Aug 3, 2020
Sometimes it is the lesser things in life that hold more interest – or at least are the more memorable. This can be especially true of jewellery at auction. A perfect diamond may sell for millions, but apart from its perfection and its price, there may be little else to say about it, whereas an intricately designed Art Nouveau brooch costing hundreds can hold one captivated for hours.
Oscar Wilde’s letter to the impresario George Alexander regarding his plans for what was to become The Importance of Being Earnest is rather more fascinating than a diamond and expected to fetch £150,000 as this column goes to press. While it holds many interesting gems to do with characters and plot, I find it less enticing than another Wildean lot coming up for sale in the same auction: his answers to a questionnaire when he was a student.
Dating to 1877, the two-page questionnaire reveals that the poet and playwright’s ready wit was already close to fully formed. He deemed happiness “absolute power over men’s minds, even if accompanied by chronic toothache”, while misery was “living a poor and respectable life in an obscure village”.
Wilde’s favourite occupation was “reading my own sonnets”, while is dream was “getting my hair cut” and his distinguishing characteristic “inordinate self-esteem”.
He believed the essential quality of a wife to be “devotion to her husband” and aimed for a life of “fame or even notoriety”, a realised ambition that he would later come to regret.
Jul 27, 2020
Much of the talk recently among auctioneers and dealers has been about online activity replacing traditional methods of selling. The discussion brings to mind how, over the past 20 years or so, the email has replaced the letter. It’s quick, convenient and effective for business, but it also means that the only correspondence that hits the doormat these days are bills (those not arriving electronically, anyway), flyers for pizza restaurants and promotional leaflets for everything from fun days out to funerals.
I pity the young who have never experienced the thrill of a hand-written envelope with their name on it popping through the letterbox. It also means that we are quickly losing that window on the soul that has helped us understand the thoughts and feelings of the notable and notorious over the years.
Two letters coming to auction in the past week or so remind us of this. The first is a poignant note from 1991 addressed by Princess Diana to a friend, in which she muses on what the next ten years will bring – a haunting thought as she was only to live for another six years.
The other is really exceptional, a thankyou letter from the newly crowned King George VI to his speech therapist, Lionel Logue (remember the film!) in which he expresses his undying debt to Logue for helping him get through the Coronation. Accompanied by the gift of a cigarette case, it sold for £76,000.
Emails may be convenient, but they aren’t everything.
Jul 20, 2020
Art as an asset class has been much in the news in the past week with the revelation that British Airways – beleaguered as it retires its 747 fleet in the wake of the pandemic – is to sell off work from its art collection.
Firstly, who knew that British Airways even had an art collection? Possibly the most famous public commercial investment in art in this country has been the British Rail Pension Fund, which spent generously on art, parting with £40 million (around 3 per cent of its holdings then) between 1974 and the 1990s for around 2400 museum quality works in what was a ground-breaking experiment at the time.
The investment was treated as a hedge against inflation, with the British Rail Pension Fund rivalling the Getty in reputation as a power investor in art.
Thanks to the experiment proving largely successful, many other businesses followed suit, with art becoming seen as a relatively less risky asset class once bonds and gilts took a serious knock in the crash of 2008.
Now BA is looking to offload a wealth of Young Brit art by names like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Anish Kapoor as it looks to build cash reserves. Not only is this a bold move and one that could have repercussions for BA if the sale does not go well, it could also prove a landmark in the long-term fortunes of the leading Young Brits.
With things in the market fast developing, it will be interesting to see whether BA chooses to expose the works in the harsh light of an open auction or look to go the private sale route. Either way, the leading auction houses will be looking to get in on the action, but they will be up against serious competition from increasingly savvy and powerful contemporary art dealers who have already snaffled some tasty prizes from under their noses.
Watch this space.
Jul 13, 2020
After all the philosophising about the future of auctions in recent weeks, it’s time to come back down to earth for a bit of fun. One of my favourite things about our world is the tendency of the extraordinary and bizarre to pop its head up every so often. I’m delighted to say that this has happened at least twice in the past week.
First up is the most expensive video game ever sold on the rostrum. A 1985 Super Mario Bros cartridge made just over £90,000. These cartridges would have been mass produced just 35 years ago, with most being played to death before being discarded as technology upgraded. The original buyer here knew what they were doing, and clearly never intended to play the game. This purchase was all about investment as its condition today can testify. Still in its original sealed container, complete with the original hangtab, this was collecting nerdery in its ultimate expression.
On the bizarre front, we have a vampire slaying kit, which comprises a pocket pistol, a carved ivory wolf in robes, a cobalt blue phial with unknown contents, a crucifix, miniature Bible and even shark teeth, among other esoteric contents, all fitted snugly into a small, gothic-style wooden box. Possibly dating to the mid/late 19th century, it carries hopes of £3000.
Jul 6, 2020
We’ve just had one of those “they said it couldn’t be done moments”. You know what I mean: manned flight, landing on the moon, Leicester City winning the FA Cup (ok, that still hasn’t happened, but they won the Premiership), a British player winning the Men’s tournament at Wimbledon…
In our world, the moment came on June 29 when Sotheby’s launched what was, to all intents and purposes, a TV gameshow format for selling the world’s top-end art. OK, so the most expensive piece at $73 million, a work by the late Francis Bacon, sold on the phone, but the $300 million plus result for the 74 lots on offer was final proof positive that internet sales are not just for the cheaper end of the market.
It may still be a while until they bring the hammer down on an internet bid of $50 million or more, but it can now only be a matter of time after the world’s leading art collectors showed themselves only too willing to take part in this ground-breaking experiment.
