December 2014 – Toovey’s Blog

The Nativity Painted at Berwick, Sussex

The decorative painted scheme in the Renaissance style at Berwick parish church

With Christmas approaching, I have come to see the remarkable painted interior at St Michael and All Angels church at Berwick in East Sussex. I want to reflect once again upon Vanessa Bell’s beautiful depiction of the Nativity.

The fine decorative scheme was commissioned by Bishop George Bell of Chichester. Bell was a great patron of the arts. He wished to see churches once more filled with colour and beauty. Eternal truths would be proclaimed anew in modern art, poetry and music. More people would be drawn into the Christian community by the revival of this old alliance and renewed vitality. Bell founded the Sussex Churches Art Council. Relying on generous patrons, like the famous economist John Maynard Keynes, he began to commission work. Keynes was a frequent visitor to Charleston, where Duncan Grant had a great influence on his artistic sensibilities. Visitors to the Bishop’s Palace in Chichester included Gustav Holst, Vaughan Williams, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and T.S. Eliot.

The Revd. Rupert Toovey admiring Vanessa Bell’s Nativity at St Michael and All Angels church, Berwick, East Sussex

During the summer and autumn of 1940 the Battle of Britain was fought over the skies of Sussex. The Luftwaffe failed to defeat the R.A.F. but the Germans continued the Blitz into the May of 1941. Against this backdrop, Bishop Bell commissioned Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell to paint St Michael and All Angels. The parish church at Berwick is just a few miles from the artists’ home at Charleston.

Writing to Angelica Bell in 1941, Vanessa Bell proclaimed that Charleston was “all a-dither with Christianity”. Large panels were prepared to be painted on in the barn at Charleston. Family, friends and neighbours were used as models.

Initially the project met with local opposition but Kenneth Clark and Frederick Etchells acted as expert witnesses and the scheme was accepted. At the time Kenneth Clark was director of the National Gallery in London and Surveyor of the King’s Pictures.

The visitor today is met with a scheme of paintings in the Renaissance style. They depict scenes from the New Testament, which include the Annunciation, Christ Crucified and Christ in Majesty.

Vanessa Bell’s Nativity sets the familiar Christmas story of the birth of Christ in the folds of the Sussex Downs. The scene is painted in a barn beneath the Firle Beacon. Local shepherds posed for the panel. Their distinctive shepherds’ crooks are typical of those made at Pyecombe since medieval times. Vanessa’s daughter, Angelica, is depicted as Mary. St Luke writes: “Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Here Mary looks on, preoccupied with her thoughts. Many people have suggested that the baby Jesus is reminiscent of Vanessa’s son Quentin, but I have often wondered if she was thinking of her older son, Julian. Julian Bell, a poet, had been killed in the Spanish Civil War. Peter Durrant, a local farm worker, is painted as Joseph. He lost his left arm as the result of an accident in which he fell from a wagon. To his right are three children, who worship at the crib in their school uniforms. They are Ray and Bill West, sons of the Charleston gardener, and John Higgens, son of Grace, the housekeeper. The stable is lit by a lamp at the foot of the composition. The lamb below is a symbol for Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Berwick’s Nativity brings to life this timeless, much-loved and familiar story, placing it in the heart of Sussex. It also remembers the joys and sorrows, and the hopes and fears of this community of people. Like the first Christmas, the season remains a time of gathering, reflection and remembrance. A time of shared memories and stories.

The Rector, the Revd. Peter Blee, will be celebrating a candlelit Midnight Mass, which starts at 11.30pm on Christmas Eve, and a Family Holy Communion at 11.00am on Christmas Day. St Michael and All Angels is one of my favourite places to stop and pray when I am in the east of our county. My thanks go to the Revd. Peter Blee and his congregation, who make this a living, prayerful place of pilgrimage for us all.

I wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas!

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 24th December 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Damaged Vase Sells for over Half-a-million Pounds at Toovey’s

A chipped and heavily repaired vase went under the hammer for an extraordinary £520,000 at fine art auctioneers Toovey’s Spring Gardens salerooms at Washington on Thursday 4th December 2014.

The 40.3cm-high Chinese famille rose and pea green ground vase dated from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795) and would originally have been a decorative piece made for one of the emperor’s palaces. It was decorated with four floral panels representing the seasons, alternating with four further panels with poems in different calligraphic scripts.

At some point in the 19th century, the rim had been broken into a number of pieces and repaired with rivets and metal wire, a popular form of restoration right up until the 1960s, when epoxy and polyester resin glues were developed. The rim also had a fair-size piece missing and there were other smaller areas of loss. None of this put off a host of Oriental antiques specialists around the world and on the day nine telephone bidders, a strong presence bidding live online and a number of key UK and Chinese players in the room all vied for the piece. After a lengthy battle, the final bidding was left to two major collectors, one bidding from China by telephone, the other, the eventual winner, bidding in the room.

