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Lot 146
Rosina ROGERS (1918-2011) Lady in Blue Dress Oil on board40 x 25cmRosina Rogers was born in Christchurch in 1918. During the 1950s and later she regularly attended art classes at Bournemouth Municipal Collage. At summer schools at Urchfont Manor, Wiltshire, she first met artist Patrick Heron, who was one of the tutors and who later became a friend. Her work of the 1950s was varied with portraits, still-life, landscapes and abstracts. in 1957 she exhibited a portrait "Old Harry" and a lithograph "The Bullfight" at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. During the late 1960s, her work was largely abstract influenced by the St Ives artists of this period.The artists estate
Lot 447
Clare WHITE (1903-1997) Holbein’s ‘Dance of Death’, Chapel Bridge, Lucerne. Watercolour, signed, 36 x 44.The 14th century Chapel Bridge in Lucerne contained a series of traingular paintings known as the ‘Dance of Death’ commissioned by an alderman of the town to remind people of their own mortaltity. Inspired by Holbein the Younger’s haunting biblical allegories, most of the frescoes were destroyed in a fire which engulfed the wooden bridge in 1993, so this painting created sometime in the 1950s/60s stands as a faithful record of how the celebrated structure used to look. Locals in traditional dress bustling past Clare as she paints, add to the authenticity of the scene.From the collection of art historian and curator Andrew Pollard, the proprietor of the Clare White Gallery, who studied and exhibited Clare’s work 2002-2013. Andrew knew White and has been a passionate advocate for restoring the artist to her rightful place in Cornish art history. The works were purchased directly from the artist’s god daughter.
Lot 485
Clare WHITE (1903-1997) Around the fountain in the square, Switzerland Watercolour, initialled, 34.5 x 40.5cm.St Ives artist Clare White travelled the world with her watercolours and often visited Switzerland where she had studied as a young woman in Lucerne. Clare was fond of the visual distinctiveness of the Swiss mountain lifestyle, the painted buildings and the people, still wearing traditional dress, lederhosen and long socks during her visits circa 1950s and 1960s.From the collection of art historian and curator Andrew Pollard, the proprietor of the Clare White Gallery, who studied and exhibited Clare’s work 2002-2013. Andrew knew White and has been a passionate advocate for restoring the artist to her rightful place in Cornish art history. The works were purchased directly from the artist’s god daughter.
Lot 238
19th century School Portrait miniature of a young lady, powdered hair, pearl headdress, blue dress with pearl details to sleeve and bodice, double white ruffle collar oval, 10.5cm x 10.8cmsigned ‘Cosway 1796’ to right, modern label verso stating ‘Dell’aglio 1779’., ebony and gilt frameFurther details: very good, good clear image areaThis item has been registered for sale under Section 10 of the APHA Ivory ActSubmission reference: MN1T2PJ9
Lot 236
Early 19th Century School, circa 1830 Portrait miniature of a Lady wearing blue dress, coral twist necklace and gold earrings9.5 x 7.5cm, in ebony and gilt metal frame, label verso reads: Dorothy? Sterling / Granma's Sister en suite with lot no: 233Further details: lacks backing to frame This item has been registered for sale under Section 10 of the APHA Ivory ActSubmission reference: 47QNU8P8
Lot 214
18th Century School Portrait miniature of a Lady, wearing pearl necklace, with powdered hair, her white dress with pearl detailoval, 6.5cm long, in gilt metal frame, inventory number verso ?92This item has been registered for sale under Section 10 of the APHA Ivory ActSubmission reference: Z7YHTCWQ
Lot 233
Early 19th Century School, circa 1830Portrait miniature of a Lady wearing blue dress, ribbon topped heart shaped bonnet, coral twist necklace and gold earrings9.2 x 7.5cm, in ebony and gilt metal frame, label verso reads: Fanny & James's Granmamaen suite with lot 236Further details: slight rippling to surface, some pitting to gilt metal mount This item has been registered for sale under Section 10 of the APHA Ivory ActSubmission reference: SV49JQQ4
Lot 101
A diamond and platinum dress ring, comprising a central rub over set radiant cut diamond weighing approx. 1.05carats, assessed colour I/J, assessed clarity SI1, overlaid to a triple band grain set with round cut diamonds, width approx 6mm, size just under K, total gross weight approx. 9.8gms Further details: good- one small diamond missing to shoulder, others present and intact, minor wear and tear only
Lot 311
A matched pair of Minton "New Vases" and covers, model no. 219, two handled campana shaped vases with cobalt blue bodies,both painted with titled scenes WINTER & SUMMER depicting couples in 18th Century dress, cartouches below painted with flower, the reverse with holly leaves and berries, yellow/blush scrolling high relief applied decoration all gilt heighted, the reticulated covers surmounted by Cupids carrying garlands of flowers and wearing drapes, all pieces appear to be unmarked, 41cm high overall x 25cm at widest point (2) Further details:Vase 1: hexagonal shaped hairline fracture to central stud with three radial fractures to base of body (crude restoration), with two hairline fractures from aperture approx 2 & 5cm, hairline fracture to underside of socle, no apparent chips or losses to body decoration, pressure split to both sides of one handle, slightly loose in socleCover 1: petal missing to bocage, fingers and toes intactVase 2: some hairline fracture to underside feet, one split from bolt on socle, loose on socle settingCover 2: old repair to foot, some petals missing
Lot 247
Regency SchoolPortrait miniature of a Lady, white dress with blue sash, she wears a gold and opal diadem, gold shawl circular clip oval, 8.5cm, ebony and gilt metal frameFurther details: slightly faded This item has been registered for sale under Section 10 of the APHA Ivory ActSubmission reference: 5DZ59VKG
Lot 166
A late Victorian, circa 1880, duchess satin wedding dress, made by Bevern Robes et Modes, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, London. The gown in satin has a bond peplum bodice that fall into a pint at the back, covered button, small lace collar, intricate gathered sleeves, falling from pleated details, laced pearl cuff the skirt is swathed in ruched panels, the bustle is lacking, there is a paddle train together with a fine tulle veil with lace edging and the original headdress in satin and lace with gold sequin, also included is the original cotton underskirt with a three tier hem edged in cotton lace (there are a few from mould stains, marked on the hemline) and Wedding shoes with satin bows and louis heal, size 3 Worn in the 1980s by the vendor
