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Lot 1011
ATHLETICS MISCELLANY Includes a complete set of 36 Olympic Champions Amsterdam 192 cigarette / trade cards issued by Godfrey Phillips, 5 badges for the scheduled 1940 Olympics in Helsinki, 9 signed First Day Covers including Brendan Foster, Lynn Davies, Ron Pickering, Sally Gunnell, Alan Pasco and Tessa Sanderstead and a 1934 Hertfordshire AAA programme. Generally good
Lot 304
WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1939-40 West Brom bound volume for the scarce wartime season 1939-40. Twenty three programmes plus end of season summary, no covers. Includes the three games played before War was declared, Reserves v Man Utd and Birmingham and first team v Tottenham. Wartime Regional League games v opponents such as Luton, Wolves, Leicester, Birmingham, Walsall, Northampton, Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday and Cup games v Bournemouth and Portsmouth are included. Bound in blue cloth with gilt inscription on spine, Inside cover has "Withdrawn from Sandwell Public Libraries noted. Generally good
Lot 883
RUGBY LEAGUE / SALFORD V LEEDS AT MANCHESTER UNITED 1958 Programme for the match on 5/11/1958. Page three contains the article "Thank You, Manchester United!" from the Salford Board of Directors to the Board at United. First Rugby League match at Old Trafford. Very slight vertical crease. Generally good
Lot 123
RANGERS AUTOGRAPHS 1972 Presentation of the 1972 European Cup Winners Cup Champions - Rangers, the Glasgow side defeated Dynamo Moscow 3-2 with goals from Willie Johnston (2) and Colin Stein, Rangers first and only European Title, the presenation includes individually hand signed 6" X 4" photo-cards by all eleven players in fine blue marker ; McCloy, Mathieson, Smith, Jardine, Greig, MacDonald, Conn, Johnstone, McLean, Stein and Johnston, also included is a pair of 6" X 6" photos of the players celebrating in the dressing room at the Nou Camp following their victory, and also a similar image showing the players posing with the trophy during a photo-shoot several days after the Final. Good
Lot 399
CHELSEA AUTOGRAPHS 1950s - 1980s Ten 12" X 8" photos each signed by the player featured including Roy Bentley posing with his team after winning the First Division in 1955, Alan Hudson holding aloft the European Cup Winners Cup in 1971, Mickey Thomas sending fans into delirium in 1984 and Alan Birchenall as part of the 1970 FA Cup Final squad, all signed in permanent marker. Good
Lot 1106
1930 WORLD CUP URUGUAY / FIRST FIFA WORLD CUP A bound volume of Primer Campeonato Mundial De Football, Coupe Du Monde, Montevideo, 1930, No.522 of a limited edition 3000. The book giving details of the officials, the teams and match reports on all the matches, including the final, from the 1930 World Cup finals, with Uruguayan Football Association stamp, some water damage, published by Arturo Carbonell Debali. Plus a sheet with various pictures signed by Pedro Cea of Uruguay who scored Uruguay's 2nd goal in the Final. Fair to generally good
Lot 300
A 2004 Toyota RAV4 XT3 VVTI 1998 cc petrol All Wheel Drive 5 door with manual gearbox, finished in practical Metallic Green, registration number GY54 FNZ. First registered on 30/09/2004, M.O.T. until 27/10/2023. Currently showing 89,617 miles, (not warranted correct) but mileage seems to be fully corroborated by the D.V.L.A. MOT history. Driven to the sale-yard by the owners. All appeared to function properly when driven around the premises with no warning lights showing and the radio is operational. Appears to perform very powerfully. 27 degrees outside but the air-con cooled the interior quickly at the time of the drive-around. No tow-bar is fitted. Some emulsion type paint has historically been spilled in the rear foot-well, this seems to remove fairly easily from the adjacent paint-work but has set in the rear carpet, which could easily be replaced. An opportunity to purchase a very capable and apparently lightly used vehicle from this highly regarded manufacturer. N.B. BUYERS PREMIUM ON THIS LOT 10% + V.A.T. (Total premium 12% but plus any specific on-line bidding fees).
