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Click here to subscribeLast quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century American gold plated cased hunter pocket watch with blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial, Roman numerals, the dial inscribed "Schierwater & Lloyd, Liverpool" by the American Watch Co, Waltham, Mass. dial diam 45mm, button wind, plain polished outer cases
Last quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century pocket watch of railway interest, the open face with blued steel hands and gold alarm hand to a white enamel dial with Roman numerals, button wind, the dial inscribed "Superior Railway Timekeeper", further inscribed "Specially examined, Swiss made" with covered alarm movement inscribed "Brevet 112427, Swiss made", dial diam 45mm
Last quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century Continental white metal cased pocket watch with key wind, having blued steel hands, black Roman numerals to a white enamelled dial, subsidiary seconds dial, unnamed movement, gold hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, the dial inscribed "J G Graves, Sheffield, Swiss made", the case back stamped "0.935", dial diam 45mm
Last quarter of 19th century/first quarter of 20th century Continental white metal cased pocket watch with key wind, having blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial, unnamed movement but the inner case stamped "examined by J W Benson, 62 and 64 Ludgate Hill, London, Swiss made", the case back stamped "0.935", dial diam 45mm
Last quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century Continental white metal cased fob watch having blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, further diamond and floral enamelled (faint hairline cracks), the foliate and floral engraved case stamped within "0.935", dial diam 3cm
Last quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century Continental yellow metal cased pocket watch with gold hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial, replacement plastic glass, the dial inscribed "F G Graves, Sheffield, Swiss made", the case back stamped "9K" and further numbered 67098, dial diam 45mm (a/f)
Last quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century Continental nickel cased pocket watch with button wind, having blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial, the dial inscribed "John White, Teddington, Swiss made", replacement plastic glass, dial diam 4cm, together with a hallmarked silver graduated watch chain suspending an enamelled hallmarked silver medallion inscribed "Norwich Lads Club", diam 2.5cm bearing Chester hallmark for 1938, weight of chain and medallion 50gms
First quarter of 20th century import hallmarked silver cased pocket watch with key wind, gold hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial, the dial inscribed "Acme Lever, H Samuel, Manchester, Swiss made", replacement plastic glass, the case back stamped with the London import hallmark for 1924, dial diam 5cm
First quarter of 20th century hallmarked silver cased pocket watch with button wind, having blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial (small hairline crack), unnamed movement, numbered 148804, case back hallmarked Birmingham 1904, dial diam 4.5cm, mounted on a nickel double curb link chain with T-bar, together with a hallmarked silver cigar holder case (only) of usual tapering cylindrical form, Birmingham 1908, and a hallmarked silver bottle top (3)
Last quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century Continental white metal cased fob watch with button wind, blued steel hands to a white and gilt decorated enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, unnamed movement, stamped "Made in Switzerland", case back stamped "0.935", dial diam 3cm within a fitted blue velvet case of shield shape
Last quarter of 20th century/first quarter of 21st century gentleman's stainless steel cased wrist watch with luminous hands to a silvered dial with Arabic numbers, having date aperture and 2 subsidiary dials, the dial inscribed "Junkers" and "G 38 D-2500", the back inscribed "G 38 Made in Germany", dial diam 4cm mounted on a pierced black leather strap
