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George II carved giltwood pier mirror, estimated at £40,000-£60,000 ($50,900-$76,400). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

Collection of renowned interior designer Robert Kime to sell at Dreweatts this fall

Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
The late interior design titan Robert Kime at his Provencal home, ‘La Gonette.’ Image courtesy of Dreweatts, photo credit Tessa Traeger
The late interior design titan Robert Kime at his Provencal home, ‘La Gonette.’ Image courtesy of Dreweatts, photo credit Tessa Traeger

NEWBURY, U.K. – Dreweatts Donnington Priory will auction the personal collection of Robert Kime (1946-2022), the man known across the world as a titan of design and a polymath who was dubbed the ‘great assembler’ of beautiful things. Kime’s unique eye and aesthetic sensibility led him to become a leading interior design figure. The culmination of his lifetime of collecting will form a three-day auction at Dreweatts titled Robert Kime: The Personal Collection, which will take place on October 4-6 and will comprise more than 750 lots ranging in value from £30 to £100,000 ($38 to $127,700). It is expected to achieve in excess of £1.5 million (roughly $1.9 million).

The auction will be a landmark in the history of English taste and a celebration of one of the most respected and loved decorators of his generation. It presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to obtain works from Kime’s personal collection, which he meticulously formed through his travels around the UK, Europe, the Middle East and beyond, encapsulating many contrasting cultural traditions and mediums.

Iznik pottery jug, estimated at £3,000-£5,000 ($3,800-$6,300). Image courtesy of Dreweatts
Iznik pottery jug, estimated at £3,000-£5,000 ($3,800-$6,300). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

Day One of the auction will present works of art from Kime’s Warwick Square home in London, while Day Two will offer the collection from his much-loved Provencal house, known as La Gonette. Day Three’s auction will contain a variety of the more decorative items from both locations.

Kime’s fascination with objects grew from his childhood, and he began selling antiques while studying medieval history as an undergraduate at Oxford. His passion and broad knowledge encompassed Middle Eastern art, including textiles and antiquities, European antiquities and works of art and ceramics, as well as modern art.

Hallway in the Warwick Square, London home of interior designer Robert Kime. Image courtesy of Dreweatts, photo credit Simon Upton, flowers by Hannah Kime
Hallway in the Warwick Square, London home of interior designer Robert Kime. Image courtesy of Dreweatts, photo credit Simon Upton, flowers by Hannah Kime

Kime’s enthusiastic intellectual engagement created wonderfully varied, fascinating and comfortable interiors filled with the exotic and the everyday. His keen eye and his academic rigor drew the royal family and collectors from around the world to ask for his help in building their collections and designing their homes. King Charles III said of his unique aesthetic sensibility: “You often hear of people who are said to have ‘a good eye’, but Robert Kime’s must surely be one of the best.’’ It was this talent that enabled Kime to bring comfort to a room by harmoniously mixing beautiful antique textiles with fascinating objects, furniture and paintings while creating an atmosphere of safety and warmth.

Kitchen at interior design legend Robert Kime’s Provencal home, ‘La Gonette.’ Image courtesy of Dreweatts, photo credit Barney Hindle
Kitchen at interior design legend Robert Kime’s Provencal home, ‘La Gonette.’ Image courtesy of Dreweatts, photo credit Barney Hindle

The collection also charts the creative partnership Kime had with his wife Helen Nicoll, the celebrated children’s author and audiobook pioneer. This sale will be an insight into the countless decisions the couple made together during the course of many decades and in a succession of homes, the interiors of which are now ingrained in the psyche of English interior decoration.

Eric Ravilious, ‘New Year Snow,’ estimated at £100,000-£150,000 ($127,400-$191,100). Image courtesy of Dreweatts
Eric Ravilious, ‘New Year Snow,’ estimated at £100,000-£150,000 ($127,400-$191,100). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

Among the highlights is a striking watercolor and pencil landscape by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) titled New Year Snow. The work was loved by the whole family and has hung in several of Kime’s homes, as is customary with many pieces he owned. This depiction of the snowy British countryside is signed by the artist and carries an estimate of £100,000-£150,000 ($127,400-$191,100).

