Miscellaneana Archives - Page 3 of 9

Miscellaneana: Antiquities

September 14, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Catherine Saunders-Watson

This ancient Greek wine cup is more than 2,300 years old and was made in Apulia, one of the Greek colonies in southern Italy in the 4th century BC. The twin-handled deep pottery cup is known as a bolsal and is decorated with a scantily clad female seated on a garland of flower heads. Photo Odyssey.

LONDON – There was a time when I thought old stuff – I mean really old stuff – was found only in museums. It was probably the result of spending too many boring hours in one when school games periods were rained off. Being shown the Egyptian mummies and ancient Chinese pots brought back by the town’s rich industrialists was a handy way for teachers to “lose” their charges for an hour.

Miscellaneana: Pelham puppets

September 4, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

A wolf puppet from Pelham’s 1963 range. He wears trousers and a cape and has a saleroom value of £30-£50. Photo Ewbank’s auctioneers

LONDON – No one really knows when puppetry began. Cave dwellers probably entertained themselves by making shapes from shadows cast on the walls by the light of their fires, while the ancient Greeks had a word for it, which meant “drawn by strings.”

Miscellaneana: Intaglios souvenirs of grand tour

August 27, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

One of the trays containing some of the 200 classical plaster intaglios and reliefs. Alongside is the catalog, handwritten in Italian, describing each one. The collection sold for £2.400. Photo Ewbank’s auctioneers

LONDON – The auctioneer reached Lot 1624 in what had been a three-day marathon of a sale and as the bidding started to spiral, my thoughts turned to how lovely it would be to take a holiday.

Perhaps a sea voyage, some overland travel and a mixture of relaxation in foreign lands with the chance to soak up some of the culture of the people and the places I might encounter on my way. Read more

Miscellaneana: Sèvres and ‘Sèvres-style’

August 20, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

The Vincennes sucrier (sugar bowl) sold for £45,000. Photo Peter Wilson auctioneers

LONDON – When an old sugar bowl estimated to fetch for £150-£250 sells for £45,000 (plus 20 per cent buyer’s premium) it’s time to find out why. So, this week’s column is all about porcelain made by the Sèvres company, founded in 1738, although the sucrier, to give the bowl its more appropriate French name, came from the Vincennes factory. Read on, all will become clear.

Miscellaneana: Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) glass

August 12, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

William Powell Whitefriars glass vase decorated with green peacock feathers on a clear body. It sold for £320. Photo Peter Wilson auctioneers

LONDON – What’s the connection between Carmelite monks, a drunken bricklayer and W.A.S. Benson brass lamps, the subject of this column last week? No, we didn’t realize it either but it’s Whitefriars glassworks, a factory founded in London in a former monastery, hence the name.

Miscellaneana: W.A.S. Benson, master brassman

August 5, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

A copper and brass teakettle by Benson with an estimate of £100-£150. Photo The Canterbury Auction Galleries

LONDON – I’ve already written reams about the Arts & Crafts, and so have others all more learned and erudite than me, so there’s no point in rearranging the words. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it as “aesthetic movement of the second half of the 19th century that represented the beginning of a new appreciation of the decorative arts throughout Europe.”

Miscellaneana: Chinese snuff bottles

July 30, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

A transparent blue glass snuff bottle (left) inside-painted with a continuous scene of warriors on horseback. Saleroom estimate is £450-£500. A heart-shaped porcelain snuff bottle painted on one face with figures on a bridge in a landscape, and a lakeside view on the other. It sold for £1,700. Photos: Peter Wilson auctioneers

LONDON – The history of Chinese arts and crafts is a long one. During the Neolithic period for example – it stretched from the 10th to the second millennium B.C. – China’s artist potters were making pottery incised or painted with stylish geometric and linear designs that, for the time, show an amazing level of invention. In contrast, our cavemen were chasing their next meal.

Miscellaneana: Making room in the bookcase for first editions

July 23, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

The copy of ‘Casino Royale,’ signed and inscribed by Fleming to the friend on whose character James Bond is based, and a first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit,’ published in 1937. Photo Lucius Books

LONDON – I’ve been given an ultimatum: no more books. We have nowhere left to store them. It’s a bit harsh, though. Charity stores and car boot sales see the Business Manager (Mrs P) often leaving with an armful. I, on the other hand, have to decline, however cheap they might be. Read more

Miscellaneana: Britain’s coveted Blue John

July 15, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

Ancient and modern: a 20th century lidded urn with silvered cast oak leaf and acorn mounts (left) estimated at £500-£700, and a cassolet, or urn, and cover with ormolu mounts, circa 1800, £1,200-£1,800. Photo Fellows auctioneers

LONDON – The urge to own every antique we find was overcome some years ago. Now our wish list is much shorter and way more refined than it used to be. Somewhere toward the top of mine is an object made from Britain’s scarcest semiprecious stone: Derbyshire’s romantically named Blue John. Read more

Miscellaneana: Christopher Dresser

July 9, 2015/in Miscellaneana/by Tom Hoepf

A silver-plated teapot with ebonized wood handle made by James Dixon & Sons, Sheffield, in about 1878, and a silver-plated toast rack by James Dixon & Sons about a year later. Photos by The British Museum and Michael Whiteway respectively

LONDON – In 1899, Christopher Dresser was hailed in the pages of The Studio – the bible of Victorian and Edwardian craftsmen artists – as “perhaps the greatest of commercial designers, imposing his fantasy and invention upon the ordinary output of British industry.” Read more