Category: Auction Highlights

The Victorian Vending Machine

Postcard Advertising Electricity for the Home

Today, it would be difficult to contemplate life without electricity. A world without lights, plugs, computers, televisions and  telephones might sound appealing to some, but would be unimaginable to most. Rewind about one hundred years and companies were trying to persuade the public to adopt this new resource. The advertising postcard above offered earlier in the year by Toovey’s tries to sell the idea of cheerful evenings at home with electricity.

Councils were also being targeted to illuminate the city streets with electric street lamps, a slightly harder sell as many had only recently invested in gas lamps to guide the public through the smoggy streets. Needless to say they were convinced by the electrical illuminant and never looked back.

Bronze mask believed to be 'Pluto' from a Victorian Gas Lamp Vending Machine

The gas-lamps produced a lot of wasted heat. In 1895, a solicitor, Mr H.M. Robinson, conceived the plan of making hot water (a scarce commodity among the working classes) at a price the public could afford by utilizing the lamp’s by-product of heat. After a successful patent application the Hot Water Supply Syndicate was created, later changing its name to The Pluto Hot Water Supply Syndicate.

At the Great Exhibition of 1897, a demonstration was made of a gas lamp that also included an automatic machine which could dispense a gallon of hot water, or a halfpennies worth of Beef tea essence, Cocoa, Milk, Sugar, Tea or Coffee. The demonstration model worked flawlessly, with as many as 125 halfpennies being taken in one day. In 1898, on the south-east corner of Leicester Square one such gas-lamp was introduced, having been installed in Liverpool and Southwark prior. Each lamp had a thermometer to prove the water’s temperature and a communal enamelled cup chained to the post.

The gas lamp’s success was stymied by electricity, so the interest from other London Districts, Manchester and Glasgow never progressed. While electricity has advanced so many technologies and industries it seems it actually temporarily thwarted the progression of affordable vending machines!

Included in Toovey’s forthcoming auction of Collectors’ Items on the 4th December 2015 is a late 19th Century gilt patinated cast bronze mask in the form of a horned man with open mouth and stuck-out tongue, probably ‘Pluto’ – the dispensing mount of a Victorian gaslight vending machine. Offered as Lot 2640 this Victorian curiosity carries a pre-sale estimate of £100-200.

Feed the Guns!

It’s not always the most expensive lots that capture the attention of our valuation team here at Toovey’s. Such was the case when specialist Nicholas Toovey discovered a fascinating view in amongst a group of London postcards.

“At first I thought it had been put in the wrong collection” said Nicholas, who continued “the uncaptioned view would look more at home with similar unidentified views of Continental Europe, perhaps Belgium or France, that was until I turned it over!” Fortunately at some time in its history a helpful owner had identified the scene in pencil on the reverse – surprisingly this postcard actually depicts Trafalgar Square in London!

A curious scene unfamiliar to most, the ruined church tower covers the statue of General Gordon and the fountain has become part of a destroyed farm house, there is even a windmill. On closer inspection the people milling around are not soldiers but people walking around soaking in the atmosphere of this highly imaginative fund raising event. As they walked around the artificial trenches, visitors were invited to place money inside howitzers and a military truck, or purchase certificates from the modified breech of a captured German gun, thus giving the campaign the name ‘Feed the Guns Week’. Held in October 1918, this transformation in London was the main focus of a nationwide campaign to sell war bonds during the First World War. These efforts raised over £31 million nationwide with captured guns making appearances all round the country.

The postcard, Lot 3128, will be offered individually on the 11th August 2015 with an estimate of £25-35 in Toovey’s Auction of Paper Collectables. Despite its modest estimate, this postcard provides a fascinating glimpse into the past and is sure to delight a collector in the near future.

Franz Sedlacek Secessionist Painting for Sale at Toovey’s Auction

'Blüten und Insekten Nr. 3' by Franz Sedlacek ~ Secessionist Painting to be offered at Toovey's Auction

An oil on panel by Franz Sedlacek, one of Austria’s most prominent artists during the 1920s and ’30s, will be offered in Toovey’s sale of Fine Art on the morning of Wednesday 17th June 2015.

Franz Sedlacek was born in Breslau in 1891 and moved with his family to Linz when he was six. He displayed a talent for art from an early age but went on to study architecture, then chemistry in Vienna. He continued to develop his drawing and painting skills, though, and in 1913 co-founded an artists’ association in Linz. His studies were interrupted by a period of service in the First World War, but he returned to complete them and started work at the Technical Museum of Vienna in 1921.

In the subsequent years, Sedlacek began to concentrate on oil painting and in 1927 joined the Vienna Secession, a group of painters, sculptors and architects who had broken away from the Association of Austrian Artists. Formed in 1897, the group’s first president was the notable symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. The Secessionists sought originality in the visual arts, unencumbered by the traditions of academia or influences from the past.

