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The Times (London)
August 31, 2013 Saturday
A cabinet of curiosities, from 1950s robots to a piece of Concorde
Collecting
by Huon Mallalieu
For some years now Christie's and Sotheby's have been sniped at for
discouraging new collectors by closing specialist departments and
turning away anything likely to sell for less than £10,000 or so -
before the addition of premium and tax. Such policies may appeal in
the short term, but over time must surely damage the health of the
market, so it is good to see at least a gesture towards buyers other
than the very rich in the Out of the Ordinary sale at Christie's South
Kensington on September 5.
Estimates on the 155 lots range from about £1,000 to £250,000, and the
organisers have done their best to create a modern-day Wunderkammer,
or Cabinet of Curiosities. They have certainly gone to extremes in
their quest - from an unimaginably small - 0.118in by 0.0078in -
sculpture by the Armenian artist Edward TerGhazarian (1923-2012),
estimated to £15,000, to an 8ft-high skeleton of an Ice Age cave bear
(£25,000) and an 8ft 4in Italian robot created in 1957. The lastnamed
item, originally famous as "Cygan" (right), would surely make more
than the estimated £12,000 were the electronics that made him dance
and respond to command still in place.
The first lot, Hiroshi Furuyoshi's realist painting of an Edwardian
girl in a curiosity shop (to £5,000), and the last, a waxwork of the
Emperor Hirohito (to £3,000), are Japanese; between is almost
everything from everywhere. Several claim to be the biggest of their
kind, including a 15ft 3in rocking horse (to £40,000) and a silver
caviar dish commissioned in 2002 by the Israeli businessman Erwin
Eisenberg (who may have sold the family silver - Israeli Chemicals -
at the wrong moment, but his collection of actual Georg Jensen silver
at the right one). There are the skull of a triceratops, a tail
component from a Concorde, three pinball machines, a miniature Louis
Vuitton trunk, and a film prop flying machine.
Sometimes association is all, as with a Batchelors Butter Beans tin
containing eight very used paint brushes, estimated to £25,000. Having
painted Lucien Freud with them, in 1978 Francis Bacon gave them to his
friend and fellow artist Clive Barker.s
The sale has been on exhibition all month, and there are still a few
days to view.
The Petersfield Antiques Fair celebrates its 40th outing in the
Hampshire town's Festival Hall from September 6 to 8, and fittingly
there will be 40 quality exhibitors in traditional areas, mostly from
southern England, but others from Scotland and perhaps farther. The
specialist Cynthia Walmsley has a fine, surprisingly unattributed,
miniature, circa 1810, of Commander E. S. Crouch, RN, who died in 1821
in command of the Victory (£3,750).
>From September 5 to 13 the Sussex auctioneer Bellmans is holding an
online sale of drawings by the late Times cartoonist Richard Willson.
About 800 examples, singly or lotted together, carry estimates of
between £50 and £150. Willson also worked for The Ecologist, and there
is often a country side to his politics. www.bellmans.co.uk
August 31, 2013 Saturday
A cabinet of curiosities, from 1950s robots to a piece of Concorde
Collecting
by Huon Mallalieu
For some years now Christie's and Sotheby's have been sniped at for
discouraging new collectors by closing specialist departments and
turning away anything likely to sell for less than £10,000 or so -
before the addition of premium and tax. Such policies may appeal in
the short term, but over time must surely damage the health of the
market, so it is good to see at least a gesture towards buyers other
than the very rich in the Out of the Ordinary sale at Christie's South
Kensington on September 5.
Estimates on the 155 lots range from about £1,000 to £250,000, and the
organisers have done their best to create a modern-day Wunderkammer,
or Cabinet of Curiosities. They have certainly gone to extremes in
their quest - from an unimaginably small - 0.118in by 0.0078in -
sculpture by the Armenian artist Edward TerGhazarian (1923-2012),
estimated to £15,000, to an 8ft-high skeleton of an Ice Age cave bear
(£25,000) and an 8ft 4in Italian robot created in 1957. The lastnamed
item, originally famous as "Cygan" (right), would surely make more
than the estimated £12,000 were the electronics that made him dance
and respond to command still in place.
The first lot, Hiroshi Furuyoshi's realist painting of an Edwardian
girl in a curiosity shop (to £5,000), and the last, a waxwork of the
Emperor Hirohito (to £3,000), are Japanese; between is almost
everything from everywhere. Several claim to be the biggest of their
kind, including a 15ft 3in rocking horse (to £40,000) and a silver
caviar dish commissioned in 2002 by the Israeli businessman Erwin
Eisenberg (who may have sold the family silver - Israeli Chemicals -
at the wrong moment, but his collection of actual Georg Jensen silver
at the right one). There are the skull of a triceratops, a tail
component from a Concorde, three pinball machines, a miniature Louis
Vuitton trunk, and a film prop flying machine.
Sometimes association is all, as with a Batchelors Butter Beans tin
containing eight very used paint brushes, estimated to £25,000. Having
painted Lucien Freud with them, in 1978 Francis Bacon gave them to his
friend and fellow artist Clive Barker.s
The sale has been on exhibition all month, and there are still a few
days to view.
The Petersfield Antiques Fair celebrates its 40th outing in the
Hampshire town's Festival Hall from September 6 to 8, and fittingly
there will be 40 quality exhibitors in traditional areas, mostly from
southern England, but others from Scotland and perhaps farther. The
specialist Cynthia Walmsley has a fine, surprisingly unattributed,
miniature, circa 1810, of Commander E. S. Crouch, RN, who died in 1821
in command of the Victory (£3,750).
>From September 5 to 13 the Sussex auctioneer Bellmans is holding an
online sale of drawings by the late Times cartoonist Richard Willson.
About 800 examples, singly or lotted together, carry estimates of
between £50 and £150. Willson also worked for The Ecologist, and there
is often a country side to his politics. www.bellmans.co.uk