First quarter of 20th century ladies import hallmarked 9ct gold cased wrist watch with side button wind, blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with red and black Roman numerals, unnamed movement, stamped to case back with London import hallmark for 1913, dial diam 17mm, mounted on a slim brown leather strap
First quarter of 20th century ladies hallmarked 9ct gold cased wrist watch having blued steel hands to a masked enamelled dial with red and black Arabic numbers, side button wind, the case bearing the London import hallmark for 1916, mounted on a yellow metal flexible bracelet stamped 9ct, dial diam 15mm (excluding bezel), overall weight 20.5gms all in
Ladies first quarter of 20th century import hallmarked 9ct gold cased wrist watch with blued steel hands to a silvered dial with black Arabic numbers, subsidiary seconds dial, the dial indistinctly inscribed with jeweller's name and address, the unnamed movement stamped "15-jewels, 4 adjust, Swiss", dial diam 20mm, mounted on a vintage rolled gold meshwork bracelet
Ladies first quarter of 20th century import hallmarked 18ct gold cased wrist watch, black hands to a silvered dial with black Arabic numbers, the dial inscribed "Mappin", unnamed movement, stamped 17-jewels, Swiss, the case back bearing the London import hallmark for 1925, dial diam 20mm mounted on a black leather strap
Ladies first quarter of 20th century import hallmarked silver cased wrist watch with blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with red and black Arabic numbers, the unnamed movement stamped "Swiss made", the case back stamped with the London import hallmark for 1917, dial diam 20mm, no strap or bracelet, together with an early 20th century indistinctly stamped white metal small butterfly brooch with blue and green enamelled decoration, 20mm wide (2)
Ladies first quarter of 20th century 15ct hallmarked gold cased wrist watch with blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with red and black Arabic numbers, the bezel mounted with seven (of eight) small rose cut diamonds, unnamed movement, the case back London import hallmark for 1909, dial diam 20mm excluding bezel, mounted on a black suede strap
Group of three gents cased vintage wrist watches, the first - second quarter of 20th century 9ct gold cased Rotary wrist watch, gold hands to a cream dial with gold Arabic numbers, the movement with Rotary double wing logo and stamped "Swiss made 15-jewels", case bearing the Birmingham hallmark for 1946, dial diam 22mm (excluding bezel) mounted on a beige leather strap; the second - 9ct gold cased wrist watch, blued steel hands to a silvered dial with black Arabic numbers, subsidiary seconds dial, the movement stamped "Swiss made, Pioneer, 15-jewels, 3 adjsts", the case hallmarked Chester 1938, dial diam 25mm on distressed black leather strap; the third - a mid-20th century stainless steel cased Rotary wrist watch with gold hands to a silvered dial with gold Arabic numerals and batons, sweep second hand, dial diam 25mm mounted on a brown strap and in original plastic case (3)
Mixed Lot: gent's first quarter of 20th century hallmarked silver cased pocket watch, the face inscribed "The Climax" action patent, Chester 1906 (a/f), gent's first quarter of 20th century gold plated hunter pocket watch with enamelled dial inscribed "Invar", and a last quarter of 19th century hallmarked silver cased hunter pocket watch, the dial inscribed "Farringdon D", the case bearing the Birmingham hallmark for 1885 (3)
Gent's first or second quarter of 20th century nickel cased pocket watch with blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial, the dial inscribed " J J Briggs, Cromer" together with a late 19th century Continental white metal cased fob watch (a/f) (2)
Last quarter of 19th/first quarter of 20th century gent's nickel cased pocket watch with blued steel hands to a white enamelled dial with black Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds dial, together with a further first/second quarter of 20th century nickel cased pocket watch with button wind (2)
Two pairs of German porcelain figures, circa 1900, the first Sitzendorf and modelled as a shepherd and shepherdess playing pipes, 22cm high, the second Volkstedt and modelled as a rustic maid and man, she carrying a basket, he carrying a downed doe, 20cm high. (4)Condition: Sitzendorf - losses to pipes, chips to leaves, oxidation to man's jacket. Volkstedt - minor rubbing to gilt, tiny chips to flower petals.