Lot 153
FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1883-1937) AUCHABHAICH CROFT, IONA (NIGHTFALL IONA) Signed, oil on boardDimensions:38cm x 45cm (15in x 17.5in)Provenance:Provenance:T. & R. Annan & Sons Ltd, GlasgowPrivate Collection, GlasgowLiterature: Philip MacLeod Coupe, Paintings of Iona: Cadell and Peploe, privately published 2014, repr.col. p. 46, pl. 28Note: MacLeod Coupe also illustrates in his book a photo of the existing cottage in 2009 with a view of the Ross of Mull and the Paps of Jura in the distance.Note: Note:Whilst serving in World War One, Cadell wrote to his fellow Scottish Colourist S. J. Peploe:When the War is over I shall go to the Hebrides, recover some virtues I have lost. There is something marvellous about those western seas. Oh, Iona. We must all go together. (quoted in Alice Strang et al, S. J. Peploe, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2012, p.24)True to his word, Cadell introduced Peploe to the Hebridean island, off Scotland’s west coast, in 1920 and they returned there most summers for the rest of their lives. Cadell first visited Iona in 1912, possibly because it was owned by his friend Ivar Campbell’s uncle, the 9th Duke of Argyll. He may also have been encouraged to do so by the fact that his friend John Duncan began painting there in 1903, followed by James Paterson and William Caldwell Crawford.As Alice Strang has explained:Iona has many attractions for the artist…It is low-lying, so the light reflected from the surrounding sea intensifies the colours of the white sand beaches and the green of its pastures. The light shining through the shallow waters at the edge of the shore creates brilliant colours of emerald green, blue and violet. In addition, the light and weather change frequently, as the prevailing winds cause a quick succession of cloudy then clear intervals. Iona is known for its geological diversity and there is a wide variation of colours in its rock formations; the red granite of the Ross of Mull is easily visible across the Sound on the east coast, as is the mountain of Ben More. There are also numerous views beyond Iona, particularly from the north end towards Staffa and the Treshnish Islands. On the island itself the main architectural features are the Abbey, the Nunnery and related buildings, the village and scattered crofts. (Alice Strang, F. C. B. Cadell, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2011, p.77)In 1903 Duncan moved to Edinburgh from America, where he had been teaching art at the Chicago Institute. A visit to Iona helped him to plan for the future and ‘he started by making a vow to devote his time to the realisation of spiritual art and to gather the crops of his imagination rather than let them rot in untended fields.’ (John Kemplay, The Paintings of John Duncan A Scottish Symbolist, Rohnert Park, 1994, p.43). Duncan played a key role in the Celtic Revival which blossomed in the 1890s and Iona provided the setting for some of his most important Symbolist works, which celebrated Celtic mythology; it was also where he is reported to have encountered Gaelic fairy-folk for the first time. Such was the inspiration that the island afforded Duncan, that he was to work there, on and off for forty years, often at the same time as Cadell and Peploe.Duncan’s Cathedral Rock from the North End of Iona (Lot 156) shows a view made famous by the more well-known images of the scene by his Scottish Colourist friends. Cathedral Rock is part of the headland at the extreme north-east corner of the island and is the location of some of its most dramatic geology. The view shown is out to Eilean Annraidh, Staffa and Mull.Auchabhaich Croft first appears in Cadell’s Register of Pictures (Private Collection on long-loan to the National Galleries of Scotland) in 1914 (work no.30), presumably painted during his trip to the island the preceding year. It is one of the crofts situated north of the village and Cadell was to paint it on many occasions, not least as it was not far from Cnoc cùil Phàil, the croft on which he most frequently stayed after the War. The buildings depicted nestled within Auchabhaich Croft, Iona (Lot 153) still exist, albeit extended in various directions. A T. & R. Annan & Sons Ltd label on the painting’s reverse gives it the title ‘Nightfall Iona’ and the image appears to capture the gentle light of the gloaming, as evening falls over the peaceful scene, with its reach to the Paps of Jura in the distance.Mull from Iona (Lot 157) leads the eye from a patchwork quilt of fields across the Sound to the neighbouring island, with particular attention paid to the tumult of weather conditions played out across the sky. This painting formerly belonged to Cadell’s great patron, the shipowner George W. Service, who holidayed on Iona. He reportedly donned a tartan dress jacket for the night of his annual purchase of work by Cadell and appears regularly in the artist’s Register of Pictures from 1913 until 1927.Service would often make multiple acquisitions at a time, usually but not exclusively images of Iona, commissioned portraits of some of his children and supported the artist’s sales in exhibitions such as those mounted by the Society of Eight in Edinburgh. His support sometimes formed the backbone of Cadell’s income, for example when he purchased fourteen works in 1921 for a total of £725, which was 40% of Cadell’s recorded total sales of £1,786 for the year. Two years after Cadell’s death, Mull from Iona was one of three works lent by Service to the landmark Exhibition of Scottish Art mounted at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.Peploe was nearly fifty years old when he first painted on Iona. He was thus able to approach its visual possibilities with the experience of a mature artist and was particularly drawn to the natural beauty of the north end and the views from it. Treshnish Point from Cows Rock (Lot 154) was painted in this area; its dramatic composition sees the beach and protruding rocks occupy all but the upper fifth of the image. Peploe’s technique uses the materiality of oil paint to convey a sense of the texture of sand and weathered rocks, around which inviting paths meander. Between the alluring blue of the sea and the active sky can be glimpsed the west end of Eilean Annraidh in the middle distance and Treshnish Point on the horizon. A closely related painting by Peploe, Iona, Grey Day, is in the collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums.
