Nicholas – Page 10 – Toovey’s Blog

Toovey’s September Auction Preview

Ahead of Toovey’s Series of Auction on 10th, 11th and 12th September we look five Lots that will feature:

From our Select Sale of Fine Art on 10th September is an oil on canvas by James Stark (1794-1859), the view of a farmstead with a figure near two cows is indistinctly signed and measures 44cm x 59cm. Lot 20 carries a pre-sale estimate £3000-5000.

On the afternoon of the 10th September in the Sale of Silver and Plate is this pair of George II cast silver candlesticks, each with a square foliate cornered detachable nozzle above a baluster and knop stem, on stepped foliate cornered square bases, London 1755 possibly by John Wirgman, height approx 23.5cm. Lot 330 carries a pre-sale estimate £700-1000.

Included in the specialist auction of Clocks, Watches, Cameras and Scientific Instruments on 11th September is a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Precision T steel bubbleback cased MOD issue gentleman’s wristwatch, the signed black dial with luminous Arabic and baton shaped numerals, triangular at twelve o’clock, with Mercedes hour hand and centre seconds, the milled screw-off bubble case back unmarked to the exterior, on a later Rolex Oyster steel bracelet with a fold-over clasp. Lot 1020 carries a pre-sale estimate £4000-6000.

A Moorcroft pottery vase, circa 1916, the slender baluster body decorated with the Persian pattern against a cream ground within green glazed banded borders, beneath a pair of green loop handles, impressed factory mark and green painted signature to base, height approx 24cm. Lot 1500 will be offered in the afternoon of Thursday 11th September and carries a pre-sale estimate of £1500-2500.

Our sale of Metalwork and Collectors’ Items includes three Austrian cold painted bronzes by Franz Xavier Bergman. Including The Bedouin Tent, a table lamp in the form of an Arabian gentleman seated within a tall arched tent, the domed top with four coloured glass lenticles, the reverse bearing impressed Bergman vase mark and ‘Geschutz’, height approx 36cm, width approx 18.5cm. Lot 2668 carries a pre-sale estimate £3000-5000.

Once upon a time…

3333-composite — Lot 3333 (Front and Back of the Menu)

The history of an object can add value or increase an object’s saleability dramatically, which is why provenance is so important to many antique and collectable items. It was announced recently that The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) is to issue provenance certificates for pieces sold by members, as part of a series of changes to modernize the trade association. In their blog announcement BADA state:

Provenance is a crucial element in the sales process and of importance to the art market at large, and for the first time, the fact that an object has been bought from a member of the British Antiques Dealers’ Association can now be recorded as part of its permanent provenance.

People also love a good story, so family history can distort or exaggerate the facts of an item’s history. For this reason, documentation detailing the history of a valuable object is often crucial. The BADA certificates will provide this in the future, in the same way that receipts and letters from times gone by help substantiate the family tale.

Many items have a story to tell without the need for provenance or family history; they are self-explanatory and often fascinating in their own right. The sales of Paper Collectables at Toovey’s are one of the specialist areas in which these items appear most frequently.

The sale on 12th August 2014 includes a group of royal menus (Lot 3333), collected by one of the royal chefs. These 150 or so menus were swept up after various state, official and other meals as a memento of the vendor’s culinary work for H.M. Queen Elizabeth II. Having worked on H.M.Y. Britannia and at Windsor, Sandringham, Buckingham Palace and Holyroodhouse, the vendor’s collection offers a fascinating insight into ‘how the other half live’. Among the menu cards is one of particular interest. Dated ‘Samedi Le 25 Decembre 1993’ and offering a list of delectable dishes, this menu is fascinating because of what is written on the back. The inscription, by a nine-year-old Prince Harry, asks of his brother: “William, What are you talking about Signe [sic] back =.” This eight-word note conjures an image of what the royal meal might have been like for a young boy eager to play with his presents on Christmas day, rather than sitting at a stuffy dinner table with conversation circulating well above the nine year old’s sphere of interest and understanding. Of course, at this date his mum, Princess Diana, would have been at the table at Sandringham.

From the prince’s charming note to the villain’s devious missives, with a macabre group of four letters from John George Haigh, better known as the ‘Acid Bath Murderer’ (Lot 3339). The group of two typed letters and two autograph letters are all addressed to Miss Bishop and concern the whereabouts of Mr McSwan. Haigh had supposedly taken over Mr McSwan’s affairs so that the latter could go to Scotland to avoid the Second World War. By the time these letters were written in 1945-46, however, McSwan had already been dead for nearly a year, murdered by Haigh, who subsequently dissolved his body in sulphuric acid and poured the remains down a manhole. More victims followed, similarly dissolved in a warehouse which Haigh rented in Crawley. Further local Sussex interest is provided as, after his arrest, Haigh was remanded in custody at Horsham Police Station and was charged with murder in the nearby court house, today known as the Old Town Hall. In the courtroom it took just minutes to find Haigh guilty and he was hung for his crimes on 10th August 1949. The initials ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘G’ can be seen in the top corner of each letter, inscribed by a later hand, presumably as a reference for them being used as evidence.

