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Acceptance
in Lieu
Report 2009/2010
Cover: Seaton Delaval; The North Front
and Forecourt. © NTPL/John Hammond.
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Preface
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Introduction
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SeatonDelaval
TheNationalTrust
100yearsofAIL
WhathasbeenacquiredthroughAIL?
Valueformoney
ExtensionoftheScheme
Conditionalexemption
Acknowledgments
1910-2010highlights
AILCases2009/2010
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MedalsofGeorgeUnwinDSO
ArchiveoftheEarlsofRomney
AdamdeColone:Earl of Winton and his Sons
FrancisGrant:The Meet of the Fife Hounds
DegasSculpture
SirPeterLely:Portrait of ‘Ursula’
SeatonDelaval
DanielGardner:The Three Witches
ChattelsfromLymePark
MarcellusLaroon:A Musical Party
ChaïmSoutine:Jeune femme à la blouse blanche
DomenicoTiepolo:Café by the Quay in Venice
PauldeLamerie:Fourcandlesticks
TheFitzwilliamsilversouptureens
Nineearly20thcenturyBritishpaintings
Englishdelftplaque:The Royal Oak
ArchiveoftheEarlsofKintore
Pollardcollectionofmedalsandplaquettes
EssexHousePressbooks
CornelisvanPoelenburgh:Italianate Landscape
Collectionof20thcenturyphotography
RBMartineau:A Woman of San Germano
PapersfromtheLytteltonFamilyArchive
SeatfurniturefromHagleyHall
EuanUglow:Laetitia
GrahamSutherland:Study for Thorns
BaruchSpinoza:Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
KarlSchmidt-Rottluff:Dangast Dorf
JohnWilson:The Battle of Trafalgar
JanLievens:Portrait of the 1st Earl of Ancram
BernardMeadowsCollection
ArchiveofDollieandErnestRadford
LouisXIVBoullecabinetonstand
Appendices
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Listofobjects,allocationsandtaxvaluesfor2009/2010
MembersoftheAILPanel
ExpertAdvisers2009/2010
Allocationofitemsreportedin2008/2009
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Acceptance in Lieu Report 2009/2010 1
Preface
When in 1910 provision was first made for the settlement of Estate Duty, the forerunner of Inheritance Tax, by offers of land to the nation, it cannot have been foreseen that this terse piece of 10 line legislation would
still be thriving 100 years later. It is a fitting climax to the first 100 years of the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme
(AIL) that Seaton Delaval and much of its contents should be ceded to the nation and then passed to the National Trust. This masterpiece of 18th century English Baroque architecture by Sir John Vanbrugh has had a colourful history since it was completed in 1731. Through AIL and the work of the National Trust its future is now secure.
In its early years the AIL Scheme transferred many houses, their contents and the surrounding land into public
ownership. As the scheme adapted to changing times, works of art were accepted and allocated, first to
national museums and then to regional and local collections. Now there can be few, if any, major public
collections in the UK which have not been enriched by the AIL Scheme. It has provided a lasting legacy of
important cultural objects which increase the ability of our public collections to engage with a wide public and which enrich all our lives.
The centenary of AIL also provides an opportunity to look forward and in this respect the enthusiastic words of the new Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, in his first major policy statement on taking office were
encouraging: “Of course, we already have a tax relief that has played a huge role in enhancing the
collections of museums and galleries across the country: the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. For 100 years now,
this scheme has allowed the transfer of important heritage assets into public ownership in lieu of liability to
inheritance tax and estate duties.” The role of private collectors and philanthropists in ensuring the vitality of the cultural sector is one that we can expect to hear more about as the new Government develops its plans for the sector. The experience of the AIL Scheme shows that there is a mutual benefit for each side in encouraging private collectors to become public donors.
The next few years are going to be a challenging time for the cultural sector but there are also real
opportunities to ensure that private benefactions return to the central place they enjoyed in an earlier period.
So many of our leading museums were founded on generous gifts and bequests and in the AIL Scheme’s
centenary year it is appropriate that we should be encouraged to renew that spirit of looking upon our
museums and archival repositories as places in which we all share and to which we contribute, whether that be as a donor, a volunteer or simply as a visitor enriched and renewed by contact with our history and its cultural riches.