Lot 143
§ JAMES MCBEY (SCOTTISH 1883-1959) ON THE GARELOCH HELENSBURGH Signed, inscribed and dated 'To Stuart Black 12 August 1924', oil on canvasDimensions:38cm x 28cm (125in x 11in)Note: Stuart Black was born in Glasgow in 1877 and had a passion for sailing yachts. He was the first owner of 'Ceres', a Gareloch One Design Class and presented a trophy in his name which was competed for annually in Gareloch racing from 1924 until 1936. In September 1930 his Fife-designed yacht 'Coral' was in the the British team for the America's Cup, held at the Seawanhaka Yacht Club, but the hosts had a clean sweep in the races.
Lot 123
§ HENRY YOUNG ALISON (SCOTTISH 1889-1972) THE BLUE HEADDRESS Signed, oil on canvasDimensions:76cm x 63.5cm (30in x 25in)Note: Henry Young Alison studied under Fra Newbury at Glasgow School of Art. He served in France during the First World War, but was captured as a Prisoner of War and lost sight in one eye. After the War he returned to G. S. A. as a teacher of Drawing and Painting, and later served as the School’s Interim Director. He is remembered as an accomplished portrait and landscape painter whose work was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy from 1916-1921. This enigmatic portrait of a figure in shadow is a particularly interesting example of Alison’s oeuvre. The figure is portrayed in partial shadow, so that the bright blue of his headdress and yellow of his garment appears to glow. Architectural detailing is suggested in the lower right corner, but the artist has concentrated attention on the sitter who looks directly out at the viewer with a familiar smile.
Lot 158
â—† FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1883-1937) STILL LIFE WITH TULIPS Signed, inscribed verso, oil on canvasDimensions:51cm x 61cm (20in x 24in)Provenance:Provenance: Acquired in 1943 from Dowell’s Ltd, Edinburgh and thence by descent to the Executors of the Late Mrs Anne WalkerNote: Note: F. C. B. Cadell, like his fellow Scottish Colourist and close friend S. J. Peploe, was a master of the still life genre. As seen in Still Life (The Tulip) and Still Life with Tulips, he created images of arresting beauty by way of carefully chosen, arranged and depicted props, including favoured and highly-coloured flowers, fruit and ceramics.These paintings illustrate the significant development in Cadell’s practice after demobilisation and moving to 6 Ainslie Place in Edinburgh’s Georgian New Town in 1920. Moreover, it was with works from this period that he established his reputation as one of Scotland’s most important artists of the twentieth century. Cadell decorated and furnished his magnificent quarters with aplomb and celebrated its interiors and objects d’art in images characterised by a new firmer technique, flatter rendering of form and use of saturated colour.As Alice Strang has explained:This marked change is thought to have been encouraged by Cadell’s new surroundings, by his close collaboration with Peploe immediately after the war, by his interest in the Art Deco movement, and possibly in response to the squalor of the trenches. (Alice Strang, F. C. B. Cadell, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2011, p.40)Cadell and Peploe had met in Edinburgh by 1909 and these two paintings pay testament to the closeness of their friendship, especially in the early 1920s; Peploe lived a short distance away from Ainslie Place, in India Street. At this time both were drawn to the visual possibilities of tulips, the only flower which continues to grow after being cut. This phenomenon gives rise to the graceful arabesques of their stems which Cadell depicted so deftly. The forms of the flower heads, the layering of their petals and the dense colouring of their leaves also provided an inspiring source of silhouette, colour and mark-making.Still Life with Tulips bears a price of £65 on its reverse and overflows with Cadell’s confidence and sophistication. He now revels in the reflective glaze and voluptuous qualities of the blue jug, this time set against the lilac walls of the first floor at Ainslie Place. A tablecloth and black fan with winding ribbon (a prop which Peploe also favoured) add to a sense of a cultured lifestyle. Spatial layering is complex and successful, from the cropping of the lemon in the foreground suggesting the wider space existing beyond the confines of the canvas, to the progression of green tea bowl, to lemon to blue and white oriental vase. Tulip heads are seen straight on and in profile, stems and petals overlap each other and their companions, whilst shadow is subtly implied by way of clearly visible brushstrokes. The lighting is soft, the palette combines gentle tones with pure brilliance and each item contributes to an overall sense of balance.
