Rupert Toovey’s Articles – Page 76

Toys and Fundraising at Horsham Museum

Toovey’s toy specialist, Chris Gale, with some of his favourite recent discoveries

Toovey’s toy valuation event in support of the Horsham Museum & Art Gallery is becoming an annual event. Toovey’s specialist toys valuer, Christopher Gale, will be at the museum on Saturday, 18th February 2017, between 10am and 12noon providing free auction valuations and advice on your toy trains, cars, teddy bears, dolls and collectors’ toys.

Chris Gale says: “A third of the seller’s commission for items subsequently auctioned by Toovey’s will be donated by us to Horsham Museum to help with its important work.”

A Hornby ‘Princess Elizabeth’ O Gauge electric train with original box

I ask Chris about his favourite recent discoveries. He shows me a Hornby O Gauge electric train with original box. He says ‘This is one of Hornby’s finest models and reflects the design of the original steam engine. The original Princess Elizabeth locomotive was designed by Mr W. A. Stainer and was built at the Crewe Works in Cheshire. It was one of the first 4-6-2 engines built by The London Midland Scottish Railway (LMSR). The Princess Elizabeth became the most famous of the giant LMSR locomotives when, in 1936, she covered the 401.4 mile run between Glasgow and London at an average speed of 70mph whilst hauling a train. The toy train was produced with the guidance and advice of LMSR.” The model, dating from 1937, looks resplendent in its ‘crimson lake’ livery and the detailing is marvellous.

A Dinky Toys no. 163 Bristol 450 and Sports Coupé and no. 236 Connaught racing car both with their original boxes and an array of sports cars

I love the Dinky Toys no. 163 Bristol 450 Sports Coupé and no. 236 Connaught racing car, both with their original boxes. Bristol and Connaught both raced at Goodwood in the 1950s. Chris comments “Toy cars and tin plate toys always have a strong following. Dinky cars, for example, delight grown-up collectors as they did when they were boys. And they love rare models which aren’t too play worn!”

Chris Gales’ enthusiasm is infectious and his knowledge of toys never fails to impress.

The toy displays at Horsham Museum are marvellous. Bring your toy trains, cars, teddy bears, dolls and collectors’ toys to see Chris Gale between 10am and 12noon on Saturday, 18th February 2017, for a morning of fun and free pre-sale valuations at the Horsham Museum & Art Gallery, The Causeway, Horsham, RH12 1HE. Toovey’s next specialist toy sale will be held on 21st March 2017. A third of the seller’s commission for items seen at the event and subsequently auctioned by Toovey’s will be donated to the Friends of Horsham Museum. Sellers will receive the full amount they would normally get but they will know that they have helped the Museum as well.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.

Sussex Watchmaker becomes Youngest fellow of Horological Institute in the UK

The exquisite gilded fusee, striking movement, c.1685, displaying the watchmaker’s art

At twenty-one years old Jacob Russell has become the youngest Fellow of The British Horological Institute in the country – a remarkable achievement by any standard.

Jacob Russell, who has always lived in Sussex, recently completed his Worshipful Company of Clockmakers Apprenticeship as a watchmaker. Charles I established The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1631 by Royal Charter. Today it is the Master and Wardens of the Company who award the Fellowships on behalf of The British Horological Institute. Jacob was awarded a Fellowship for his award winning practical work, carried out during his apprenticeship.

Horology refers to the art and science of making, servicing, repairing and restoring timepieces and measuring devices. Today’s watch and clockmakers need to combine the traditional, practical, dextrous specialist skills and techniques with an ability to embrace new technology.

Jacob’s Grandfather was passionate about watches and he inspired a love of horology in his grandson.

From a young age Jacob collected watches. He says “The aesthetic, history and function of watches delights me. I love their physical quality and the fine engineering involved in watchmaking.” Jacob explains how he learnt how watches work by taking apart and rebuilding examples from his own collection.

