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Lot 185
Edward Robert Hughes, R.W.S. (British, 1851-1914): 'Jill, a study', coloured chalks on paper, signed lower left 'E R Hughes' & dated 1904, H 61 x W 47 cm, original handwritten artist's label verso inscribed 'No 2, Jill - a study, E R Hughes RWS, 9 Edith Villas, West Kensington.'Exhibited: The Royal Watercolour Society, Winter Exhibition, 1904. Note: The present picture represents an important addition to the oeuvre of Edward Robert Hughes. The nephew & pupil of renowned fairy painter Arthur Hughes (1832-1915), E R Hughes was absorbed into the Pre-Raphaelite circle & assisted William Holman-Hunt (helping to complete the St Paul's version of The Light of the World, as Hunt's eyesight weakened). Beginning his career among the Pre-Raphaelites, his earlier subjects were often based in Shakespearian or other literary themes which became increasingly Symbolist in nature under the influence of Edward Burne-Jones. However, Hughes also executed many portraits, predominantly, as in the present example, in coloured chalks. His use of red chalk in particular greatly impressed Burne-Jones, who, in a letter to Hughes in 1897 wrote: 'Your method of using (it) reads admirably, and since you have generously imparted it to me, I shall assuredly use it' (Georgiana Burne-Jones, Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, London, 1904, vol. 2, p. 322.). Indeed, it has recently been noted that E R Hughes' 'critical reputation during his own lifetime was built on his portraits & finished studies in pencil, chalk or silverpoint' (Victoria Osbourne, E R Hughes: A British Symbolist In Pre-Raphaelite Circles, M.Phil thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009). 'Jill - a study' is one of the most significant examples of Hughes' portraiture to come to the market in recent years. The picture was exhibited at the R.W.S. Winter Exhibition in 1904, shortly after the artist had served as the Society's Vice President. The work has an unsentimental directness typical of Hughes & 'Jill', in her posture & gaze, seems slightly mysterious, displaying an almost otherworldly detachment reminiscent of the females in some of artist's Symbolist compositions. Whilst many of Hughes' portraits were formal commissions, he often undertook works as tokens of friendship & gave them as gifts - the intimate nature of the present portrait is indicative of the latter. The picture also suggests the influence of Old Master drawing which had sparked a renewed interest & admiration of draughtsmanship in the Victorian era. In the summer of 1913, Hughes & his wife, Emily Eliza, moved from London to Romeland Cottage, St Albans, which adjoined the Abbey close. Less than a year later he tragically died from appendicitis & was buried in Hatfield Road Cemetery. His funeral in St Albans Cathedral, a stone's throw from where he had lived, was the largest ever held there, attended by many friends, fellow artists, & pupils. A memorial exhibition was held at the RWS & critics judged Hughes' 'careful & masterly' drawings, not his elaborate watercolours, as his best work: 'It is when he applies his pre-Raphaelite precision to portrait drawings... that Hughes commands most admiration...These are things of lasting value, and no fluctuations in taste can affect their appreciation' (The Observer, November, 1914).
Lot 261
Alfred Kingsley Lawrence, R.A., R.P. (British, 1893-1975):Head study of an Italian monk, 'Enrico Versi', oil on canvas, titled lower right & inscribed 'Arezzo 16.5.22', H 50 x W 42 cm, unframed; together with a further Old Master style head study, oil on canvas, signed with initials verso, H 40 x W 32 cm, unframed, & pencil study of an old woman, signed & dated 'Rome 24' (3)
Lot 266
After Willem van der Vliet, a scholar in his study with girls with masks, possibly an allegory, Continental School probably Dutch 17th/18th Century, oil on oak panel, 61cm x 41cm, unsigned, French Empire style gilt frame 77cm x 57cm. Interesting old copy after the original which sold at Sotheby's New York 27th January 2011 Lot 141: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.141.html/2011/important-old-master-paintings-sculpture-n08712 Tags; Dutch Golden Age, Utrecht Caravaggisten, Caravaggism, Caravaggisti. CONDITION REPORT - panel sides and back bevelled but top square - possibly cut down, losses to paint, large split with old canvas repair to back, general wear to frame.
