced by a colleague. first one. Its owner back then was Stephan Ludwig, from additional bidders in the early years!” One of the auctioneers that day was Clive now chief executive at Forum Auctions. While this was being arranged, ATG was Stewart-Lockhart, a former Dreweatts managing “What excited me most about ATG’s initiative director and now a self-employed art consultant, was the certainty that its newspaper subscribers who had been drafted in to help out. “I was selling and growing community of digital registrants items for £100,000 that hadn’t been physically would deliver an immediate critical mass of new seen,” he said, noting how lockdown had made buyers to our auctions,” he recalls. “To this day, remote browsing and buying the norm. their delivery of fresh buyers is one of our most While the success of the Aynhoe Park sale and important buyer-acquisition tools. its online promotional campaign represents another “I had first invested in the auction industry milestone for online auctioneering, 15 years ago in 2000 led, in part, by the conviction that this month at the same firm Stewart-Lockhart had e-commerce style execution and fulfilment taken another landmark sale: the first auction to use would lead to a transformation in the industry’s live bidding on thesaleroom.com. revenue and costs. It remains a matter of pride It was this sale, held on March 15, 2006, that that my firm produced the first auction held over launched the modern era of internet bidding thesaleroom.com.” among UK regional auction houses and paved the Being an early adopter of technology was way towards the world of online auctions as we nothing new to Dreweatt Neate. Its original know them today. telephone number was Newbury 1 – indicating “I had actually done a live auction earlier on the firm was the first in its area to get connected in the dial-up era,” Stewart-Lockhart recalls. (the original handset was recently rediscovered “It was never going to work but there was in a cupboard at the firm’s premises). Later, when obviously a good idea there. It was clearly a way its hometown had become the headquarters of engaging people who can’t turn up and for the of Vodafone, the auction house’s staff were all vendor we would be providing a new bidder who equipped with mobile phones well before the might be spending more.” device had become mainstream elsewhere. 32 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 032-34 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 15:06:39 Main picture: the real turning point. We were there experiencing a Aynhoe Park unicorn little glimpse into how it might be in the future.” on the piano within There was no live video stream yet for bidders, the 360˚ virtual tour. just live audio for them to hear the action going Left: Clive Stewart- on in the room. Binning’s colleagues, sat at a table near the rostrum, monitored the online activity Lockhart at the and raised their hand to indicate a new internet Dreweatt Neate bid had been received. auction and at the And it was not just the way the audience could Aynhoe Park sale bid that had changed. “We soon grasped that the (above). rhythm and flow of the auction had started to change forever,” says Binning. “Up to that point you were in control of the speed but now there was busy promoting the auction with an advertising Sotheby’s Olympia to allow it to stage this shot in a slight detachment of the bidder that we’d never campaign that ran not only in Antiques Trade its premises may never be known. experienced before.” Gazette but across a range of other publications With no opportunity to read body language in the UK, the US and Australia. One advert All change and no way to make eye contact, auctioneers had featured a picture of a lot from the sale with the On the day of the Antique Furniture & Clocks sale to adapt quickly. They were grateful for a new strapline ‘On March 15 you can bid on this globe Stewart-Lockhart shared proceedings with fellow ‘hovering’ feature that was soon introduced to from anywhere on it’. auctioneer Elaine Binning (a 25-year veteran enable them to see how many bidders had their Another showed a room of bidders in corporate of Dreweatts, she now works as a consultant at cursor over the bid button and when live video was attire except for a lady in the front row wearing Woolley & Wallis). added a couple of years later they also had to start a white dressing gown with a laptop in front of “There was a real hush in the room,” says performing to the camera for the bidders at home her. ‘Now you can bid there without being there,’ Binning. “People were aware of what was going on as well as for the bidders in the room. it proclaimed. Quite how ATG had persuaded as that first lot was sold. With hindsight it was a A total of 191 online bidders registered for the Dreweatt Neate sale and bid on 154 of the 376 lots. In the end, a more modest 13 lots were sold to online buyers for a total of £5,510 hammer, representing 1.6% of the sale by value. The top lot sold online was a nineteenth century telescope for £1300. One of the other lots was an early Victorian rosewood work box sold for £150 (pictured on page 34). The buyer was ATG’s Simon Berti bidding from the firm’s London There was a real hush office, which is where the box can be found today – “in the room – people with its original lot label still attached. were aware of what Sales take off was going on as that The second live auction, held at Tennants on March 18, fared even better with around 10% sold through first lot sold the internet, and at the two-day sale at Bamfords on March 21-22 an impressive 129 lots sold online (9% of the total) for a hammer value of £35,069. Other live auctions quickly followed at firms including Wallis & Wallis, Byrne’s, Sworders, WH Far left: advertisement from Lane, Paul Beighton, Peter Wilson and Neales. the Gazette. Across March and April Dreweatt Neate held a series of sales with live bidding at its venues in Left: thesaleroom.com as it looked in 2006. Continued on page 34
