Auction Highlights – Page 11

Eduardo Paolozzi Sculptures & Prints for sale at Toovey’s

Lot 54 Eduardo Paolozzi at Toovey's — Lot 54: Eduardo Paolozzi 'Newton after William Blake' plaster relief

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was a British sculptor, printmaker, filmaker and writer. He is regarded as one of the most inventive British artists to come to prominence after the Second World War with his legacy ranging from pop art to monumental public works.

0008 Eduardo Paolozzi at Toovey's — Lot 8: '72 Aeschylus & Socrates, see App 4 #123…' by Eduardo Paolozzi

He attended St Martin’s School of Art in 1944, continuing his studies in sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art where, despite his teacher’s disapproval, he discovered the work of Pablo Picasso. This influence is plain to see in his sculptures and cubist-derived collages. On a trip to France he was exposed to surrealism, which gave him the foundations for all future work. It was also while in Paris, Paolozzi produced rudimentary collages from the adverts contained within American glossy magazines that echoed Dada photomontage. These early examples of pop art were the focus of a recent exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, featured by Rupert Toovey in his article ‘“Collaging Culture” at Pallant House Gallery‘.

His large public sculptures were numerous, in Britain they included the mosaic decoration in Tottenham Court Road underground station, a bronze figure of Isaac Newton for the entrance of the British Library, an abstract monument for Euston Square in London and a large sculpture for the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. Eduardo Paolozzi was made a CBE in 1968, an RA in 1979 and a knight in 1989. The Tate Gallery had a retrospective exhibition of Paolozzi’s work in 1971.

Throughout Paolozzi’s career the human form, language and a fascination of industrial engineering remained as sources of inspiration. These influences can all be seen in a single owner collection of works by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi to be offered at Toovey’s on 26th March 2014. The collection of plaster and bronze sculptures and prints by Paolozzi was discovered by Rupert Toovey in an attic in Newhaven. In his recent article Rupert states:

“This exciting collection provides a valuable insight into the work of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. There are iconic examples and more modest pieces expressing the joy and humour in his view of the world, often with a surrealist influence. Paolozzi’s work is layered, textural and thought-provoking, delighting the eye and the mind.”

The single owner collection will be offered for sale as part of the Selected Fine Art Auction (Lots 1-68) on Wednesday 26th March 2014. Viewing for the auction commences on Saturday 22nd March between 9.30am and 12 noon. Click here to view the collection online.

The Percy Cox Archive at Toovey’s Auctioneers

Advance notice of a fascinating archive to be sold at Toovey’s Fine Art and Antique Auctioneers.

Lot 3271. Winston Churchill's presentation copies to Percy Cox

Toovey’s Specialist Sale of Paper Collectables includes The Percy Cox Archive. This interesting archive of material relating to the Churchill family will be sold at Toovey’s Spring Gardens auction rooms in West Sussex. The archive will be offered in two lots as follows:

Lot 3271. CHURCHILL, Winston Leonard Spencer. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1956-1958. First edition, 4 vols., 8vo (242 x 152mm.) Occasional maps. (Some spotting.) Original cloth (extremities lightly bumped). Provenance: Percy Walter Cox (presentation inscriptions signed by the author to front-free endpaper of vols. I & II, signature to half-title of vol. III and presentation inscription to preliminary blank of vol. IV); and thence by descent. Note: part of The Percy Cox Archive.

Lot 3272. THE CHURCHILL FAMILY. – Sir Winston Leonard Spencer CHURCHILL (1874-1965), Clementine Ogilvy Spencer CHURCHILL, Baroness SPENCER-CHURCHILL (1885-1977), Mary SOAMES, Baroness SOAMES, and others. A small archive of photographs, telegrams, autograph letters, signed letters, notes and cards, most relating to the Churchill family’s relationship with Percy Cox, O.B.E., circa 1945-1974. Provenance: Percy Walter Cox and thence by descent. Note: Percy Cox (1888-1975), was the Estates Manager at the Churchills’ home, Chartwell, in Kent in the late 1940s and the 1950s. This interesting archive throws some light on Mr Cox’s work for Sir Winston Churchill and the personal esteem in which he and his wife were held by Winston, his wife, Clementine, and their youngest daughter, Mary. Further details on the contents of this archive are available on request.