A large collection of Diana Princess of Wales ephemera; to include framed first day covers from 3 Feb 1997; Althorp guide and postcards; 'Diana a Life in Fashion' folder and parts 1-6, together with additional magazines; A quantity of approx. 10 well preserved newspapers from 1997 relating to the death of Princess Diana, mainly Daily Mirror and Daily Mail
THREE JAPANESE MIXED MATERIALS NETSUKE EDO AND MEIJI PERIOD, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY The first in lacquered wood and ivory and carved as Daruma, the Father of Zen Buddhism with spectacles and absorbed in the book opened before him; the second of a monkey examining a beetle on a persimmon with a magnifying glass, in ivory and with the insect inlaid, signed Shomin / Masatami in a rectangular reserve underneath; the third of a large tanuki with its young, with long grasses inlaid in stained ivory and horn to the back, signed Togyoku, 5cm max. (3) Provenance: from the collection of a lady of title, and thence by descent.
FOUR JAPANESE NETSUKE OF DRAGONS EDO AND MEIJI PERIOD, 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY Two in ivory, the first of flattened form and depicted fast asleep, holding a pearl of wisdom between its claws, signed Baikioku to the reverse; the second in Asakusa School style, its body forming a ring and with a loose ball in its mouth, signed Masakazu with kakihan; the third in wood, the beast depicted coiling around a large double gourd; and the last in marine ivory, the body of the dragon tightly interwoven, 7.3cm max. (4) Provenance: from the collection of a lady of title, and thence by descent. Cf. F Meinertzhagen, The Meinertzhagen Card Index on Netsuke in the Archives of the British Museum, Part A, p.11, where a similar netsuke of a dragon by Baikioku is illustrated and discussed, possibly this very piece.
FIVE JAPANESE IVORY NETSUKE OF DOGS MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY The first depicting Hanasaka Jiisan with his dog raking through a pile of gold coins, signed Shokyusai; the four others carved as chubby-looking puppies, one resting on a rooftile, another on an awabi shell, the third with a fish and the last a bitch with her young, some with signatures including Ranichi, Hakuryu, and Shokyusai, 5.2cm max. (5) Provenance: from the collection of a lady of title, and thence by descent. PLEASE NOTE THIS LOT IS TO BE OFFERED WITHOUT RESERVE.
THREE JAPANESE NETSUKE OF RATS MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY Two in ivory, the first depicted on a large straw hat, realistically carved and with its eyes inlaid, signed Masanao in an oblong reserve underneath; the other resting its paws on a rolled-up scroll, with its head raised and the eyes also inlaid; the third in stag antler and carved as two rodents on a large awabi shell, seemingly holding paws, 4.7cm max. (3) Provenance: from the collection of a lady of title, and thence by descent.
Jack B. Yeats R.H.A. (Irish, 1871-1957)Romeo and Juliet (The Last Act) signed 'JACK B YEATS' (upper left) and titled twice 'ROMEO AND JULIET' (on the canvas overlap)oil on canvas45.8 x 61.1 cm. (18 x 24 in.)Painted in 1927Footnotes:ProvenanceMrs Roger FranklandSale; Sotheby's, London, 14 July 1965, where acquired byWaddington Galleries, LondonPrivate Collection, U.S.A.John Rous (4th Earl of Stradbroke), thence by family descent to the present ownerPrivate Collection, U.K.ExhibitedDublin, Engineers' Hall, 25 February-5 March 1927, cat.no.23Birmingham, Ruskin Gallery, Paintings of Ireland, 23 May-4 June 1927, cat.no.31London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, 14 March-5 April 1928, cat.no.34Montreal, Waddington Galleries, Jack B. Yeats Retrospective Exhibition, 12 March-5 April 1969, cat.no.7London, Waddington Galleries, 15 April-8 May 1971, cat.no.7 (col.ill)Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Jack B. Yeats, A Centenary Exhibition, September-December 1971, p.74, cat.no.62 (col.ill); this exhibition travelled to Belfast, Ulster Museum, January-February 1972 and New York, Cultural Centre, April-June 1972 LiteratureHilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Volume I, Andre Deutsch, London, 1992, p.322, cat.no.355 (ill.b&w)The painting depicts the last scene of Charles Guonod's 1867 opera Romeo and Juliet, based on William Shakespeare's famous tragedy. In the final act after a tumultuous duet, Romeo expires and Juliet takes her own life. Their entwined bodies lie in the