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 33
PAGE 032-34 2485.indd 2 19/03/2021 15:07:11 Spotlight Online bidding
“We are constantly challenging and re- imagining the way we present our sales, but Covid-19 has forced us to do this in double-quick time. From creating virtual tours and offering remote viewings via Facetime, to multi-room Left: clippings telephone bidding and multiple online bidding from Antiques Trade platforms, sales have been made more accessible Gazette. Far left, the not just to UK bidders but also to a wider report on the first international audience. sale at Dreweatt “People who would usually be unable to view Neate and left, report an exhibition in person are now able to explore on the second sale at the galleries, assess colour and consider scale. It Tennants. allows bidders to feel a part of the event and bid confidently. “All helped to capture the feel and flare of an event sale while being conducted behind closed doors and predominantly through digital platforms. A passionate and imaginative team and energetic auctioneers also help.” The road ahead What does the next 15 years hold for online video calls and held an online event about creating bidding in art and antiques? a country house in the 21st century with guest The current pandemic has accelerated trends I expect the days of a full speakers such as designer Thomas Heatherwick. already under way: buyers are increasingly willing These initiatives were backed up by preview videos to browse and bid without the need for viewings, “saleroom are a thing of the past posted on YouTube and a 396-page interactive particularly when lots are well-photographed and catalogue to accompany the more traditional accompanied by condition reports; timed auctions printed version. are on the rise as are the hammer values of the Continued from page 33 The extensive marketing campaign and items sold in them; auctioneers are eager to spend innovative digital promotions underline the effort less time arranging and presenting lots within their Donnington Priory, Marlborough, Bristol and required to make such a major sale successful premises and more time gaining consignments and Godalming. It became clear to Ludwig that online today. It clearly paid off with online biddders creatively marketing their sales. buyers were comfortable vying for a wide range of registering from more than 40 different countries. Crucially, fulfilment and delivery services will different lots. “In those early months I recall being Joe Robinson, head of house sales and become increasingly important because more most surprised by the extent to which ‘brown collections at Dreweatts and the specialist in remote buyers mean fewer collections in person. furniture’ and heavy Victorian framed art was charge of the Aynhoe Park sale, says: “House sales “I expect the days of a full saleroom are a thing bought online,” he says. are sales which have traditionally captured a great of the past,” concludes Stewart-Lockhart. “Having initially dwelt on the benefits of online deal of interest and ignite a great deal of energy “Why drive hundreds of miles to wait around bidding for items that could be easily despatched around them – it is how you harness this energy for two lots? Online bidding has been a huge in a jiffy bag, we hadn’t really considered the as well as adapt with the changing face of the art bonus. Those who adopted it have thrived impact on bidders of bulkier lots being able to use market which determines the success. with it.” n their time more effectively. “While there was initially no material increase in bidding for items ‘unseen’, the freedom to participate in auctions remotely without the inconvenience of negotiating telephone bids was a tremendous boon to both privates and the trade. “Within 12 months of our implementation of live online bidding we were seeing 20% of lots selling over the internet with this rising to around 40% by 2010.” Modern-day bidding Fast forward to 2021 where the Dreweatts of today - now owned by art consultancy Gurr Johns – sold 79% of lots to online buyers at the Aynhoe Park auction. The auction house had recently chosen thesaleroom.com’s white label service to power the Dreweatts Live online bidding on its own website and had decided to run timed auctions with thesaleroom.com as well. “I like to keep things simple,” says managing director Jonathan Pratt. “It allows us to synchronise all the things we are doing for clients and ensure they are all marketed in the same way.” The two-day live auction was followed by a timed auction on the third day of more than Above: the Victorian work box bought by ATG for £150. These days such an item would not make three figures at auction. 200 lots which took the sale total to a premium- We asked Elaine Binning, who brought the hammer down on it in 2006, to write us a 2021 version of the lot description inclusive £4.1 million. As well as the 360˚ virtual based on the photo. She catalogued it as ‘an early Victorian rosewood rectangular work box, c.1840, with mother of pearl tour, the firm also provided remote viewing via inlay and pewter stringing, the pink silk interior with a compartmentalised removable tray’. 34 | 27 March 2021 antiquestradegazette.com
PAGE 032-34 2485.indd 3 19/03/2021 15:08:21 Auction in Versailles, April 3rd & 4th L ES G RANDS S IÈCLES - T F - Agrément 2002 135 - Commissaire-Priseur habilité : Jean-Pierre Osenat habilité : Jean-Pierre Agrément 2002 135 - Commissaire-Priseur
PAINTINGS / DRAWINGS / SCULPTURES / WORKS OF ART & DECORATION / FURNITURE / TAPESTRY...