The vase was discovered by Toovey’s following a routine enquiry by email from a local couple, attaching a number of images of items at their property which they wanted to auction. They were all modest items, except for the vase, which Toovey’s Oriental specialist Tom Rowsell immediately spotted as something potentially very interesting. The couple subsequently brought the vase to Toovey’s to show Tom in person and he confirmed his thoughts that the vase was almost certainly Qianlong mark and period and a highly commercial piece in the current market. Toovey’s Oriental consultant, Lars Tharp, later concurred with Tom’s opinion. The vase had been inherited by the wife from her late father, who, she believed, bought it at auction in the 1960s. The couple had no idea that the vase was of any importance or value prior to contacting Toovey’s.

This remarkable hammer price rounds off a record year for Toovey’s, who have been steadily notching up an impressive run of results throughout 2014.

Watch the lot selling below:

Winnie-the-Pooh: A Bear from Sussex

Ernest Howard Shepard - 'Make This a Pooh Christmas', pen and ink on prepared board, signed with initials, titled and annotated, measuring 18.5cm x 32cm

I wonder how many of us will be giving and receiving A.A. Milne’s wonderful stories about Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and their many friends. These timeless characters are brought to life in our imaginations by E.H. Shepard’s captivating illustrations.

Both author and illustrator lived in Sussex. A.A. Milne purchased Cotchford Farm on the edge of Hartfield, East Sussex, in 1925. The surrounding Ashdown Forest would provide the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood where Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures are set. Ernest Howard Shepard lived at Lodsworth near Petworth, West Sussex.

E.H. Shepard was born in St John’s Wood and by 1906 had become a successful illustrator. He served in the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross for his ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’ at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Milne had been uncertain that Shepard was the right illustrator for his stories. But after the success of ‘When We Were Very Young’ Milne acknowledged Shepard’s contribution by arranging for the illustrator to receive a share of the royalties.

A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, was born in 1920. Famously the inspiration for the characters in these stories came from Christopher Robin’s toys. However E.H. Shepard based his depiction of Winnie-the-Pooh on his son’s teddy bear called Growler.

Winnie-The-Pooh was first introduced as Edward.

“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t.”

The pencil and ink drawing by E.H. Shepard, illustrated here, remains one of my favourite objects ever auctioned at Toovey’s. Titled ‘Make This a Pooh Christmas’ this festive scene depicts Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo putting on antlers, whilst Winnie-the-Pooh sits in the sleigh dressed as Father Christmas. Piglet busily fills the sacks with books. Judging by the city skyline the friends have ventured beyond the borders of the Hundred Acre Wood. Perhaps unsurprisingly this wonderful sketch realised £16,000.

A 1926 first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh in its original red morocco and gilt binding and with the rare original publisher’s box

Copies of these stories, even early editions, can be bought reasonably but what a difference a fine edition or a dust-jacket can make. Take for example this 1926 first edition of ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ in its original red morocco and gilt binding. It came in with its rare original glassine dust-jacket and publisher’s box and realised £900 in a Toovey’s specialist book auction. Published by Methuen & Co the four first editions shown here all had their paper dust-jackets. They included ‘When We Were Very Young’, 1924; ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’, 1926; ‘Now We Are Six’, 1927 and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’, 1928. Together they realised £2900 at Toovey’s.

First edition copies of When We Were Very Young, 1924; Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926; Now We Are Six, 1927 and The House at Pooh Corner, 1928; in their original dust-jackets

I still take great pleasure reading the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh, especially in younger company. The stories have the ability to fill me with joy and laughter. I love Pooh’s delight in just being him and his conversations with Piglet:

‘ “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.’

Who could not share Pooh’s delight in food when Christmas champagne, scrambled egg and smoked salmon are on the menu!

Toovey’s next specialist sale of books is to be held on Tuesday 21st April 2015. A first edition of ‘House at Pooh Corner’ from 1928 with its original glassine dust-jacket and publisher’s box is one of the early entries! If you would like advice on selling or buying collectors’ books please feel free to contact Nicholas Toovey at Toovey’s on 01903 891955.

Perhaps this Christmas you too should share the delights of that fine Sussex bear Winnie-The-Pooh. Whether it’s a new or a collector’s copy the stories, with E. H. Shepard’s illustrations, won’t fail to delight. Make yours a Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas!