Lot 118
JAMES PATERSON R.S.A., R.S.W., R.W.S. (SCOTTISH 1854-1932) IN ARCADY Signed and dated 1897, signed and inscribed verso, oil on canvasDimensions:91cm x 71cm (36in x 28in)Provenance:Provenance: Bruno and Paul Cassirer, BerlinExhibited: VI Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung der Münchener Secession, Munich, 1899, no. 27 (lent by the Artist)Note: Note: In Arcady exemplifies the success of the ‘Glasgow Boys’, including James Paterson, in progressive art circles in Germany in the late 1890s. The ‘Boys’ first came to international notice when their work was shown to great acclaim at the Grosvenor Gallery, London in 1890. As Roger Billcliffe has explained:Their exhibition was the final show at the Grosvenor Gallery and so attracted much press attention. This in turn caught the eyes of several of the new exhibiting bodies in Europe, principally secessionist, where naturalism was becoming accepted as a logical compromise between academic painting and the avant-garde work of the Impressionists. The Grosvenor Gallery exhibition was taken to Munich and from there the Boys began to exhibit throughout Europe and beyond…The Boys also began individually to send their work to the Paris Salon and similar institutions in Europe. (Roger Billcliffe, Glasgow Boys, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, on-line edition accessed 9 May 2023)Illustrating this positive reception to Paterson’s work on the Continent, In Arcady was accepted for inclusion in the sixth exhibition of the Munich Secession in 1899. This forward-looking artists society was founded in 1892, as an alternative to the conservative Munich Artists Association.Such was the appreciation of the Boys in Munich that, as Henry Prais has written:In the course of the next decade the Boys showed in Munich alone, between the exhibitions of the Munich Art Society in the Glaspalaste and those of the Secession in the Prinzregentenstrasse, more than six hundred of their works…It is scarcely surprising then that Sir William Rothenstein in his Men and Memories…should remark: ‘I used to say of the Glasgow school, so much admired in Munich and Dresden, that their reputation was made in Germany!’ (Henry Prais, ‘The Boys Abroad: On the Continent’, The Glasgow Boys, Scottish Arts Council, 1971, p.69)Moreover, In Arcady was acquired by the cousins Bruno and Paul Cassirer who established a gallery and publishing house in Berlin in 1898. They were key champions of modern and contemporary art and were, for example, founding secretaries of the Berlin Secession, also in 1898.
Lot 149
§ JOHN DUNCAN FERGUSSON R.B.A. (SCOTTISH 1874-1961) SUPPER DANCE Inscribed by Margaret Morris 'J. D. Fergusson / Early Café drawing 1902 / with love & blessings / from Meg & Fergus / Glasgow May 1965' on the backboard, watercolour, brush and ink on paperDimensions:45cm x 31cm (17.75in x 12.25in)Provenance:Provenance:Given by Margaret Morris to James and Martha Arnott in 1965 and thence by descent to the present ownerExhibited:The Fine Art Society Ltd, London, John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961): A Centenary Exhibition, 10 September-4 October 1974 and tour to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow and The Fine Art Society Ltd, Edinburgh , no.114The Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh, The Need to Draw: 20th-Century Scottish Artists at Work, 22 November-14 December 1975, no.22Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, The Scottish Colourist Series: J. D. Fergusson, 7 December 2013-15 June 2014Literature:Jean Geddes and Margaret Morris, Café Drawings in Edwardian Paris from the Sketch-books of J. D. Fergusson, Blackie, Glasgow, 1974, repr. b/w p. 25Note: Note: John Duncan Fergusson and Margaret Morris first met Martha Lawrence Grant (1916-96) when the latter attended Morris’s dance classes in Glasgow in the 1930s. She became a vital figure in Margaret Morris Movement (MMM) and was in the process of establishing an MMM school in Aberdeen when World War Two began. At that point, Fergusson was primarily based in Paris, whilst Morris spent most of her time in London; the conflict resulted in their move to 4 Clouston Street, Glasgow.Fergus and Meg, as they were affectionately known, galvanised the city’s art scene. They were founder members of the New Art Club in 1940, which aimed to