Lot 256
UK LONDON LPs - An esteemed selection of 13 x collectable LPs. Artists/titles are Klook's Clique (LTZ-C 15038 - neat VG+ copy), Hank Jones Quartet-Quintet (LTZ C-15014), Milt Jackson - Ballads & Blues (LTZ-K 15064), Charles Bell & The Contemporary Jazz Quartet - Another Dimension (HA-K 8095), MJQ - Lonely Woman (HA-K 8016), Jimmy Giuffre (SAH-K 6150), Joe Sullivan - New Solos By An Old Master (HA-U 2011), Kenny Clarke (LTZ-C 15004), Mel Torme (HA-N 2016), Sam Most Sextet (LTZ-N 15063), The Swinging Mr. Rogers (Shorty Rogers, LTZ-K 15023), Wild Bill Davison (LTZ-U 15068) and Top Brass (LTZ-C 15013).( JAZZ VINYL RECORDS )
Lot 407
An extensive collection of etchings and engravings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, includes such examples as Temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden after Raphael and before the lettering; numerous European, British old master etchings and engravings; most in good condition, over 150 in the collection.
Lot 329
Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA, FSRA (1750-1829, British ) Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester PC, FRS 1757-1829, oil on canvas, 62 x 75cmProvenance: Deceased estate from country house in Suffolk in 2014There is an identical portrait of the same sitter By Sir Thomas Lawrece, PRA in the Parlimentary Art Collection at Westminster, Accession number: WOA 2725 and given by Lord Colechester in 1825, this portrait is catalogued as after the original, but it is likely that it is a studio version.Abbot, Charles, first Baron Colchester (1757-1829), speaker of the House of Commons, was born on 14 October 1757 at Abingdon, Berkshire, the son of the Revd John Abbot (d. 1760), a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and rector of All Saints, Colchester, and his wife, Sarah, the daughter of Jonathan Farr, a citizen and draper of London. He was educated at Westminster School from 1763 and at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1776, winning the college prize for Latin verse in his first year and the chancellor's prize the year after. In 1778-9 he studied civil law in Geneva and obtained a doctorate, which was complemented by bachelor's and doctoral degrees in English civil law in 1783 and 1793. Elected Vinerian scholar by the University of Oxford in 1781, he was promoted to a residential fellowship in 1786. After being called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1783 and joining the Oxford and Chester circuits, he surrendered his fellowship in 1792 to practise in the equity courts.Artist:Lawrence, Sir Thomas (1769-1830), painter and draughtsman, chiefly of portraits, was born on 13 April 1769 at 6 Redcross Street, Bristol. Within two or three years the very young Lawrence had revealed his talent for drawing, being capable particularly of sketching, in pencil, likenesses of people.The year 1790 marked full public recognition of Lawrence's achievements, in terms of prestige as well as of art. In that year he exhibited at the Royal Academy twelve portraits, among them two full lengths, the actress Elizabeth Farren (1789-90; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Queen Charlotte (1789-90; National Gallery, London). Reviews of the exhibition warmly praised both paintings, which rank among his finest achievements. Paint is handled with a richness, crispness, and confident pleasure seldom seen in British art, while the likenesses and costumes are seized with equally pleasurable confidence. And complementing the freshness of portrayal is a vivid, fresh response to differing aspects of English landscape.Lawrence had been bidden to Windsor in September 1789, to paint the queen and also Princess Amelia (1789; Royal Collection). Although the queen's portrait was not acquired by the king, Lawrence at twenty had received his first important royal patronage. Gainsborough was dead, and Lawrence was widely recognized as the successor to Reynolds, whose health and art were in decline. George III