We need to encourage a renewed sense of shared ownership in our museums, libraries and archives, not simply because they are places we wish to visit but because they are repositories of what we value. The AIL Scheme is a model of how the tax system can successfully encourage the transfer of private objects
into the public sphere. After 100 years, perhaps the best celebration of AIL would be to build on the scheme’s
success and extend its reach by enabling owners of cultural treasures to do today, while they are living, what
AIL currently only allows to be done tomorrow on their passing.
Over the last decade the AIL Panel has been led by Jonathan Scott. His commitment, dedication and
judgement have ensured that the scheme has prospered. He has generously agreed to stay on as Chair for a further few months to ensure a smooth transition for his successor. MLA and the wider museum and
archive community owe him a considerable debt for his tireless work since 2000. He is surrounded by a
panel of experts who like him generously and freely give their time and knowledge to ensure the scheme
works. I wish to thank them all for their work and acknowledge the very able assistance that is provided by the Panel’s secretariat from MLA’s Acquisitions, Export and Loans Unit under the capable hands of Gerry McQuillan. The Secretariat and its work will be re-located during the forthcoming year, but details
remain to be worked out and users of the scheme should not notice any change in the quality of the service.
Sir Andrew Motion
Chair, MLA
2 Acceptance in Lieu Report 2009/2010
Introduction
During 2009/2010 a wide selection of works of art and objects of historic interest was
accepted in lieu, ranging from a Degas bronze of a young dancer to a charming scene of Venetian life by Domenico Tiepolo, from the medals of a Battle of Britain pilot to
candlesticks by the great Huguenot silversmith, Paul de Lamerie, from a collection of some of the finest photographs of the 20th century to distinguished 17th century portraits
by Lely and Lievens. Above all, there was the acquisition of Sir John Vanbrugh’s great
baroque house, Seaton Delaval, with its surrounding gardens and park as well as some
important portraits and furniture. The total value of all this amounted to £15.7m, resulting
in a tax settlement of £10.8m.
The comparative figures for the last 10 years are set out below.
Year to 31 March
Number of cases
Value of objects accepted
Tax settled
2001
23
£24.6m
£16.0m
2002
27
£35.1m
£26.6m
2003
37
£39.9m
£15.8m
2004
23
£21.7m
£15.0m
2005
28
£13.0m
£8.9m
2006
38
£25.2m
£13.2m
2007
32
£25.3m
£13.9m
2008
32
£15.2m
£10.3m
2009
36
£19.8m
£10.8m
2010
33
£15.7m
£10.8m
Totals
309
£235.5m
£141.3m
The variation of the ratio between the total value of the objects and their tax settlement
value is largely due to the incidence of hybrid offers where the value of the object offered
was larger than the amount of tax due, with the museum or gallery to which the object was allocated having to make up the difference.
As usual, the national collections in London and Edinburgh benefited from the scheme and pictures, furniture, sculpture and archives were also allocated to Cambridge, Leeds
and Chipping Campden. In addition, museums and galleries in Bristol, Birmingham,
Falmouth, Exeter, Glasgow and Oxford received objects accepted in the previous year but not at that stage advertised and allocated. We should explain that, when an offer is
made without a specific condition as to the object’s destination, a temporary allocation is made while the availability of the object in question is advertised on the MLA website.
Final allocations are made thereafter.
Seaton Delaval
No great country house and its contents have been offered under the AIL Scheme since
1984. We were delighted, therefore, that Seaton Delaval should have been accepted
together with some of its important contents and transferred to the National Trust. The
house is one of the grandest and most imaginative creations of one of Britain’s greatest
architects. The view from the steps between the colonnades to the distant sea is superb
while the echoing spaces of the interior are wonderfully romantic. Many of the original
Delaval family paintings and much furniture were destroyed in the fire which devastated the
house in 1822; the present contents, mainly in the former service wing, were transferred to
the house by Lord Hastings some 60 years ago and came from the Astley family’s property
in Norfolk, a transfer that can be paralleled in a number of other country houses which
have been furnished with chattels from other properties belonging to the family.
