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Lot 539
JEAN KENT (20TH CENTURY) "Still life study of floral sprays in a porcelain pot", pastel, signed lower right, JEANNE MINTERN "Still life study of flowers in a glass vase", pastel, signed lower left, four further watercolour floral studies, and R.J. BAKER "River landscape", watercolour, signed lower right (7)
Lot 481
DU MAURIER DAPHNE: (1907-1989) British Author. A delightful and fascinating correspondence collection between Daphne Du Maurier, her husband General Sir Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning (1896-1965) and Reginald and Gwenllyan Davies, comprising six A.Ls.S. and two T.Ls.S. from Du Maurier and two A.Ls.S. from Browning, 48 pages (total), 8vo, various places (Hampshire, Kent and Cornwall), 28th December 1937-25th July 1973. The correspondence commences with a letter from Daphne Du Maurier, stating that a poem arrived on Christmas Eve ‘and was the making of our Yuletide….it was read aloud amid hiccough and laughter. Spurred to make some return, I fell to and send you the enclosed. Boy says it’s the rudest thing he’s ever read, but knowing that satire is the breath of yours (and my) joint nostrils, I offer it to you with no apology!’ and continues with two long letters from Browning, explaining that he is trying to turn ‘civilians in uniforms’ into instructors and further stating ‘Daphne and I are living in a few corners of this house, the rest of our furniture stacked in the drawing room. Any moment I might be shot off to the pre-battle ground the other side so we rather live from day to day. Daphne is working hard looking after a large and scattered party of families of men in the regiment so has no time for writing stories….I expect you hear or read that so and so [Leslie Hore] Belisha’s speeches about the marvellous efficiency and preparedness of the Army. Just to quote one small case out of hundred where the bastard could be caught out and kicked out for greatly misleading everyone. It was hot till two weeks ago-six weeks after the B.E.F. arrived in France that Anti-Tank rifle ammunition was issued to the troops in the line, Battalions still have no mortar ammunition and I know the 2nd Battalion are 300 Bren gun magazines deficient-this in the first contingent who might have had to fight for their lives are now but for the Grace of God and the hesitations of “Old Nasty”, as Syd Walker (B.B.C.) calls him. Keep that to yourself if you can! But if not don’t mention the source of your information. Owing to the continued, systematic and dangerous undermining of discipline which has been going on for the last two years fostered by Belisha, enthusiastically acclaimed and spread by the yellow press and not fought against by the Generals at top, the national Army, including a good percentage of the regulars, are a fundamentally undisciplined lot, unsmart in the extreme, dirty, bad mannered and semi-trained which coupled with the general shortage of weapons etc. and chaos of expansion makes the British Army unfit for war against first class troops like the Germans. Thank God for (a) the French Army (b) the Maginot Line ( c ) the rows going on between Hitler and the generals. I tremble to think what would have happened if the British Army had been faced with a battle of Mons, le Cateau, first Ypres; they would never have survived it. We are a lot of bloody amateurs….but now we are strong in the air and Turkey are alongside, Musso will mind his p’s and q’s a bit….London is a most gloomy place and thank goodness I don’t have to go there very much, England is a very different place compared (to) the haven of rest it was in the last war…’ (27th November 1939) and in the second stating that he agrees with the principle of his correspondent’s pamphlet ‘and I think it would work once the foundations of international Christianity are laid. That…is the great problem which urgently requires as well worked out a scheme as yours to bring about. It’s indeed a big task and is nothing less than the fulfilment of the Prime Minister’s policy of appeasement, which in simpler language means a change of heart among all the peoples of the earth, the most urgent change being necessary among our own race! If you could work out a scheme (I daresay the Prime Minister is urgently employed on a like problem) to bring about this change of heart you would be putting the horse in its correct relation to the cart. This sounds most awfully damping and unappreciative of your excellent scheme but if you think in a detached and analytical manner, really cold bloodedly, of the sequence of essential requirements I’m certain you will agree with me….We like our new job and it will be very interesting and being an establishment and not a fighting unit will give me a mental relaxation and such….efficiency as one possesses can be concentrated on one or more or less direct line and not be pulled in all directions trying to make two or more ends meet!’ (3rd March 1940), the remaining correspondence from Du Maurier, stating, in part, ‘Boy is a Major-General, and commands the Airborne Division. He hobnobs daily with G.O.C.s-C.I.G.s and even Winston himself! He has endless planes at his disposal (he pilots his own!) and a staff car with a loud-speaker through which he commands the populace to remove themselves from his path. Whether he will so condescend to take luncheon with the Finance Officer of the British Council I cannot say, but I rather think he will. He is inclined to favour red revolution at the moment, and a sweeping away of all inhabitants of the War Office, Admiralty, Air Ministry, and other such rusty institutions. Possibly you could act as Financial Adviser to an underground movement. For myself, I am installed with my brood of three (yes, the son was a clever coup) down here in Fowey. We have a humble cottage, but thank God minions enough to save me stirring as much as a finger! Boy tells me I am the only woman in England who does absolutely nix towards the War Effort. I retaliate, rather conceitedly, that I am bringing more dollars into this country than any other member of my low profession! At the moment I am engaged upon a tome that will be almost as long (and far more tedious) as “Gone With The Wind”. I am glad you liked the play of “Rebecca”, but personally I thought Owen Nares over acted, and he gave me embarrassment. I have not seen it since its return to London from a lengthy tour. The last book “Frenchman’s Creek”, is shortly to be filmed in the U.S.A. I forgot to tell you that Boy spent a lightening fortnight in America, where, according to the papers here, he “fished and relaxed”! The reverse was the case, as you can imagine’ (Fowey, Cornwall, 23rd August 1942), ‘I can find nothing in Mr. W. H. Smiths’ shop in Fowey to compare with what the Tate Gallery can produce…..I spent a fortnight with my General on Salisbury Plain, or rather I spent a fortnight under the same roof but scarcely set eyes on him at all. Then I dashed up to London for my law-suit….I had to answer questions before an American Consul, and the answers were sent off to America. What has happened to them I don’t know. One question was “How many novels have I read in my life, and which was the first I ever read”! I replied “Peter Rabbit at the age of three” The whole thing was quite fantastic. Meanwhile, I work like one possessed at my novel of the moment. It is to be called “Hungry Hill”, and is endless.’ (Fowey, Cornwall, 18th October 1942), ‘To add to our labours, and yet in a sense to make them more enjoyable, we have just moved into this lovely derelict mansion, the original more or less of “Manderly” in Rebecca. Its been “let” to me for a song, but I have broken myself by installing electric light and other amenities. However, once we settle down it will be a heavenly lunacy, even if I spent all my time cutting trees for fires….Boy arrived for Christmas and….we managed to have the usual tree, plum puds, turkey for the children. The latter are getting lar
Lot 77
Dame Elizabeth Violet Blackadder, R.S.A., R.S.W., R.A. (b. 1931) Still Life with a Prayer Rug signed and dated 'E.V. BLACKADDER 1973' (lower right), signed again and inscribed 'ELIZABETH V BLACKADDER STILL LIFE WITH A PRAYER RUG' (on the canvas-overlap) oil on canvas 44 x 44 in. (111.8 x 111.8 cm.) View on Christie's.com
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