The heroes of this blog post can be found on the vintage picture postcards offered in the auction. The outbreak of the First World War was during the Golden Age of postcard production and so many of the postcards provide either a visual or written commentary of the war years. These first-hand accounts might be seen in group portraits of troops prior to leaving for the horrors of the war, or in the images of bomb-damaged cities. They could also be in the brief, censored messages sent home from the front line on the back of French embroidered silk postcards, like those seen in Lot 3192. Postcards and ephemera can provide valuable primary sources for those researching and studying the era. A revealing glimpse into one side of the First World War is presented in Lot 3153, a collection of 24 postcards, the majority of Münster Prisoner of War Camp. Including postcards of the Detention Block and Officer’s Mess, this group of postcards provides a visual snapshot of everyday life in a prisoner-of-war camp during the Great War.

The Sale of Paper Collectables on 12th August starts at 1.30pm. Viewing for the auction is on Saturday 9th August between 9.30am and 12 noon and on Monday 11th August between 10am and 4pm. With about 350 lots of Stamps, Postcards, Cigarette and Trade Cards, Photographs, Autographs and Ephemera on offer, there is plenty in this auction for collectors and traders to choose from, hopefully meaning they will live happily ever after!

Penny Black Stamps at Toovey’s Auction

The Penny Black is one of the most famous stamps in the world. Not many dates are as important to a philatelist as the 6th of May 1840 – it was the first day that the Penny Black was allowed to be used to send mail through the postal system. The Penny Black has always captured the public’s imagination, with obscure rarities achieving record prices. These headline stamps are few and far between. Most of us read each headline and note the huge price tag but read no further, failing to discover the subtleties of why that particular stamp made thousands of pounds.

Despite its iconic status, the Penny Black is not a particularly rare stamp. Owing to its popularity, over 68 million were printed, a large number considering it was only in circulation for just under a year before the arrival of the Penny Red/Brown. It was short-lived largely because of practicality. A ‘cancellation’ (or postmark as it would be called by many) was introduced to stop stamps being reused. Starting as a black Maltese cross, the cancellation was, for obvious reasons, hard to see. It then changed to red for quicker identification, but amid fears that this cancellation could be washed off, the Penny Red stamp was conceived and put into production and the black Maltese cross cancellation reintroduced.

Crushing the hopes of many, Toovey’s stamp specialist states that most Penny Black stamps are actually only worth £20-30, if you’re lucky! The reason, he says, is that Penny Blacks were not produced on perforated sheets, unlike modern day stamps. Instead, you were reliant on the stamp being cut from the sheet by hand with scissors, and generally by someone who wasn’t that fussy about the end result! The stamps were also very close together on the sheet, so it’s not surprising that about nine out of ten were cut out badly. Even those stamps with slightly better margins will often have one edge trimmed a bit too close. So with a wider, nicely cut margin, a Penny Black is likely to realise between £70 and £120, depending on condition. The ones illustrated above feature in Toovey’s next Paper Collectables Auction, which includes a selection of these somewhat above-average examples. A little bit more would be paid if the stamp had been sent on 6th May 1840, becoming the first-ever first day cover. Mint, i.e. unused, Penny Blacks are rare and with decent margins would achieve a four-figure sum. Rarer still is a block of two or more unused Penny Blacks, still joined together. Mint examples are rare mainly because stamp collecting didn’t start until the 1860s. The majority of early stamps were, therefore, disposed of as ephemeral items. Many of the examples seen today were salvaged when solicitors cleared out their document boxes, as the envelopes had been kept for the senders’ details, but the majority of these had obviously been used. As stated earlier, the record prices are only achieved for unique rarities, which, by their very nature, seldom come onto the market. One such abnormality is the use of different coloured inks for the cancellation, a local example is that yellow ink was used in Horsham. For more information on the Postal Reform and the development of the Penny Black visit the website for the British Postal Museum.

Toovey’s forthcoming auction on 12th August 2014 includes eighty-nine lots of stamps, including some fine single collectors’ stamps and some interesting larger collections.

