Sale rooms
Your greatest fan
Alistair McAlpine
Sotheby's held a most unusual sale on 13 September. I quote from their press handout 'the contents will go on view in the manner of a traditional Sotheby's Country House Sale. The sale will be conducted in Sotheby's Bond Street sale rooms for the convenience of buyers.'
The contents to which Sotheby's refer come from a house called Cardinal's Wharf. Situated on Bankside, it is one of the oldest in a district of fine old houses. It was once a brothel, and later the home of Christopher Wren at the time he was building St Paul's cathedral, or at least that is what people say. I am inclined to believe this, for no house in London has a better view of that great Cathedral. As for holding the sale in Bond Street for the convenience of the bidders, it would have been terribly inconvenient for the auctioneer to hold any sort of a sale in a house 15 or so feet wide and built on three stories. I dined several times in this house when it was owned by the late Guy Munthe, a gentleman who favoured sleeping in a coffin rather than a bed. Despite this ghoulish habit his house had great mystery and charm and is really worth a visit even if you have to queue.
One lot in this sale I really coveted, was Milton's, chair. It is painted and dates from the 17th century, it has a silver plaque set in its back which reads 'The Milton Chair, for- merly the property of Milton, from the Res- idence of a Lady in Nottingham in whose possession it had been for many years, sold by Messrs Puttick and Simpson at their Rooms on 10 April 1884.' I have no real reason to believe this lot was any more than a fine chair, but I like the idea that it might just have belonged to the great poet.
On 20 September Bonhams sell modern and contemporary sculpture. Amongst the lots offered is a work by David Wynne, `Girl on a Dolphin'. Critics have always been dismissive of this self-taught sculp- tor's works but I love them. He was once described to me by a London art dealer as `similar to a beautiful young girl who on coming to maturity finds that she can attract men and with the confidence this talent gives, excels at that art'. David Wynne has always been able to attract cus- tomers and it is a happy thought that their faith in his talent appears to be returning some sort of financial reward, since 'Girl on a Dolphin', a small sculpture, is estimat- ed to fetch £6,000.
For those interested in fast motorcars, who cannot afford a real Alfa Romeo P2 racing car, a rare collection of tin plate models are for sale on 14 September at Christie's South Kensington, at an 'I'm making a bomb.. .' estimated range of £1,500 to £6,000 each. Also in that sale is a wooden prototype Dinky model of an Albion Tanker, esti- mate £2,000. This toy was never put into production.
On 21 September, Christie's sell dolls and teddy bears, including an 1851 Great Exhibition prize-winning doll by Lady Augustus Montanari who operated from 180 Soho Bazaar, London. Recently, while travelling in America with my daughter, I visited a number of doll shops and found the doll and teddy bear market to be in fine health. Their proprietors assured me that business was unusually brisk. In one such shop, I came across a doll in the form of W.C. Fields. How great the irony of life is that the likeness of the man who when asked how he liked children, replied 'fried', should have been used on a doll to be cuddled by a child.
On 26 September Christie's South Kens- ington, sell fans. A Cantonese fan is expected to fetch £500. It once belonged to a Miss Daniell, one of six maids appoint- ed to the King's herbwoman at the Coronation of King George iv. This lady, despite the apparent purity of her calling, appears to have been a fast piece of stuff, for shortly afterwards she eloped to Gretna Green with a Quaker doctor, a friend of the King's.
The new sale room season would not be complete without a sprinkling of rock and roll sales. Christie's had one on 7 Septem- ber and Sotheby's have another on 14 September. This latter includes Jimi Hen- drix's Gibson Flying V Guitar 1967, esti- mated at £85,000, and his peacock feather waistcoat, estimated at £18,000, Paul McCartney's hand-written lyrics for 'Get- ting Better' estimated at £48,000, a pair of John Lennon's glasses at £10,000, and a draft copy of a contract between Brian Epstein and the Beatles estimated at £5,000. If you were to wonder at these high prices, it is worth remembering that rock and roll memorabilia is not just bought by collectors or to decorate the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Holywood. There is now a museum in Cleveland, Ohio, devoted only to rock and roll. This vast concrete and glass structure opened only last month. The ephemera of rock and roll now plays an important part in the social history of the 20th-century's last half.
The object however that delighted me the most this summer was not to be found in the sale rooms, or even the flea markets of North America. I came across this remarkable piece of ephemera at a protest march against French nuclear tests. The march was in Australia and at it there were vendors selling protest badges. For one dollar I bought a badge proclaiming, 'Women Against Chips'. Sadly this was not a movement for slim women, in fact the women wearing these badges were large, not to say burly, and they were protesting against logging and the making of chipboard.
Previous page