Rare Stamp in Toovey’s Auction

3050 in Toovey's Specialist Stamp Auction — Lot 3050. A 1967 Flowers 4d phosphor unmounted mint, agate omitted, SG719pd, with rare error

For stamp collectors, rare and error postage stamps are always among the highest prized. Toovey’s Sale of Paper Collectables includes one such rarity, a 1967 Flowers 4d phosphor mint stamp with the rare error of having the agate omitted, SG719pd. Tom Pierron in his book ‘Catalogue of Great Britain stamp errors and varieties‘ tells the story behind this rarity, ‘A couple of lady pensioners on holiday in the West Country bought all known copies of the error for use as postage. They split all blocks bar one and lightly stuck the majority to postcards… One was posted before the error was spotted. The fate of the postally used copy is unknown. The only known block of four is folded and the top right stamp has a blunt perforation.’

It is probably fair to say that in the second half of the 20th Century very few stamps have significant value unless they carry a rare variant, flaw or error, like this example. This stamp carries a pre-sale estimate of £1200-1800 and will be offered for sale on the 6th August.

Bing and Nuremberg Tinplate Toys

A Bing tinplate clockwork open top double deck bus to be offered at Toovey's on 9th July 2013

The tinplate toy’s development in the mid-19th century with it’s bold and bright colouring, tactile modelling and often superb detailing quickly replaced its wooden toy predecessors for obvious reasons. The rise in the tinplate toy was spearheaded by German manufacturers, such as Märklin, who set the high standards for the industry. Today, the city of Nuremberg is known around the world as a center for toy production and hosts the largest international toy fair. The renown of the city started with a firm called Bing.

The brothers Ignaz and Adolf Bing originally opened a distribution firm for household goods in 1866, quickly adding toys to their list of products and a manufacturing firm to their flourishing business. By 1871 the company was employing over 100 workers. The company continued to grow and at the 1882 State Exposition Bing had the largest range of wares of any exhibiting manufacturer and were already shipping to destinations around the globe. Expansion at the firm continued and when the company issued its 550 page catalogue and price list in 1912 it was the largest toy manufacturer in the world employing 2700 people. It was not until the First World War that the firm started to dwindle in popularity, the output was changed to manufacturing military goods and the company was so large it was now necessary to change to a stock company eventually splitting into several manufacturing facilities. Although splinters of the company remain today the heyday for the firm was certainly around the turn of the last century.

Two Bing tinplate station indicators — Two Bing tinplate 'next train to' station indicators to be offered at Toovey's

Toovey’s specialist auctions of Toys, Dolls and Games regularly include examples from this and other German toy manufacturers and the July auction is no different. Lot 3160 is a beautifully crafted early 20th century Bing tinplate clockwork open top double deck bus with external staircase. The 18cm long bus is beautifully lithographed with the London General Omnibus Company logo and advertisements for Pascall confectionery, Wright’s Coal Tar Soap and Dunlop. For collectors, condition is all important and the generally good condition of this bus is reflected in its £200-400 pre-sale estimate. Bing are probably best known for the creation of model railways and also included in Toovey’s toy auction is a pair of Bing tinplate ‘next train to’ station indicators. Each platform sign has a clock face and six changeable destination boards. The pair are a similar date to the double deck bus and are estimated at £80-120 due to a little playwear and minor rust spots.

Bing alone did not make Nuremberg the center for toy products. At one time it is believed there were more than fifty toy firms operating in the city, most of whose names have been lost or forgotten in the archives. That said, many Nuremberg-based names are still revered by collectors including Arnold Fleischmann and Lehmann, while children of today will know the modern day producers of Playmobil, Carrera and Trix, continuing the legacy of toy production in Nuremberg.

Schuco Curvo 1000 to be offered at Toovey's

Another name joining the Nuremberg toy producer’s hall of fame was a firm established in the pre-war years of the 20th century by Heinrich Müller and Heinrich Shreyer. Also creating tinplate toys, Schreyer & Co enjoyed great success until the First World War, but with reinvestment the company survived, rebranding to Schuco in 1921. Under this trade name the company would eventually gain international fame, despite the difficulty of the second world war. In 1962, an estimated one hundred million Schuco toys were sold. Because of their vast and varied output Schuco tinplate toys regularly appear in the toy sales at Toovey’s. The auction on Tuesday 9th July features a tinplate Schuco ‘Curvo 1000’ measuring 12.5cm in length. The mid-20th century racer on a motorcycle, Lot 3165, is offered with the remnants of its original box and the original instructions. It carries a pre-sale estimate of £100-150 which illustrates that collecting tinplate toys can still be relatively affordable when buying at auction, that is unless you amass a collection to rival that of the late publishing tycoon Malcolm Forbes who was a well-known and avid collector. Tinplate toys were made throughout the 20th century with America and Japan becoming major producers too, flying the tinplate flag for Britain was Chad Valley among others. Many of the firms are still producing tinplate toys to be enjoyed by collectors now and in the future, but there is something inexplicably lovely about the vintage versions, like those waiting to be discovered at Toovey’s.