pressed the Royal Academy to elect him an associate in 1790, but it refused because of the regulation against election of associates aged under twenty-four. However, it elected him the following year. When Reynolds died in 1792, the king appointed him painter-in-ordinary. In 1794, at the earliest permitted age of twenty-five, he was elected a full academician.During the 1790s Lawrence seems to have believed that he could combine activity as a portrait painter with producing occasional history paintings. At the Royal Academy in 1791 he exhibited, as well as several portraits, a small history painting, Homer Reciting his Poems (1790; Tate collection), a composition commissioned by the antiquarian scholar and connoisseur Richard Payne Knight. The effect is of a pastoral landscape, attractive but hardly ambitious, nor particularly classical in mood. More interesting may have been the Shakespearian subject Prospero Raising the Storm (exh. RA, 1793), a large canvas he is said to have later utilized for the portrait of John Philip Kemble as Rolla (1800; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA).In 1797 Lawrence exhibited his most ambitious attempt at a history picture, turning back for inspiration to Milton's Paradise Lost, the poem which had been a source for recitation and delineation by him from his boyhood. The huge canvas of Satan Summoning his Legions (1796-7; RA) was his final effort to create a grand historical composition. It was very unfavourably received, but Lawrence himself defiantly continued to esteem it. After seeing it again in 1811, he wrote despondently of experiencing a sense of 'the past dreadful waste of time and improvidence of my Life and Talent' (Layard, 84). Darkened though the painting now is, and extremely difficult to assess, it is by no means unimpressive, for all the old master echoes and its debt to the style of Fuseli.Lawrence's international reputation was recognized by a succession of honours from foreign academies of art, including those of Rome (1816), Florence (1820), Venice (1823), Denmark (1823), and New York (1818). From his status and official position flowed numerous obligations, many performed, it seems, more dutifully than eagerly, and as printed his annual addresses to the Royal Academy students can only be termed insipid. But he made a point of being accessible and helpful to younger, sometimes foreign, artists, and would thus be gratefully remembered by, for instance, Eugène Delacroix. On the death of John Julius Angerstein in 1823 he actively urged the retention of his collection in Britain, for the nation, and was appointed one of the superintending body (later trustees) when the government purchased the collection and the National Gallery was founded in 1824.Despite the pressures upon him, Lawrence's art preserved all its vitality, while gaining in empathy and depth. To the annual Royal Academy exhibitions he regularly managed to send some six or more new portraits, and the range of his sitters was matched by the range of his interpretation. With absolute assurance he captured the bright-eyed vivacity of the two very young Calmady girls (1823-4; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and the stony, quasi-judicial severity of an octogenarian in Lady Robert Manners (1825-6; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh). Simplicity and directness characterize his Lady Blessington (c.1821; Wallace Collection, London). A quite unusually serious, Wordsworthian blending of sublime natural setting and reflective child gives resonance to the deservedly famous portrait Charles William Lambton, 'The red boy', (1824-5; priv. coll.).
Lot 407
An extensive collection of etchings and engravings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, includes such examples as Temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden after Raphael and before the lettering; numerous European, British old master etchings and engravings; most in good condition, over 150 in the collection.