Lot 223
Cornelius Durham (fl.1825-1865)Portrait miniature of Mrs Bathgate, seated wearing black dress, cameo at neck and white ruffled headdress with pearls oval, 11.5 x 8.5cm signed mid right section, in gilt metal frameFurther details: vertical splits at left and right mid section margins, vertical buckling to upper section right CITES LICENCE/ This item has been registered for sale under Section 10 of the APHA Ivory ActIvory Act - Submission reference: SH2JA6QW
Lot 165
A 1920s Art Deco beaded dress, the black chiffon dress with a V bodice encrusted with large paste stones and a decorative buckle, with fine stripes merging from the A line waist onto a band of beadwork, with deep hemline of large paste stone to above the knee, the back with two large panels from the shoulders in large paste stones (two small holes on bodice - repairable)
Lot 236
HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh: a pair of autopen signed presentation portrait photographs, by Anthony Buckley, the couple each in formal dress and uniform, signatures on mounts 'Elizabeth R. 1968' and 'Philip 1968' both in their original blue Morocco leather easel frames with arched tops with gilt embossed Royal ciphers, marked 'H.H. Plante, London' verso, the photographs stamped 'Anthony Buckley Photograph' and numbered 4929-2 and 4929-10, the frames 32 cm x 22.5 cm.Qty: 2
Lot 450
Marie Guilhelmine Benoist, 1768 – 1826, zug.DAME IN WEISSEM KLEID IN LANDSCHAFTÖl auf Leinwand.117 x 88 cm.In vergoldetem Empire-Rahmen.In einer nachmittäglichen Campagna-Landschaft sitzt eine in weißem Kleid mit Federsaum gekleidete junge Dame, deren vornehme Blässe mit einem von polychromen Ornamenten verziertem Schal kontrastiert wird.Literatur:Vgl. Marianne Lévy, Marie-Guillemine Laville-Leroulx et les siens. Une femme peintre de l'Ancien régime à la Restauration (1768-1826), Paris 2018. (1351716) (13)Marie-Guillemine Benoist,1768 – 1826, attributedLADY IN A WHITE DRESS IN LANDSCAPE Oil on canvas.117 x 88 cm.
Lot 65
Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS (British, 1852-1944)Portrait of a Young Woman, thought to represent Lily Pitman signed 'G.CLAUSEN' (lower right)oil on canvas76.2 x 63.5cm (30 x 25in).Footnotes:ProvenanceMr & Mrs John Downing, Cropthorne, Worcestershire.To George Arthur Latham, 1942.By descent to the present owner.Private collection, UK.Although undocumented in the artist's accounts, the early lineage of the present portrait places it in the collection of Mr & Mrs John and Lily Downing. Lily Downing, née Pitman, was the cousin of Agnes Mary Clausen, the artist's wife. Born in 1866, she is likely to have been around thirty when the portrait was painted and this, on technical grounds, supported by the style of the signature, the dress and hair style, would suggest that the present canvas must date c. 1895-1900, with every likelihood that Lily is the model. It comes from a point in Clausen's career when, although interested in head studies of local fieldworkers in and around Widdington, the Essex village where he lived, he was not receiving portrait commissions1. The search for conclusive documentary evidence on the identity of the sitter continues2One other portrait is relevant in this regard – that of Margaret Hilton Smith aged 15 (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery), the daughter of Clausen's doctor at Widdington, W. A. Smith. Miss Smith's was a portrait in which the painter bows to convention3. While the children who surrounded him wore work-a-day clothes, this girl, clad in white with a blue satin cummerbund, could aspire to a place in society - and one 'on the line' at the Royal Academy. Although newly elected an Academy Associate, Clausen did not believe that this was his forte. He could never aspire to the 'aesthetic' and oriental accoutrements that accompany the young woman in James Jebusa Shannon's Reverie, 1898 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), for instance, and even though his sitter in the present portrait, wears a similar dress trimmed at the neck with a white fichu, she requires no such props to support her personality. At once more intimiste than Miss Smith and with none of the pretentions of Shannon, the present portrait nevertheless possesses considerable appeal. Unfinished in places, perhaps, its immediacy draws the spectator. A 'lick' of Hookers green in the right cuff draws the eye to the subtle modelling of the face. Elsewhere we note an arm barely indicated, and a hand unresolved, but both so spontaneous that they carry the sense of a living presence - and while we struggle to confirm her name, Clausen's young woman retains her air of mystery. Whistler criticised his Academy contemporaries for wishing to make their sitters 'stand out' from their frames – when in fact the portrait's subject 'should stand within (his emphasis) the frame and at a depth behind it equal to the distance at which the painter sees his model'4. This reticent and unassuming young woman who sits for the painter exercises considerable power from 'within the frame'. 1For obvious reasons a successful portrait painter in the 1890s required a London or Edinburgh address. 2The subject of ongoing research, an extensive survey of Clausen's records, including drawings collections in Bath, Bristol, Plymouth, the Royal Academy and family collections has so far failed to find conclusive evidence confirming the proposed identity of the sitter, which relies on the picture's provenance. The present owner has however, established that his great grandfather, George Arthur Latham, purchased the picture along with the School House at Cropthorne at Worcestershire in 1942 from John Downing. If Agnes Mary Clausen's cousin was not a regular visitor to the Clausen home in Essex it may also explain the lack of resolution in some parts of the composition.3A second, and most unusual oval portrait of Miss Smith, of the same date as that in Bristol, is in the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne. 4'Mr Whistler: Proposition No 2 Academie Carmen', quoted from A Catalogue of the Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture at the Third Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, pp. 11-12. We are grateful to Kenneth McConkey for compiling this catalogue entry.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 62
