THE Auction Room markets itself as Twickenham’s first 21st-century boutique auction business, offering the lowest commission rates in London. It was launched in 2021, perhaps not the most auspicious time, and was an offshoot of The Swan auctions and antiques centre at Tetsworth, close to the M40 in Oxfordshire. Its first sale of the year was on January 31 and it produced by far and away the highest price of the firm’s short career.
This was £227,864 for a console table (Fig 5), which had carried an upper estimate of £2,000. It had come from a house in nearby Sheen and had been owned by the portrait painter Norman Hepple (1908–94). At some point, the vigorously carved marble-topped table had been well, but a little unsympathetically, gilded and painted. It was similar to a table produced by William Kent for Lord Burlington’s Chiswick House in 1729 and certainly it had all Kent’s muscularity. The piece attracted considerable attention, with five serious bidders in person or on the telephone battling it out, the eventual winner being a dealer from Ireland. It would be interesting to see it again after restoration.
Denne historien er fra February 22, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 22, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
