Sale-rooms
Curiosities and a cat
Alistair McAlpine
he sad state of the art market can be judged by a visit to the desks that sell the catalogues in London's great auction hous- es. One would expect in times of depres- sion to see catalogues piled high, filled with the goods of those forced to sell, desperate to raise what funds there are. In fact, exact- ly the reverse is true.
There is not much offered for sale these days, the sales are fewer in number, the catalogues thinner and less well illustrated. Those who own works of art are hanging on to them, waiting for prices to rise again. Quite right they are too, for even in the last three months the change in the value of the pound has increased the value of their goods and made them 30 per cent cheaper for foreigners to buy, depending on ,how you look at the matter.
It is always a delight when a really good lot comes up for sale and under the present circumstances almost thrilling. Such a lot is the portrait miniature by Nicholas Hilliard of a man clasping a hand from a cloud. The sitter was once believed to be the second Earl of Essex, but is now thought to be Lord Thomas Howard. There are those who would like to believe this small mas- terpiece to be a portrait of William Shake- speare. Nobody knows for certain how Shakespeare really looked, so you need to be incurably romantic to believe this attri- bution. The miniature will be sold by Christie's on 3 March and is expected to fetch £60,000. It has all the attributes of a great work of art: it is by the hand of a master and as a consequence wonderfully beautiful; the idea of the sitter holding the hand of a lady who prefers to remain anonymous is truly romantic, and then there is the mystery of who he is. I expect this miniature may fetch more than anyone expects, despite the state of the market.
An unusual lot comes up for sale at Christie's on 11 May. It is the Dickens Medal, expected to fetch £3,000. Awarded to a cat called Simon for bravery, the Dick- ens Medal is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross and Simon is the only cat to have won it. He was the ship's cat on HMS Amethyst, who during the Yangtse incident despite injury continued to catch the rats that had begun to infest the ship. The Amethyst escaped the blockade of the Chi- nese Communist troops and with the ship went Simon. I wonder if that cat really knew how much trouble he was in. I remember a meal I ate while travelling in China during the early Seventies. I compli- mented my host on the quality of one of the dishes. 'What was in it?' I asked. His reply, The lion and dragon', seemed a most unlikely description of what we had just eaten. Later my guide told me the dish had been composed of cat and snake. Simon had come very close to being the second course of a commissar's lunch.
Bonhams, as always these days active in the hunt for new business, has an unusual sale on 2 March of paintings abandoned by the Royal Academy after the Summer Exhibitions of 1989, 1990 and 1991. It seems that some painters do not bother to collect their work at the end of the show. After seeing some of the offerings exhibit- ed at the Royal Academy, this does not come as any great surprise to me. Still, who knows, different pictures appeal to differ- ent people. There are over 200 of these paintings at this sale and they will be sold without reserves, so there are bound to be some bargains. It is a sale well worth view- ing at least, and if you should be tempted to bid, give in to the temptation as the pro- ceeds of the sale go to the Royal Academy Benevolent Fund, a charity for the relief of distress among artists and their families.
It is yet another symptom of the malaise that afflicts the auction houses that Sothe- by's have catalogued the conjuror Will Aylings's library of conjuring books and his tricks together with miscellaneous books and maps. There was a time when this col- lection would have merited a catalogue of its own, profusely illustrated and much publicised. Now, however, the collection is just lumped together at the end of a sale that begins on 17 February, continuing up to 3 and 4 March, when the Aylings collec- tion is sold. Sometimes as many as 70 items are in a lot and the estimates are all in the low hundreds. Lot 1137 appealed to me: the 'floating princess', comprising altar platform on base, two swords, two bowls on collapsing stands and other pieces for this levitation illusion, all for £200. The princess is evidently missing.
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