The National Trust
Although it had been many years since the National Trust acquired a country house in lieu of tax, it has received significant support from the AIL Scheme for the acquisition of some of the contents in its properties. During the course of the last century owners often handed their houses over to the Trust but retained much of the furniture and many of the paintings. The Trust was frequently able to agree loan arrangements with the
owners, although these were generally for a limited period. In today’s economic climate
the situation is liable to change; the current owners of the chattels may be several
generations removed from the original donors and may never have themselves lived in the
house concerned. It is not surprising, therefore, that some of them should wish to sell part
of the contents of these houses or use them to pay inheritance taxes. In many cases these
objects have been offered in lieu. The scheme has been very successful: over the last 10 years the total value of chattels transferred to the Trust through AIL (excluding Seaton
Delaval and its contents) has amounted to £21,645,000. Without this support there would
have been severe financial pressure on the Trust. It would have had to raise the funds to
retain some of the important pictures and furnishings which make a large contribution to
the visitors’ enjoyment and understanding of the houses themselves.
100 years of AIL
The legislation enabling objects to be accepted by the nation in settlement of tax was
passed 100 years ago as part of the 1910 Finance Act. It is worth taking a look at the
background to the scheme and celebrating some of the major acquisitions that have been made as a result of this farsighted legislation.
Since the turn of the 19th century there had been increasing disquiet at the way in which
great houses were being sold and their contents dispersed. For that reason the 1896
Finance Act exempted from Death Duties works of art which were of national or historic
interest, while the National Art Collections Fund was set up to acquire major paintings in
1903. Six years later David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced a highly controversial ‘People’s Budget’ which was finally passed in 1910. This contained a range of taxes on land intended to fall heavily on the landed aristocracy, but it included
clauses permitting Death Duties to be paid by the transfer of heritage assets. The latter
scheme was slow to take off because the First World War and subsequent financial turmoil
concentrated attention on other matters and there was little encouragement to take
advantage of the provisions because the Treasury insisted that some other government
department had to make up the tax foregone.
During the ‘30s there was much talk about the future of the country house, culminating in the 1937 National Trust Act, which made it easier for owners to transfer great houses to the Trust. Again, war intervened but, in the post-war period, such transfers were much
facilitated. This was enabled firstly by the establishment of the National Land Fund in 1946 ‘as a thank-offering for victory’ to compensate the Inland Revenue for the tax
foregone when a house was transferred and secondly by the 1953 Finance Act which
allowed the Fund to acquire chattels as well as houses in lieu of tax. In 1947 the first house
was acquired by the National Trust under the scheme. This was the romantic manor,
Cotehele, in Cornwall, which had been appreciated as an ancient survival of ‘olden times’
since the days of George III. In 1957, however, the Treasury withdrew a substantial part of the Land Fund’s capital after which the system was much less used. Then in 1977
Mentmore, with its spectacular collection, was offered to the nation by Lord Rosebery for £2m. The Treasury refused the offer because the cost was considered to be excessive
and Sotheby’s sold the contents for £6.25m – over three times the price at which they could have been acquired. As a result of the controversy that ensued, the National
Heritage Memorial Fund was established and the National Heritage Act 1980 set out a new framework for the acceptance of heritage objects in lieu of tax. The scheme was
substantially enhanced in 1985 when Lord Gowrie, who was then Minister for the Arts,
announced that up to £10m would be available for AIL annually through the Public
Expenditure Reserve, although this sum was neither a limit nor a target. The amount
available was subsequently raised to £20m.
WhathasbeenacquiredthroughAIL?