This doesn’t mean the end of the live sale in its entirety – too much history and excitement is tied up with that – but it does mean that auctions have entered a new era. It may have taken the pandemic to accelerate this process, but now we’ve seen it in all its glory, it’s here to stay.
It’s a bittersweet experience for people, like me, who have spent so many years performing to a live audience from the rostrum.
Jun 22, 2020
The Royal Family has to deal with a lot of reputation management issues these days, but for those who think this is a modern phenomenon, a fascinating item coming up for auction tells another tale.
In the early 19th century the French watch-making genius that was Abraham-Louis Breguet produced the Tourbillon Watch, a sumptuous gold timepiece that was at the cutting-edge of horological technology. Sought out by the crowned heads of Europe, Breguet had supplied the demands of Marie Antoinette and the Tsar, the King of Spain and even Napoleon.
Much taken by the Tourbillon, in 1808 King George III of Britain – a keen follower of sciences and horology – decided to buy it.
The problem was, England and France were at war and for the King to be seen trading with the French and sending what was the vast sum of 4,800 French Francs across the Channel would have been a public relations disaster.
The records tell us that Tourbillon reduced the risk of the watch being seized by only signing the carriage inside it. Exact details of how it was delivered discreetly into the Royal hands remain unclear – hardly surprising bearing in mind the circumstances – but after all the trouble Tourbillon and his associates took to fulfil the order, it transpires that the king never fully paid for the watch.
The final irony is that Sotheby’s have chosen July 14 as the date to put up the watch for sale. That’s Bastille Day, the event that marked the beginning of the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy across the water.
Jun 15, 2020
Stephen Fry once wrote about how he came from a household that showed as much knowledge or interest in sport as hedgehogs show in embroidery. Yet somehow, even as one who had spent his schooldays devising new ways of getting out of the dreaded ‘games’, as an adult he came to love watching all kinds of sport.
So it is with much regret that many of us will be missing Wimbledon this year.
Around now, we would normally be gearing up for the first bowl of strawberries and cream as we watched Nadal’s crashing serve take out some poor unknown qualifier, or debating whether this is the year that Serena Williams finally beats Margaret Court’s slam record.
Sport is a fertile hunting ground for collectors because of all this, as well as the statistics, the records, the personalities and the sheer excellence and achievement.
Football, golf, tennis, cricket, baseball and many other sports have keen followings among collectors, with record prices rising into five, six or even seven figures on occasion.
Thinks of all those fans grabbing for the sweaty headbands, wristbands, tennis balls and – on rare occasions – racquets used in grand slam finals. Not only does this give them a connection with greatness; it can also prove a goldmine later on.
Jun 8, 2020
Auction houses will be allowed to re-open their doors to the public from June 15. What does this mean in practice? Well, I think above and beyond anything else, we must all use our common sense, especially if we are to avoid the feared second wave of the pandemic.
I think we can take inspiration from the way that supermarkets and others who have stayed open have been operating. It also means being careful with the way paperwork is handled, payments are processed from those bidding in the room when that goes ahead and, for our part, ensuring the health and safety of our staff.
However well we plan for this, doubtless unforeseen elements will arise to challenge us in what is, after all, an unprecedented and complex situation. So we will tread carefully. Patience will be key to everything we do, whether as service providers or on the part of those wishing to come and view items in person. For all the finger pointing and disgruntlement on social media with what has been going on and how the authorities have handled it, I have been supremely impressed with the forbearance and consideration of the public in general.
We will be doing our best to make sure everyone is safe and that a visit to our Fernhurst rooms is as enjoyable and rewarding an experience as it can be. And we will continue to provide the full live bidding offer online too. Around the country you will find other salerooms seeking to do the same. This business is here to stay.
Jun 4, 2020
The four Ds that lead to items being sold at auction are Death, Divorce, Debt and Decluttering. After what we have all been through since March, I suspect that Debt will be the prompt for a whole new slew of consignments to auction as people try to get back on an even keel.
As people scour the attic and the hall cupboard looking for anything that might raise a few pounds, it is a timely reminder of some of the most unexpected things that have come up trumps in the auction rooms.
My favourite story of recent years took place in France last year. An auctioneer was called to clear out the modest 1960s home of a woman in her nineties when she noticed a small wooden painting hanging from the wall above the kitchen stove.
It had been passed down through the family and the old elderly woman thought it worthless, but it struck the auctioneer as something rather better.
Her hunch paid off: is was a lost work by the early Renaissance master Cimabue painted c.1260 – only 11 other works by him are known – and it went on to sell for €24.2 million, making it the world’s most expensive medieval artwork sold at auction.
May 25, 2020
Occasionally you come across a story that goes to absolute heart of what it means to be a collector. One such is that of the late Arthur Muggeridge, a Royal Artillery veteran who accumulated a fascinating a collection of items linked to spying, counter-espionage and daring POW escapes during the Second World War.
Packed with the sort of items that would have inspired Ian Fleming as he wrote about the ingenious Q, the collection includes concealed weapons, map fragments hidden in dominoes, a string vest that could be unravelled to reveal a single piece of string to be made into an escape rope and even exploding coal.
These all sprang from the imaginations of the boffins of MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, a department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945 charged with supporting European Resistance networks.
MI9’s Q was Christopher Hutton, who built himself a secret underground bunker in a field so that he could work undisturbed. One of my favourite of his inventions were maps printed on silk (so they wouldn’t rustle) that could be disguised as handkerchiefs. Famously Hutton developed uniforms that could be adapted quickly to look like civilian clothing, and he even supplied a floorplan of Colditz Castle to the officers held there.
Muggeridge’s collection is a real rarity, and although worth close to £20,000, it is the history, brilliance and sheer audacity of those who dreamed all of this up, together with the dramatic wartime stories in which they featured, that make it a dream for any auctioneer.
