Dec 6, 2017
The recent Collector’s auction exceeded expectations; a combination perhaps, of being able to bid online (and therefore being accessible to all) but also there were some great bargains as well! Not least, the Louis Vuitton luggage collection. Such an iconic design. Anyone carrying one of these cases on holiday would look very elegant.
A large Louis Vuitton case, no. 1074290, Paris, with brass corners, hinges and lock, no. 290909, the lid opens to reveal a lift out clothes holder, complete with leather handle and leather luggage label complete with outer cover. Standing at 29ins long, 19.5ins wide, 9ins high, it fetched £2200. Also from the Louis Vuitton collection was a speedy 35 Damier Azur bag with padlock and keys, including dust bag which fetched £260.
Another iconic brand in the sale was Hermès. Famous for their timeless and colourful silk scarves, which fetch up to £600 new, unworn and boxed, they were selling with us from just £30. Do keep an eye on future sales for bargains such as these! Four designer silk scarves, vintage scarf and hat sold for £170, another small silk neck tie, boxed, fetched £80 with an estimate of £30-50 and other Hermès silk scarves, boxed, fetched from £90 through to £160, all with estimates of £40-60.
Other exciting items included an Everlast red boxing glove, signed by Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Ken Norton, Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Joe Frazier, Lennox Lewis and George Foreman. In a gilded frame and standing at 23ins x 16ins x 5ins deep and with an estimate of £250-500, it sold for £400.
A good silver gilt and enamel filigree shaped box and cover, decorated with panels of birds in coloured enamels. Impressed silver and 16cms high, it sold for £1100 against an estimate of £100-150.
Lastly, a Danish sterling silver Georg Jensen cigarette box with wooden interior with an estimate of £80-150, sold for £900.
Our last auctions of 2017 start with an Oriental auction on 13 December. Keep an eye out on our website for previews.
Dec 4, 2017
Three of the lots that came up in our first December sale brought to mind one of the greatest ‘might have been’ moments in sporting history. They were a framed boxing glove signed by Henry Cooper, another by Muhammad Ali, and a programme for a 1974 dinner in honour of Ali, signed by both boxers.
The pair fought each other twice, in 1963 and 1966, but it is the first bout that made history. Ali was 20lbs heavier and had a 4½in advantage on his reach, but it was Cooper who drew first blood in the first round with his aggressive punching.
Ali fought back and by the fourth round Cooper’s brow was bleeding heavily, but he famously lifted Ali from the canvas with a left hook, with the American only being saved by the ropes, which he slid down, and then the bell.
What came next remains one of the most controversial moments in boxing history. Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee called the referee over to Ali’s corner to show him where the boxer’s glove had split. The interval had to be extended 20 seconds as they found new gloves, giving Ali more time to recover, before he went on to beat Cooper when the referee stopped the fight in the next round because of Cooper’s bleeding.
Had Dundee slashed the glove on purpose? We’ll probably never know. But without that delay, many think Cooper could well have KO’d his opponent.
Nov 28, 2017
As we turn into the home straight before Christmas, thoughts turn to Advent calendars and I have to say that this year has trumped all others for stretching the imagination and resorting to the ridiculous. The media have rightly been making quite a thing about the commercial exploitation of this corner of the festivities: Asda’s cheese calendar is just the beginning. What about the Edinburgh Gin calendar, complete with 25 miniatures for £100, or the Diptique limited edition calendar filled with skin and bodycare products, a snip at just £300? My favourite example of over-the-top nonsense was the one Porsche put on show in Harrods seven years ago: retail price $1m.
It’s all a far cry from the calendar’s rather restrained origins in Germany in the 19th century. Simple images posted behind the doors of a cardboard calendar dominated for decades until the first chocolate-filled calendars started to appear in the 1940s.
The market has now turned full circle, with reproductions of the traditional vintage German calendars available for sale.
Although there is quite a market in Christmas collectibles, Advent calendars remain a rather muted corner of it, but with the variety on offer now, especially some of the more unusual limited edition varieties, this is an area of collecting whose potential has yet to be fully exploited.
Nov 28, 2017
A good strong sale with two particular Lots flying out the door. Lots 136 & 256 did very well.. the first Lot 136 sold on the phone. Alonzo C Webb (1888-1975) American. An American City Skyline, possibly Chicago, mixed media, signed and dated 1950, 20” x 26”. Estimated at £400-£600, it fetched £3200. Lot 256 attributed to George Mullins (act.1756-1775) Irish. Study of an Old Man, seated in a Landscape, oil on canvas laid down, signed and dated ‘AD 1772’, Unframed, 26” x 20”. Estimated at £150-£250, it also went for £3200 to an internet buyer.
The next Paintings auction will be 20th December. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
Nov 20, 2017
On November 25, 1952 what has since become the world’s longest continuously running play in history opened for the first time at The Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End. The world premiere of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap had taken place just over seven weeks earlier in Nottingham, but it was at The Ambassadors and then, from March 25, 1974, next door at The St Martin’s Theatre, where it continues to this day, that the play has enjoyed it unbroken run.
The production’s first star was Richard Attenborough, whose contractual arrangements meant that the programme billed him as appearing “By arrangement with the Boulting Brothers”, the successful duo who had discovered him and helped make his name in the 1948 film version of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock and would continue to put him on the screen for the next decade.
The programme also promoted other theatrical productions, including Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in The Sleeping Prince at the Phoenix Theatre and Trevor Howard in The Cherry Orchard at The Lyric, Hammersmith – Halcyon days for theatre indeed!
Occasionally one of these rare debut programmes comes onto the market. The original price was sixpence, or 2½p in new money. Now it is a very achievable £10 or so – still, a reasonable uplift of 40,000% over the intervening 65 years.
