Dec 8, 2024
Christmas and New Year Opening Hours 2024/25
Friday 20 December 2024 — 9.00am-5.00pm
Saturday 21 December 2024 — 10.00am to 12 midday
Sunday 22 December 2024 — CLOSED
Monday 23 December 2024 — 9.00am-5.00pm
Tuesday 24 December 2024 — 9.00am-12 midday
Wednesday 25 December 2024 — CLOSED
Thursday 26 December 2024 — CLOSED
Friday 27 December 2024 — CLOSED
Saturday 28 December 2024 — CLOSED
Sunday 29 December 2024 — CLOSED
Monday 30 December 2024 — 10.00am to 1.00pm
Tuesday 31 December 2024 — 10.00am to 1.00pm
Wednesday 1 January 2025 – CLOSED
Thursday 2 January 2025 – Normal hours resume 9.00am-5.00pm
A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS
From John and all the staff
Dec 4, 2024
A recent change at Christmas time has been the decline of the greetings card. With first class post now £1.65, that is perhaps not surprising, but it is a shame.
We have the United States to thank for the modern image of Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, as they call him. That’s also true of greetings cards, which became popular, initially in the United States in the 1880s, thanks to the development of offset lithography, a form of printing.
Britain picked up on the trend early. Hallmark, one of the biggest names in greetings cards, has been around since almost the start, when savvy British makers saw what was happening in the US and started exporting cheaper folded versions there not long before the First World War.
The first Christmas cards were hand-coloured for Sir Henry Cole, founder of the Victoria & Albert Museum, who ordered 1000 in 1843. They depicted a family raising their charged glasses in a toast above a draped banner carrying the words A Merry Christmas. He used half himself and sold the rest for a shilling apiece.
It’s thought around nine or ten survive, and each is valued at around £10,000 today.
Some of the most sought-after Christmas cards today are those designed by well-known artists of the late Victorian and early 20th century periods. Kate Greenaway, who illustrated many of the most popular children’s books of the 1880s and ’90s is a favourite, as is her great rival at the time, Walter Crane.
Perhaps the most desirable cards, though are the early Hold-to-Light cards depicting Father Christmas, or Santa Claus. These were generally die-cut and got their name because if you held them up to the light, the die-cut parts lit up, creating a glowing Christmas scene.
When first produced in the US, in postcard form, these were the preserve of the wealthy as each could cost as much as a day’s wages for a working man. Nowadays while religious or other scenes can be had for as little as around £20, the pick of the Santa cards can cost £400.
Collectors tend to specialize in subject matter, such as comic cards, or anniversary type, such as birthday or Christmas cards. Condition can matter a great deal. If they are unused and have not been stuck in albums with the accompanying sticky tape. And particular printers, such as De La Rue, also tempt collectors.
Nov 13, 2024
Due to ongoing legislation, our inhouse delivery service is no longer available for items with destinations outside the UK. Independent courier companies can be found on the BUYING page in the DELIVERIES section.
We apologies for any inconvenience.
Nov 5, 2024
As Remembrance Day falls, it is worth recalling the Imperial War Museum’s remarkable display of Victoria Crosses. The field of campaign medal collecting can serve as a poignant reminder of those who have fallen, the qualities they had and the reasons they were prepared to give their lives in the service of their country.
Every medal counts, but of course it is usually those most rarely awarded – the VCs, MCs, GCs, DFCs, DFMs and CGMs among them – that carry the most extraordinary tales. And that’s what it’s all about in the end.
Materially, the medals themselves are little more than fairly inexpensive metal held up by a bit of ribbon, but what they stand for is what counts as they provide a physical link to these exceptional characters of the past, much in the way that religious relics have done for so much longer.
This explains why this field of collecting has grown hugely over the past 20 years or so, with prices at auction surging to several hundreds of thousands of pounds for the most sought-after VCs, and private sales rising to well over £1m.
The need to feel the touch of greatness was well illustrated a few years ago when the remains of a grasshopper were discovered trapped in the paint of Vincent Van Gogh’s 1889 picture Olive Trees.
Rather like those gorgeous pieces of amber you occasionally see at auction, which trapped unrecognisable insects sometimes hundreds of millions of years ago as tree sap before fossilising, the discovery created a seemingly direct link to a specific moment in time, almost 130 years on, compressing the years in between so that you could almost see and hear Vincent slapping the paint onto the canvas. This grasshopper was there when he did it.
These direct connections are what many people look for when buying things at auction and explain the huge price differences between artworks described in the catalogue as ‘follower of’ (someone unidentified working in the style of a well-known artist at around the same time), ‘school of’ (a work of the time in the style of the artist), ‘studio of’ (a work from the artist’s studio or closely associated with them), ‘attributed to’ (probably, but not certainly, by the artist) and ‘autograph work’ (categorically by the artist).
In the art world, there is nothing quite like being close enough to touch the hand of the creator.
Oct 22, 2024
JOHN NICHOLSON’S FINE ART AUCTIONEERS & VALUERS are looking for a capable individual to fill the role of:
HEAD OF PICTURES DEPARTMENT
The opportunity has arisen for an experienced Pictures expert to run their own department.
You will already have excellent contacts and know how to put a catalogue together from scratch.
You will be IT competent and have some knowledge of image processing.
Remuneration package negotiable.
For this role, please forward your CV and covering letter in the strictest confidence to philhildreth@johnnicholsons.com
Oct 7, 2024
If you want to find out more about how the art and antiques market works these days, you can sign up to innumerable email newsletters giving you the inside information on the latest trends.
That’s fine if all you are interested in is Contemporary and Modern art sales in London and New York that make millions, or what’s happening with blockchain and bitcoin and how they may help change the way the market works.
Try looking for news on the sort of art, antiques and collectables that interest you, me and most of the rest of the world, however, and your eyes will ache from too much screen time as you search in vain. Ok, top-end prices may make better headlines, but it astonishes me how the media tends to ignore 95 per cent of what is changing hands day to day.
Let’s face it, if you are interested in collecting and want to know about any given field, you need to know the ins and outs, what to look for, what to avoid and what factors affect values. That’s where collecting clubs come into their own.
What about the new collecting fields that are springing up all the time – the antiques of the future, as so many people call them?
Look at all of the websites and apps set up to recycle second-hand clothing and fashion items. I know teenagers who have effectively set themselves up as dealers as they market this gear, while others are already well versed in the online auction process as they chase the rarities and bargains.
Think, too, of all the new antiques dealers out there. They may be purveyors of retro furniture and design, 1970s jewellery and suchlike; they may be selling out of pop-up shops in trendy markets like Spitalfields; and it may not have occurred to them at all that they have anything to do with our wonderful world. But you know what? They are no different in their passions, approach and ambitions from all of the other antiques dealers over the years; they simply specialise in something different.
And that’s the key: as time passes, so antiques change as well. Few may seek out Victorian sideboards now, but they compete fiercely for their replacements: early and mid-20th century artist-craftsman pieces and post-war Scandinavian design.
So, yes, I am confident that our ever-evolving industry will prosper.