Sedlacek’s style does not fit easily into a category but it is most often classed as belonging to the post-expressionist movement of New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). A dreamlike and sometimes nightmarish quality prevails in his paintings; strange figures and creatures inhabit unsettling interiors and exteriors. His scenes often suggest a hidden narrative and his compositions always convey a sense of drama.

Sedlacek went on to garner considerable critical acclaim and numerous awards. In 1939, however, he was recalled for military service with the Wehrmacht in the Second World War. After serving in Norway and Russia, he was listed as missing in Poland in 1945.

The work to be offered at Toovey’s is one of a number of works in which Franz Sedlacek explored the theme of fantastical flowers and insects and is titled Blüten und Insekten (Nr. 3) to a paper label on the reverse of the panel. The image area measures approximately 50.5cm high by 40cm wide and is signed with initials and dated 1935 at the bottom left corner. Sedlacek exhibited regularly with the Secessionists and the reverse also bears a label indicating that the painting was shown at the Vienna Secession’s autumn exhibition of the same year. The work will carry a pre-sale estimate of £50,000-80,000.

Provenance: local private ownership by inheritance.

Click on a thumbnail below to see full image

Steinway Grand Piano to be offered at Toovey’s Auction

Steinway Grand Piano at Toovey's May Auction
Steinway Grand Piano at Toovey's May Auction

The name of Steinway & Sons has been synonymous with quality piano manufacture ever since the company was founded in Manhattan in 1853 by the German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway. Their first award came in 1855 when they won a gold medal at the American Institute Fair. Over the next seven years they won a further 34 gold medals, establishing the firm as one of the elite piano manufacturers. With the company awarded a royal warrant to Queen Elizabeth II it is an accolade they still hold today.

On the company’s website they state that each Steinway piano takes nearly a year to create. Nothing is hurried as they are dedicated to making the finest pianos in the world. The Steinway & Sons ebonized grand piano to be offered at Toovey’s on 22nd May 2015, Lot 2200, is circa 1936 and is model Z97 424 No. 286593, length 210cm. It is offered with a pre-sale estimate of £10,000-15,000.

Maiden Voyage for Titanic Letter at Toovey’s Auction

RMS Titanic off Cowes ©Toovey's
Postcard of RMS Titanic passing SY Alberta off Cowes
Original Titanic Letter at Toovey's Auction ©Toovey's
Titanic letter to be offered at Toovey's

The ill-fated maiden voyage of RMS Titanic is one of the most famous marine disasters of all time and needs little introduction. The sinking of the White Star Line ship on 15th April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg, was made ever-more memorable with the 1997 award-winning movie by James Cameron.

Titanic in Dock at Southampton ©Toovey's
Postcard of RMS Titanic in Dock at Southampton

A previously unrecorded and unpublished letter, to be offered in Toovey’s forthcoming auction of Paper Collectables, was written on board Titanic by the wealthy American heiress Georgette Alexandra Madill, later Mattei. It details that the 1st class passenger had arrived at Southampton at 11.30am and, after exploring the ship, had set sail at noon. It also states: ‘The “Oceanic” & “New York” were moored beyond us and just after we had left the dock the “New York” broke her cables & drifted into our stern – it was most exciting!’ This lesser-known incident was very nearly a serious accident, caused by the huge displacement of water that Titanic generated. The two smaller ships were lifted by the huge bulge of water, which dropped into a trough; SS City of New York’s cables could not take this sudden strain and snapped. New York drifted towards Titanic and it is reported that a collision was only a few feet away, but a nearby tugboat helped take New York out of the path of Titanic. Madill shared a cabin with her cousin, Miss Elisabeth Walton Allen, and was travelling with her mother, Mrs Elisabeth Walton Robin, and her maid, Miss Emilie Kreuchen. All four survived the disaster, being rescued in Lifeboat 2.

The 3-side letter, dated April 10 1912, is on RMS Titanic headed paper and was presumably sent to the recipient, Doris, from either of the stops at Cherbourg or Queenstown. It carries a £2000-4000 pre-sale estimate and will go under the gavel at Toovey’s on 24th February 2015. The letter was discovered by Toovey’s during a valuation for probate at a local property. The deceased’s family were completely unaware of the letter’s existence and have no knowledge of how the recipient, the deceased’s mother, had come to know Miss Madill.

Also included in the auction are a group of postcards featuring RMS Titanic, consigned by other vendors. They include a detailed photographic view of the ship moored at Southampton, a view of Titanic passing the sailing yacht Alberta off Cowes, written on the reverse by the yacht’s owner, and scenes relating to the unveiling of the Titanic Memorial in Portsmouth.

Postcard of the Unveiling of the Titanic Memorial ©Toovey's
Postcard of the Unveiling of the Titanic Memorial