After the acquisition of Cotehele in 1947 a number of other houses were transferred to the
National Trust through AIL – these included Penrhyn Castle in north Wales; Ickworth, the
eccentric round house built by an 18th century Bishop of Derry; Saltram, an important
house with interiors designed by Robert Adam; the Vyne and Sudbury Hall, two fine Stuart
houses; the magnificent Hardwick Hall, ‘more glass than wall’, built by Bess of Hardwick in the reign of Elizabeth I; Long Melford in Suffolk; Shugborough, created by the wealth of Admiral Anson the circumnavigator; Sissinghurst Castle with its romantic garden created
by Vita Sackville West; and Cragside Hall, a great Victorian mansion equipped with all the
latest Victorian technology. Other houses were transferred to the Trust outright and some
of their contents were subsequently accepted in lieu: the magnificent 17th century silver
furniture at Knole; the Van Dycks and Turners at Petworth; some of Churchill’s paintings at Chartwell; grand furniture and porcelain at Waddesdon; one of the Rothschild family
houses; portraits and furniture at Powis Castle; Drake’s drum and banners at Buckland
Abbey; and much more besides.
In addition to the property that was allocated to the National Trust, museums and galleries
throughout the United Kingdom have benefited from the scheme. A sample dozen of the
great acquisitions are listed below:
Clive’s elephant armour Royal Armouries
Claude Lorrain, Liber Veritatis British Museum
Holbein, Cartoon of Henry VII and Henry VIII
National Portrait Gallery
Ormonde family silver
Victoria and Albert and other museums
Corbridge Roman silver dish
British Museum
Michelangelo, The Dream
Courtauld Institute
Constable, Stratford Mill National Gallery
Picasso, Weeping Woman Tate
El Greco, Fábula National Galleries of Scotland
National Gallery
Van Dyck, Portrait of Abbé Scaglia
National Gallery
Titian, Venus Anadyomene
National Galleries of Scotland
Cimabue, Madonna and Child
Then there are the objects accepted in lieu and now owned by museums but still displayed
in the houses for which they were originally intended. For example: some of the furniture
and tapestries which our first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, acquired for Houghton
Hall, the series of Reynolds portraits at Port Eliot, the collection of antique classical
sculpture at Castle Howard, the sporting pictures by Wootton in the Great Hall at Longleat
and the Arundel portraits at Arundel Castle.
Not all objects accepted were grand masterpieces of this sort. In recent years the nation
has acquired a collection of mainly Victorian pleasure boats on Lake Windermere, the
dented cavalry helmet worn by General Scarlett at the Charge of the Heavy Brigade at
Balaklava in 1854, Admiral Nelson’s armchair from H.M.S. Victory and Wilfred Thesiger’s
photographs of the Marsh Arabs. In 2008/2009 works by three living artists were
accepted and last year there was a fine piece of jewellery by a contemporary designer. We hope that this trend will continue.
Distinguished archives have been acquired. These include the papers of several Prime
Ministers, the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Newcastle and the Marquess of Rockingham
from the 18th century, and Lord Addington and the Earl of Derby from the 19th century. It also includes the archives of the Duke of Marlborough from Blenheim and the Duke of
Wellington’s papers. Local record offices have been enriched by the transfer of numerous
deposits of family archives, vital for the study of local history and land tenure. It is perhaps
disappointing that more literary papers have not been offered but unfortunately North
American universities have frequently made irresistible offers to authors during their life
time and there has been little left when the writer has died. On a different note there were
the minute books of the Hambledon Cricket Club, the forerunner of the M.C.C.
The illustrations that follow this section of our report give an idea of the scope of the
scheme over the years.
It should be noted that the range of offers has changed. As mentioned above, Seaton
Delaval was the first country house to be acquired for over a quarter of a century. It seems
likely that this is due partly to more effective tax planning by landed families and partly to
the reduction of the rates of Death Duties or capital transfer tax from 75 per cent in 1975
to 60 per cent in 1984 and 40 per cent in 1988. Furthermore, as a result of the rise in the
value of important works of art, the offer of a single major painting or piece of furniture
can satisfy a large tax liability. Very few estates today incur a tax liability so large that it can
only be settled by the offer of a Poussin or a Picasso.
Value for money
The scheme has undoubtedly been an outstandingly successful investment for the nation.
