Kerry Taylor Antique and Vintage Fashion and Textiles, Tuesday April 17Th 2012 by Zita Thornton
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Textiles Kerry Taylor Antique and Vintage Fashion and Textiles, Tuesday April 17th 2012 By Zita Thornton hether belonging to Princess Diana, WKate Middleton or Audrey Hepburn, Kerry Taylor has offered some amazing celebrity dresses in past sales and this current sale was no exception. Three stunning, mid- twentieth dresses from the wardrobe of the film star Margaret Lockwood achieved the expected bids. The first Fig 1. Lot 58 was a pretty Victor Stiebel at Jacqmar dance dress in cafe au lait lace over tulle petticoats, with a brown velvet ribbon and bow trim. Right on the button for today’s fashion, the hammer fell at £280. The second Lockwood offering Fig 2. Lot 59 was an elegant Norman Hartnell off the shoulder dance dress, this time in ivory lace. With an unusual scalloped hemline and neck and waistline studded with rhinestones, beads and silver embroidery it was no surprise that this achieved £400. The third eye catching dress from Margaret Lockwood, Fig 3. Lot 60 was a full chiffon ballgown, swathed in star spangled Fig 3. Lot 60. Margaret Lockwood’s tulle which must have sparkled in the flash light of the photogra- Victor Stiebel at Jacqmar ball gown, phers at the Empire, Leicester Square when she wore it in c1952, labelled, of cream chiffon October 1952. Understandably this dress was the costliest of the Fig 1. Lot 58. Margaret Lockwood’s overlaid with blue tulle embroidered three and bidding raised £550. Victor Stiebel at Jacqmar cafe au lait with gold stars and spangled with After the success of those three lots, brisk bidding achieved lace dance dress, mid 1950s, gold sequins, Worn at the Empire labelled, with boned bodice, brown Leicester square, October 1952, above expected results for the next few lots of nineteenth century where she was photographed in the garments. Fig 4. Lot 61 was a Spitalfields brocaded silk gown velvet ribbon and bow to the breast, layered tulle petticoats, bust 86cm, company of Herbert Wilcox. £550. with a good provenance. The silk itself originated from around 34in, waist 71cm, 28in., £280. 1780 and was made into a gown circa 1840. Indeed, it was accompanied by a photograph of a contemporary engraving of a lady wearing the gown, with yet another, later photograph of a young woman wearing the gown in the 1930s. The hammer fell at an above high end estimate of £800. Further Victorian or Edwardian lots fared equally well. For instance a wine silk printed dress, labelled Nicholls & Co of Knightsbridge raised £300, Fig 5. Lot 62. A group of dress bodices and some accessories raised twice the high end estimate at £600, a pretty pink embroidered muslin tea gown, circa 1911, labelled Bradleys & Sons, Fig 6. Lot 156, £350 and the star from this period was a beautiful and very wearable embroidered tulle bridal gown circa 1900 which realised £1,400, Fig 7. Lot 388. Moving forward to the mid-twentieth century saw a highly successful sale of vintage clothes from the 1960s. Brisk bidding raised the values of designers including Givenchy, Jeanne Lanvin, Courreges, Dior, Yves St Laurent and Chanel. The hammer fell at a whopping £950 for Fig 8. Lot 98, two Chanel tweed suits. Other lots from these designers saw bids of up to Fig 4. Lot 61. A Spitalfields £650 such as Fig 9. Lot 94, a Jeanne Lanvin watermelon, brocaded silk gown, the silk c1780, slubbed silk cocktail dress and bolero jacket. Excited bidding for the construction c1840, the fitted Fig 10. Lot 87 two Teddy boy jackets known as drapes, with a bodice with light boning, V-shaped grey wool Beatle jacket achieved a surprising £400. waist piped and edged in green and Fig 2. Lot 59. Margaret Lockwood’s beige satin, trimmed with three bows, Two examples of 1960s ‘kitsch’ were the novelty mini dresses, blonde lace to the short sleeves, bust one formed from beige cotton printed with ‘Be Beautiful in a Norman Hartnell dance dress, early 1950s, labelled, of ivory lace, with 72cm, 28in, waist 56cm 22in, with a Potato Sack....fill with 100 lbs or more of charm and save money cap sleeves, boned bodice, neckline photograph of an engraving of a on new French inspired creations’, the other printed with a and belt encrusted with rhinestones lady wearing this gown c1840, Venetian gondolier. Together with a pair of white vinyl Courreges silver beads and embroidery, bust another large photographic picture style boots they realised £350. 