deserted tomb. Guonod's opera was performed in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin on 2 March 1926. The Irish Times review of the production praised the music and the performers although it noted that Cynlais Gibbs, who played Romeo had a lighter voice than Miss Hill who played Juliet, and was at a slight disadvantage. But it concluded that the orchestra 'gave a fluent account of the strongly coloured instrumental music'. The O'Mara Opera Company, which staged the production, was founded by the celebrated Limerick born tenor, Joseph O'Mara, in 1912 and performed opera seasons regularly at the Gaiety. In 1926, the year before his early death, O'Mara was the first opera singer to perform live on the newly inaugurated Radio Eireann, the Irish Free State's national radio station.Yeats was in attendance at the Gaiety and outlined the scene depicted in the painting in his sketchbook. His book also features drawings of the celebrated staging of Lennox Robinson's play, Cyclops which was performed by the Dublin Drama League in the playwright's home in Dalkey in August 1926. Yeats was an avid theatre goer and playwright. He wrote several plays for children in the early 1900s and his later experimental plays Harlequin's Positions, La La Noo and In Sand were staged at the Abbey Theatre between 1939 and 1949. Several of Yeats's paintings are inspired by his experiences of the theatre. These include Singing The Minstrel Boy (1923, The Model, Sligo), Now (1941, Private Collection), The Talent (1944, Private Collection) and Man Hearing an Old Song, (1950, Private Collection). These paintings like, Romeo and Juliet, incorporate the audience and its involvement in the performance. Yeats's cursory sketch notes the two candles, the balcony to the right and the prominent form of the conductor which are all key elements in the final painting. The figure of the conductor can be seen in the painting on the extreme left. His head is erect and his arms extended as he conducts the concluding notes of Guonod's score. The ghostly bodies of Romeo and Juliet lie next to each other in front of the tomb. Flecks of white, yellow and pink subtly indicate their faces and the flowers that adorn the sturdy sepulchre behind them. The tall ethereal forms of the candles are delicately painted and they and the single flame torch add to the sense of solemnity.The figures are dwarfed by the vast blue expanse of the set. One contemporary reviewer noted the emotional power of this colour in Yeats's painting. 'The surrounding blue seems to be the mystery of life – to symbolise every love-story that was ever lived or written – and birth and death and passion and sacrifice, and everything that is significant in human struggling. It is as if the universe had paused to mark a fleeting perfection'. The stage is framed by the warm reds and yellows of the surrounding auditorium. The heads of the front row of the audience fill the bottom of the composition. On the right hand side the towering structure of the interior of the Gaiety throws the perspective of the stage into stark relief. The elaborate gilt and maroon decoration is richly conveyed by loose swirls of deep colour which take on an organic quality, suggestive of movement and warm reflected light. A spectator is shown seated in the darkened theatre box looking at the performance. The ledge of this box, which stands out in sharp relief, is modelled out of thick brown paint while black lines indicate the railings. This unusual perspective emphasises the collaborative nature of live theatre in which the performers, musicians, and the spectators share in the illusion of the drama. It also draws attention to the artificiality of the set and the theatre itself as an extraordinary site where the human imagination is enabled to take flight. Romeo and Juliet was included in Yeats's one-man exhibition at the Engineers' Hall in Dublin in 1927 and was subsequently shown at the Ruskin gallery in Birmingham and the Arthur Tooth gallery in London. It features in many of the reviews of the acclaimed Dublin exhibition. George Russell described Yeats's work as 'intensely personal' noting that in the paintings, 'the psychic temperament is breaking through the limitations of the physical'. Another critic remarked on the 'powerful and almost audacious wealth of conception and composition' of Romeo and Juliet, which ' is bound to be one of the most discussed of the collection'. Finally the international art journal, The Studio, proclaimed that Yeats 'has now acquired a power over his medium which can only be described as masterly'. We are grateful to Dr. Róisín Kennedy for compiling this catalogue entry.