Lot 355
*Bolswert (Schelte Adams, 1576-1659). Stormy Landscape, circa 1638, etching on laid paper, from the Set of Small Landscapes, after Peter Paul Rubens, with artist and engraver's name lower left, and name of the publisher Gillis Hendricx, Antwerp, lower right, trimmed to image, and with some marks, corner mounted on old backing paper, sheet size 300 x 420 mm (11.8 x 16.5 ins), together with Van Dalen (Cornelis, circa 1602-1665), Doubting Thomas touching Christ's wound, circa 1638, engraving on laid paper by Van Dalen after Wouter Pietersz. Crabeth (1593-1644), central vertical crease, trimmed just outside plate margin, sheet size 431 x 518 mm (17 x 20.4 ins), hinge-mounted on old backing paper, plus 9 other various Old Master prints after Rubens, Claude and others, including a hand coloured soft-ground etching of the head of a saint, possibly after Michelangelo, an etched portrait of Pietro Medici, dilettante di pittura, by Campiglia, etc., and two 19th century pen and wash drawings of Fountains Abbey and Dalswinton Castle, Scotland, and a pen & ink drawing of Indian cavalry men, by Edward Cornwall Gardner, signed and dated 1838 to verso (stained) (14)
Lot 393
Skippe (John, 1741/42-1811). Amicis suis necnon unicuique Artium elegantiorum Amatori, Tabulas insequentes Ludentis Otii temporibus ligno incisas, 1781-82, a collection of 27 chiaroscuro woodcuts after Old Master drawings, by Raphael, Correggio, Perino del Vaga, Titian, Parmigianino, Andrea del Sarto, Tinteretto, Mantegna, Rubens, Bandinelli, Michelangelo and others, mounted to album leaves, the first plates (with title or dedication) with some marks and fraying to right margin, woodcut after Rubens detached with closed tears to bottom left and upper right corners, contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, lacking upper cover, folio (49 x 34.5 cm, 19.25 x 13.5 ins) John Skippe (1741-1812) collector and woodcut artist, was born in Herefordshire, and was a friend of the picturesque theorist Uvedale Price. On his return from Italy, he produced a series of woodcuts after Italian drawings between 1781 and 1809. His collection of Old Master drawings was auctioned by Christies in 1958. A similar collection of 26 woodcut plates bound in album format was offered by Galerie Bassenge, Berlin, Auktion 109, 25 May 2017, lot 5321. (1)NB. The estimate of this lot has been amended.
Lot 588
Follower of Sebastien Bourdon (French, 1616-1671) A servant giving his master soup in a Wanli Kraak bowl after the hunt oil on canvas 48 x 60cm (19 x 23in) Provenance: Private collection, London. Lined. Paint layer has areas of uneven craquelure but it is stable overall. There are areas of wear and abrasion where the dark ground layer is showing through. Small areas of retouching are well matched to the original. The varnish is clear and even. There are light scuffs to the varnish at the upper edge. Some chips and scratches to the gilding on the frame. Old gilt frame has been painted. Gilt frame with label 'Ecole Francaise XVIIeScle'.
Lot 656
Attributed to George Perfect Harding (British, born circa 1780-1853) A Historical portrait of Phineas Pett, Master Shipwright (1570-1666) watercolour 12 x 11cm (5 x 4in) Provenance: Given by Colonel Rolt Triscott to Richard Orlebar, and by descent within the Orlebar family at Hinwick House, Bedfordshire, to the present owner. A little dirt under the glass and old gilt frame has chips.
Lot 174
Estate Plan. A Map & Description of the Manor of Walmer lyinge in East Kente with one Tenement one Parte of Marsh and 16 Peeces of Errable & Pasture thereunto belonginge, contayninge acers 320:0:2, [surveyed by] William Boycot, 16[40?], pen, ink and watercolour on vellum, decorative strapwork cartouche, coat of arms, compass rose and distance scale, a flotilla of ten ships in the sea outside Deal Castle, one ship (heavily soiled and indistinct) outside Walmer Castle, plus a few smaller vessels in the sea, also depicting the two castles and buildings for the towns of Deal and Walmer, the coastal bulwark ('White Bullworke' and 'Blacke Bullwork'), also identifying various plots, the boundary for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the road from Deal to Dover, names of tenants and their landholdings including Edward Boys, Robert Gillo, Caleb Cocke, William Coppin, Sir Matthew Mennes and Ezekiel Parker [died 1641?], a few small holes, some soiling throughout including very heavy soiling from mildew largely occuring in two vertical strips (just