stimulate debate and to create affordable exhibiting opportunities. Two years later, Fergusson became founding President of the Club’s successor, the New Scottish Group, which staged eight exhibitions of its members’ work between 1943 and 1956.It is believed that Martha met James Fullarton Arnott (1914-82) through the New Art Club. James was an Assistant Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Glasgow, where he was to become Emeritus Professor of Drama. The couple formed a lifelong creative friendship with Fergus and Meg and were married in 1945. Their son Alan was born in 1948 and he has recalled:The impact of Fergus and Meg on the artistic life of post-war Glasgow, and indeed Scotland, was immense. Painters, sculptors, potters, designers, dancers, actors and musicians all thrived in the atmosphere of post-war Glasgow. While Meg and Fergus provided the artistic inspiration, Mum and Dad provided backing, encouragement and support. During James’s illustrious career, he devised the Drama course at the re-opened Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) and in 1966 was appointed the first Head of the Drama Department at the University of Glasgow. Martha helped to establish and run the RSAMD Library, as well as designing and creating costumes for Academy and University productions.With his knowledge of arts funding and art world contacts, James provided vital support in Meg’s launching of the Celtic Ballet, Scottish National Ballet and Scottish Ballet companies. In her turn, Martha taught and danced at MMM Summer Schools and sat for Fergus, not least sharing modelling duties with Meg for his Glasgow-era masterpiece Danu, Mother of the Gods of 1952, now in The Fergusson Gallery, Perth.Alan has further explained:We holidayed in the South of France with them both in the 50s and with Meg in the 60s. They lived in Glasgow (in the West End) and were regular visitors to our houses in Saltcoats and then Glasgow – and we frequently visited them.Following Fergus’s death in 1961, Meg established the J. D. Fergusson Art Foundation to secure his legacy and to support living artists. Martha and James were founding committee members and Alan succeeded James on the committee in 1983. The Foundation’s aims were achieved with the opening of The Fergusson Gallery in Perth in 1992 and the launch of the J. D. Fergusson Arts Award Trust in 1995.Supper Dance (Lot 149) and Kelvin Valley (Lot 148) pay testament to this creative friendship. Both were given to the Arnotts by Meg in the 1960s and are beautiful examples from key periods in Fergus’s career. In 1907, he took the momentous decision to move from Edinburgh to Paris, which he described as ‘simply a place of freedom’. He immersed himself in the artistic, intellectual and social life of the French capital and made his reputation as a leading artist of the twentieth century during the six years he lived there before World War One. He particularly revelled in its bustling café and restaurant scene and Supper Dance is a beautifully accomplished image of the fashionable clientele whom Fergus enjoyed capturing in images of elegance and movement. His fluid draughtsmanship is clear in passages such as the realisation of the female dancer’s gown, whilst a lively composition leads the eye from the champagne in the foreground, to the dancing couple, to another observed in intimate conversation in the background.Kelvin Valley is a jewel of a painting, in which Fergus pays homage to the city which was the location for the final chapter of his international career. The Clouston Street flat overlooked Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens and was joined, via the River Kelvin, to Kelvingrove Park; these green spaces provided inspiration for the artist’s late, lyrical landscapes. He developed a distinct ‘Glasgow palette’ characterised by high-toned shades of green and pink, which were delicately and deftly applied to their supports in a gentle yet confident finale to the images of Princes Street Gardens, the Scottish Highlands and the South of France which preceded them.As Alan has concluded:Fergus was a lovely man. He treated children the same as everyone else and encouraged me to draw. Meg was full of life and energy and retained the strength and grace of a 20-year-old. There was great love and generosity of spirit amongst us all.