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ARAR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Walter Richard Sickert A.R.A. (British, 1860-1942)Study for Interior of St Mark's Venice oil on canvasboard34.5 x 28 cm. (13 1/2 x 11 in.)Painted circa 1895Footnotes:ProvenancePrivate Collection, U.S.A., from whom acquired by the present ownersThe present work is one of several interiors of St Mark's the artist told his friend Philip Wilson Steer he was painting during his first visit to Venice in 1895. It is related to the larger Interior of St Mark's, Venice in the collection of the Tate Gallery. Sickert described his working method at this time as 'to work open and loose, freely, with a full brush and full colour'. We are grateful to Dr. Wendy Baron for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Ivor Roberts-Jones (British, 1916-1996)Sir Winston Churchill, maquette for the monument in Parliament Square numbered '26' (on the bronze base)bronze with a brown patina on a stone base50.8 cm. (20 in.) high (excluding the base)Footnotes:ProvenanceThe Artist, from whom purchased by the present owners Grandfather, Dr. Eugene Gancz, circa 1971Private Collection, U.K. Dr Gancz was born in Hungary in 1912 but, being Jewish, was forced to flee in the 1930s to Austria to study for his degree in Medicine and then again to Basel, Switzerland after Austria's Anschluss with Germany. After completing his studies to become a doctor in February 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, Dr Gancz applied for citizenship in the United Kingdom where he volunteered to serve in the army as a doctor. During the war, Dr Gancz worked as a doctor in the U.K. and served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Italy, achieving the rank of Major. After the war he was a General Practitioner in Kent and, for 41 years, a Police Surgeon, for which long service he was made an Honorary Consultant Medical Advisor to the Chief Constable of Kent. Feeling an enormous sense of gratitude to Churchill and the United Kingdom, Dr Gancz purchased the bronze figure of Winston Churchill, the man he respected so much and whom he held responsible for saving him and the few of his family who survived the Holocaust.The present work is a maquette for the large scale sculpture of Churchill by Roberts-Jones which stands in Parliament Square and was commissioned in 1971. The first important commission the artist had received came in 1961 from Lord Beaverbrook for a bust of Somerset Maugham. Following this, he was asked to sculpt the memorial statue for fellow artist Augustus John in Hampshire. This major work took three years to complete but was a great success and crucially led to his election as Associate of The Royal Academy. Further honours followed in 1975 when Ivor was awarded the C.B.E. Another cast of the present work was sold in these rooms for £112,500, 14 November 2018.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ARAR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Henry Moore O.M., C.H. (British, 1898-1986)Reclining Figure: Pointed Legs signed and numbered 'Moore 7/9' (on the bronze base)bronze with a brown patina22.9 cm. (9 in.) long (including the bronze base)Conceived in 1979Footnotes:ProvenanceWith Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg, from whom acquired byPrivate Collection, U.S.A.LiteratureAlan Bowness, Henry Moore: Volume 5, Sculpture and Drawings, Sculpture 1974-80, Lund Humphries, London, 1983, p.45, cat.no.LH777 (ill.b&w., another cast)'From the very beginning the reclining figure has been my main theme', Moore has declared. 'The first one I made was around 1924, and probably more than half of my sculptures since then have been reclining figures'' (H. Moore, quoted in A. Wilkinson (ed.), Henry Moore, Writings and Conversations, Aldershot, 2002, p.212).The recumbent female form was a theme Henry Moore returned to throughout his nearly sixty-year career. 'The human figure is the basis of all my sculpture,' Moore professed, 'and that for me means the female nude.' Most of Moore's female figures are positioned seated or reclining, a configuration that initially stemmed from Moore's use of stone as his preferred medium and the structural weakness of the material in a standing figure's ankles. 