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 17th December 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

William Blake, Exhibition Unites Sussex and Oxford

William Blake (1757–1827), ‘Newton’, 1795, large colour print finished in watercolour © Philadelphia Museum of Art

An insightful exhibition has just opened at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It focuses on the life and work of the remarkable romantic, visionary artist and poet, William Blake (1757-1827). The exhibition ‘William Blake Apprentice and Master’ explores the artist’s formation as he became one of Britain’s most important poets, artists and printmakers. Although the importance of Blake’s work was not wholly understood during his own life-time it inspired a new, younger generation of visionary artists which included Samuel Palmer, George Richmond and Edward Calvert, who called themselves ‘the Ancients’.

William Blake’s artistic promise was apparent at an early age and he was apprenticed to James Basire aged fifteen. Basire was the official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries and sent Blake to study Westminster Abbey and other gothic churches in London. In 1779 Blake joined the Antique School of the Royal Academy. These early experiences would inform William Blake’s unorthodox approach to the depiction of both the gothic and the human form.

William Blake (1757–1827), ‘Nebuchadnezzar’, circa 1795–1805, colour print, ink, and watercolour on paper © Tate, London

By 1789 Blake was at the height of his powers, producing work of extraordinary originality. It was during this period that the artist began experimenting with new printing techniques including relief etching. His technical innovations included developments in colour printing, a method he referred to as ‘Illuminated Printing’. Examples in the exhibition include the book ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’. Its theme reflects the common Romantic narrative of the human journey from protected childhood innocence, to the effects of engaging with the world, leading to adulthood. The large colour print ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ highlights Blake’s visionary and romantic reinterpretation of Biblical subjects. Here this ruler, described in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, is depicted as half-human, driven mad by his excessive pride and self-confidence. The large colour print ‘Newton’ is a favourite of mine. It depicts the famous scientist at work. It was reinterpreted by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi in the late 20th Century for his sculpture of the same title outside the British Library.

Joseph Johnson published William Blake and many leading writers. These includied the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, the theologian and scientist Joseph Priestly, the artist John Henry Fuseli and the philosopher Richard Price. Blake became acquainted with these radical figures at Johnson’s gatherings.

Wormsley library. Image from book by W Blake — William Blake (1757–1827), Frontispiece and facing title page from ‘Songs of Innocence’, 1789, relief etching printed in brown ink with watercolour © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

William Blake spent most of his life in London. However, for a number of years he lived in Sussex. In 1800 he moved to a cottage in Felpham, West Sussex, to illustrate work by the poet William Hayley. During this period William Blake wrote the poem titled ‘And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time’. It formed part of the preface to his epic work ‘Milton a Poet’. The title page is dated 1804 though Blake continued to work on it until 1808.

As we near the end of 2014, the centenary year of the start of the First World War, it is poignant to reflect that in 1916 Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, edited a patriotic anthology of poems titled ‘The Spirit of Man’. Amongst these was the little known poem ‘And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time’ by William Blake, better known to us today as ‘Jerusalem’.

In 1916 Bridges invited Hubert Parry to set ‘Jerusalem’ to music and it became a national anthem. In it Blake articulates the triumph of our green and pleasant land over the enslavement of our island’s peoples by the dark satanic mills of the industrial revolution. At the heart of this poem is a questioning of the myth that Jesus Christ visited these Isles with his Uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, a tin dealer. In Blake’s poem heaven and earth are to be united in a perfected creation. The New Jerusalem is to be built here in England. Blake uses this story from the Book of Revelations as a metaphor for social justice in his own times.

The exhibition provides a very human insight into William Blake placing him in the context of his times and contemporaries. The recreation of his London studio, now lost, brings us an opportunity to connect with William Blake’s life and work in a particularly personal way.

This fine exhibition provides a reminder of William Blake’s artistic talent and strong moral vision. An important artist who has an important place in the story of Sussex as a leading centre for artists over the centuries.

‘William Blake: Apprentice & Master’, runs until 1st March 2015 at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. For further information go to www.ashmolean.org. The Blake Society are campaigning to buy his cottage at Felpham and preserve it for the nation, for more information go to www.blakesociety.org.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 10th December 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Toovey’s Late December/Early January Opening Times

Toovey’s close for Christmas at 5pm on Thursday 18th December 2014.

We reopen for pre-sale viewing of our End of Year Sale on Tuesday 30th December from 10am to 4pm
and the sale day, New Year’s Eve, Wednesday 31st December from 9am to the start of the sale at 10am.

Note: all sale enquiries will be responded to on our return.

After the sale, we are closed from New Year’s Day, Thursday 1st January to Sunday 4th January.

We return to our normal opening hours on Monday 5th January: Monday to Friday 10am to 3pm for valuations and 9am to 5pm for all other enquiries.

We would like to wish all our customers a very Happy Christmas and look forward to welcoming you at our Spring Gardens rooms soon.