Albert Chevallier Tayler, RBC (British, 1862-1925)The caricature signed and dated 'A. CHEVALLIER TAYLER. 1887.' (lower left)oil on canvas53.5 x 76.5cm (21 x 30 1/8in).Footnotes:ProvenanceWith Williams & Son, London.Private collection, UK (acquired from the above the present owner, circa 1950s).'It is in their studies of interiors no less than in their open-air work that the Newlyn school prove their love of truth'1. So wrote Alice Meynell, the first serious chronicler of the painters in the west Cornwall fishing village in 1889, when addressing the work of Albert Chevallier Tayler. The artist had achieved a notable success at the Royal Academy in 1887, with Bless, Oh God, these Thy gifts to our use (sold Bonhams New York, 4 May 2016, lot 88) portraying a humble mealtime in a fisherman's cottage – a painting that was sometimes referred to as 'Grace before Meat'. Predating Frank Bramley's A Hopeless Dawn (1888, Tate) and Stanhope Forbes's A Village Philharmonic (1888, Birmingham Art Gallery), the telling details and subtilties of light and space made Tayler's work a classic for Mrs Meynell. She noted the singular beauty of the young mother and the accurate observation of the baby 'as it turns its head to sleep'. The Academy painting was immediately purchased by the dealer, Arthur Tooth, who clearly made visual connections between this work and his current stock of contemporary Venetian pictures, headed by those of Cecil van Haanen, Luigi Nono and Ettore Tito2. And while Italian comparisons were made at this time with Bramley's paintings, had Tooth delved deeper into the contents of Tayler's studio, the general affiliation would have been confirmed. In the summer of 1887, the dealer was prepared to sponsor Tayler's trip to Venice. Although, in the following exhibition season, pictures such as A Council of Three (sold in these rooms 23 January 2013, lot 96) and A Dress Rehearsal (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight) were sometimes thought to have been painted during his few months in Venice, the discovery of the present canvas tends to discount this3. While The Caricature shares the same setting as these two later paintings, it is likely to predate the artist's Venice expedition4. Furniture, crockery and prints differ in all three paintings; the samovar and drop-leaf table, seen in the present work, reappear in A Dress Rehearsal, while other details such as stick-back chairs, relate it more closely to earlier works – particularly Bless, Oh God, these Thy gifts to our use5. There are good reasons, therefore, for regarding the present canvas in which the eye is led into the space of the room by a seated figure on the left and debris placed on the floor, as a highly satisfactory prototype. Clearly what appealed to Tooth was Tayler's mastery of such naturalistic details. Few painters were more talented than he in orchestrating the mise-en-scène.The son of a solicitor, Tayler received a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art in 1879 where he met Henry Scott Tuke and Thomas Cooper Gotch. Like his classmates he spent the academic year 1881-2 in Paris at the atelier Julian and, in later expeditions to Devon and Normandy, became a summer painting companion of Tuke. In the autumn of 1884, he was one of an important group of painters who congregated in Newlyn and although he did not remain for more than a month, his subsequent arrivals and departures were logged with enthusiasm by Stanhope Forbes6. One other aspect of the present work is, however, both obvious and intriguing. Where other Newlyn maids and fishermen's wives are shown reading a letter or dressmaking, the figure on the right in the present painting is drawing a profile on the wall - perhaps that of her sailor husband, or boyfriend. In her left hand she holds a folded sheet of paper that has been removed from its envelope. The thought behind her drawing is probably contained in the primitive graphic representation on which she is engaged. She could almost be saying to her companion – 'this is what he looks like'. While one Newlyn painter, Fred Hall, was renowned for such simplified profiles of his comrades, Tayler's painting alludes directly to the impact this school of young image-makers must have had on an otherwise, unremarkable Cornish village. Yes, it supported one of the largest fleets on the south coast; yes, it had good access to markets by rail from Penzance and, yes, throughout the halcyon days of the Newlyn painters, its piers were constantly being extended and its harbour deepened to take the draught of steam trawlers, but the record of its life in the domestic sphere it owed to artists like Tayler. In this respect, the picture of an innocent unschooled draughtswoman, watched by her workmate, is both prescient and precise. 1Alice Meynell, 'Newlyn', The Art Journal, 1889, p. 102.2See for instance 'Messrs Tooth's Exhibition', The Era, 15 March 1884, p. 13; 'Mr Tooth's Gallery', The Graphic, 8 November 1884, p. 12. Tooth's interest in Tayler's work is reported by Stanhope Forbes (letter to Elizabeth Armstrong, dated 26 April 1887, Hyman Kreitman Archive, Tate).3A Council of Three and A Dress Rehearsal were shown at the New English Art Club and the Royal Academy respectively. Tayler's departure from Newlyn for his Venetian adventure and his return are reported by Stanhope Forbes (letters dated 14 June 1887 and 24 December 1887, Hyman Kreitman Archive, Tate).4It will for instance be noted that the present work contains a vase of what appear to be small narcissi – i.e. spring flowers. 5Exotic or foreign artefacts brought back by mariners were not uncommon in coastal dwellings – as are the double-page engravings from publications such as The Graphic, that are pinned to walls.6Letters written by Stanhope Forbes (dated 21 September 1884, 26 October 1884, Hyman Kreitman Archive, Tate, plus undated letters) include references to the difficulty Tayler was having in selling his work prior to 1887. It is clear from these that there was a close bond of friendship between Forbes and Tayler.We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for compiling this catalogue entry.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 61