'The reclining figure gives the most freedom, compositionally and spatially. The seated figure must have something to sit on. You can't free it from its pedestal. A reclining figure can recline on any surface. It is free and stable at the same time. It fits in with my belief that sculpture should be permanent, should last for an eternity' (D. Mitchinson, (ed.), Henry Moore Sculpture, with Comments by the Artist, London, 1981, p.86).The beautifully modulating form for the present work exemplifies Moore's mastery of the bronze medium. Propped on her forearms with her attention directed to her left and legs facing a contra-direction, Reclining Figure: Pointed Legs is animatedly alert and captures an instant of the figure's movement. The motion evoked by the form's curvilinear shape endows the figure with a plasticity that seemingly defies the bronze medium. Although reclining, this brilliantly dynamic sculpture presents dramatic profiles when seen from various viewpoints. The points of the figure's head, breasts, and attenuated arms and legs are counterbalanced by the soft curves of the woman's arching back, stomach, and propped legs.The recumbent woman is an artistic trope harkening to Ingres, Delacroix, Manet, among others, and references the Orientalist fantasy of the odalisque, a nude or partially clad harem girl. However, while most of Moore's reclining women are nude, Moore scholar David Sylvester argues: 'though they lie with knees apart or thighs apart, their overall pose doesn't betoken the availability commonly implied in reclining female nudes' (D. Sylvester, Henry Moore, Tate Gallery, London, 1968, p.5). Moore's women are in contradiction to the voyeuristic gaze of his predecessors. 'I am not conscious of erotic elements in [my work], and I have never set out to create an erotic work of art,' Moore stated. 'I have no objection to people interpreting my forms and sculptures erotically...but I do not have any desire to rationalize the eroticism in my work, to think out consciously what Freudian or Jungian symbols may lie behind what I create' (quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, p.115). 'These reclining women are not the reclining women of a Maillol or a Matisse,' Will Grohmann wrote. 'They are women in repose but also something more profound...the woman as the concept of fruitfulness, the Mother Earth. Moore, who once pointed to the maternal element in the 'Reclining Figures', may well see in them an element of eternity, the 'Great Female', who is both birth-giving nature and the wellspring of the unconscious... To Henry Moore, the 'Reclining Figures' are no mere external objects; he identifies himself with them, as well as the earth and the whole realm of motherhood' (W. Grohmann, The Art of Henry Moore, London, 1960, p.43).'I want to be quite free of having to find a 'reason' for doing the Reclining Figures,' Moore declared, 'and freer still of having to find a 'meaning' for them. The vital thing for an artist is to have a subject that allows him to try out all kinds of formal ideas—things that he doesn't yet know about for certain but wants to experiment with, as Cézanne did in his 'Bather' series. In my case the reclining figure provides chances of that sort. The subject matter is given. It's settled for you, and you know it and like it, so that within the subject that you've done a dozen times before, you are free to invent a completely new form-idea' (quoted in J. Russell, Henry Moore, London, 1968, p.48).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ARAR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Roger Fry (British, 1866-1934)Portrait of E.M. Forster oil on canvas73 x 60 cm. (28 1/4 x 23 5/8 in.)Painted in 1911Footnotes:ProvenanceThe ArtistEdward Morgan Forster (1879-1970)Florence Barger, thence by family descentWith Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, 1984Private Collection, U.S.A.ExhibitedLondon, Alpine Club Gallery, Paintings and Drawings by Roger Fry, January 1912, cat.no.2 (as A Novelist)London, Arts Council, The Arts Council Gallery, Vision and Design: The Life, Work and Influence of Roger Fry, 17 March-16 April 1966, cat.no.10; this exhibition travelled to Nottingham, University Art Gallery, 27 April-22 May, Leeds, City Art Gallery, 28 May-18 June, Newcastle upon Tyne, Laing Art Gallery, 25 June-16 July, Manchester, City Art Gallery, 23 July-13 August 1966London, Courtauld Institute