Whilst still at school Jacob helped at West Dean College where he was encouraged by the Senior Tutor in Horology, Matthew Read. Jacob served his apprenticeship under Geoff Allnutt, himself a watchmaker. Jacob works for Geoff in his business, J. E. Allnutt & Son, West Street, Midhurst. The firm and its staff are highly respected as restorers and retailers of vintage watches and antique clocks.

Geoff’s passion for clocks and watches was also apparent at a young age. He grew up working alongside his father. Geoff is passionate about bringing young people into his profession and is quick to praise Jacob’s exceptional achievements. He expresses a generous pride in seeing his young protégé develop and grow. I, too, believe in the importance of training future generations in our professions and I admire the investment and pleasure Geoff has made and takes in Jacob.

The watches seen at J. E. Allnutt & Son range from the antique to contemporary super-high quality English examples.

The tortoiseshell outer case with its inlaid landscape displayed with the inner case and dial

Jacob shows me a remarkable pair cased gentleman’s open-faced pocket watch with a gilded fusee, striking movement. He explains that the watch belongs to a private collector and is by Nathaniel Barrow who became a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1661. The watch dates from around 1685. It is wonderful to imagine this watch in use in the final year of Charles II’s reign. The mechanism is beautifully worked and engraved. The tortoiseshell outer case is equally fine and is inlaid in silver with a landscape. The restraint in the engraved dial and the case further highlights the confidence and skill of this 17th century watchmaker.

The pair cased gentleman’s pocket watch by Nathaniel Barrow, c.1685

This beautiful object gives us a real sense of place in the procession of time and human history. Jacob is clearly bound up with this story in an exciting way.

Jacob concludes “I love the variety and challenges of my work, each day is different – a different watch, a different problem. It’s exciting when you can save a movement from the brink.”

Jacob Russell and Geoff Allnutt can be contacted at J. E. Allnutt & Son on 01730 813495. To find out more about courses, apprenticeships and training visit The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers website www.clockmakers.org.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.

Turner and the Great Age of Watercolour at Petworth

JMW Turner ‘A First Rate Taking in Stores’, c.1818 © The Higgins, Bedford/National Trust

‘Turner & the Age of British Watercolour’ has just opened at Petworth House and runs until 12th March 2017. The exhibition celebrates the British pre-eminence in the medium of watercolour painting in the mid-18th and early 19th century. The work is predominately drawn from the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, and includes a breadth of artists and paintings of extraordinary quality.

Curated by Andrew Loukes of the National Trust, the exhibition illustrates the development of the British watercolour tradition century and its role in establishing our national and patriotic identity.

The story is told with JMW Turner at its centre. Although Turner painted numerous watercolours at Petworth his great patron and friend, The 3rd Earl of Egremont, did not acquire any. This jewel-like show brings watercolours to Petworth House which speak into the ravishing house collection.

The exhibition makes apparent how British watercolour painting moved from recording the topographical to a romantic, personal impression of a particular place. Many argue that the poetic landscape of the romantic imagination is born out of Constable and Turner’s work.

It was Dr Thomas Munro, the chief physician at the Bethlem (Bedlam) Royal Hospital, who identified the genius of the artist John Robert Cozens. Cozens was admitted to the asylum suffering a nervous breakdown. Munro bought the collection of his work and would share it with a generation of British artists. There are watercolours by both men on display in the exhibition.

Turner was exposed to John Robert Cozens’ landscapes whilst working at Munro’s informal academy with his friend and contemporary, Thomas Girtin, in 1795. Turner would later acknowledge the importance of Cozen’s works on his own development as an artist.

JMW Turner would famously break free from the confines of convention and tradition recording impressions of the elemental in nature.

Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall, Yorkshire, was a man with a patriotic disposition and an important patron to Turner. His son, Hawksworth Fawkes, watched Turner as he painted ‘A First Rate Taking in Stores’ and would write ‘He began by pouring wet paint onto the paper until it was saturated, he tore, he scratched, he scrabbled at it in a kind of frenzy and the whole thing was chaos – but gradually and as if by magic the lovely ship, with all its exquisite minutia came into being’. As you observe this watercolour in the exhibition it reveals depth and detail which contrasts with the scale, atmosphere and movement which Turner’s technique creates.

