Author: Rupert

James Stewart and Harvey the Invisible White Rabbit

A black and white photograph signed by James Stewart holding Harvey

The Christmas edition of The Radio Times was a cause of great excitement in my youth. There was no iPlayer or streaming services so we would mark the films we most wanted to see and their times. Amongst my Dad’s favourites were the James Stewart classics It’s a Wonderful Life and Harvey.

The memory of Harvey has just been brought back to me by an autographed photograph and pen drawing signed by James Stewart of Harvey the 6’ 3” invisible white rabbit which has just sold at Toovey’s in the specialist paper collectables auction for £200. I love that Harvey always wears a bowtie!

The idea for the movie was taken from the 1944/45 Pulitzer Prize winning drama and stage play by Mary Chase. The story centres on the endlessly pleasant Elwood P. Dowd played by James Stewart, and his relationship with a large invisible white rabbit, a Celtic púca, called Harvey. Harvey is Elwood’s best friend and together they often frequent Charlie’s Bar. Elwood lives with his sister Veta and her daughter Myrtle Mae. His relationship with Harvey causes them great embarrassment in front of their friends. With the help of their friend Judge Gaffney Veta and Myrtle Mae plan to have Elwood committed at the local sanitorium. But Veta admits to seeing Harvey herself and is incarcerated whilst Elwood walks free. She is released only for Dr Chumley, the psychiatrist, to encounter and go off with Harvey. A hue and cry ensues. Eventually Elwood is taken back to the sanitorium and is about to be administered with a powerful serum Formula 977 so that he will never see Harvey again. The cab driver saves Elwood from this fate when he demands payment for the ride immediately telling Vita that the serum turns people into everyday unpleasant folk and she rushes in to stop the procedure.

A pen and ink sketch of Harvey signed by James Stewart

Myrtle Mae falls for one of the male nurses. Aided by the charm and kindness of Elwood Dr Sanderson (who has been sacked for earlier releasing Elwood) finds the courage to express his love for the nurse, Miss Kelly. Harvey decides he prefers Elwood’s company rather than Dr Chumley’s and the pair are reunited.

Speaking to Dr Chumley at the sanitorium towards the end of the film Elwood P. Dowd remarks “My Mother used to say to me, she would say, in this world Elwood you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well for years I was smart – I would recommend pleasant, and you may quote me.”

Celebrating 40 Years as an Auctioneer in Sussex

Rupert Toovey fundraising for the Sussex Heritage Trust and the Chichester Community Development Trust at Graylingwell Chapel

As the year begins to draw to a close I have been reflecting on how blessed I am to be have been called to serve people as an auctioneer for 40 years.

The stories of our lives are so often told through the art and objects that accompany us and it is the sharing of these stories, stories of both joys and sorrows, which bind us together with others. The objects are prompts to fond memory reflecting the patchwork quilt of our lives. I am invited to view and value collections across our beautiful county for probate, insurance and sale. I and my colleagues at Toovey’s often accompany people at profound moments of change, they may have lost someone dear to them or are moving, downsizing. Helping people to discern what objects are important in their lives and what should not be sold is vital before advising on what may be released to auction. Another of the great privileges of my life is being invited to support our county’s communities and charities by giving talks and supporting our extraordinary charities and organisations with fund raising events and auctions. There is so much to celebrate in Sussex.

Rupert Toovey visiting clients Amberley, Sussex

It was my homegrown hero Grandpa who first suggested that I should consider being an actor, an auctioneer or a vicar. In response to this advice I remember replying “What’s an auctioneer?” And with that we grabbed our hats and coats and walked briskly out into a cool October afternoon. Our footsteps echoed against the old brick walls as we walked down the Morph and into Horsham’s Causeway turning right towards the Old Town Hall dodging the traffic in the Carfax. Up a twitten behind the newsagent the warm glow of the lights from a small office spilled into the courtyard and beyond a huge wooden pea green door hung on runners at the very top of the building greeted us. We swung on the personnel door which had swollen in the rain. It burst open to reveal a tall room filled with people. Above the crowd Jack Ash called the bidding “Two-twenty, twenty, twenty, at two hundred and twenty – selling” followed by the crack of the gavel on the old oak Rostrum. The ritual of the auction continued at pace as the porters cried “Showing here sir!” before each lot. Wonderful people, the theatre of the sale day and a room filled with beautiful things I was captivated, and I still am.

Dora Carrington at Pallant House

Dora Carrington – Lytton Strachey Reading, oil, c.1916 © National Portrait Gallery London

The winter season of exhibitions has just opened at Pallant House Gallery with a reassessment of the life and art of Dora Carrington.

Dora Carrington liked to call herself Carrington. She thought ‘Dora’ was vulgar and sentimental. A bohemian, Carrington found herself at the heart of a passionate group of artists, writers and friends from the Bloomsbury Group. Her lovers, who included men and women, and friends profoundly influenced her work. Much of the work of this gifted female artist is on a domestic scale which is refreshing. Travel, love, relationships, sexuality and the importance of place are recurring themes. Carrington’s work was never critically acclaimed during her lifetime and the paintings form a very intimate, personal expression and observation of her life.

