Auction alert: Autumn Fine Art Sales

Coming up soon are Lawrences Auctioneers in Crewkerne’s Autumn Fine Art Sales, October 2022. There are a total of 1,408 lots being sold over four days, so we’re concentrating on day two which is Pictures, 19^th/20^th Century Design & Ceramics. It takes place on Wednesday 12^th October 2022 from 10am.

As usual, we’ve selected a handful of items that stood out to us; fine art paintings, studio pottery, vintage furniture. Two lots, in particular, we chose because of their importance in the social history of the UK.

First, is a very nondescript looking teacup & saucer. They’re marked with the logo of the British Antarctic Expedition, Terra Nova. This was an ill-fated trip led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, an attempt be the first to ever reach the geographic South Pole. A group from Norway beat them to their destination by over a month. All 5 men on the British team died on the return leg of the journey.

Second, is a blue & white transfer printed teapot. It’s decorated with anti-slavery text. On two sides is printed, ‘Ladies I hope you will make free and tell me how you like your tea’. On the inside you’ll find the maxim, ‘Health to the sick, Honour to the brave, Success to the lover, and Freedom to the slave’. A very forthright message to be subtly shared by a 19^th century society hostess with her lady friends who are visiting for tea and sandwiches.

Lot 465: BERNARD BUFFET (1928-1999). IRONS (Sorlier 13)
Colour lithograph, 1955, signed and numbered 276/300  48 x 69.5cm approx.
Condition: A few faint grazes within image; some handling creases; needs a light clean.
Estimate: £200 – £300

Lot 502: JOHN BROMFIELD ‘BROM’ GAY-REES (1912-1965). STILL LIFE WITH WINE BOTTLE, FRUIT AND A BOOK
Signed and dated 15.X.53, oil on canvas board . 34.5 x 45cm.  Provenance: The family of the artist
Condition: Good condition.
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 562: PETER BROOK (1927-2009) – ‘PENNINE VALLEY OF WHITE FARMS’
Signed, inscribed with title, oil on canvas  30 x 38cm.  Provenance: London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd (stock 43684).
Condition: A few small spattered marks.
Estimate: £12,000 – £18,000

Lot 571: SIR KYFFIN WILIAMS, OBE, RA (1918-2006) – ‘PEN Y BRYN’
Signed with initials, inscribed with title in ballpoint pen on the overlap, oil on canvas, hand painted frame  50 x 60cm.
Condition: Needs a very light clean.
Estimate: £16,000 – £20,000

Lot 650: ARKANA – RETRO ‘MUSHROOM’ CHAIRS & MATCHING TABLE
A pair of ‘Mushroom’ shaped black chairs designed by Maurice Burke, with conical shaped bases and orange cushions. Also with a matching conical shaped table. Chairs stamped ‘Arkana, Bath, GB, Des Reg No 937057 & 937288, Process Pat Pending. Chairs 77cms high, Table 53cms high, 45cms diameter.
Condition: Age related wear as you would expect over time.
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 652: ARTS & CRAFTS ORKNEY CHAIR
An antique stained pine chair with a curved woven back, the chair with scroll arms and a drop in woven and wooden seat. 107cms high, top of the chair 62cms across.
Condition: The rush seat is a little worn and needs a little work, otherwise in pretty good condition for its age.
Estimate: £200 – £300

Lot 662: DAME LUCIE RIE (AUSTRIAN/BRITISH 1902-1995) – PORCELAIN FOOTED BOWL
A porcelain footed bowl with a turquoise glaze and manganese drip effect rim, with a straight foot and unglazed footrim. Seal mark to the base, Diameter 13.5cms, 10.5cms high.  *Artist Resale Rights applies to this lot.
Condition: Condition is good, rings nicely and no noticeable chips or damages. There is a couple of letters on the base, I think from a security pen in case of theft.
Estimate: £5,000 – £7,000

Lot 658: ALAN WALLWORK (BRITISH 1931-2019) – LARGE STUDIO POTTERY VASE
A large ‘Pebble’ vase with curved sides and small aperture to the top section. Incised mark to the base ‘AW’, and with original paper label ‘Alan Wallwork Ceramics, Tel Lyme Regis 2756’. 30cms high  *This lot qualifies for Artists Resale Rights.
Condition:Generally seems fine, small firing crack to the inside and base of the vase from manufacture.
Estimate: £400 – £600

Lot 737: PETER LAYTON (B 1937) – LARGE CONTEMPORARY GLASS VASE, 2006
A large heart shaped glass vase with small aperture, the ruby red glass with stripes of blue and yellow. Etched mark, ‘Peter Layton, 2006’. 25cms high, 28cms across  *Artists Resale Rights applies to this lot.
Condition: Generally good, the odd minor scratch and some wear to the base.
Estimate: £200 – £300