east of Deal Castle and through Walmer and Walmer Castle), blue wash border with old stud holes from previous framing, rebacked on modern thick paper, 538 x 715 mm A rare Kentish estate plan from the reign of King Charles I, which in spite of its condition issues is historically revealing. William Boycot (flourished 1615-48) 'was a prolific cartographer of considerable skill with a distinctive use of blue and yellow, especially in his borders and for other decoration and also of a fine red pigment... he worked widely but mainly in the east of the county... More than twenty of his maps are known to survive and as a group they form one of the finest Kentish expressions of cartography for the years before the Interregnum' (F. Hull, 'Kentish Map-Makers of the Seventeenth Century' in Archaeologia Cantiana, volume 109 (1991), p. 70).N.B. It has been noted that the above item may contain manorial documents which are subject to the Manorial Documents Rules 1959, 1963 and 1967, administered by The Historical Manuscripts Commission at The National Archives on behalf of the Master of the Rolls. Accordingly the purchasers of the documents lie under an obligation to notify the Secretary of the Commission of their acquisition and to provide details of where they will be kept. They may in no circumstances be removed from England and Wales without the prior consent of the Master of the Rolls. (1)
Lot 561
Tietze (Hans and Tietze-Conrat, Erica). The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries, 2 vols., reprinted Collectors Editions, 1970, b & w plts., orig. qtr. mock morocco, 4to, together with Brauer (Heinrich and Wittkower, Rudolf), Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini, 2 vols., reprinted Collectors Editions, c.1970, b & w plts., orig. qtr. mock morocco, folio, plus Popham (A. E.), Correggio's Drawings, pub. British Academy, 1957, numerous b & w plts. and illusts., orig. cloth, 4to, and Old Master Drawings, a quarterly magazine for students and collectors, 14 vols., reprinted Collectors Editions, 1970, orig. uniform red cloth, 4to, plus Passavant (J. D.), Le Peintre-Graveur, 6 vols. bound in 3, 1860, reprinted Burt Franklin, n.d., c. 1975, orig. pubs. blue cloth gilt, and De Vesme (Alexandre and Massar, Phyllis Dearborn), Stefano della Bella, Catalogue Raisonn‚, 2 vols. (text/plates), reprinted Collectors Editions, 1971, b & w illusts., orig. cloth, folio, Boon (K. G.), Rembrandt, The Complete Etchings, New York, Abrams, n.d., c. 1960s, numerous b & w illusts., orig. cloth in frayed d.j., folio plus others on prints and etchings, including Karl Schwarz, Augustin Hirschbogel, 2 vols., reprinted, 1971 (1)
Lot 1495
BYROM (J.) The Universal English Short-Hand; or, the Way of Writing English, in the most easy, concise, regular, and beautiful manner . . . First Edition. engraved title device, table & 12 plates (of examples); old binder's cloth. Manchester: printed by John Harrop, 1767. * with 2 related pamphlets bound-in: Bailey's On the Cipher of Pepy's Diary (1876) & Michell's A Universal System of Shorthand (1885); crested bookplate of A.W. Ward (Master of Peterhouse) & later pictorial bookplate of Cynthia & John Barnes (Hampton Lodge, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex). Illustrated
Lot 490
CHARLES V: (1500-1558) Holy Roman Emperor 1519-56, and King Charles I of Spain 1516-56. L.S., Yo el Rey, one page, folio, Burgos, 16th July 1524, to the Councillor of the Royal House, in old Castilian. Writing in his capacity as King of Spain, King Charles I states `I hereby instruct you to register in the Royal House books and apply the corresponding food rations to Juan de Quirós, as the newly appointed young server in charge of the whippets.´ further adding that de Quiros will replace 'our master Martin from Mallorca, after his death, who was long since in charge of our whippets, and this with his same salaries, robes and food rations....for two whippets.´ Some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG £600 - 900In 1524, in the same year as the present letter was signed, the Peasants Revolt broke out in Germany, and was to last for a further two years. At the end of April 1524 Emperor Charles V and King Henry VIII formed a new league to support the Duke of Bourbon in a fresh attack on France and in July 1524 the Emperor prohibited the holding of the proposed German synod at Spires. Grandson of the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand & Isabella, Charles V was ruler of both the Holy Roman Empire (for 37 years) and the Spanish Empire ( for 40 years). Through inheritance he brought together such extensive territories in western, central and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in America and Asia. So large were his domains that they were described as 'the empire on which the sun never sets'