16th-century English School ‘Portrait of a Man with Pickaxe and a Spade in a Landscape,’ estimated at £10,000-£15,000 ($12,700-$19,100). Image courtesy of Dreweatts
16th-century English School ‘Portrait of a Man with Pickaxe and a Spade in a Landscape,’ estimated at £10,000-£15,000 ($12,700-$19,100). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

An Elizabethan Portrait of a Man with Pickaxe and a Spade in a Landscape was another favorite that moved between several of Kime’s homes. It is an example of the relationship that he had with each of the objects in his collection – they were not merely things, but pieces that evoked a sense of feeling and engagement. The English School 16th-century oil painting is estimated at £10,000-£15,000 ($12,700-$19,100).

Vanessa Bell, ‘Still Life of Narcissi,’ estimated at £10,000-£15,000 ($12,700-$19,100). Image courtesy of Dreweatts
Vanessa Bell, ‘Still Life of Narcissi,’ estimated at £10,000-£15,000 ($12,700-$19,100). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

A painting titled Still Life of Narcissi by Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), is one of several works in the collection by members of the Bloomsbury Group – the group’s central belief was in the importance of the arts, which they carried through into their art and their views. The jug present in the work is now known to still be at Charleston. Still Life of Narcissi has an estimate of £10,000-£15,000 ($12,700-$19,100).

Ming dynasty Chinese blue and white lotus jar, estimated at £4,000-£6,000 ($5,000-$7,600). Image courtesy of Dreweatts
Ming dynasty Chinese blue and white lotus jar, estimated at £4,000-£6,000 ($5,000-$7,600). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

Kime was particularly drawn to the beauty and fragility of Chinese, Ottoman and Delft ceramics. In the sale is a Ming dynasty Chinese blue and white lotus jar, decorated with stylized flowers and estimated at £4,000-£6,000 ($5,000-$7,600), and an Iznik pottery jug that displays the typical range of colors of this type of craft, which was practiced during the 16th and 17th centuries in Iznik, a town in northwestern Turkey. Its estimate is £3,000-£5,000 ($3,800-$6,300).

Ancient Egyptian wooden funerary boat, estimated at £15,000-£20,000 ($19,100-$25,400). Image courtesy of Dreweatts
Ancient Egyptian wooden funerary boat, estimated at £15,000-£20,000 ($19,100-$25,400). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

Among the antiquities in the collection is an Egyptian wooden funerary boat with crew. Carved funerary boats were buried with the dead during the Middle Kingdom period of Egypt to help transport the deceased into the afterlife. The more important the deceased, the more elaborate the carved boats and figures were. This particular example is painted and decorated, dates from circa 2133-1797 B.C. and has an estimate of £15,000-£20,000 ($19,100-$25,400).

A George II carved giltwood pier mirror from circa 1755 is the last piece that Kime ever bought. It was formerly in the collection of Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (1883-1950), a British composer, novelist, painter and aesthete, who inherited his title alongside Faringdon House, Buscot in Oxfordshire. At that residence, he hosted the literary, musical and artistic avant-garde of the early 20th century, whose ranks included Salvador Dali, Igor Stravinsky, Daisy Fellowes, H G Wells, Cecil Beaton, John and Penelope Betjeman, Stephen Tennant, Nancy Mitford and others from the ‘Bright Young Things’ set.

George II carved giltwood pier mirror, estimated at £40,000-£60,000 ($50,900-$76,400). Image courtesy of Dreweatts
George II carved giltwood pier mirror, estimated at £40,000-£60,000 ($50,900-$76,400). Image courtesy of Dreweatts

The architectural pediment and frame of the mirror is carved with a pierced shell, foliate scrolls and a trellis ground. Its bevelled plate is thought to be original and its gilding shows traces of 18th-century gilding. The rectangular tabernacle design is derived from designs of the 1720s by eminent architect James Gibbs (1682-1754), who was influenced by one of the most important architects in British history, Inigo Jones (1573-1652). It carries an estimate of £40,000-£60,000 ($50,900-$76,400).