Lot 797: 19^THC BLUE & WHITE TRANSFER PRINTED TEA KETTLE – ANTI SLAVERY
An interesting large blue and tea kettle, with a verse on each side ‘Ladies I hope you will make free and tell me how you like your tea’, and with a motto inside ‘Health to the sick, Honour to the brave, Success to the lover, and Freedom to the slave’. With a transfer printed design with animals and figures within a landscape scene, the lid with the initials ‘W H’ on the inside, possibly for William Hackwood. 27cms high.
Condition: Lid, small area to the rim repaired, small chip to underneath the finial. Tea kettle, area of restoration at the base of the spout as it joins the body, this restoration is more visible inside right around the hole. Firing crack on the inside of the spout visible inside.
Estimate: £100 – £200

Lot 800: BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION ‘TERRA NOVA’ – CUP & SAUCER BY DUNN BENNETT & CO.
A rare matching earthenware cup and saucer, made for the wardroom of the Terra Nova. Both with a crest marked ‘British Antarctic Expedition, Terra Nova’ and with a penguin standing on a rock, and with a blue border around the rim. Printed mark to the base, ‘Real Ironstone China, Dunn Bennett & Co, Burslem, England’. Saucer 14cms diameter.
Condition: Saucer, star crack to the base and crazing to the centre. Cup, 3 hairline cracks running from the rim downwards, general crazing.
Estimate: £400 – £600

A rare day

Today has been a rare day; indeed, it’s been a rare week and more. We spent many hours watching the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on the television. Despite us not being royalists, we greatly respect and admire the late Queen.

It was all so moving; the readings, the slow procession of uniformed troops through London, the sound of the massed pipes and drums, the crowds, the Queen’s favourite pony, the corgis and most of all, the lone piper at end of the Windsor service. Who does ceremony and pageantry as well as the British?

Image: © Chris Levine

Designer Desire: Oskar with a K

I’ve just realised that it’s not very often that we’ve featured a graffiti artist in our Designer Desire series. As luck would have it, I’m very familiar with – if not the work itself, then – some of the locations of work by Oskar with a K.

In a past life, I worked in a few different arts organisations in Manchester city centre, one of which was directly opposite the Ritz where his Ooh Child work is situated. At a later date, I worked in the city’s Northern Quarter, and I walked past the former public toilet where his Hello work now lives on a twice-daily basis.

Here’s what Oskar with a K says about himself:

I would describe my work as graphic design unhindered by scale. I love working in public space, engaging fully with the environment I’m in and contributing to a world in which art and design is implicit to our cityscapes.

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Designer Desire: Alfred Daniels

Viewing sale lots for our Auction Alert series, I always happen across artists & designers that I’ve never come across previously.

Born in Trellis Street in Bow, and affectionately referred to as Danny, Alfred Daniels (1924-2015) is sometimes referred to as the Lowry of the East End – although he once quipped, “I’m not really an East Ender, I’m more of a Bow boy”.

With help from his uncle Charlie, he left school early and enrolled in Woolwich Polytechnic to learn sign-writing. He never completed his course, instead – again, thanks to his uncle – got a job as a lettering artist at the Lawrence Danes Studio in Chancery Lane.

When his uncle started up his own studio in Fetter Lane above the Vogue Magazine photo studio, he went to work for him, earning £1 a week. In 1947, Danny was accepted to attend the Royal College of Art. After gaining his 1st class degree there, he stayed on for a further year to study mural design.

In 1954, he completed his five impressive, award-winning murals inside Hammersmith Town Hall and also participated in their conservation in 1983.

I never wanted to be a painter, I wanted to be an illustrator of life… It isn’t enough to make a picture of something – You have to be there, you have to touch it, you have to experience it.

In 1973, he joined the Royal Watercolour Society, followed by the Royal Society of British Artists a decade later. He was also elected keeper of The Royal Society in 1991.

In addition to his many paintings, he illustrated calendars for Oxford University Press and posters for the General Post Office. He often exhibited at the Russell Gallery in Putney. His work is in the permanent collections of The Science Museum, Manchester Art Gallery, Bradford Museums and Galleries and Nottingham City Museums & Galleries.

For a number of years, he taught at Sir John Cass School of Art – nicknamed the ‘Aldgate Bauhaus’ and now the School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University. As well as teaching, he was the author of a number of books about drawing and painting.

The Gentle Author of Spitalfields Life interviewed and wrote about Alfred Daniels on many occasions. Included in the posts are lots of photos of his sketchbooks and studio in his family home in Bedford Park, Chiswick. You can find out more here.

Making a painting is like baking a cake, one slice is for you but the rest is for everyone else.

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Additional image credits:
Mutual Art

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: art

Auction alert: Autumn Fine Art Sales

A rare day

Designer Desire: Oskar with a K

Designer Desire: Alfred Daniels