Dora Carrington – Farm at Watendlath, oil, c.1921 © Tate

Carrington fell in love with the homosexual writer Lytton Strachey in 1915 and a year later she painted an intimate portrait of him reclining and reading. Her love for him is apparent in the intimacy with which she observes his long slender fingers, face and soft reddish beard. Strachey and Carrington first set up home together at Tidmarsh Mill near Pangbourne in 1917. There Ralph Partridge fell in love with Carrington and attracted the attentions of Strachey. Ralph and Carrington were married in 1921, not so much for love but to preserve the ménage à trois with Strachey. On the day she agreed to marry Partridge she wrote movingly to Strachey ‘I cried last night Lytton, whilst he slept by my side sleeping happily – I cried to think of a savage cynical fate which had made it impossible for my love ever to be used by you…’. It was on holiday with Ralph Partridge in Cumbria in 1921 that Carrington began her affair with Ralph’s friend Gerald Brenan. The landscape, Farm at Watendlath, seems to capture the emotional turmoil of their relationships. The farm where they all stayed is painted beneath the brooding Cumbrian hills. The description in Virginia Woolf’s diary of the tensions in Carrington’s life are apparent throughout this show. Woolf would write how likeable, impulsive and self-conscious Carrington was ‘…eager to please, conciliatory, restless, and active…’. The exhibition leaves you with a sense that although Carrington embraced the freedoms and spirit of a bohemian life it was costly to her. Her love for Lytton Strachey could not be fulfilled. She nursed him and heartbroken after his death she committed suicide.

Dora Carrington at Pallant House is an exhibition filled with beauty, joy and sorrow. An intimate portrayal of Carrington’s life expressed through her art and letters.

The Beauty of 18th Century Chinese Cloisonné

A pair of Chinese cloisonné enamelled figures of elephants, probably Jiaqing period

It is likely that the techniques employed in Chinese cloisonné came from the Near East. The tradition of enriching metal objects by fusing a composition of ground up multi-coloured glass under heat stretches back over some 3000 years.

Enamel decoration reached its heights in Byzantium and European sacred art of the early and high Middle Ages. The term cloisonné describes the method of creating compartments on a metal object using raised wirework borders, known as cloisons in French. These thin borders remain visible on the finished object separating the compartments of variously coloured enamels. The enamelled powder is worked into a paste to allow its application before being fired in a kiln. It is likely that these techniques reached China from the Middle East in the 14th century. Byzantium also influenced these developments especially after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 when refugees, in all likelihood, brought their knowledge of enamelling to China.

A Chinese cloisonné enamel and gilt copper ewer, mark and period of Qianlong

In China high quality enamelling becomes apparent from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) onwards. Importantly this branch of artistic endeavour received the patronage of the Imperial Court in China. In the 18th century the emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) surrounded himself with resplendent enamel works in his summer residence. Measuring 18.5cm the Chinese cloisonné enamel and gilt copper ewer had the mark of Qianlong and was of the period. It’s beautifully conceived pear-form body was decorated with blue, red, yellow, white and pink prunus on a ‘cracked ice’ turquoise ground. The gilded neck was also decorated with prunus above a stiff leaf collar and band of ruyi heads uniting the gilt domed cover with its Buddhistic lion knop finial and the chimera mouth scroll spout with the foliate capped scroll handle.

The pair of Chinese cloisonné enamelled figures of elephants probably dated from the Jiaqing period (1796–1820) and were 40cm high. Each caparisoned beast was decorated with colourful trappings and draped in a saddle cloth, brightly enamelled with a hanging chime and vapours above crashing waves on a turquoise ground. The elephant in China is one of the seven Buddhist sacred treasures and symbolizes peace. The combination of an elephant supporting a vase on its back is a reference to peaceful times (taiping youxiang). The decorative motif and symbolism was used on the Imperial throne. These two fine examples of the art of Chinese cloisonné were sold for £13,000 and £15,000 respectively in Toovey’s specialist sales of Chinese and Asian Art reflecting its continuing allure to collectors today.

Picasso in Provence

A collection of Picasso Madoura editions ceramics

Amongst the towering giants of 20th century art was Pablo Picasso. After living under the Nazis in his Paris studio Picasso journeyed south to Provence. Provence, as much an idea as a place, has gathered diverse peoples to her over millennia. Each have added to her richness and, in their turn, have been shaped by this remarkable land and her people.

In 1946, Pablo Picasso visited the annual potter’s exhibition in the provincial town of Vallauris. There he met Suzanne and Georges Ramié, the founders of the Madoura workshop, who were keen to persuade him to come to Vallauris. Picasso returned in July 1947 bringing his extraordinary imagination and creative energy to ceramics. Picasso took the everyday and transformed it in to high art painting and incising with a richness of expression which still causes my heart to race. Favourite themes included figures, bullfights and still lifes as depicted on the jug and plates illustrated here. In each you see the free, graphic rhythm which typifies Picasso’s ceramics. These pieces are Picasso Madoura editions and are authentic replicas of the original work. They sold for a total of £8200 at Toovey’s. Like a handmade print their close connection with Picasso’s hand attracts the attention of an international group of collectors. Picasso’s relationship with Madoura and the Ramiés grew and he lived at Vallauris before moving to Cannes.

Rupert Toovey in the square outside the Musée National Picasso, Vallauris

Picasso resurrected the ancient tradition of the all-round artist exploring painting, sculpture, graphic art, engraving and ceramics. Picasso delighted in the craft of the ceramicist and quickly began to talk with the Ramiés using the technical language of the potter. The Ramiés indulged Picasso’s often extremely unorthodox practices which included his methods of firing, glazes and form. Take for example the plate ‘Bunch with Apple’, made in 1956, in an edition of 400 which was decorated with oxidized paraffin.

You approach the Musée National Picasso at Vallauris in Provence through a square filled with shops and restaurants. Amidst the life of the village stands the bronze L’homme au mouton given by the artist in 1949. Inside the museum there is a jewel like array of original ceramics made by Pablo Picasso which is guarded fiercely by the museum staff. The pieces capture the spirit of Provence in a way which speaks of a joy and freedom after the artist’s years under Nazi occupation in Paris. You sense the effect that the light and warmth of Provence had on Picasso expressed in his ceramics in the post-war years.