Sir James Jebusa Shannon, RA, RBA, RHA (British, 1862-1923)Portrait of Lady Gundrede O'Brien (nee de Trafford of Trafford Park) signed and dated 'J. J. Shannon/1892' (upper left)oil on canvas122.5 x 97.2cm (48 1/4 x 38 1/4in).Footnotes:ProvenanceThe sitter. By descent.The estate of Timothy James Price, the sitter's great-grandson.Private collection, UK (acquired from the above).ExhibitedLondon, Royal Academy, 1893, no. 570.Literature'Royal Academy', Athenaeum no. 3418, April 29, 1893, p. 546.'Fine Arts. The Royal Academy. (Fourth Notice. The Portraits)', Athenaeum no. 3423, June 3, 1893, pp.704-5.The County Gentleman (Sporting Gazette), April 29, 1893, p. 528 (in which the writer mistakenly attributes the portrait to another artist).'How Things Are Done . . . A Comic Guide to the Royal Academy', Sunday Times, April 30, 1893, p. 8.'Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition', Surrey Mirror May 13, 1893, p. 3.'The Royal Academy', Leeds Mercury, May 16, 1893, p. 8.'The Royal Academy. (Third Notice.)', North British Daily Mail, June 20, 1893, p. 2.The American-born portrait specialist James Jebusa Shannon was well on his way to a lucrative international career when this portrait of Mrs. T. Carew O'Brien was shown at the London Royal Academy's annual summer exhibition in 1893. As one writer put it, 'Among the younger portraitists Mr. J. J. Shannon is first favourite. . . . All his canvases represent people more or less well known in fashionable London society, and as usual Mr. Shannon is happiest in his depicture [sic] of ladies.' ('Round the Studios in London', The Glasgow Herald, April 3, 1893, p. 7). Shannon not only possessed artistic talent; he also had an outgoing, magnetic personality, a characteristic that was usually deemed essential for the success of portrait specialists who often found it necessary to entertain their subjects while they posed. Then, too, Shannon's currency on the portrait market was further enhanced by his 1892 acquisition of an imposing property in London's Holland Park Road (next door to the Royal Academy's estimable president, Lord Leighton), which served as his home and studio until his death in 1923.It is likely that the present portrait was one of the first Shannon executed in his Holland Park Road studio and it is just as likely that the sitter's social status is indicative of the painter's rising celebrity. Born in Barton upon Irwell, Lancashire, Gundrede Annette Teresa de Trafford was the second daughter of the wealthy Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 2nd Baronet of Trafford Park – a massive ancestral property that was sold in 1896 and later developed into the largest planned industrial estate in the world. Gundrede de Trafford married the famed 'gentleman' cricketer and heir presumptive of Sir Patrick O'Brien, Timothy Carew O'Brien (1861-1948) on September 22, 1885, thus joining two notable Roman Catholic families. In that regard, it is possible that Shannon gained the commission for the present portrait partly because of his own Irish (albeit lapsed) Catholic heritage. With a writer for the Athenaeum declaring the portrait 'one of Mr. Shannon's best pieces of portraiture . . .an excellent piece of art, charming in the flesh colour, and a vivacious design' (Athenaeum, no. 3418), Mrs. T. Carew O'Brien was gauged the more pleasing of the two canvases by Shannon on display at the 1893 Academy exhibition. What is more, the portrait fared well in the context of other examples of his work that were on view simultaneously at the New Gallery and the Society of Portrait Painters, all of which received considerable and largely positive critical attention. As noted by one reviewer, 'Mr. J. J. Shannon's portrait of Mrs. T. Carew O'Brien is an effective portrait of a fair, delicate-looking lady in a white gown and rose-coloured sash.' (North British Daily Mail). The image of the young mother of four (she would eventually have two sons and eight daughters) suggests a life of quiet dignity notwithstanding the apparent signs of luxury revealed by her fashionable white evening dress and bejewelled fingers. Her sober, direct gaze prompted another commentator to mention her 'air of determination' (Sunday Times) while another found her expression 'judicial' (The County Gentleman). Such impressions of a sitter's thoughtful inner existence rarely surfaced in critical discussions of society portraits of women, most of which allowed that the artists concentrated on flattering the sitter through idealization of face, fashion, and setting. Indeed, despite describing Gundrede O'Brien's pose 'a trifle stiff' and her 'expression . . .stern, if not peevish', a second review in the Athenaeum concluded that 'the flesh is painted with admirable freedom, while the colouration, although mannered, is excellent and pure.' (Athenaeum no. 3423). In the end, Mrs. T. Carew O'Brien stands as a fine example of the painterly, straightforward approach that characterized Shannon's art in the early 1890s as he established a career that ultimately took him to the heights of society portraiture in Britain.We are grateful to Barbara Dayer Gallati for preparing this catalogue entry.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 43
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (British, 1828-1882)Study for the portrait of Maria Leathart signed with monogram (lower right); bears inscriptions 'D.G. Rossetti (lower right) and 'No.5' (upper right)pencil33 x 27.6cm (13 x 10 7/8in).Executed in 1862.Footnotes:ProvenanceWilliam Bell Scott.Margaret Rae, née Leathart.By descent to her son, Charles Edward Leathart Rae.To his widow, Kathleen Muriel Rae, later Mrs Robert Catto.Thence by descent.ExhibitedLondon, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Pictures, Designs and Studies by the late Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1883, no. 138 (lent by W.B. Scott).Newcastle upon Tyne, Laing Art Gallery, Paintings from the Leathart Collection, 1968, no. 63 (lent by Mrs R. Catto).LiteratureH.C. Marillier, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Illustrated Memorial of his Art and Life, London, 1899 no. 355.Virginia Surtees, The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Oxford, 1971, vol. I, no. 334B, p. 171.James Leathart, the Newcastle upon Tyne industrialist, had first expressed a wish that Rossetti should paint a portrait of his wife Maria in the autumn of 1862. At that time Rossetti had recently installed himself at 16 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, and it seems that the first intention had