Hans Feibusch Drawings and Prints For Sale at Toovey’s

Design for Christ in Glory in St Sidwells, Exeter — Lot 8: Design for Christ in Glory

A group of twenty works by the 20th century artist Hans Feibusch is to be offered for auction in Toovey’s specialist fine art sale on Wednesday 12th June. Feibusch had strong links with Sussex and worked in a particular figurative style, influenced by the painters of the Renaissance.

Hans Feibusch arrived in England in 1933 from Nazi Germany to escape persecution as a Jew. He had become an established painter in Germany and was awarded the German Grand State Prize for Painters in 1930 by the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. His talent was soon recognized in England and he exhibited regularly, often with the London Group, to which he was elected in 1934. The London Group included many of Britain’s leading artists.

His first public commission came in 1937 when Edward D. Mills invited Feibusch to paint a mural, ‘Christ washing the Disciples’ Feet before the Last Supper’, for the new Methodist Hall in Colliers Wood, London. The painting attracted a great deal of interest from the national press and brought the artist to the attention of Kenneth Clark, later Lord Clark. Clark was very influential and was director of the National Gallery in London during the war. His television series and book ‘Civilisation’ would subsequently capture the imagination of a generation.

Bishop George Bell of Chichester wrote to Kenneth Clark at the National Gallery in 1939 asking for suggestions as to artists who might be prepared to accept commissions. Clark introduced Feibusch to Bell and the two men met for lunch in Brighton on New Year’s Day 1940. It marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship, during which Bell would be Feibusch’s leading patron. Both men were unprepared to turn their backs on evil. Feibusch personified Bell’s deep and active concern for the plight of the Jews in Germany and its refugees.

In 1929 Bell became Bishop of Chichester, bringing with him patterns of worship and the arts from Canterbury Cathedral, where he had been dean. He wished to see churches once more filled with colour and beauty. Eternal truths could be proclaimed anew in music, modern art and poetry. More people would be drawn into the Christian community by the revival of this old alliance and renewed vitality. Among visitors to the Bishop’s Palace in Chichester were Gustav Holst, Vaughan Williams, Henry Moore, T.S. Eliot, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and, of course, Hans Feibusch.

Rupert Toovey comments, “The friendship between Bell and Feibusch blessed Sussex with a number of murals by this artist. These can be seen at St Wilfred’s, Brighton; Chichester Cathedral; The Bishop’s Chapel, Chichester, and St Mary’s, Goring-by-Sea. Painting onto the walls of churches and cathedrals requires painstaking preparation and these pencil cartoons by Feibusch give us a valuable insight into his work. The sketch for the mural ‘Christ in Glory’, painted in 1957 at St Sidwell’s, Exeter, shows striking prompts from Feibusch’s earlier works in Sussex. The ‘Christ in Majesty’, painted in 1954 at St Mary’s, Goring-by-Sea, has similarities with the sketch for St Sidwell’s. The mural and cartoon display Feibusch’s knowledge of Renaissance artists and their influence on his work. Christ’s arms open in a gesture of welcome and embrace. The figures are convincing, almost sculptural, with a quality of mass and light. Feibusch gifts them through their poses with grace and nobility. In the St Sidwell’s sketch, men and women look up to Christ with gestures of praise and thanksgiving, reminiscent of the figures in the Ascension scene painted by Feibusch in the Bishop’s private chapel in Chichester.”

While the attention of the art world moved on to focus on the abstraction of Ben Nicholson and the new depiction of naturalistic forms by artists like Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, Hans Feibusch continued to paint and draw figuratively. His style of painting has been the subject of renewed interest in recent years with retrospective exhibitions held at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, in 1995, and more recently at the Bishop Otter Gallery, University of Chichester, in 2012.

“The murals deserve to be celebrated,” Rupert Toovey enthuses. “They represent the work of a gifted artist whose life was inexorably bound up with the extraordinary history and events of his time. For me, though, it is Feibusch’s sketches and drawings that reveal his true talent.”

Hans Feibusch’s work rarely comes to the market and it is with some excitement that collectors are looking forward to Toovey’s sale. The group of sketches, studies and prints will be offered in twelve lots at 10am on 12th June at Toovey’s Spring Gardens Auction Rooms, Washington.

Below: a selection of other works by Hans Feibusch to be offered in Toovey’s June auction.

Click on an image to enlarge.