If you would like a valuation of a single stamp or an entire collection, Toovey’s are happy to provide free, no-obligation valuations at their Spring Gardens salerooms. Toovey’s employ a specialist consultant for stamp valuations and operate a report valuation service for stamps, rather than providing on-the-spot valuations. This enables our specialist to spend sufficient time formulating a considered, expert opinion on your stamps. Please telephone our offices on 01903 891955 or email auctions@tooveys.com to find out more or to make any other valuation enquiry.

Five Lot Preview of the Toovey’s August Auction

Lot 2200 — A pair of late 19th century Louis XV style kingwood marquetry and parquetry card tables at Toovey's August Auction

Ahead of Toovey’s auction on the 12th, 13th, 14th & 15th August, we look at five lots that will feature in the summer sale.

The Specialist Sale of Paper Collectables is the largest to date and boasts some fantastic quality items, including the Great Britain 1882 5 shilling rose on blued paper Plate 4, used. Offered as Lot 3023, this single stamp carries a presale estimate of £500-600.

The Asian & Islamic Ceramics & Works of Art Specialist Auction includes two interesting highlights: Lot 1025 is a large Chinese archaistic bronze hu vase, in the Han style but 16th century, height 42.5cm, estimate £2000-3000. Lot 1050 is a Chinese white jade vase and cover, probably late Qing dynasty, height 15.8cm, estimate £800-1200.

A Troika pottery two-face mask, Lot 1494, is one of the highlights of the British & Continental Ceramics & Glass auction. Each side is decorated with a relief mask motif and was produced circa 1970-1983. It carries a pre-sale estimate of £300-500.

The Furniture auction includes a pair of late 19th century Louis XV style kingwood marquetry and parquetry card tables. This pair, Lot 2200, is estimated at £2000-4000.

The catalogue for the auction will be available online by 7th August at www.tooveys.com

Viewing for the August Auction as follows:

Saturday 9th August: 10am to 4pm
Monday 11th August: 10am to 4pm
Tuesday 12th August: 10am to 4pm (10am to 1pm for the Paper Collectables)
Wednesday 13th to Friday 15th: 9am to the start of each session.

Order of sales for the August Auction as follows:

Sale of Paper Collectables

Tuesday 12th August
At 1.30pm Stamps. Postcards. Cigarette Cards.
Autographs, Photographs & Ephemera.

Sale of Antiques, Fine Art & Collectors’ Items

Wednesday 13th August
At 10am Decorative Art.
At 1pm Silver & Plate. Jewellery. Objects of Virtu.

Thursday 14th August
At 10am Asian & Islamic Ceramics & Works of Art.
At 1pm British & Continental Ceramics & Glass.

Friday 15th August
At 10am Furniture.
At 1.30pm Tea Caddies, Boxes & Diminuitive Furniture.
Collectors’ Items, Works of Art, Metalwork & Light Fittings.
Needleworks & Textiles. Rugs & Carpets.

A Maori carved hardwood waka huia at Toovey’s

A Maori carved hardwood waka huia or feather box at Toovey's

A fascinating piece of colonial history went under the hammer at Toovey’s Spring Gardens saleroom last month, in the form of an early 19th century Maori ‘waka huia’ or feather box. The boat-shaped hardwood box with carved decoration, length 43cm, was a rare and unusual thing to find in a Sussex auction.

Waka huia were so-named because the striking black and white tail feathers of the huia, the largest species of the New Zealand wattlebird, were highly valued by Maoris and used for personal adornment. These feathers and other prized and sacred effects would have been kept in the box, which would have been suspended from the ceiling of the owner’s home, out of the reach of children. For this reason, as much attention was given to the decoration on the underside as to that on the top. To Maori families, waka huia were important objects in themselves. They were lovingly carved in each family style and handed down through generations. Sometimes they were given away as presents to mark friendships, tribal affiliations or special occasions. Probably crafted around 1810-20, this particular example had an interesting addition – the underside of the lid was inscribed ‘George Hawthorn 1830’ in yellow paint. Little is known about Hawthorn but he may well have been one of the explorers, sailors, traders, missionaries or government officials who visited the Antipodes regularly at this time. The vendor of the waka huia believed that Hawthorn was a distant relative and the box had been passed down through her family, just as in Maori tradition. It was not the most elaborately carved example but the curvilinear decoration was nicely done and each end had a handle in the form of a stylized head. Unfortunately, both of these had at some point been broken off and glued back on. The lid was also split in two and in need of expert restoration. None of this put off a London specialist dealer, one of seven telephone bidders up against a host of live internet bidders around the world participating in the sale at Toovey’s, who was pleased to secure the box at the hammer price of £8,500.