been that Maria Leathart should sit to him there. However, following the usual postponements and prevarications on Rossetti's part, a plan was made that the artist should travel to Newcastle to work on the portrait at the Leathart family home, 14 Framlington Place, and which he did at the end of the first week of December. Rossetti stayed with William Bell Scott, the fellow artist who had first brought Leathart and Rossetti into contact and who lived at 18 St Thomas's Crescent. Rossetti remained in the north for three weeks, returning to London on the 31 December. Rossetti made a number of portrait sketches of Maria, at least one showing her in profile as well as the present study in which she is seen in three-quarters profile facing to the right. At the same time, he embarked on two broadly similar portraits in oil of her: one in which she was shown with her hands resting on the spine of a book, and the second based upon the present drawing showing her with her hair in an elaborate chignon at the back of her head, and showing her dressed in preparation to go out (see figure 1). Very careful attention was given to the treatment of her hands, which are shown resting on the back of a chair. Rossetti took both versions and the preparatory drawings with him when he returned to London, with the oils to be worked on further in the studio at Cheyne Walk. However, early in the New Year of 1863, the artist despaired of getting a good likeness in the first version and decided to concentrate on that in which Maria's hands rest on the chair, depending we assume on the present drawing to capture the particular likeness of the model and her pose, as well as the details of her dress. While still working on the painting Rossetti wrote encouraging letters to Leathart reassuring him that the consensus view among his circle of friends in London was that he had been successful in capturing the likeness of his absent sitter. Making portraits in oil for clients did not come readily to Rossetti and he was habitually nervous of the response that patrons might make to the works they had commissioned. The finished portrait was with Leathart in Newcastle by the 21 January and seems generally to have been enthusiastically received although with certain reservations, with William Michael Rossetti – the artist's brother – responding to William Bell Scott's account of responses to it by saying: '[Rossetti] infer[s] from your phrase that it is voted rather a good picture than a good likeness'. This finished oil has remained in the collections of the Leathart-Rae family.Perhaps recognising that the preparatory drawings were truer to life than the oil, Rossetti announced that he intended to give the two related sketches, of which the present was the second, to Leathart, in some degree as a compensation for any criticisms that may have been levelled against the finished oil. In a letter of 19 January Rossetti explained that he was sending these 'either both for yourself, or one for Scott as you please'. Leathart did in fact pass the present drawing on to William Bell Scott, and so it remained in his possession until at least 1883 when he lent it to the Burlington Fine Arts Club Rossetti Memorial exhibition, and which he eventually returned to the Leathart family by giving or leaving it to James and Maria Leathart's daughter Margaret. Maria had married James Leathart – twenty years her senior – when she was eighteen in 1858, and was therefore twenty-two years old at the time that Rossetti drew and painted her portrait. She was the daughter of a successful soap manufacturer and onetime mayor of Newcastle, Thomas Hedley. Her marriage to Leathart, who himself had gained considerable prosperity from his employment as manager of the St Anthony's leadworks of the company Locke, Blackett & Co, was therefore a dynastic match of two members of the Novocastrian mercantile middle classes. In 1864 the Leathart family moved to Low Fell in Gateshead, where they lived in a fine house called Bracken Dene, and where they brought up their large family and where was displayed the extraordinary collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings which James Leathart formed, notable among which were works by Ford Madox Brown, John Everett Millais, Edward Burne-Jones and Rossetti himself.We are grateful to Christopher Newall for compiling this catalogue entry.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 52
Sir John Everett Millais, PRA (British, 1829-1896)Forget-Me-Not signed with monogram and dated '1883' (lower left)oil on canvas84 x 63.5cm (33 1/16 x 25in).Footnotes:ProvenanceThe artist and his wife, Effie, Lady Millais.Her bequest (will of 26 July 1897, Scottish Probate Office) to their son John Guille Millais.Sold by John Guille Millais, Christie's, 26 May 1900 (lot 100), bought by Sir James Kitson, Bart. (later 1st Baron Airedale), Gledhow Hall, Leeds, 1,500 guineas.By descent to his daughter Emily Kitson.Sold from her estate, Tower Lodge, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 28 November 1961, bought by her first cousin once removed Grosvenor Talbot Griffith, Old Swindon House, Swindon Village, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.Bequeathed to the present owners.Private collection, UK.Exhibited London, Royal Academy, 1883, no. 323.Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1884, no. 51.London, Royal Academy, Works by the late Sir John Everett Millais, Bart., President of the Royal Academy, 1898, no. 121.Kitakyushu, Municipal Museum of Art & Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Millais, (exhibition organized by Tate, London), 2008, no. 55.LiteratureAthenaeum, 5 May 1883, p. 575.Morning Post, 5 May 1883, p. 5.Times, 5 May 1883, p. 12.Illustrated London News, 5 May 1883, p. 438.Illustrated London News, 12 May 1883, p. 470.London Evening Standard, 24 May 1883, p. 2.Graphic, 26 May 1883, p. 20.The Age, (Melbourne, Australia), supplement, 23 June 1883, p. 2.Art Journal, July 1883, p. 218.Art Journal, August 1883, p. 254.Beatrix Potter, journal entry, 11 November 1883, The Journal of Beatrix Potter 1881–1897, transcribed from her code writings by Leslie Linder, 1989, p. 56.Magazine of Art, volume VII, April 1884, p. xxviii.Marion Harry Spielmann, Millais and His Works. With special reference to the exhibition at the Royal Academy 1898 . . . with a Chapter 'Thoughts on Our Art of To-Day' by Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., PRA, Edinburgh and London, 1898, pp. 