As major international museums’ demand for outstanding works of art remains steady and
the supply diminishes, values have soared. Consequently the valuations agreed for some
of the great Van Dycks and Turners acquired in lieu over the last half century now seem
astonishingly low. The nation was not getting a bargain then – the values were accepted
both by our experts and by the offerors’ agents and those were the fair prices at that date
– but rather, through the AIL Scheme, the nation acquired masterpieces that would today
be unaffordable on the open market. There seem to have been mercifully few errors of
judgement such as the Rembrandt Philosopher, accepted as authentic in 1957 but now
relegated to the National Gallery’s reserve collection.
Extension of the Scheme
We recognise that it is inappropriate to press for any immediate extension of the Scheme.
We are, however, working on some proposals which we should like to put forward when
the economic situation has improved.
Conditional exemption
In 1998 the rules relating to the conditional exemption of works of art or objects of historic
interest were substantially revised, the criteria for exemption were tightened and access
had to be considerably extended. After this passage of time, we feel that the current
conditional exemption scheme should be revisited to ensure that it is operating to best
advantage for the nation.
Acknowledgements
The scheme succeeds because of the generous efforts of the many advisers who provide
the Panel with expert advice. To them we owe a particular debt of thanks, especially to
those upon whom we call with considerable regularity. They give their time and expertise
to help UK museums and their expertise is vital to the success of the AIL Scheme.
We are grateful to the solicitors and auction houses who draw the attention of their clients
to the benefits of the scheme and prepare the offers for our consideration. In addition, the Heritage Section of H M Revenue & Customs does a splendid job of dealing with the
taxation and legal aspects of offers in lieu which ensures, that following the Panel’s advice
and ministerial agreement, the mechanics of legal transfer of the accepted object into
public ownership are carried out smoothly and efficiently.
To the museums, libraries and archival offices which have received objects through AIL, we offer our thanks for the images of the objects which in many cases they have provided
for this report. In this respect our thanks also go to the offerors’ agents for their permission
to use images supplied in the course of offers.
Jonathan Scott
Chairman of the AIL Panel
Acceptance
in Lieu
1910-2010 highlights
1. Clive’s elephant armour
This almost complete set of elephant armour
was made in Mughal India, c. 1600. It is
believed to have been captured by Clive of
India at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and was
brought to England in 1801 by Clive’s widow. It is the largest set of animal armour in the
world. It was accepted in lieu in 1963. © Board of Trustees of the Armouries.
2.Claude Lorrain Liber Veritatis
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3
Claude Lorrain (1600-1682): Landscape
with Mercury giving Apollo the lyre, 192
by 250 mm, inscribed, dated and signed,
“Roma 1678/Claudio IV”. The sketch-book of the Liber Veritatis contains 195 drawings
which Claude made as a record of his
paintings and five unrelated preparatory
drawings. It was accepted in lieu in 1957. © Trustees of the British Museum.
3. Holbein: Cartoon of
Henry VII and Henry VIII
Hans Holbein (1497/8-1543): Henry VII
and Henry VIII, ink and watercolour, c.
1536-7, 2578 by 1372 mm. This is the left half section of the preparatory cartoon
that Holbein made for a wall-painting in
Whitehall Palace which was destroyed by fire in 1698. It is the origin of the classic
image of Henry VIII, hands on hips and legs
astride. It was accepted in lieu in 1957. © Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery.
4
4. Ormonde family silver
The Ormonde silver consisted of several
hundred pieces of silver and silver-gilt from
the 17th to the 19th century, with a particular
strength in early 19th century objects,
especially those designed by Paul Storr. The example pictured is a George IV twohandled vase-shaped silver-gilt cup and
cover by Philip Rundell which was presented
to Baron Ormonde following the coronation of George IV on 19 July 1821. The collection
was accepted in lieu in 1980 and allocated
to museums in Belfast (Ulster Museum),
Birmingham, Castle Barnard (The Bowes
Museum), Brighton, Cambridge (Fitzwilliam
Museum), Chester (Grosvenor Gallery),
Doncaster and London (Victoria and Albert
Museum) © Victoria and Albert Museum.
5.CorbridgeRoman
silverdish
5
TheCorbridgeRomansilverdishisa
superbexampleoflateRomansilver.
