IT is impressive that so many auctioneers have managed to react so efficiently to the current inconveniences. The reports so far indicate that, for all the difficulties and dangers of bidding without physical inspection, enough people are willing to chance their arms to make online operations practical, at least in the short term.
I have praised Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet in the past for giving a condition report for every lot. The firm is not alone, but perhaps more will be encouraged to follow it now, as it lessens the risks in viewless bidding. Sworders also sometimes illustrates the backs of paintings, which, as I remarked a couple of weeks ago, is important to serious picture buyers.
There was a good example of this in Sworders’s March 10 and 11 sale, in which the cataloguers told us about the reverse of a 51½in by 37½in portrait of a French nobleman in armour (Fig 2), described as ‘Circle of Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743)’. They noted that there were no labels and the canvas had been relined. ‘Seen under UV light, some small scattered retouching in places throughout, however, there is no sign of any large repairs or damage.’ It had come from a country dealer and was ‘presented in a stable condition, ready to hang’.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 22, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 22, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