Lot 12
Helen Mabel Trevor (1831-1900)A Little French GirlOil on canvasSigned. Title inscribed on label versoBorn in Loughbrickland, Co. Down in 1831 Helen Mabel Trevor showed a talent for drawing as a child, and her father Edward Hill Trevor of Lisnageard House, set up a studio for her. In the 1850s she exhibited portraits and animals studies at the Royal Hibernian Academy.In her forties, after the death of her father, she began to study art formally at the Royal Academy Schools, London, 1877-1881. Then began a long period of travel and residence on the Continent with her sister Rose. They visited Brittany and Normandy c.1880-1883, working variously at the artists’ colonies of Pont-Aven, Douarnenez and Concarneau in Finistere, and at Trouville. Helen painted several studies of elderly women and children in a Realistic manner, and landscapes in the open air. The Trevor sisters lived in Italy, 1883-c.1889, visiting Florence, Assisi, Perugia, Venice and Rome, Helen copying Old Master paintings in museums, and painting genre scenes of Italian life.The Trevors moved to Paris in 1889, and this became their base during the 1890s. Now nearly sixty, Helen attended classes in the ateliers of Carolus-Duran and Jean-Jacques Henner, and in 1894 of Luc-Olivier Merson. She painted in the artists’ colony of St. Ives in Cornwall, c.1893 and Concarneau, in Brittany 1895-96, and at Antibes in the South of France, 1897.Trevor exhibited regularly at the RHA and at the Paris Salon, 1889-1899, gaining honourable mention there in 1898. After her death in Paris in 1900, two of her paintings, of Breton or Normandy peasant subjects, were bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland, and Rose presented a Self-Portrait by Helen. Another Breton painting ‘The Young Eve’ is in the collection of the Ulster Museum, Belfast.
Lot 2155
Margaret Shields (b.1942) ''Fish & Bone'' Mixed media, together with a further signed work by the same artist entitled ''A passing ship'' and an abstract landscape oil by another artist 28cm by 38cm, 14cm by 19.5cm and 44.5cm by 49.5cm respectively (3) Provenance for Margaret Shields ''Fish and Bone'': Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk Margaret Shields was born in Middlesbrough, Cleveland in 1942. She attended Middlesbrough College of Art where contemporary art students included Len Tabner, William Tillyer and Dave Mulholland. After studying music at the Royal Academy of Music, London, she returned to the North of England to paint and teach music. Margaret's work reflects the juxtaposition of industry alongside great natural beauty. She specialises in seascape and landscape, connecting back to the fact that her father was a master mariner. Alongside marine pictures she also paints urban subjects; her townscapes exploring the clash of old and new, often including figures. Margaret has exhibited at Austen Hayes Gallery,York, Billingham Art Gallery, The Northern Art Exhibition, Grey Gallery and Zillah Bell Gallery,Thirsk to name a few. Further biographical details relating to the artist are sold with this lot
Lot 230
William G. Simmonds (1876-1968) Tribute to the Horse, 1956 signed and dated 30cm high, 38cm across, 22cm deep. Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 1956, no.1366. Provenance: Arthur Mitchell; thence by descent. WILLIAM SIMMONDS (1876-1965) William Simmonds - the most British of British artists - is one of the great forgotten originals of the Arts and Crafts movement, its silent heart. Simmonds first won a reputation in the 1920s through his exquisite oak, pine, ebony and ivory carvings of wild and domestic creatures. After the First World War, he moved to the Cotswolds to work on his sculpture and to document and inhabit an 18th century world whose survival was hanging by a thread, joining his friends in the last wave of the Arts and Crafts movement. His circle was a vividly diverse community, in which the artists William Rothenstein and Charles Gere, the architects Gimson, Detmar Blow, Norman Jewson and Sidney and Ernest Barnsley, the potters and stained glass artists Alfred and Louise Powell and Edward Payne, and the textile printers Barron and Larcher