122 & 176 ('List of Oil Paintings', no. 252.).John Guille Millais, The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, President of the Royal Academy, 1899, volume II, pp. 236 (reproduced) & 482 ('Chronological List of Millais' Work').When Forget-Me-Not was first exhibited, at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1883, the critic of the Athenaeum magazine called it 'a portrait in character'. It was generally recognized as a likeness of the artist's daughter Effie James (1858–1911), although her outfit and the title of the work suggested something other than a straightforward portrait; she was both being herself and playing a part, both sitter and model. Her summer dress with matching sash and ribbons was closer to fancy dress than real-life clothing of the time, and the style vaguely eighteenth-century. This was what the critic meant by 'a portrait in character'. Millais presents his daughter as a Victorian young woman with a touch of the aristocratic lady of a bygone age. She sits against a park or garden background with little definition to anything beyond some sprigs of honeysuckle, hinting at a love of nature on Effie's part but with little to distract from her figure. The general presentation, like the costume, recalls portraits of the Georgian era. In his middle age Millais embraced conventions and traditions of British painting which he had reviled as a young Pre-Raphaelite. A pioneer of the 'eighteenth century revival' in Victorian art and design, he painted loosely-brushed recollections of British masters of the past, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and George Romney—alluding to their works as they, in turn, had alluded to the works of their revered predecessor Anthony van Dyck. Gainsborough held a special appeal since he too had been a fond father who loved to paint his daughters. It is difficult to say whether Forget-Me-Not was begun primarily as a portrait or as a so-called 'fancy picture'—that is, whether it was private and intended for the family, or commercial and intended to be sold. Millais may have kept both possibilities open as he painted and exhibited the work, although as a young-woman subject it would not have been quite as immediately saleable as his nostalgic paintings of children. On balance it was likely painted more with family purposes in mind; the family certainly kept it, at least until the artist and his wife had died. It may even have had a private meaning for them. The forget-me-nots that Effie has been picking gently suggest what she might be thinking—'forget me not'—as a daughter who has left home; she was now twenty-four years old, married, and the mother of two little boys. Writing for the Art Journal, one critic thought Effie was in a state of yearning, with 'a soft, pleading expression in her wistful eyes'. One can imagine her father coming up with the 'forget me not' conceit as both an expression of paternal affection (he would hope she cared to be remembered) and, given his love of humour, a chance for quips and raillery. He would later use the title The Last Rose of Summer for the portrait of another daughter, Mary; she was his 'last rose of summer' as the one who never married and stayed in the family home, helping him in his work and public duties until the end. Alongside Forget-Me-Not, Millais began another painting of Effie on a canvas the same size, in more or less the same pose though wearing a different, more contemporary dress. Finished as a gift for Effie herself in 1885, it now belongs to one of her great grandchildren. Named after her mother, Effie was the artist's second child, his eldest daughter, and one of his favourite models. She appears in more of her father's works than any of her siblings; as a child she posed for the popular My First Sermon and its sequel, My Second Sermon. From the age of ten she attended a boarding school in Forest Hill, south London, with her sister Mary; when she was seventeen the girls stayed in Paris for a time to study languages and the piano. Good-looking and sociable, Effie was delighted by the round of balls, parties, and at-homes that she attended in London as a girl. On 28 November 1879 she married Captain William James, an officer in the Royal Scots Greys and son of the eminent judge Sir William Milbourne James. They had two sons, George and William ('Willie'), and two daughters, Phyllis and Sylvia. Willie was the model for Bubbles, which became famous as an advertisement for Pears' soap. Both sons pursued military careers like their father. George became an army captain and was killed in the First World War. Willie
Lot 42
Frederic, Lord Leighton, PRA (British, 1830-1896)Sea Echoes oil on canvas51.5 x 44.5cm (20 1/4 x 17 1/2in).Footnotes:ProvenanceW. Gillilan; his sale, Christie's, London, 15 May 1925, lot 121 (bought Sampson).H. Nelson; his sale, Christie's, London, 17 December 1937, lot 15, titled Music of the Sea (bought Mitchell).Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 27 January 1960, lot 148. Private collection, UK (acquired from the above).Thence by descent.ExhibitedLondon, Royal Academy, 1862, no. 494.Dublin, Irish International Exhibition, 1907.LiteratureMrs Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, two volumes, London, 1906, pp. 87-8.Ernest Rhys, Frederic Lord Leighton London, 1898, p. 16.L. & R. Ormond, Lord Leighton, London, 1975, p. 154, cat. no. 81.Leighton's beautiful and sensuous painting Sea Echoes shows a young woman holding a sea-shell to her ear so as to try to hear, or to imagine that she might hear, the sound of waves breaking on the shore. The woman wears a garment of white satin over her shoulder, while her head rests against an embroidered or printed drapery showing luscious white peonies and their stems and leaves. The background of the composition shows a sea-shore and a deep green-blue expanse of ocean, with ominous dark clouds indicating an incoming storm. The model is a woman whose distinctive golden hair and pale complexion and blue eyes are seen in a number of Leighton's paintings of the early 1860s, such as Odalisque (Private collection) and Girl with a Basket of Fruit (Eucharis) (Private collection), shown at the Royal Academy in 1862 and 1863 respectively. It may tentatively be suggested that the person represented was one or other of Leighton's two sisters, Alexandra and Augusta, as there is a distinct family likeness in the physiognomy.The present painting came from a phase of the artist's career