Gallery, Portraits by Roger Fry, 18 September-14 October 1976, cat.no.6, pl.3; this exhibition travelled to Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery, 23 October-21 November 1976London, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, The Omega Workshops: Alliance and Enmity in English Art 1911-1920, 18 January-6 March 1984, cat.no.23LiteratureQuentin Bell, Bloomsbury, Futura Publications Ltd., London, 1974, pp.48-9 (ill.b&w.)S.P. Rosenbaum, The Bloomsbury Group: A Collection of Memoirs and Commentary, Croom Helm, 1975Philip Nicholas Furbank, E.M. Forster: A Life, Volume One, The Growth of the Novelist 1879-1914, Secker & Warburg, London, 1977, pp.205-7 (front cover illustration)Frances Spalding, Roger Fry, Art and Life, University of California Press, California, 1980, pl.51Richard Shone, The Art of Bloomsbury: Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd., London, 1999, p.93, fig.80 (ill.b&w.)Wendy Moffat, E.M. Forster. A New Life, Bloomsbury, London, 2010, p.106The sitter in this arresting portrait needs little introduction. In 1911 Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) had recently reached a new audience and a breadth of critical acclaim with his fourth novel Howards End, published in 1910. He was not, however, a well-known figure in the London literary world. He lived comfortably with his widowed mother in Weybridge, invariably stayed in a club if he visited London for a night and kept to a relatively small circle of friends. Several of these he had met through the Cambridge University society known as The Apostles. Friends from an earlier generation at King's College included the writer Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (1862-1932) and Roger Fry (1866-1934). Dickinson and Fry were close friends and both followed with great interest Forster's career, beginning with his first novel Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905). Over the years, Fry seems to have read everything Forster published. There was great praise for A Passage to India (1924) – 'a marvelous texture – really beautiful writing,' he wrote to Virginia Woolf, although he had reservations about the intrusive mysticism towards the end of the novel (as well as in other writings by Fortser). The novel was translated into French by Fry's friend Charles Mauron whom Forster came to know well and whom he appointed as his French translator. (He also translated Woolf's Orlando). And a few months before his death, Fry read Forster's biography of Dickinson:'it's beautifully done, I think', he wrote to Gerald Brenan, 'and it was a desperately difficult thing to do' (implying that the British public were not yet ready for male foot fetishism).Very early on, before Fry and Forster came to know one another, Forster admired a series of Adult Education lectures on art that Fry gave in Cambridge, in his pre-Post-Impressionist years. Later, in an early draft of A Room with a View, Forster included a character called Rankin (later dropped from the novel), an art historian attending tea-parties in Florence at which Florentine attributions were a leading topic and 'pictures were snatched from one great name and thrust upon another, or slighted and left as doubtful [. . . ] or utterly damned as the work of a clever forger who flourished in the middle of the nineteenth century at Hamburg'. In her recent book Roger Fry and Italian Art (London 2019), Caroline Elam gives an excellent, detailed account of Fry and Forster and the influence of the former's aesthetics on the latter (although Forster was never entirely converted to Fry's full-on formalism). Fry drew curious endpapers and a non-figurative cover for Forster's book of short stories The Celestial Omnibus, published in the same year as the present portrait was painted. Just as Fry was completing the picture (painted in his house at Guildford), Forster wrote to a friend, that he appeared to be 'a bright healthy young man, without one hand, it is true, and very queer legs, perhaps the result of an aeroplane accident, as he seems to have fallen from an immense height on to a sofa' (letter to Florence Barger, 24 December 1911). Actually Forster liked the picture and bought it but, after it was shown in Fry's one-artist exhibition in 1912, he gave it to his great friend Florence Barger and it was not seen again in public for well over fifty years. This is an important work in Fry's development as a painter and is certainly among his