January 2016 – Toovey’s Blog

Capability Brown

2016 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Britain’s most influential and famous gardener, Capability Brown. This remarkable English landscape gardener’s life and work is being celebrated in the latest exhibition at the Horsham Museum & Art Gallery. ‘Capability Brown in Horsham: Discovering a Lost Garden’ runs until the 12th March.

The landscape gardener Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown by Richard Cosway © Bridgeman images

The exhibition tells the story of how Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) designed and constructed a landscape garden around the Jacobean mansion Hills Place for the Ingram family. Brown also worked for the Ingram’s at their Yorkshire home, Temple Newsam, where his gardens can still be seen. The Hills Place gardens were located on the outskirts of Horsham, but were lost when the Duke of Norfolk ploughed them up to turn them into farmland some 50 years after the garden’s completion.

The exhibition includes Brown’s original designs for the garden, together with the survey conducted by his assistant, Lapidge, some two years earlier in 1766. The story is told in the context of the time with costumes, porcelain and objects from the period alongside botanical paintings and letters relating to Brown’s work. The letters reveal Brown’s uncompromising, ambitious nature, and relationship with his clients as he produced his landscape art.

A rare depiction of the lost garden at Hills Place, Horsham

I ask exhibition curator Jeremy Knight what the designs tell us about Capability Brown’s work. He replies enthusiastically “I love that he knew what trees he was going to plant, and where, to create his landscape theatre. He often planted willows, spruce and cedars – cedars were his favourites.”

Brown’s clients and patrons came from the most notable families in England. Between 1751 and 1783 Brown and his team dealt with over 170 commissions and changed the face of Georgian England. Given the stature of his clients I have often wondered how Capability Brown managed their expectations, after all trees and woodland can take generations to establish. Jeremy Knight explains “He would have planted mature and young trees so that the picturesque would be there for the patron and subsequent generations. Often his designs include features like the water cascade at Hills Place. His landscape gardens were like a hyper-reality – nature perfected.”

The qualities of the picturesque are alive in Capability Brown’s landscape gardens. He composed and constructed vignette views onto sweeping lawns, curving lakes and beautifully conceived woodland clumps of trees. It is as though they are in a painting. These features are apparent in his landscape garden at Petworth House and Park, preserved and maintained by the National Trust. It continues to delight and inspire visitors through the seasons of the year.

This aesthetic was born out of the rococo in reaction to the formal straight lines and topiary of the French royal gardens designed by André Le Notre (1613-1700), which had been made popular in England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by George London (d.1714) and Henry Wise (1653-1738). Together they had created the parterres at Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth and Longleat.

Petworth House set in Capability Brown’s landscape garden

In early 18th century England there was a political desire, held by both the Whig government and Hanoverian King George I, to distance themselves from the excesses of the French Court at Versailles. This combined with a fascination for ‘unbounded nature’. In this climate Capability Brown’s park landscapes evolved in dialogue with his patrons. Perhaps this is why his idealised landscapes speak into the hearts and imaginations of the English and, in part, define us. Today his work can still be seen at Stowe, Blenheim Palace, and elsewhere, as well as at Petworth in West Sussex.

In celebration of Capability Brown’s 300th anniversary Visit England has declared 2016 as the Year of the English Garden. Sussex has much to celebrate in her gardens. Jeremy Knight has once again delivered an extraordinary and timely exhibition. Jeremy and the Horsham District Council are deserving of our thanks. ‘Capability Brown in Horsham: Discovering a Lost Garden’ runs at the Horsham Museum & Art Gallery, The Causeway, Horsham, RH12 1HE, until 12th March 2016. I am delighted that Toovey’s are supporting this revealing exhibition. Entrance to the Museum and exhibition is free. For more information go to www.horshammuseum.org or telephone 01403 254959.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 27th January 2016 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Geoffrey Godden, Celebrated Sussex Ceramics Specialist

Three Samuel Alcock botanical dessert plates, circa 1830, presale estimate £100-150

The celebrated Sussex ceramics historian, Geoffrey Godden, has for more than fifty years made an outstanding contribution to our understanding of this specialist field. I am excited that he has chosen to enter a number of pieces from his reference collection into Toovey’s specialist sale of English and European Ceramics, on the afternoon of Thursday 28th January 2016.

Geoffrey Godden started in his father’s antiques business in Worthing and although he has an international reputation amongst ceramics collectors and historians he has continued to base himself here in Sussex.

Geoffrey Godden has published some thirty reference books. I ask him about this remarkable output. His face breaks into a smile as he says “My father always said if you want to know about something write a book about it. He was right. I always wrote about subjects I wanted to know about.”

Geoffrey Godden was first encouraged to write by Hugh Wakefield of the V&A Museum in the early 1960s. Geoffrey’s ‘Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks’ was first published in 1964 and remains in print today. It is still the most comprehensive volume of its type and something of an industry bible. Geoffrey enthuses “An Encyclopaedia has to be all embracing.”

I ask Geoffrey what he first collected and he responds “Lowestoft was my first love. It was available and inexpensive. There is a homely quality to English blue and white. The anglicized interpretations of Chinese decoration are not over sophisticated; they are un-laboured, really, and painted by women and children. There is great appeal to individual handmade things made for use by individuals. It offers an affordable charm and blue and white is the right colour for porcelain!” Geoffrey explains how he corrected an earlier generation’s assumption (based upon a mistake by the ceramics historian, William Chaffers) that many of these English pieces were Chinese Export blue and white porcelain. There are a number of Lowestoft pieces in Toovey’s auction entered by another ceramics collector.

