Dear Friend,
The next sale is approaching and is on the 6th August starting at 11 a.m. But before we speak of that, a moment’s reflection on the success of the last sale when two members of the international art trade fought it out on the phone to pay £60,000 for our rediscovered Gainsborough drawing! Our thanks to Dr Stainton and Brian Sewell for their brilliant combined cataloguing.
Secondly I must reflect on the resignation of BRIDGET GORMAN who for 40 years has been right there with me from the start when we had our first sale held in an Ealing house with approximately 120 lots. We sorted and lotted it together, provided security at the viewing and then, with me sitting on the dining table selling, she would handle the clerking and take the money whilst I portered the goods, post sale. She was with me when we held our jewellery auctions off Bond St W1, sold telephone boxes in Rainham, Essex, and boats on the Thames and then, in the Great Barn, in Ruislip, working into the early hours on a Remington typewriter and for the last 20 years here in our purpose-built saleroom. Her children attended as 7- and 8-year- olds and they are now high-flyers from Cambridge University and the like – and still well behaved! Good luck Bridget and Ray, thanks a million and have fun.
The most wonderful lot in this sale is undoubtably the TINPLATE STATION BY MARKLIN. The brightly painted twin towers each a galleried pitched roof flanking an onion-shaped tower between. Flags fly. It was bought new by the eldely vendor’s father who was Swiss, circa 1902.
I had a similar enthusiasm for one one of the finest Victorian worked-glass claret jugs I have seen, mounted in silver gilt. It comes in its own case and it came to us from a Gerrards Cross flat full of charming objects, porcelain, and gilt-rimmed wine glasses. From there also came a good collection of fountain pens including Mont Blanc, wonderful furs, and expensive skin handbags.
FASHION plays a big part in this sale as two other homes were full of interesting clothing and accesories. All to be sold. One elderly vendor was a ‘nippy’ in a Lyons Corner House and we have her starched aprons and hairband. It includes an Ossie Clark dress, print by Celia Birtwell.
Otherwise, this is the biggest sale of PICTURES we have had and besides two signed Picasso prints and another by Dali we have the following artists represented: Norman Hirst, H. Earp, Gerald Mynott, George Chambers, Montague Dawson, K.W. Burton, Max Weber, Brian Bartholomew, A. Schönberger, Lester Sutcliffe, Copley Fielding, John Chalkley, W. Scarlett Hatton, Mervyn Mynott, Feliks Topolski, B. Ronin, Béla Kádár, Nicolas Briganti, Radcliffe W. Radcliffe, Alyson Stoneman, Luplau Janssen, Paul Hogarth, F.W. Booty, D. Bardooz, Jack Cox, G. Kirchner, Graham Clilverd, Tornai, Nevill Johnson, David Koster, R.A. Satterley, Leon Alex, Hugh Paton, Stephen Gayford, E. Maillard and Maurice Lévis.
SILVER AND PLATE includes the claret jug mentioned above along with the usual array of offerings.
JEWELLERY AND COLLECTABLES include a wonderful family group of 17th and 18th century miniatures, one possibly by Nicholas Dixon, also other portrait miniatures, silhouettes and wax portraits.
MIRRORS include a pair of convex mirrors with eagle surmounts and a fabulous octagonal Art Deco mirror in orange, blue and plain glass.
CARPETS include a large Chinese carpet and oriental carpets.
We have more WINE AND SPIRITS than most off-licences with some notable vintages including Chat.Le Gay Pomerol ’98, Reserve de la Comtesse Pauillac ’97, Bahans Haut-Brion ’88, Millet Graves ’93, Tourcas Dupre Medoc ’83, August Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon ’93, La Croix de Berny ’76, Chateauneuf-du-Pape ’01 (litre), Lestage Simon Medoc ’89, Leoville-Barton ’64, La Croix de Grezard ’88, Greysac ’71, Estournel ’70, Roc Mignon ’95, Tronquol-Lalande ’97, Reserve de la Comtesse Pauillac ’97, Puy-Blanquet St Emilion ’72, Lynch Bages Pauillac , Haut-Brion ’34 (low), Cheval Blanc ’82, Chambertin ’49 (low), brandies, whiskies, champagnes, etc.
SHELF ITEMS are as numerous as ever and all shelves are full. There are 13 clocks on the clock shelves and 11 boxes on the box shelf including a fine Regency lacquered sewing box on paw feet and an ebonised collector’s cabinet of coin drawers. I can see a barograph, 2 cylinder musical boxes, a railway sign, big old lock and a fusee wall clock. Other shelves include 13 bronze figures, two good Victorian papier mache trays, a rare Clarice Cliff Mr Fish in green brown and cream, a cylindrical glass vase signed Studio Vvikkala Nettkla 58, Swedish glass signed Ekenas, Royal Doulton Bunnykins figures. Lots of cut glass and tea wares, a group of Troika, Doulton figures, Sylvac, a large Chinese fish bowl and other ceramics, old lustre wares, Capodimonte figures, very tall figural lamps, and so much more including general effects like a full set of Le Creuset cook ware,etc.
A warning precedes the next section. We have a large delivery scheduled for Friday, the day after the sale, so we need furniture cleared immediately.
FURNITURE is well represented this sale after we cleared a Fulham property and another in Notting Hill, and notable items include a good set of 8 Regency dining chairs with brass inlay, a large William IV mahogany dining table, other period and reproduction dining tables, a charming Regency rosewood chiffonier, a George III bow-fronted dressing table, a long William IV rosewood cabinet, the three glazed doors with tapestry inserts between columns, a William IV pedestal sideboard, an unusual Victorian shallow wardrobe in bamboo-effect light birch, a charming late Victorian inlaid display cabinet, the glazed upper section on a bowed cupboard base, a narrow yew bureau bookcase, a good quality bow-fronted chest of 2 small and 4 long drawers on claw and ball, feet and other traditional bow-fronted chests, a fine 9ft long and 6ft high 1960s cabinet, an Art Deco walnut-framed three piece suite, a glamorous gilt- framed settee a Georgian-style mahogany-framed settee, a modern leather settee, bookcases, a 17th century carved oak coffer, etc., along with good shipping furniture, an illuminated modern cabinet by Hulsta AND THREE GRAND PIANOS, one in very light walnut by Challen on shell-carved cabriole legs, one by John Broadwood and Sons, and a Minipiano upright in a light teak case , etc.