all played their part - a world in which included the poets Tagore, WH Davies, John Masefield, John Drinkwater, and the writers Max Beerbohm, D H Lawrence and the Sitwells and the musicians Lionel Tertis, [Violet Gordon Woodhouse with her "four husbands" at Nether Lypiatt Manor a mile from William Simmonds house, were avid collectors of the sculpture over the years]. As Simmonds' fame as a wood carver grew, he was also becoming a cult figure through his marionette shows. The beauty of Simmonds puppets, unlike any seen before or since, caught the public imagination. Booked annually in London by the Grafton Theatre and the Art Workers' Guild and performing in private drawing rooms, he also travelled with shows into country towns and small villages in Britain and in parts of Europe. His gentle wittily scripted dialogue and brilliant manipulation was accompanied on the spinet and virginals by his wife Eve. William Rothenstein saw Simmond as "…. a little master in the old German sense" and Mary Greenstead writes that"Simmonds' work has been so treasured by its original owners, that it has rarely escaped into the glare of the commercial art world …. " . However Simmonds pieces are not only private collections but have been bought by Cheltenham Museum, Sheffield Museum, Manchester Museum, Reading Museum and the Tate Gallery. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for over 50 years and each piece was bought instantly. The Tribute to the Horse is one of Simmonds's last carving in wood and where, unusually, he uses a jigsaw-like effect in blocks to create this little masterpiece. Throughout his life, Simmonds spent weeks watching and studying carthorses near his home in the Cotswolds. This piece is a homage to these magnificent animals, their strength and their unquestioning loyalty. The biography of William Simmonds by Jessica Douglas-Home is pencilled in for publication in 2017/18 and will include this current work. Jessica Douglas-Home, May 2017 We are grateful to Jessica Douglas-Home for helping to catalogue this lot.
Lot 323
1938 CRICKET AUTOGRAPHS - a Gradidge, London Imperial Driver Super cricket bat signed by the Australia, Lancashire & Stockport Elevens from that year including Don Bradman, Kentwood Smith and Bill 'Tiger' O'Reilly for Australia, W H Lister, R Pollard and L Hopwood for Lancashire, F W Archer, G H Briggs and R A Master for Stockport (Provenance: purchased by the vendor's grandfather at a dinner at the Lancashire County Cricket Club, Old Trafford following the match)
Lot 682
1925. A mixed group of photographs and documents relating to Vernon Edwards's work on the Diplodocus model comprising: a monochrome photograph of a Diplodocus model in terrain, signed by Edwards with old Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd label to the reverse; a gloss print of the same image, inked note to the reverse 'made by Vernon Edwards'; a pencil sketch for the Diplodocus model at scale 1/80 with annotation 'varnish head but not below water'; a pencil sketch for a Trachodon model (stated scale 1 = 2 1/2 ft) marked 'greenish grey back / yellow belly & / under tail / yellow brown patched of / larger scales on back, somewhat / prominent'; Diplodocus sketch with skeleton detail on the reverse of a British Museum memorandum dated 19th March 1925; ma large tracing paper pencil sketch with annotations; a printed note on the Diplodocus authored by W.E. Swinton B.Sc. F.Z.S; five cards of dinosaurs for use with a stereoscope. 173 grams total, larger photograph: 38 x 36cm (15 x 14"). Fine ConditionFrom the historic collection of Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd; acquired by Percy Bottley of Gregory, Bottley & Co. in the 1930s; formerly from a historic natural history art collection, the artistic work of palaeontologist, Commander Vernon Edwards. See Swinton, Dr William Elgin, Monsters of Primeval Days, London, 1931; see also, same author, The Dinosaurs - A Short History of a Great Group of Extinct Reptiles, London, 1934 wherein many of the drawings, models and dioramas created by Edwards are published, described and illustrated (the author at the Natural History Museum, London, 1924-1961 later Director of Life Sciences, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, died 1994").Vernon Edwards is credited as being one of the most talented and influential dinosaur model makers of the 20th century. His work has appeared in museums and galleries around the world; it was a major influence on