Many summer holidays were spent by Geoffrey researching in Stoke on Trent. Pattern books from the 1820s and 1830s revealed that things that had been previously attributed to the Coalport factory in a generic way were in fact made by Minton’s.

With appearances on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and Going for a Song with Arthur Negus Geoffrey has always had an ability to communicate his passion and understanding of his subject to others. With understated pride he comments “I was an early specialist”. He has delighted in educating the public and remarks “For many years I held lectures and seminars where those attending could handle the reference collection which was displayed on open shelves. It was marvellous to see their appreciation of being able to do this and of the objects.” It is a selection of these reference pieces which are to be sold at Toovey’s.

Keele University has honoured Geoffrey Godden with a Doctorate in ‘recognition of his outstanding contributions to the understanding and appreciation of ceramic art.’ His contribution has in no small measure created a cache for ceramics collecting, something which he describes “as an allowable fault.”

This extraordinary man remains excited about his subject and forward looking. He says “I still like to ask questions. Age in itself is not a virtue. A fine piece of modern pottery can be as fine as a piece of Chelsea. It’s quality that matters, not necessarily age.”

As our conversation draws to a close I ask him what has most delighted him about a career working with ceramics. He reflects that it is the friendships with fellow connoisseurs and a lifetime of questioning and learning which is at its heart. And what advice would he offer to ceramic collectors and historians. He pauses and concludes “You have to handle and view pieces closely – possession is almost vital to understanding.”

Two rare examples of Minton’s flower encrusted porcelain, presale estimate £80-120

The opportunity to handle and own pieces from Geoffrey Godden’s reference collection comes at Toovey’s specialist auction of English and European Ceramics, on the afternoon of Thursday 28th January 2016. For more information and to preview these lots go to www.tooveys.com or telephone Toovey’s specialist, Tom Rowsell, on 01903 891955.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 20th January 2016 in the West Sussex Gazette.

The Timeless Appeal of Steiff

A mid-20th Century Steiff mohair Record Peter monkey

Steiff has become an international household name synonymous with the finest toy animals. The company was started as a domestic enterprise in the late 19th century by Margarete Steiff.

An early Steiff mohair clockwork teddy bear with button in left ear

Margarete Steiff grew up in the small German town of Giengen in the Wurttemberg countryside. Born in 1847 she contracted a fever as a very small child which left her wheel chair bound with a severe weakness to her arms and legs. Nevertheless she was determined and became a skilled seamstress working with her sister, Pauline. In 1868 Margarete opened her own ladies apparel and clothing store. It was around 1880 that she discovered a pattern for an elephant in a fashion magazine and began to make felt elephants stuffed with the finest wool as gifts for adults. They were intended to be used as pin cushions but they delighted the children as much as the adults. They proved very successful and by 1895 the first toys were being shipped from Germany to England. A variety of animals were produced including purring cats, dogs, monkeys and pigs. The first patterns for pull-along toys were produced as early as 1886. That these toys were made with such love and care was readily apparent. Margarete Steiff said “Only the best is good enough for our children” and it was no idle boast.

An early 20th Century Steiff mohair mechanical elephant

Margarete was joined in the business by her six nephews. Amongst these was Richard Steiff who is credited with designing the first bear. He is said to have been inspired by the playful brown bears in the zoo at Stuttgart whilst studying there. The first bear was made from plush fur with moving flexible arms and legs. The American President, Theodore Roosevelt had a passion for hunting bears. Steiff began importing their toy bears into America during his presidency and they became a symbol of his hunting passions. Theodore was fondly shortened to Teddy. Famously the bear became the Teddy Bear and 12,000 Steiff bears were shipped to America at that time.

A Steiff mohair bear on wheels, with gilt button and tab in left ear, on cast metal axles and spoked wheels

Output and production were severely affected by the two World Wars but today Steiff animals are still being produced and collected. But it is the early Steiff animals which attract the most attention and highest prices. I ask Toovey’s toy specialist, Chris Gale, about this and he explains “The early Steiff animals were handmade so each toy is unique which has great appeal to the collector.” Chris shows me a selection of Steiff animals which to my eye all seem to be rather playworn. Chris says “There is obviously a premium for toy animals in exceptional condition but they are rare as Margarete Steiff insisted that they be played with!” Amongst the array of Steiff animals sold in Chris’s specialist toy sales is a Steiff mechanical elephant and a Record Peter Monkey which sold for £1000 and £100 respectively. I have to own that my favourites are the bears. There is real character in the hand stitched face of the seated Steiff teddy bear with his boot button eyes. His fur and pads are worn, a sure sign of having been loved over many years. The Steiff pull-along bear delights with his head sewn at a jaunty angle. Chris tells me that Toovey’s sold them for £500 and £460 respectively. All these Steiff animals would have been made in the first twenty-or-so years of the 20th century and are marked with a Steiff button in the ear.

If you are interested in collecting or selling Steiff toy animals Chris Gale is always pleased to offer advice and can be contacted on 01903 891955 or by email at auctions@tooveys.com.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 6th January 2016 in the West Sussex Gazette.