POUNDWISE Padrayla Holdsworth answers readers’ letters Nov/Dec 02 Dear P.H. Contact Christie’s: Mallika Sagar. (based in I am an antique collector and an investor. I Mumbai) Tel: 22 498 5519 Fax: 22 498 2155 possess two Chinese vases. One belongs to Email: [email protected] the Ming period, I hope, and the other I do Yours P.H. not know. I would be very grateful if you could give me some information about Dear P.H. them. The blue and white one measures Can you please help me identify this small 32cm in height and has a crack just visible, metal bottle or flask and its use. It appears but on the outside only. The other is 31cm to be made of metal, perhaps pewter. It has tall and painted under glaze with orange a metal stopper with a ‘Bodkin’ attached by lotus and orange rose type flowers with a chain and it measures a total of 3 inches in dark blue leaves. Is there any possibility for height. Any information would be greatly me to put then into auction, either on the appreciated. internet or by live auction. Thanks, L.C. Yours faithfully, S.C. Pondicherry, India Dear L.C. Your item is a perfume bottle, made of low Dear S.C. grade silver, with decoration in the form of a It is very difficult to appraise Chinese pattern applied using soldered thin filigree porcelain from photographs. There is a wires. It originates from the Northern possibility that the blue and white jar is late China/Tibet area. Ming, but it could easily have been made Yours P.H. considerably later than this. The solidity of Finding a new home for this Chinese jar is no colour suggests a later date to me. Someone Dear P.H. picnic for the owner from Pondicherry. would have to see the piece in reality and not I have acquired an early Victorian writing just from a photograph to be really sure. The slope and am wanting to find out more most likely date is second half of the about writing slopes e.g. different nineteenth century. The other jar is in the styles/periods etc. Could you kindly Japanese Imari style of the early eighteenth recommend any books, websites etc. century, but may well be Chinese too, as the Yours sincerely, K.M. Newton Abbot Chinese did their own versions. I do not think that offering these pieces for sale on Dear K.M. the internet would be advisable. Potential I am not aware of any books specifically on buyers must be able to examine them this. However there is a good website: properly in order for you to obtain the best www.hygra.com covering the subject. The price. I think you should contact the writers are producing a book on ‘Antique Christie’s representative in India and send Boxes and Tea Caddies’ for publication this the photographs for further advice. The year by Schiffer Books, U.S.A. Christie’s representative can make a decision For more information email: on a sensible course of action bearing in [email protected] or contact: Antique mind the home market in India. Clearly Boxes, at the Sign of the Hygra, 2 Middleton A mystery container turns out to be a silver India has some auction houses which handle Road, London E8 4B. Tel: 020 7254 7074 perfume flask from the north China/Tibet antiques, but which may be dealing in the Fax: 0 870 125 7669. area. main with more routine and less specialised Yours P.H. wares than your pieces. Also the current unstable international situation does not look Dear P.H. conducive to disposing of items at a I have a Rupert Bear 1973 Annual, (white favourable price in India. It is highly likely face on cover) and have been told it is of that the vases will not be of sufficient value to some value. It is in very good condition warrant transporting elsewhere (Hong Kong with only slight discolouration on the edges. for example) for sale. I imagine items would It has been in the attic for the past twenty have to be worth perhaps £2,000 or more years among Rupert Bear annuals 1969- each to warrant this, and I doubt whether 1976. What is an approximate value I could yours will be in this league, especially expect? What would be the best way to sell bearing in mind the crack in the blue and it: as a single or as a collection? Where white one. One course of action you could would be the best place? Perhaps you could consider is selling them through an antique advise me. Any help would be gratefully Learning about writing slopes like this one shop on commission. I am sorry I cannot be appreciated. will be easier once a new book is published. more encouraging. Yours faithfully, D.L. Kettering Dear D.L. replacement leaves. I took your advice and I am afraid you have been misinformed on contacted Grantham Workshops in this one. In 1935 Alfred Bestall took over Kettering who dismantled the table and producing the Rupert comic strip from its started the search for suitable timber. original creator Mary Tourtel. He continued During the timber restoration it was found until 1973 when he took extreme umbrage that the screw mechanism had also been over a decision by the Chairman of the Daily shortened. Being impossible to repair, a Express to give Rupert a white face on the new screw had to be purchased. Following cover of the 1973 Annual. Alfred resigned lengthy discussions with Peter Grantham and refused to do any more Ruperts. The we agreed to two leaves which would give a readers backed him up, and so in 1974 the fully open table of approximately 100in annual shows Rupert with the usual brown being ample for my needs. I was invited to face again. Alfred returned to his job, inspect the table at all stages of restoration working until 1980. A number of brown faced which proved very useful and interesting 1973 annuals were produced as proof copies. for someone who is not involved in the There is considerable debate as to how rare antique business. The total project costs, these are and how much they should be including two leaves, complete carriage worth, but some have changed hands for four assemblies and screw was £1,400. Thank figure sums. The white faced annuals you for your advice and assistance in usually retail for between £5 and £15 each. finding a reputable restorer. It has been a At this level, yours may as well stay with you, very worthwhile project as I now have my I think. It would probably only be worth the uncle’s table in first class condition and trouble if you were to sell your group of ready to use. White faced Rupert looks like an exciting annuals. Assuming it is in good order, 1969 Kind regards, M.P. Kettering rarity, but is not, being standard issue for is popular with collectors and might fetch as 1973. much as £10 at auction, bumping up a Dear M.P. possible total for the lot to £30-£40. I think I am glad that the restoration of your dining a local antique auction, rather than a table is a success, and that the whole process specialised book auction, would be appro- has been such a rewarding experience. priate and less troublesome than the other Thank you for sharing it with us and letting alternatives. (Some addresses have been sent us see the photographs. to you) Yours P.H. Yours P.H. Dear P.H. Dear P.H. Do you have any information on Leighton I’ve been reading about the design on some Ward, a watercolour artist c1900, possibly early Chinese export porcelain and on with a military connection? Dutch delft. Can you tell me the name Yours A.R. Warwick which is used for the tall ladies seen on some of the pots. I am told that it is a Dear A.R. A subscriber from Kettering watched every corruption of the words for ‘tall maidens’ in I am afraid I can find no trace of this artist. aspect of the restoration of his late uncle’s Dutch. We shall publish your letter in the hope a table with fascination. Here we see it half Thank you very much, G.L. Colchester reader can cast some light on the subject. way through. Yours P.H. Dear G.L. The term you are looking for is ‘Long Dear P.H. Elizas’, a corruption of the Dutch ‘lange I have recently acquired a Lloyd Loom lijzen’. These figures also appear on early chair/commode which requires the English porcelain from Worcester and other paintwork touching up, with the appro- factories, but it is not known when the term priate colour match. Please can you give first came to be used. me the firm’s address. Yours P.H. Yours faithfully, T.W. Selby Dear P.H. Dear T.W. In the July/August 2001 issue you were kind Here are the details you require: enough to include my letter and Lloyd Loom of Spalding Ltd. Warden Tree photographs of a mahogany dining table Lane, Pinchbeck, Spalding, Lincs PE11 3SY. that I had recently inherited but was unfor- Tel: 01775 712111 Fax: 01775 710571. The final finished table was well worth the tunately in need of restoration and Yours P.H. effort and cost. Dear P.H. Dear T.B. I have a porcelain 9 inch tall pitcher with I have consulted the V&A with regards to two portraits on it of King Edward V11 and translating Chinese script on snuff bottles Queen Alexandra and it is dated ‘June 26th, etc.