when he was striving for a new and personal style. He had first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855 when he showed Cimabue's Madonna (Royal Collection), a painting which was met with great enthusiasm, and which was bought by Queen Victoria. However, his subsequent exhibits of narrative type were met with indifference. In 1859 he established himself in London (having lived previously in Germany, Italy and France), and began to explore a type of thematic figurative composition from which the story-telling element was excluded but which instead depended purely upon mood and the elegance of physical type. This was a form of art of a sensuous kind which had been treated previously by French artists among them painters familiar to Leighton from the years that he had lived in Paris in the late 1850s, but which was at first regarded with suspicion by critics and fellow painters in London. Sea Echoes, painted we may assume in circa1861 and exhibited for the first time in the summer of 1862, and in which there is no indication of the circumstances or situation of the young woman represented, is one his very early experiments in this modern style of painting.Sea Echoes may therefore be seen as a product of the artistic movement which has come to be called Aestheticism and for which the theoretical basis lay in German and French art. Leighton sought to conjure sympathy for the experience of the person represented by inviting the spectator to imagine his or her response to their situation or setting. In various paintings of the 1860s he introduced the motif of imagined sounds which might be seen to prompt reflection or indicate mood. In paintings such as Duett (Royal Collection), Rustic Music (Leighton House Museum) and Golden Hours (Private collection), all from the 1860s, he showed figures transported into a realm of delight by the action of making music, or by listening to it, while still more remarkable is the subject Lieder ohne Worte – 'Song without Words' (Tate), of 1860-61, where all appears to be silent and static except for the imagined song of a blackbird. In its reference to sound, Sea Echoes is explicit, but at the same time fanciful. The painting is intended to give pleasure to the viewer by means that represented a radical departure from the solemn realities and portentousness of much the art of a previous generation of British painters.Leighton had been trained in a European academic method, and once again Sea Echoes may be seen as dependent upon the artist's formative experiences in France and Germany. It was his practice to make preparatory chalk and pencil drawings from the nude and draped model. Studies would then follow which would establish the overall format of the intended composition and determine how the figure would be placed. However carefully this process of preparation was undertaken, when once he was ready to work in paint on canvas, Leighton had the skill and confidence to work in a way that was naturalistic and unstilted, with rich colours and freedom of handling that makes the whole thing fresh and spontaneous. The flesh tones and the texture and colour of the woman's hair in Sea Echoes are beautifully captured and appear translucent in the light of the sun. The fabrics of the model's dress and the floral hanging are richly given in paint, whether in the ethereal and floating softness of the garment around her shoulders, arms and bosom, or the gorgeous ornateness of the floral hanging. The outcome is the representation of a languorous and eroticised female figure which is both sensuous and physically enticing.Lastly, the painterly immediacy of the expanse of sea and cloud, and of the glimpse of sandy foreshore, is a reminder that Leighton was – in addition to his primacy in Victorian art in the sphere of figurative art – one of the great landscape painters of the nineteenth century. This was something he refined in plein-air oil sketches, and which were then the inspiration of the landscape elements in his figure compositions. In the present painting, the view of sea and dark clouds is particularly beautiful.This is an important painting which has been untraced since 1960 and which has not appeared in any modern exhibition or publication. It is an important rediscovery and a painting which will take its place in the canon of Leighton's most innovatory early works and of the type of advanced paintings which transformed British art in the period of the Aesthetic Movement. ReferencesLeighton referred to the work in a letter to his father written at the time of its admission to the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1862: 'Dear Papa, - I think I may confirm the report made to you of the success of my pictures [at the Academy]. Particularly the 'Odalisque' and 'Echoes' [the present work] (by-the-bye, I have just received a letter from somebody who wants to know if they are sold. What the papers say, you will have seen. You will be glad to hear that I have received congratulations on all sides, which gives me the idea of being tolerably secure; at all events, I got no such last year, nor indeed at all since the 'Cimabue.'' (Quoted Barrington II, p. 87)
Lot 121
A good Elizabeth I needlework valance panel, circa 1580Designed with Virtues, depicted as females in contemporary dress, including Hope, Charity and Temperance, all standing within an idyllic landscape, with buildings, streams and duck pond, later velvet mount and frame, panel 120.5cm wide, 38cm high, frame 136cm wide, 55.5cm high
Lot 224