Thomas Girtin ‘Jedburgh from the River’, c.1798-99 © National Trust

The exhibition also looks at the topographical recording of landscapes and buildings which would come to define a sense of British identity. Thomas Girtin’s topographical study ‘Jedburgh Abbey from the River’ combines a delicacy of topographical recording with broad washes of strong colour which are typical of his later more spacious, romantic works. Turner held Girtin’s work in the highest regard.

Francis Towne ‘The Colosseum from the Caelian Hills’, c.1799 © National Trust

The exhibition also seeks to explain the influence of recording the Grand Tour on British watercolour painting. Artists like Francis Towne, who was a contemporary of John Robert Cozens, were employed in the late 18th century to record the scenes of the Grand Tour as they travelled with their patrons. I love the delicacy of Towne’s watercolour ‘The Colosseum from the Caelian Hills’. It is based on studies in his sketchbooks from his European travels in the 1780s.

‘Turner and the Age of British Watercolour’ is a visually beautiful show which will delight you. The exhibition runs at Petworth House in West Sussex until the 12th March 2017. Entry is by pre-booked timed tickets which can be purchased online at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth or by telephoning 0844 249 1895. Discounted tickets are available to National Trust Members.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.

Vanessa Bell Retrospective

Vanessa Bell, Self –Portrait, 1915, Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund © The Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett — Vanessa Bell, Self-Portrait, 1915, Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund © The Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett

The first ever retrospective of the important Sussex artist, Vanessa Bell (1879–1961), is the latest exhibition to go on show at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

This timely exhibition seeks to place Bell’s work in the context of her life with over one hundred paintings on display. The story of Vanessa Bell’s life has often overshadowed the work which it inspired. But throughout her life she devoted herself to her painting which allowed her to voice her belief in the importance of substance and freedom. Her home at Charleston in Sussex remains a moving testimony to her life – a house transformed by her art.

In London Vanessa Bell had married the art critic Clive Bell and was one of the leading members of what would become known as the Bloomsbury Group. She worked in the Omega Workshops with Roger Fry and collaborated with Duncan Grant in numerous decorative projects and artistic commissions. Both men would eventually become Vanessa’s lovers. Many of her designs embraced the new artistic ideas from the Continent. The abstracted fabric design for the Omega Workshops in watercolour seen here is striking in its modernity but maintains a fluidity underpinned by the use of colour in the composition.

Vanessa Bell, Landscape with Haystack, Asheham, 1912, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts. Purchased with the gift of Anne Holden Kieckhefer class of 1952, in honour of Ruth Chandler Holden, class of 1926. © The Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett

Vanessa Bell visited her sister Virginia Woolf at her Sussex home, Asheham, in 1912 where she painted ‘Landscape with Haystack, Asheham’. Here the influence of the Post-Impressionist exhibitions of 1910 and 1912, organised by Roger Fry at the Grafton Gallery in London, are readily apparent in the way that she employs light, blocks of colour and bold outlines.

It was Vanessa Bell’s love for Duncan Grant and Virginia Woolf which brought about her move to Sussex during the First World War.

Vanessa was living with Duncan Grant, and his friend David Garnett, at Wissett Lodge in Suffolk when Virginia Woolf, wrote to her. In her letters Virginia explained that not only did Charleston house need a tenant but that the neighbouring farmer was short of ‘hands’ to work on the land. Duncan Grant and David Garnett needed to be essentially employed on the land to avoid being called up to fight or the prospect of gaol as conscientious objectors.

Vanessa Bell 1879–1961, Design for Omega Workshops Fabric, 1913, Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund. © The Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett

As well as covering the walls and furniture at Charleston with painted decoration Duncan and Vanessa portrayed those who visited and the countryside around them.