66 avenue de Breteuil 75007 Paris Contact : David Gelly, Auctioneer 9-11 rue Royale 77300 Fontainebleau www.osenat.com French Fine Taste department 13 avenue de Saint-Cloud 78000 Versailles [email protected] +33 (0)6 19 26 01 53
antiquestradegazette.com 27 March 2021 | 35
PAGE 035 2485.indd 1 19/03/2021 15:05:11 antiques trade 7 1 -2 0 2 1 9 1 To place your order call us now on +44 (0)20 3725 5507
THE A RT M AR KET W EEKLY
S
E or order online at E R 50years D antiquestradegazette.com/subscribe V A I R N T Special SUBSCRIPTION OFFER or complete the form below: G E T H Place it in an envelope and mail it FREE of charge to: Antiques Trade Gazette Freepost RTHX-RYZY-YUHA (UK only), Subscribe now and The Harlequin Building, 65 Southwark Street, London SE1 0HR
receive 2 FREE gifts Direct Debit (UK only) Subscribe now and receive ❑ 2 FREE Gifts Your Subscription Includes: Just £39.75 per quarter for a Print & Digital subscription by Direct Debit (just £3.18 per week – saving 36% on the shop price) Weekly delivery of the newspaper Name of bank Unlimited access to Address antiquestradegazette.com Postcode Antiques Trade Gazette mobile and tablet app Name(s) of account holder(s)
Gazette Morning Briefing email Bank/building society account number Branch sort code Antiques Trade Gazette online archive Instructions to your bank or building society to pay by Direct Debit going back to January 2017 Service User Number: Service user name: Metropress Ltd Registered address: The Harlequin Building, 65 Southwark Street, London SE1 OHR, UK Please pay Metropress Ltd Direct Debits from the account detailed in this Instruction subject to the 7 1 -2 0 2 1 6 9 1 3 7 1 9 1
ISSUE 2479 | antiquestradegazette.com | 13 February 2021 | UK £4.99 | USA $7.95 | Europe €5.50 safeguards assured by the Direct Debit Guarantee. I understand that this Instruction may remain
S
E with Metropress Ltd and, if so, details will be passed electronically to my bank/building society. E R 50years D koopman rare art V A I R N T antiques trade G T H E KOOPMAN (see Client Templates for issue versions)
THE ART MARKET WEEKLY [email protected] +44 (0)20 7242 7624 Signature Date www.koopman.art 7 1 -2 0 2 1 9 1
ISSUE 2480 | antiquestradegazette.com | 20 February 2021 | UK £4.99 | USA $7.95 | Europe €5.50
S
E E R 50years D koopman rare art Banks and building societies may not accept Direct Debit mandates from some types of account. V A I R N T antiques trade G T H E KOOPMAN Dealer portal Caroline Lay (pictured below), art sale (see Client Templates manager at David Lay, is the great-great for issue versions) takes over niece of Ella Naper who sat for this painting THE ART MARKET WEEKLY [email protected] +44 (0)20 7242 7624 THE DIRECT DEBIT GUARANTEE by Laura Knight. It sold for £105,000 in www.koopman.art 70-year-old Penzance on January 28. l This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits. l If there are any Chelsea fair Saved from the ashes of Ossian’s Hall changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit, Metropress Ltd will notify you 10 working days in advance of This 1878 watercolour of the interior of Penicuik House, by Laura Chesters Midlothian, is almost all that remains of one of the grandest rooms in Victorian Scotland. The Grand Saloon your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request Metropress Ltd to collect a payment, confirmation of the was known as Ossian’s Hall on account of a ceiling Chelsea Antiques Fair is to return later painted by Alexander Runciman in the 1770s with scenes this year under the ownership of an from the Poems of Ossian. amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request. l If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by Sadly, Penicuik was reduced to a shell by fire in 1899 online dealing platform. but the large Indo-French carpet that adorned the saloon Caroline Penman, who has run the floor survived. Originally brought back from Pondicherry by Edward Clerk (1824-1917) of the 4th Madras Cavalry as Metropress Ltd or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your venerable event at the Chelsea Old Town a gift for his father, it was sold by his descendants at Lyon Hall since the early 1980s, had recently & Turnbull in Edinburgh on February 11. See page 6 been looking to sell the event. bank or building society – If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when Metropress Ltd asks you to. She has now agreed a deal for an Pick undisclosed fee with 2Covet.com founders of the l You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be Steve Sly, Charles Wallrock (both dealers) week and marketing specialist Zara Rowe. required. Please also notify us. While coronavirus restrictions remain in EU proposes ban on import