Lot 157
FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1883-1937) MULL FROM IONA Signed, inscribed verso 'G. W. Service', oil on boardDimensions:37cm x 44.5cm (14.75in x 17.5in)Provenance:Provenance:George W. Service, GlasgowLyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, Fine Paintings, 3 December 2008, lot 128, where acquired by the present owner Note: Exhibited: Royal Academy of Arts, London, Exhibition of Scottish Art, 6 January-11 March 1939, no. 597 (lent by George Service, incorrectly catalogued as pastel)Note: This painting was one of eight works by Cadell shown in the landmark exhibition of Scottish art held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1939; it was one of three lent by the shipowner George Service. Its entry in the catalogue read: 'A summer scene. Looking from fields in Iona across the Sound to Mull.' Whilst serving in World War One, Cadell wrote to his fellow Scottish Colourist S. J. Peploe:When the War is over I shall go to the Hebrides, recover some virtues I have lost. There is something marvellous about those western seas. Oh, Iona. We must all go together. (quoted in Alice Strang et al, S. J. Peploe, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2012, p.24)True to his word, Cadell introduced Peploe to the Hebridean island, off Scotland’s west coast, in 1920 and they returned there most summers for the rest of their lives. Cadell first visited Iona in 1912, possibly because it was owned by his friend Ivar Campbell’s uncle, the 9th Duke of Argyll. He may also have been encouraged to do so by the fact that his friend John Duncan began painting there in 1903, followed by James Paterson and William Caldwell Crawford.As Alice Strang has explained:Iona has many attractions for the artist…It is low-lying, so the light reflected from the surrounding sea intensifies the colours of the white sand beaches and the green of its pastures. The light shining through the shallow waters at the edge of the shore creates brilliant colours of emerald green, blue and violet. In addition, the light and weather change frequently, as the prevailing winds cause a quick succession of cloudy then clear intervals. Iona is known for its geological diversity and there is a wide variation of colours in its rock formations; the red granite of the Ross of Mull is easily visible across the Sound on the east coast, as is the mountain of Ben More. There are also numerous views beyond Iona, particularly from the north end towards Staffa and the Treshnish Islands. On the island itself the main architectural features are the Abbey, the Nunnery and related buildings, the village and scattered crofts. (Alice Strang, F. C. B. Cadell, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2011, p.77)In 1903 Duncan moved to Edinburgh from America, where he had been teaching art at the Chicago Institute. A visit to Iona helped him to plan for the future and ‘he started by making a vow to devote his time to the realisation of spiritual art and to gather the crops of his imagination rather than let them rot in untended fields.’ (John Kemplay, The Paintings of John Duncan A Scottish Symbolist, Rohnert Park, 1994, p.43). Duncan played a key role in the Celtic Revival which blossomed in the 1890s and Iona provided the setting for some of his most important Symbolist works, which celebrated Celtic mythology; it was also where he is reported to have encountered Gaelic fairy-folk for the first time. Such was the inspiration that the island afforded Duncan, that he was to work there, on and off for forty years, often at the same time as Cadell and Peploe.Duncan’s Cathedral Rock from the North End of Iona (Lot 156) shows a view made famous by the more well-known images of the scene by his Scottish Colourist friends. Cathedral Rock is part of the headland at the extreme north-east corner of the island and is the location of some of its most dramatic geology. The view shown is out to Eilean Annraidh, Staffa and Mull.Auchabhaich Croft first appears in Cadell’s Register of Pictures (Private Collection on long-loan to the National Galleries of Scotland) in 1914 (work no.30), presumably painted during his trip to the island the preceding year. It is one of the crofts situated north of the village and Cadell was to paint it on many occasions, not least as it was not far from Cnoc cùil Phàil, the croft on which he most frequently stayed after the War. The buildings depicted nestled within Auchabhaich Croft, Iona (Lot 153) still exist, albeit extended in various directions. A T. & R. Annan & Sons Ltd label on the painting’s reverse gives it the title ‘Nightfall Iona’ and the image appears to capture the gentle light of the gloaming, as evening falls over the peaceful scene, with its reach to the Paps of Jura in the distance.Mull from Iona (Lot 157) leads the eye from a patchwork quilt of fields across the Sound to the neighbouring island, with particular attention paid to the tumult of weather conditions played out across the sky. This painting formerly belonged to Cadell’s great patron, the shipowner George W. Service, who holidayed on Iona. He reportedly donned a tartan dress jacket for the night of his annual purchase of work by Cadell and appears regularly in the artist’s Register of Pictures from 1913 until 1927.Service would often make multiple acquisitions at a time, usually but not exclusively images of Iona, commissioned portraits of some of his children and supported the artist’s sales in exhibitions such as those mounted by the Society of Eight in Edinburgh. His support sometimes formed the backbone of Cadell’s income, for example when he purchased fourteen works in 1921 for a total of £725, which was 40% of Cadell’s recorded total sales of £1,786 for the year. Two years after Cadell’s death, Mull from Iona was one of three works lent by Service to the landmark Exhibition of Scottish Art mounted at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.Peploe was nearly fifty years old when he first painted on Iona. He was thus able to approach its visual possibilities with the experience of a mature artist and was particularly drawn to the natural beauty of the north end and the views from it. Treshnish Point from Cows Rock (Lot 154) was painted in this area; its dramatic composition sees the beach and protruding rocks occupy all but the upper fifth of the image. Peploe’s technique uses the materiality of oil paint to convey a sense of the texture of sand and weathered rocks, around which inviting paths meander. Between the alluring blue of the sea and the active sky can be glimpsed the west end of Eilean Annraidh in the middle distance and Treshnish Point on the horizon. A closely related painting by Peploe, Iona, Grey Day, is in the collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums.