movie producers and early special effects creators, particularly when films such as The Lost World and King Kong began to showcase dinosaurs as part of the increasingly popular ‘monster movies’ of the 1920's and 30's. Edwards was born in 1891 into a naval family and attended Weymouth College. In 1914 he joined the navy and served throughout World War One; after the war he found it difficult to adjust to civilian life and, among other professions, tried his hand at farming. His greatest passion was model making, being self taught in art and anatomy, and it was whilst staying with family in Sussex in the early 1920's that he met Dr F.A. Bather, Keeper of Geology at the British Museum. Dr. Bather was impressed by the detailed and accurate models that Edwards was producing and asked him to produce a series of prehistoric models for the British Museum (Natural History), now known as the Natural History Museum. Vernon Edwards was given access to the museum's collections and scientific monographs, so the models he produced were up to date reconstructions which were then authenticated by Dr. Bather and later by Dr. W.E. Swinton for scientific accuracy. His major work for the Museum was a series of dioramas which graced the 'Fossil Fish' gallery until the late 1970's.The models proved to be very popular and many museums around the world would order them to highlight their growing and increasingly popular collections of paleontological specimens; the largest collections in the UK can now be found in Bolton Museum and the Horniman Museum, London. At this time Edward’s work would also go on to be used for cigarette cards, as well as appearing in many popular magazines, such as The Illustrated London News and The Listener, but it was the publication of The Dinosaurs: A Short History of a Great Group of Extinct Reptiles, by W.E. Swinton, the first serious dinosaur book ever produced, that would place his work at the forefront of academic and popular imagination.Commercial production of the models was time-consuming, which made the models expensive, so very few were produced other than for museums. Being of plaster they were also fragile, so very few outside well-conserved museum collections survive undamaged. The items in this collection are a selection of original sketches and paintings by Vernon Edwards, master models from which moulds were taken, and stock models produced for sale by Gregory Bottley & Co.M.E. Howgate M.Sc. FLS (Authority on Vernon Edwards) [7 No Reserve]
Lot 3
THE WINGFIELD SEALSA COLLECTION OF FOUR SEALS WITH THE ARMORIALS OF VISCOUNT POWERSCOURT, early 19th century, contained in a modern fitted stamped leather box:1. A smoky quartz triangular swivel seal with crest, coronet and motto, and a display of arms. 4cm wide, gold mount2. A smoky quartz fob intaglio with monogram and viscounts coronet. 2.5cm, gold mount3. A bloodstone fob intaglio with the display of arms. 2cm, gold mount4. A desk seal with bloodstone handle, the intaglio with crest and viscount's coronet. 6.5cm, gold mount. (4)These seals were commissioned by/for Mervyn Wingfield, Seventh Viscount Powerscourt (1836-1904, married Julia Coke, daughter of the Second Earl of Leicester). He remodelled Powerscourt and laid out the gardens as we know them today. He collected old master paintings, continental furniture, bronze and marble statuary and militaria. He wrote The History of Powerscourt, the illustrations of which show an interior of great sumptuousness, all of which was destroyed by fire in 1974.
Lot 18
§ Alessandro Barbaro for Murano, a Picasso style glass head of a girl, on an elongated neck, mounted to a slate base, signed 58cm (23in) Other Notes: The glass factories on the Venetian island of Murano have been making glass for centuries. Over the years, they have pioneered techniques including crystalline glass, enamelled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicoloured glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass. The tools and techniques have changed little over the centuries, as indeed has the underlying artistic nature of the work. The old Murano quote, "Good tools are nice, but good hands are better" reflects the fact that the works are more dependent on the skill of the glass artist than the process. Alessandro Barbaro is a living artist and glass master at Vetreria Artistica Colleoni glassworks. His work is in the private collection of, amongst others, Elton John and Madonna.
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