92cm, 36in, waist 61cm, 24in. £400. of a young woman wearing the gown in the 1930s. (3) £800. ANTIQUES INFO - July/August 12 Textiles Vintage Textiles continued There were also plenty of later Chanel examples from the 1980s and 1990s which sold equally well. Bags and costume jewellery realised good prices too, for instance a beige leather quilted shopper raised £550 for a charity and a group of chunky costume jewellery pieces sold for £480. From the 1940s my favourite was Fig 11. Lot 222, a group of eight very wearable dresses along with three 1950s coats. The hammer fell at a very reasonable £180, less than £30 per garment and vastly cheaper than High Street reproductions. From around the same period was a delightful fashion design sketchbook featuring thirty-six front and back views of gowns and day ensembles between 1935 and 1940. Fig 12. lot 365, £550. Uniquely unusual and very topical in this Diamond Jubilee year was Fig 13. Lot 366. This rare Horrockses printed Fig 5. Lot 62. A printed silk dress, Fig 8. lot 98. A Chanel couture pink circa 1888-90, the wine silk with checked tweed suit, late 1960s, cotton shirtwaister was a 1953 Coronation commemorative design of white star bursts, with high labelled and numbered 52960, with being discreetly printed with the legend: Elizabeth Regina 1953. collar, indistinctly labelled Nicholls gilt CC buttons, pleated A-line skirt, The hammer fell at £460. & Co of Knightsbridge, trimmed in chest 97cm, 38in, waist 76cm, 30in, We have frequently seen original and imitation Yves St wine velvet (2) £300. with another suit of pink and grey Laurent’s Mondrian mini dresses achieve a variety of prices. flecked tweed, un-labelled, with gilt lion's mask buttons, chest 102cm, One on offer here was an American imitation from 1965, Fig 40in, waist 76cm, 30in. (4) £950. 14. Lot 291. Also offered was another ensemble from the same year inspired by the original, this time a Schrader Knits two piece with yellow block design. Both realised £400 Kerry Taylor Auction From the same period, that is from the1960s to the early April 17th 2012 1970s were almost thirty lots of Biba clothing which fared All prices hammer better in this sale than the last. Lots included jump suits, maxi dresses, evening gowns, floral ensembles and beachwear. Values averaged £50-£160 per garment. See Fig 15. Lot 343. Exceptions were a printed crepe de chine wrap around ‘Kimono’ dress, early 1970s, with printed art-nouveau label and shaped furisode sleeves which realised £380, Fig 16. Lot 336 and a late 1960s white, muslin, empire line summer gown edged in coffee lace (£300) Fig 17. Lot 332. Also offered was a lot of Fig 6. Lot 156. A Bradleys & Sons, rare children’s wear from the early 1970s. Four dresses for six London embroidered muslin tea months upwards, a skirt and a blouse raised £220. gown, circa 1911, labelled to the Much of the later designer clothing from the 1980s struggled waistband, tambour embroidered on to raise low or mid estimates values even from respected names red white and green, with pelerine- like panels to the bodice, waist such as Thierry Mugler or Vivienne Westwood, though this was curves down from back to front, in line with the results of Kerry Taylor’s previous February sale. facetted glass buttons to the front Now, as then, an example from Westwood’s Seditionaries range from neck to hem, lined in pink fared the best. Fig 18. Lot 73, a Boy bondage suit 1988, of taffeta, bust approx 86cm, 34in, the heavy black cotton with hand-made Anarchy badge (by the raised waist 66cm, 26in. £350. owner), Clash badge, the bondage trousers with detachable kilt Fig 9. Lot 94. A Jeanne Lanvin/ panels; with Seditionaries style black leather boots with metal Castillo couture watermelon slubbed silk cocktail dress and bolero jacket, spikes and crucifixes to the upper, brothel creeper soles the lot early 1960s, labelled, the dress with also including a Boy God Save the Queen handkerchief made empire waistline trimmed with a belt £360. Another exception was a Jean-Paul Gaultier and a bow, boned, corsetted inner ‘Constructivist’ Russian collection, leather pencil skirt, Autumn- bodice, matching bolero with large Winter, 1986-87, labelled ‘Pour Ghezzi’, of pale blue leather ovoid domed buttons, bust 81cm, 32in. (2) £650. reversing to red, with yellow side panels appliqued with Russian script, linked by elasticated black leather bands. This made £550. The surprise of the sale was the Jeanne Lanvin gown, Fig 19. Lot 279, discovered on a market stall by a canny collector and purchased for £70. It turned out to be a rare late Lanvin gown from 1945, a miniature of which had been exhibited in a display of the best of French couture in Paris and London, in aid of post war charities. After international interest from museums and collectors a telephone battle resulted in the hammer falling at £6,000, with the dress going to a European private collector. Fig 7. Lot 388. An embroidered tulle Fig 10. Lot 87. Two teddy boy Finally, though of very little monetary value but immense bridal gown, c1900, with large jackets or ‘drapes’ and a grey wool practical and decorative use were the six boxes of assorted raisedwork flowerheads and spots beatle jacket, late 1950s - mid 1960s, padded hangers, both vintage and modern on which any vintage worked in floss silks, trained hem, un-labelled, chests 102-107cm, 40- garment would happily sit.