A number of remarkable portraits by Bell are included in the exhibition. Her paintings of Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and David Garnett are revealing and remarkably daring in their execution challenging our perception of the world and beauty. Amongst these is a self-portrait painted in 1915. Vanessa sits in a chair her head averted from us as she stares from the canvas deep in thought. There is a strength and resilience in her demeanour.

Vanessa Bell, Wallflowers, undated, Private Collection. © The Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett

I have always loved the intimacy of Vanessa Bell’s still lives. The study of wallflowers does not disappoint. The flowers sit in a jug which may well have been decorated by Vanessa at Charleston.

This superb and long overdue exhibition allows us to see Vanessa Bell’s development as an artist and the techniques, themes and subjects which unite her work.

‘Vanessa Bell’ runs at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until the 4th June 2017 and is one of this year’s must see exhibitions. For more information go to www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.

Paul Nash Retrospective at Tate Britain

Paul Nash’s ‘Equivalents for the Megaliths, c.1935, collection and © Tate

Tate Britain is currently hosting a major retrospective exhibition of the work of the artist Paul Nash (1889-1946) which runs until 5th March 2017.

Paul Nash is often thought of as an essentially English artist but between the wars he also sought to champion the hope embodied in continental modernism, defending Picasso and experimenting with abstraction before embracing Surrealism. These themes are to the fore of Tate’s exhibition.

Clare Neilson, Photograph of Paul Nash, Pallant House Gallery, The Clare Neilson Gift through the Art Fund

Nash was drawn to objects sculpted by nature and had what some have described as an overriding habit of metaphor. Trees, for example, could take on the character of stones. This serves to highlight the poetic nature of his painting and how firmly rooted he was in the English tradition. Indeed, his earlier work is influenced by the 19th century English Romantic tradition of William Blake (who like Nash lived in Sussex), Samuel Palmer and Dante Gabrielle Rossetti. With this in mind, you could forgive John Piper for including one of Nash’s paintings in his 1943 book ‘British Romantic Artists’. Nash was less than pleased. It was the word ‘romantic’ which bothered him and he referred, instead, to the ‘poetic’. Certainly, as an artist he returned again and again to the poetry of the English landscape. He sought to look beyond the immediate to what he referred to as the ‘genius loci’, the spirit of the place, to ‘a reality more real’.

These qualities are apparent in the works on display at Tate.

The exhibition holds in tension, but fails to make explicit, the particularly English quality in Paul Nash’s paintings – the ability to embrace the modern and the future with a quality of optimism and hope whilst keeping an eye fixed firmly on the past.

His palette and subject matter is firmly rooted in the English watercolour tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In ‘Equivalents for Megaliths’, painted in 1935, Paul Nash displays his enduring fascination with the mystical qualities of inanimate objects. The ancient megaliths, standing stones, are abstracted in geometric forms drawing inspiration from the stones at Avebury, on the Wiltshire Downs.

Paul Nash’s ‘Spring in the Trenches, Ridgewood’, c.1917-1918, Imperial War Museum/Tate

Paul Nash served as a soldier in the trenches of the Great War. He subsequently worked as a war artist on the Western Front between 1917 and 1918 and again during the Second World War. ‘Spring in the Trenches, Ridgewood’ was painted in 1917/1918. It is one of many works in the exhibition which highlights Nash’s powerful, uncompromising and often lyrical depictions of the harsh realities of war. As is typical of Nash, in the devastated landscape behind the figures and trench there is hope as a tree comes into bud and birds fly in the rich blue sky which contrasts with the earth hues in the rest of the composition.

With so many superb works on show this Paul Nash retrospective at Tate Britain is a must see to start your year. It runs until the 5th March 2017. For more information go to www.tate.org.uk.

Closer to home Pallant House Gallery in Chichester has a marvellous collection of paintings, wood engravings, etchings, photographs, collage and illustrated books by Paul Nash including many from the Clare Neilson Gift.

By Rupert Toovey, a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington. Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette.