Auction alert: Lady Elizabeth Hart Collection and The Wallace Collection of Oriental Art

This week, we’re featuring the Three Day Fine Art and Antique Auction, including the Lady Elizabeth Hart Collection and The Wallace Collection of Oriental Art. The sale will take place at Bamfords Auctioneers & Valuers‘ head office, their auction house in Derby, which lies 10 minutes off the M1 on the Nottingham side of the city. The sale dates & times will be as follows:

5th May 2022 from 10am
6th May 2022 from 10am
9th May 2022 from 10am

There’ll be a massive 1,724 lots going under the hammer across the three days. After trawling and trawling through the lots, we stumbled across some unexpected items. Tucked away within the more ‘fancy’ antiques – after the silver and jewellery and before the large collection of European and Far Eastern art we found the following few mid 20th century gems. We can’t believe the low estimate on the Midwinter Riviera set!

Bamfords charges a buyers’ premium of 24.75% plus VAT on the hammer price of each lot.

Live online bidding is available for all our auctions via www.easyliveauction.com or www.the-saleroom.com. The charge for using these services is 3.6% of the hammer price or a flat fee of £3 with no further premium being charged for EasyLiveAuction and 5.5% of the hammer price (plus VAT where chargeable) for The Saleroom.
Bamfords can offer postage on items of a small and non-fragile nature, our minimum charge is £19.50 for Royal Mail Special Delivery service. Please be aware that we cannot offer postage of jewellery, weapons, ceramics or paintings & pictures and we do not offer postage internationally.

Lot 359: An extensive Midwinter Riviera pattern table service
Designed by Hugh Casson inc dinner plates, salad pates, coffee pot, tea pot, milk jug, sugar bowl, cups, saucers, side plates, etc, printed marks, qty.
Estimate: £30 – £40

Lot 363: A large Troika Double Bass vase
Estimate: £150 – £200
Designed by Sue Bladen, in relief with geometrical motifs, in earth tones and blue, 36cm high, painted mark, monogrammed. Hairline fractures to top of vase

Lot 364: A Troika Chimney vase
Decorated with an arrangement of granular and smooth geometric and scraffito motifs, glazed in blue, brown and ochre, 20cm high, painted monogrammed HK, marks in black, c.1970
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 365: A Troika slab sided vase
Decorated with geometric and scraffito motifs, glazed in mottled shades of sea green, brown and ochre, 17.5cm, painted marks, monogrammed, c.1970
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 366: A Troika Wheel vase
Designed by Linda Taylor, incised with motif, 12cm high, painted marks, monogrammed; a square ashtray, 12.5cm high; a similar vase, 12cm high (3)
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 367: A Denby Tigo Ware Florence vase
Designed by Tibor Reich, in black and white, 38 cm high, printed mark, c.1956. Slight crack through base
Estimate: £150 – £200

Auction Alert: 20th Century Design

Tennants is the largest family-owned fine art auctioneers in the UK with branches in London, Harrogate and Leyburn in North Yorkshire – the latter being where the upcoming 20th Century Design sale is being held. It takes place on (THIS!!) Saturday 26th February 2022, from 9:30am, with 242 lots coming up for sale.

The first 29 lots are Whitefriars art glass – mainly ones designed by Geoffrey Baxter with a few from William Wilson and Harry Dyer. If you wanted to start a ready-made collection of Whitefriar’s glass, now is your chance!

Over the years, I’ve seen lots of examples of wooden furniture by ‘The Mouseman‘ – who carved a little figure of a mouse as his signature somewhere on his work – dozens of which are coming under the hammer here. I was unaware of the many, many other similar furniture-makers… Beaverman, Eagleman, Foxman, Rabbitman, Squirrilman, Woodpeckerman, Wrenman and Gnomeman. There will be examples of all of their works in this sale.

In order to bid online, you need to register on the Tennants website – there’s and online bidding surcharge of 1.5% + VAT in addition to the 22% buyer’s premium on the final hammer price.

Alternatively, bid via The Saleroom where there’s a surcharge of 4.95% + VAT on the hammer price (again, in addition to the standard 22% buyer’s premium).

For certain sales, we offer a packing and shipping service for items up to a total value of £5,000 (inclusive of buyer’s premium, VAT and any other associated charges). Packages can be up to 60cm x 60cm. Prices range (from £20) depending on the size and destination. Items are fully insured and can be tracked from dispatch to delivery. Prior to bidding please contact us to ensure that we can assist with shipping for an item.

For items that they won’t ship themselves, they recommend a number of other shippers and couriers.

Lot 1: Whitefriars – Geoffrey Baxter: A Large Textured Range Banjo Glass Vase
In aubergine, pattern 9681, 1972 catalogue, 33cm high
Estimate: £800 – £1,200

Lot 21: Whitefriars – Geoffrey Baxter: Six Textured Range Coffin Glass Vases
In pewter, cinnamon, willow, kingfisher blue, ruby and flint, pattern 9686,13cm high
Estimate: £150 – £250

Lot 77: Tibor Reich (Hungarian, 1916-1996): for Denby Pottery
A Tigo Ware Retek Raddish Pourer, black body, stamped TIGO, 18.5cm high; and Two Tigo Ware Tok Marrow Pourers, black body with incised white stripes, one stamped TIGO (twice) the other MADE IN ENGLAND, 21.5cm high (3)
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 95: Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) for Skelton (sic): A Cylinda-Line Stainless Steel Coffee Set
Comprising coffee pot and cover, creamer, sugar bowl, serving tray and a revolving ashtray, tray and coffee pot labelled skelton (sic) stainless from denmark design arne jacobsen cylinda-line no.01_1 and no.014 2, coffee pot 17cm high
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 108: Craddock (Harry). The Savoy Cocktail Book
1st edition, London: Constable & Company, Ltd., 1930. 8vo, original cloth-backed pictorial silver boards, colour illustrations throughout by Gilbert Rumbold, binding slightly rubbed as usual, small abrasion to front board, bound without errata slip, a few trivial spots internally
Estimate: £200 – £300

Lot 110: A Pair of Art Deco Frankart Figural Bookends
Cast as steamlined female heads, cast FRANKART INC PAT APPLD FOR, each 15cm high
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 132: Robert Mouseman Thompson (1876-1955): An English Oak and Steel Woodworking Tool
With steel tip, brass ferrule and oak handle, with carved mouse trademark to top of handle, 12cm long
Estimate: £100 – £150

Lot 235: Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) for Fritz Hansen: A Pair of Swan Swivel Armchairs
Model No.3320, tan leather, on a swivelling cast aluminium four point base, stamped FH MADE IN DENMARK, 74cm wide, 87cm high
Estimate: £3,000 – £4,000

Tibor Reich for Concorde

We’ve long been fans of the designs of Tibor Reich and were lucky enough to catch a retrospective of his work at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester last year.

A few weeks ago, we bought some cushion covers from a well-known online auction site. It was the original fabric used to make them that caught our eye. The seller photographed the covers alongside a cut-out from a magazine article that showed that the fabric was designed by Tibor Reich and had been used on Concorde.

We couldn’t find any images of the actual interior of Concorde showing this pattern. However we did find this reference:

One of the commercial highlights for Tibor Ltd. in the 1960s was a commission to design the first sets of upholstery and curtain fabrics for the Anglo-French Concorde (prior to trial flights in 1968) [Cabinet Maker and Retail Furnisher, October, 1966]. Five Jacquard upholstery cloths, in natural and gold were used as curtaining fabric along with two carpet designs [Cabinet Maker and Furnisher, October, 1965].
_{via “Patterns of Culture: Tibor Reich: A Life of Colour and Weave“, by K. Powers and M. A. Hann (with a contribution by J. A. Cousens).}

It’s clearly the same fabric as shown in the article, we just haven’t been able to find that ‘in situ’ image as yet. We’d love to see one. As well as being used on the plane, these fabrics were probably also used in the airport lounge for Concorde passengers. Someone’s probably got a lovely colour holiday snap with them pictured sipping champagne, reclining on seats covered in it!

We were delighted with the fabric when it arrived. Beautiful colours and striking design – and unused, mint condition too. The cushions were very nicely made, so as cushions they will stay. With Justin’s chair addiction, we’ve got endless chairs to put them on!

We thought they were a very good price too, considering the high profile designer and prestigious client… and a bargain never hurts!

Tibor Reich exhibition

Last week, I made an all too rare visit to Manchester; I was meeting a friend at the Whitworth to view the Tibor Reich exhibition.

It was wonderful seeing his work ‘in the flesh’ so to speak, rather than in books or on the internet, to appreciate the scale. The ‘Florence’ Tigo-Ware vase on the left of the photo above is over a foot tall.

His black & white sgraffito designs are very eye-catching and distinctive.

Apparently, he designed and produced these keyhole-shaped ashtrays as presents for friends one Christmas. I’ve never seen one on the open market, they’re absolutely beautiful!

A lot of his ceramic work is concerned with the female form and visage – my friend and I wondered whether his wife Freda, who was pictured in many of the photographs in the exhibition, acted as his muse.

Reich may be best known for his textiles (his designs were on the seats of Concorde and the QE II), however his practice was multifaceted. Ceramics, fine art, photography… he even designed his own home including the ‘flaming onion’ fire in his sitting room, shown above.

A photo posted by TIBOR (@tiborreich) on Feb 29, 2016 at 12:48pm PST

Tibor Reich: Art of Colour and Texture, shown above, was published earlier this month to accompany the exhibition. It can be purchased here (£35.00). The Tibor Reich exhibition runs until August 2016, so you still have lots of time to check it out – it’s well worth it! If you can’t get to Manchester, the University of Leeds (where he studied) have a huge archive of his textile work which can be viewed online.

In an adjoining room, there was an exhibition of vintage wallpaper (which runs until the 4th of September 2016). With the room’s huge, tall walls the long rolls were shown off to spectacular effect.

Although I loved most of the designs, it also made me realise how overpowering some of the patterns would be if all four walls in a room were papered. A small feature wall would suffice!

There were display cabinets of wallpaper samples – here are two of my favourites.

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Tibor Reich

Auction alert: Lady Elizabeth Hart Collection and The Wallace Collection of Oriental Art

Auction Alert: 20th Century Design

Tibor Reich for Concorde

Tibor Reich exhibition