most accomplished portraits. Forster is depicted as both alert and yet slightly ironic in expression, finding himself plopped down among Post-Impressionist-seeming fabrics. Earlier in the year Fry had been in Turkey with Clive and Vanessa Bell and had sent a mass of textiles, mostly from Brusa, the historic centre for Turkish textile production, back to England. Some may well feature among the variety shown here and would have influenced Fry's own designs; the patterned cushion by Forster's left shoulder pre-figures textiles he designed for the Omega Workshops a year or so later. Frances Spalding has rightly drawn attention to the faceting and angularities of Forster's head (which Lytton Strachey called 'triangular'), almost certainly derived from Picasso's 1909 portrait of Clovis Sagot, which Fry had included in his momentous exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists held in London in 1910-11. In the same exhibition was Matisse's 1908 Girl with Green Eyes which also appears to have guided aspects of Fry's work here – the simple frontality of a figure seen against a busy but essentially flat background. The green modeling on Forster's face is further indebted to Matisse's recent portraits of his wife and himself.A number of painted and sculpted images of the men and women associated with Bloomsbury have become canonical and are frequently reproduced. Among them are, of course, several works by Grant and Bell (such as portraits of Virginia Woolf of 1911-12); Strachey by Henry Lamb; Maynard and Lydia Keynes by William Roberts. Forster was often photographed but not much painted – two portraits of him by Carrington and Vanessa Bell, and drawings by Grant, William Rothenstein and Paul Cadmus. The present portrait deserves to be better known, commemorating as it does, not only a warm personal friendship but also the association of two highly influential figures from the early twentieth century whose reputations have not dimmed.We are grateful to Richard Shone for compiling this catalogue entry.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
The Fisher King Original First Edition Soundtrack LP Autograph Terry Gilliam, George Fenton, it is a must for any film music collector. It is a first edition soundtrack LP 'The Fisher King'. I am selling my Grand Fathers signed record collection - he obtained this George Fenton (Composer) & Terry Gilliam autograph at a private 'supporting British filmmakers' event in 1991 when the film was released.
Superman Man Of Steel Brilliant First Edition Quad Poster Signed By Acclaimed Star & Crew It is a first edition quad poster (30”x40”) for the movie ‘Man Of Steel’. It was signed at the UK premiere in London 2013 by - Henry Cavill, Zach Snyder (Director), Chris Nolan (Producer), David S Goyer (Writer) and Hans Zimmer (Composer)
TWO OPAL AND DIAMOND DRESS RINGS, the first centred with an oval cabochon opal in claw setting, between two illusion set old-cut diamonds, stamped '18ct & Plat', (opal chipped), the second centred with an oval cabochon opal in millegrain collet setting, between trios of similarly set single-cut diamonds, stamped '18c', first ring total diamond weight approximately 0.25ct, both rings size L½ (2)
A COLLECTION OF STICK PINS, to include a coral corallium rubrum stick pin, carved to depict a boar's head clasping a creature in its mouth, a diamond and stone set insect stick pin, a sapphire and half pearl cluster stick pin, (sapphire untested for natural/synthetic origin), an enamel blackamoor stick pin, an opal single stone stick pin, a garnet single stone stick pin, and assorted further examples, of varied design, (half pearls untested for origin, some stick pins adapted), first stick pin terminal length 1.7cm (31)
A 19TH CENTURY HARDSTONE SEAL FOB PENDANT, modelled as a blackamoor, with carved hardstone body and head, surmounted by a rose-cut diamond and oval mixed-cut red stone set bale, together with a Georgian black enamel and hairwork memorial pendant, with inscription dated 1784, and a bloodstone seal fob pendant, on a fine chain, first pendant length 3.2cm (3)
A COLLECTION OF JEWELLERY, comprising a late Victorian diamond set panel brooch, glazed verso, a later panel brooch, pierced with figures and animals, stamped '9ct', a 9ct gold curb-link chain, a 9ct gold oval locket pendant, an enamel charm pendant, two stick pins, and a band ring, first brooch length 3.5cm (8)
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