Lot 138
§ JAMES MCBEY (SCOTTISH 1883-1959) HALF-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF HORTENSE LOEB Signed and dated 6 July 1931, oil on canvasDimensions:71cm x 61cm (28in x 24in)Note: Note: In 1930 James McBey established a studio in Philadelphia, and a diary entry from the 3rd December of that year records that at a dinner he first met Marguerite Loeb, a Sorbonne-educated tobacco heiress with exceptional connections in the art world; she had studied book-binding in 1920s Paris, where she and artist Oskar Kokoschka had been lovers, and afterwards moved to New York where she established a photography studio on West 57th Street. Early in 1931, they travelled to Bermuda with Marguerite’s mother Hortense, and on the boat back to New York, James proposed to Marguerite. On Friday 13th March 1931, three months after the couple had first met, they were wed. This portrait of Hortense Loeb, Marguerite’s mother, was made shortly after the marriage. The McBeys sailed for England immediately after their wedding, and this portrait may therefore either have been based on studies McBey made while still within the States, or perhaps was made from life during a visit from Hortense. The portrait is rendered with affection, and the subject appears entirely at ease. The ‘July 1931’ accords with her summer-y attire, and she wears a fashionable halter top, which, owing to the 1930s trend for sun tans, were all the rage. McBey’s linear brushwork eloquently describes the interaction of light with his subject, recalling his technical experience as a printmaker: many of his etchings use striation lines to indicate light sources. The deft, pared-back handling of shadow to the background and across Hortense’s dress is also characteristic of an artist used to working with intaglio.
Lot 171
§ JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) HAYSTACK AND GATE With the Artist's Estate Inventory Number EE239 verso, oil on boardDimensions:19cm x 23cm (7.5in x 9in)Provenance:Exhibited: Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow, March 1985, no.15Note: Note: Eardley’s first visited Catterline in 1951 and the village became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching 'on the spot' in all seasons, weather conditions and times of day.As Patrick Elliott has explainedCatterline was not a picturesque Highland village…but a working harbour with boats, fishing nets and fields of wheat, barley and oats. People may be absent from Eardley’s Catterline paintings, but their presence is felt.’ (Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, Edinburgh 2016, p.10)Eardley made frequent painting trips to Catterline between 1952 and 1954, before renting the small cottage at No. 1 South Row. She thereafter split her time between Glasgow and the village. Whilst keeping No.1 as a store, Eardley went on to purchase No. 18 South Row in 1959. Her relationship with the immediate area deepened and in 1961 Eardley declared:When I’m painting in the north-east I hardly ever move out of the village…I find that the more I know of the place, or of one particular spot, the more I find to paint…I don’t think I’m painting what I feel about scenery, certainly not scenery with a name; because that is the north-east, just vast wastes, vast seas, vast areas of cliff…well – you’ve just go to paint it.’ (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.11)As revealed in Haystack and Gate (Lot 171), Eardley was finely attuned to the turn of the seasons, the farming calendar and varying lighting conditions. She captured the ripening of the crops, their harvesting and the fecund forms of the resultant stacks. Here one is positioned at the centre of a composition based on thickly painted passages in which the higgledy-piggledy gate and fence are picked out in rich detail.
Lot 148
§ JOHN DUNCAN FERGUSSON R.B.A. (SCOTTISH 1874-1961) KELVIN VALLEY Signed, titled and dated 1942 verso, oil on boardDimensions:25cm x 19cm (9.75 x 7.5in)Provenance:Provenance:Given by Margaret Morris to Martha Arnott in 1967 and thence by descent to the present ownerNote: Note: John Duncan Fergusson and Margaret Morris first met Martha Lawrence Grant (1916-96) when the latter attended Morris’s dance classes in Glasgow in the 1930s. She became a vital figure in Margaret Morris Movement (MMM) and was in the process of establishing an MMM school in Aberdeen when World War Two began. At that point, Fergusson was primarily based in Paris, whilst Morris spent most of her time in London; the conflict resulted in their move to 4 Clouston Street, Glasgow.Fergus and Meg, as they were affectionately known, galvanised the city’s art scene. They were founder members of the New Art Club in 1940, which aimed to stimulate debate and to create affordable exhibiting opportunities. Two years later, Fergusson became founding President of the Club’s successor, the New Scottish Group, which staged eight exhibitions of its members’ work between 1943 and 1956.It is believed that Martha met James Fullarton Arnott (1914-82) through the New Art Club. James was an Assistant Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Glasgow, where he was to become Emeritus Professor of Drama. The couple formed a lifelong creative friendship with Fergus and Meg and were married in 1945. Their son Alan was