place there is no confirmed date for the first Coins and medals ‘up 15-20%’ during and export of antique ivory fair. However, an event in autumn this year £53m year for London’s salerooms is planned. Despite the near absence of fall in the number of lots estimates that coins and New proposals by the states. Trade within the EU of face-to-face trading, 2020 offered. The market benefited medals increased in value by European Commission to ivory ‘worked’ prior to 1947 was a record year for from buyers having extra “around 15-20% on average prevent the commercial export plus musical instruments made ‘Return to former glory’ London’s coins and medals collecting time during the across the board” in 2020. and import of most antiques prior to 1975 will be permitted auction houses with Covid-19 restrictions and what The roller-coaster 12 months containing ivory have been (with added paperwork and combined total sales just Spink (with sales of £9.9m) featured several auction described by The British certificates required) but the Sly, Wallrock and Rowe created 2Covet.com shy of £53m. described as “a crossroads landmarks, including a new Antique Dealers Association sale of such items into and out The headline figure, where the veteran collector record for any classical coin set (BADA) as “hugely damaging of the EU will be banned. in 2019 as a platform for dealers to sell published in this issue as part of meets the technologically by Roma Numismatics during and disproportionate”. BADA secretary general online. ATG’s annual survey of the savvy investor resulting in an extraordinary year in which On January 28, the EC Mark Dodgson said: “The Pick capital’s numismatic auction explosive auction results”. the firm almost doubled its published draft measures recommendation to prevent Sly said: “With the continued threat of scene, represented a rise of Pierce Noonan, CEO of Dix year-on-year sales to £17.8m. designed to control the sale of more than 10% despite a 3.5% Noonan Webb (£13.6m), See page 10-16 elephant ivory within member Continued on page 4 of the TH Payment Card Details Covid on our minds we strongly feel the RARE COINS AUCTION SATURDAY 12 JUNE market will relish smaller boutique events So what am I bid for week such as the historic Chelsea Antiques Fair. It is a time to return the fair to its former glory years.” my great-great aunt? The fair would normally run in March NUMISMATIC but last year’s edition was cancelled due to A nude study by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) found time and is now in the National Portrait Gallery. AUCTION 1 year UK Print & Digital subscription - £179 the virus. plenty of admirers when it appeared at the latest fine art The auctioneer on the rostrum on January 28 was her t. (00377) 93 25 00 42 [email protected] Great Britain George III. Dollar double Australia 5 pounds Adelaide 1852 Austria Leopold I ❑ The autumn event will host around 30 sale held by Penzance saleroom David Lay (18% buyer’s great-great niece Caroline Lay, who is art sale manager at www.mdc.mc obverse pattern. NGC PF66* ULTRA CAMEO PCGS SP66+ 5 ducats 1669 dealers, initially inviting 2Covet members premium). the auction house. and former Chelsea exhibitors, across a Dating from c.1913, it depicts Ella Naper – the same The catalogue entry suggested this was an ‘early study seven-day event. sitter who appears in the artist’s most famous painting of Ella Naper that led to Knight’s most celebrated work’. 1 year International Print & Digital subscription £260 Self-portrait with nude which dates from around the same Continued on page 8 ❑ Continued on page 5
Forthcoming Auctions ❑ Visa/Debit card ❑ Mastercard ❑ American Express ❑ Maestro Fine Art & Antiques | 20th February Signed & Designed | 5th March See details Jewellery, Watches & Silver | 20th March on page 7 Card number
t. 01765 699200 Bid live at: www.elstobandelstob.co.uk Ripon Business Park, Charter Road, Ripon, HG4 1AJ Expiry Date - Security Code
PLUS two Signature Date FREE gifts Payment Cheque Details
Sold! Fifty objects and their stories ❑ 1 year UK Print & Digital subscription - £179 ❑ 1 year International Print & Digital subscription £260 I enclose a cheque for £ Please make your cheque payable to Auction Technology Group
1971-2021 Your Details Mrs/Mr/Miss/Ms First name Surname Email Address
7 1 -2 0 2 1 9 1
A SPECIAL SELECTION OF ARTICLES FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF
S
E E R 50years D V A Postcode I N R G T T H E RRP £39.00 Telephone number
Sold! Fifty objects Special 50th anniversary By submitting your information, you agree to our Privacy Policy available at antiquestradegazette.com and their stories limited edition tea towel OFFER ENDS: 31 March 2021 Usual price £39.00