SUFFRAGETTES – PANKHURST, TERRERO & THE PINNER WSPUPortrait photograph signed 'E. Pankhurst/ Nov. 1913' in ink on the image, depicting Emmeline Pankhurst half-length in a white dress with black buttons and bow tie, photographer's stamp '©/ Matzene/ Chicago' on the image, 188 x 115mm., with frame 307 x 222mm., November 1913; Autograph letter signed ('Jane Terrero/ One of the Bold Bad Ones!') to Mrs Verden, thanking her for her support ('...I can't tell you what a joy and what a privilege I feel it is to be here for our glorious cause... Had I come here as an 'anti' I should certainly be a suffragette now!...'), 3 pages on a bifolium, marks and dust-staining, loss to corners where removed from album, torn in two and roughly repaired, 4to (237 x 190mm.), on pale blue Holloway Prison notepaper, 18 March 1912; Album compiled by Marie Wallis Verden of the Pinner branch of the WSPU, containing postcards (portraits, demonstrations etc.), photographs of outdoor meetings, programme for the Demonstration in Hyde Park, 14 July 1912, WSPU correspondence, press cuttings from Votes for Women and other newspapers about the activities of the branch including the imprisonment of Jane Terrero and descriptions of forcible feeding, 32 leaves, some leaves loose, foxed, marked and discoloured, upper cover disbound, spine lacking, folio (365 x 242mm.), [1911-1913]; with three other letters, one to Mr Terrero from Keir Hardie (secretarial) about the unjust sentences passed on suffragettes, 2 April 1912, typed letter to Mrs Terrero regarding her letter to the Times, 3 July 1912, and typed letter from Antony Derville of BBC's Woman's Hour to Mrs Phyllis Pearce asking to read her memoirs of her time as house parlour-maid to Mrs Pankhurst, with her autograph notes on reverse, 28 January 1964; programme for the unveiling of Mrs Pankhurst's statue by Mr Baldwin, 6 March 1930; a loose collection of six portrait photograph postcards (Christabel Pankhurst, Emily Wilding Davison, Annie Kenney, Lady Constance Lytton, the arrest of Grace Roe with accompanying press photograph, etc.); and a shield-shaped WSPU Votes for Women pin badge, green, white and purple enamel, maker's mark 'W.O. Lewis' on reverse, 21 x 22mm., [c.1910] (collection)Footnotes:'ONE OF THE BOLD BAD ONES!': A collection of suffragette memorabilia from the Pinner Branch of the WSPU.The collection comes from the family of Phyllis Crome Pearce, née Verden (1889-1981) and her mother Marie Wallis Verden (1866-1956), wife of Mr Mark Verden, who were leading lights of the Pinner branch of the WSPU. The branch was founded in 1908 by five women, all neighbours, including Marie Verden and its Honorary Secretary, Janie Terrero (1848-1944) who, with her husband Manuel, frequently hosted fundraising garden parties in the grounds of their home, Rockstone House. Terrero was arrested for window smashing on 1 March 1912 and was sentenced to four months in Holloway during which she took part in two hunger strikes - her extensive notes describing her experiences in prison are held as part of the Suffragette Fellowship Collection. As well as documenting Terrero's arrest and imprisonment, newspaper cuttings in the album mention Marie Verden's role as Honorary Treasurer of the branch, whilst her daughter Phyllis is also mentioned as being involved in fundraising events. Both Marie and Phyllis held the role of Secretary at one time. Marie is said to have sustained injuries in the deputation to Buckingham Palace on 21 May 1914, the last major act of militancy before the First World War. Whilst training to be a nurse Phyllis met and married Frank Pearce (1878-1946), already a leading dental surgeon and Honorary Secretary of the British Dental Association. In 1936 he was created President of the Royal College of Dental Surgery, their highest honour, and received a knighthood for his contribution to dentistry, although Lady Pearce was said to be uncomfortable with using the title. A letter from the BBC's Woman's Hour Programme from 1964 reveals that Phyllis at one time held the position of 'house parlour maid' to Emmeline Pankhurst, through whom she may well have met leading suffragettes including Ada Wright (see adjacent lot). According to the family, Phyllis was the most active and militant of the Verden family and served in Holloway prison at the same time as Emmeline Pankhurst. They tell of the family house being stoned and windows broken by opponents of the Suffragette movement, with family members being chased up Pinner High Street by anti-suffragists. For more on the Verden family and the suffragette movement in Pinner see Thomas MacIver's article, 'Pinner's Suffragette's', London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Transactions, 69, 2018, pp.269-282. In this article a 'Miss Wright' is mentioned as sharing the responsibility for running the branch with Mrs Verden in 1914 but the connection, if any, to Ada Wright is not known.The photograph of Emmeline Pankhurst was taken in Chicago on a highly successful tour of the USA in the Autumn of 1913. She was on the run from the British authorities after refusing to return to Holloway in June 1913 under the terms of the Cat and Mouse Act and, as a convicted criminal, she should have been refused entry to the USA. She was detained at Ellis Island on arrival but, after pressure from various women's groups, she was allowed to continue her visit on the promise of good behaviour. She was rearrested on her return to the UK in December 1913. Provenance: Phyllis Crome Pearce, née Verden (1889-1981), the present owner's grandmother.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 1178
AN EDWARDIAN SILVER-CASED SET OF CARD DOMINOES by Henry Matthews, Birmingham 1901, rectangular with a hinged cover, decorated in relief with a gentleman in 18th Century dress serenading two ladies. 8.2cm high, 1.6 troy ounces (excl. cards)A full set of rubbed but legible marks on one side. The cover with clear lion passant and date letter. Further struck 50 twice. The hinge is in good condition and the lid closes crisply. In generally good condition.
Lot 177
A PAIR OF LUDWIGSBURG GROUPS OF DANCERSPOSSIBLY MODELLED BY JEAN-JACOB LOUIS, CIRCA 1765Blue crowned interlaced 'C's' marks and incised CC 30 and CC 3215cm and 16cm highProvenance:Property of a Lady of titleChristie's, 22nd June 1927, Lot 90, Viscountess Harcourt.Condition Report: CONDITION REPORT UPDATED 26 March; The smaller of the two groups with the green floral dress: she has a chipped hat rim, small paint retouch to his right lapel and foot rimLarger- nibble to right edge of his cloak- her hat with small chipsCondition Report Disclaimer
Lot 624
007 James Bond movie Live and Let Die 8x10 photo signed by Bond girl Madeline Smith, who has added her line 'such a delicate touch' which she said whilst Roger Moore was unzipping her dress with a magnet. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £5.99, EU from £7.99, Rest of World from £9.99
Lot 139
Vivienne Westwood (British, 1941-2022)Pink Spandex Boulle Dress, Fall/Winter 1991-1992 Dressing Up Collectionpink Lycra and silk fabric with silver-metal-thread neoclassical design, inspired by French cabinet maker André Charles Boulle, chest 32in/82cm, waist 22-24in/56-62cm, hips 30-34in/76-87cm, Made in Englandlabelled size 1Footnotes:Linda Evangelista modelled this look on the runway.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
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