born in 1948 and he has recalled:The impact of Fergus and Meg on the artistic life of post-war Glasgow, and indeed Scotland, was immense. Painters, sculptors, potters, designers, dancers, actors and musicians all thrived in the atmosphere of post-war Glasgow. While Meg and Fergus provided the artistic inspiration, Mum and Dad provided backing, encouragement and support. During James’s illustrious career, he devised the Drama course at the re-opened Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) and in 1966 was appointed the first Head of the Drama Department at the University of Glasgow. Martha helped to establish and run the RSAMD Library, as well as designing and creating costumes for Academy and University productions.With his knowledge of arts funding and art world contacts, James provided vital support in Meg’s launching of the Celtic Ballet, Scottish National Ballet and Scottish Ballet companies. In her turn, Martha taught and danced at MMM Summer Schools and sat for Fergus, not least sharing modelling duties with Meg for his Glasgow-era masterpiece Danu, Mother of the Gods of 1952, now in The Fergusson Gallery, Perth.Alan has further explained:We holidayed in the South of France with them both in the 50s and with Meg in the 60s. They lived in Glasgow (in the West End) and were regular visitors to our houses in Saltcoats and then Glasgow – and we frequently visited them.Following Fergus’s death in 1961, Meg established the J. D. Fergusson Art Foundation to secure his legacy and to support living artists. Martha and James were founding committee members and Alan succeeded James on the committee in 1983. The Foundation’s aims were achieved with the opening of The Fergusson Gallery in Perth in 1992 and the launch of the J. D. Fergusson Arts Award Trust in 1995.Supper Dance (Lot 149) and Kelvin Valley (Lot 148) pay testament to this creative friendship. Both were given to the Arnotts by Meg in the 1960s and are beautiful examples from key periods in Fergus’s career. In 1907, he took the momentous decision to move from Edinburgh to Paris, which he described as ‘simply a place of freedom’. He immersed himself in the artistic, intellectual and social life of the French capital and made his reputation as a leading artist of the twentieth century during the six years he lived there before World War One. He particularly revelled in its bustling café and restaurant scene and Supper Dance is a beautifully accomplished image of the fashionable clientele whom Fergus enjoyed capturing in images of elegance and movement. His fluid draughtsmanship is clear in passages such as the realisation of the female dancer’s gown, whilst a lively composition leads the eye from the champagne in the foreground, to the dancing couple, to another observed in intimate conversation in the background.Kelvin Valley is a jewel of a painting, in which Fergus pays homage to the city which was the location for the final chapter of his international career. The Clouston Street flat overlooked Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens and was joined, via the River Kelvin, to Kelvingrove Park; these green spaces provided inspiration for the artist’s late, lyrical landscapes. He developed a distinct ‘Glasgow palette’ characterised by high-toned shades of green and pink, which were delicately and deftly applied to their supports in a gentle yet confident finale to the images of Princes Street Gardens, the Scottish Highlands and the South of France which preceded them.As Alan has concluded:Fergus was a lovely man. He treated children the same as everyone else and encouraged me to draw. Meg was full of life and energy and retained the strength and grace of a 20-year-old. There was great love and generosity of spirit amongst us all.
Lot 142
§ JAMES MCBEY (SCOTTISH 1883-1959) OVATION TO THE MATADOR Signed, pen and ink and watercolourDimensions:46.5cm x 30.5cm (18.25in x 12in)Provenance:Provenance: Allinson Gallery, USA Note: Note: This work dates from c.1911McBey’s etchings proved incredibly popular with London audiences. His career break came with an exhibition at the Goupil Gallery, where he sold seventy-seven prints, and his most in-demand compositions were those inspired by travels abroad. He had first experienced the benefits of new visual and art-historical stimuli while travelling in the Netherlands in 1910, where he painted, drew, and studied Rembrandt’s etchings in the Rijksmuseum. Visits to Morocco and Spain followed shortly thereafter, and McBey amassed a significant body of work depicting Spanish bull-fighting rings.The thrilling, theatrical atmosphere of the ring is captured in The Ovation to the Matador (c.1911) wherein a bull-fighter in traditional attire presents himself triumphantly. The crowd he faces is unseen, but their jubilant reception is made evident by the matador’s raised arms and delighted expression. McBey adjusted this composition for a dynamic etching of the same title, which evidences his mastery of intaglio to evoke varied qualities of light and shadow.Spain would prove to be a continuing source of inspiration. A Brave Bull, San Sebastian (1932) (Lot 141) post-dates the etching market crash which compelled McBey to predominantly work in watercolour and oil paint.
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