Stylisticallyitdatesto4thcenturyADandis
likelytohavebeenmadesomewhereinthe
Mediterranean.Thepaganscenedepicted
showsApolloontheright,holdingabow
withalyreathisfeet,hissisterDiana,the
huntergoddess,andAthenatoherleftalong
withApollo’smotherandaunt.Thedish
(orlanxinLatin)wasfoundinabankofthe
RiverTynenearHadrian’sWallin1735and
acceptedinlieuin1993withadditional
contributionsfromtheNationalHeritage
MemorialFund,theFriendsoftheBritish
MuseumandTheArtFund.
©BritishMuseum.
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6.Michelangelo:
The Dream
MichelangeloBuonarroti(1475-1564)
The Dream,c.1533,blackchalkonpaper,
39.8x28cm.Thisisoneofthefinestofall
Michelangelo’sdrawingsmadewhenthe
artistwasinhislate50s.Itwascreatedas
agiftforTomassode’Cavalieri,ayoung
RomannoblemanwithwhomMichelangelo
wasdeeplysmitten.Itwasacceptedinlieu
in1981andallocatedtotheHomeHouse
Society(nowtheSamuelCourtauldTrust).
©CourtauldGallery,London.
7.Constable:
Stratford Mill
7
JohnConstable(1776-1837)Stratford Mill
(The Young Waltonians),oiloncanvas,
127by182.9cm.Paintedandexhibited
atTheRoyalAcademyin1820,thisisthe
secondofthemajorpaintings,‘six-footers’,by
theartistdepictingscenesontheStourValley
whichConstableexhibitedattheAcademy
from1819-25.Itwasacceptedinlieuin
1986andallocatedtotheNationalGallery.
©NationalGallery.
8.Picasso:
Weeping Woman
8
PabloPicasso:Weeping Woman,1937
(Femme en pleurs),oiloncanvas,60.8by
50cm.Oneoftheworstatrocitiesofthe
SpanishCivilWarwasthebombingofthe
BasquetownofGuernicabytheGerman
airforceinApril1937.Picassoresponded
tothemassacrebypaintingthevastmural
Guernica,andformonthsafterwardshe
madesubsidiarypaintingsbasedononeof
thefiguresinthemural:aweepingwoman
holdingherdeadchild.Weeping Woman is
thelastandmostelaborateoftheseries.The
paintingwasacceptedinlieuin1987and
allocatedtoTatewithadditionalpayments
fromtheNationalHeritageMemorialFund,
TheArtFundandtheFriendsoftheTate
Gallery.©DACS/PicassoEstate.
9
9.ElGreco:Fábula
ElGreco(DomenikosTheotokopoulos)
(1541-1614)An Allegory (Fábula),c.1580-5,
oiloncanvas,67.3by88.6cm.Theintense
lightanddeepshadowenhancetheairof
mysteryaroundtheboylightingacandle.
Thepaintingisintendedtoconveya
moralisingmessageagainstthebaseand
foolishinstinctoflust.Itwasacceptedinlieu
in1989andallocatedtotheNational
GalleriesofScotlandwithadditionalfunding
fromtheNationalHeritageMemorialFund,
TheArtFundandtheGallery’sownfunds.
©NationalGalleriesofScotland.
10
10.Cimabue:
Madonna and Child
Cimabue:Madonna and Child Enthroned
with Two Angels,egg-temperaonwood,with
gold-leafground,27.7by20.5cm.Thisrare
paintingistheonlyexampleoftheartistin
theUnitedKingdom.AlongwithDuccioand
Giottohisworkmarksadecisivemoment
whenItalianpaintingbegantoexplore
three-dimensionalformandthedepiction
ofvolume.Thepaintingwasaccepted
inlieuin2000andallocatedtotheNational
Gallery.©NationalGallery.
11
11.VanDyck:
Portrait of Abbé Scaglia
SirAnthonyvanDyck(1599-1641)Portrait of
Abbé Scaglia,1634,oiloncanvas,200.6by
123.2cm.CesareAlessandroScaglia,Abbé
ofStaffardaandMandanici(1592-1641)
wasadiplomat,representingSavoyinRome,
ParisandLondonandlaterservedthe
Spanishcourt.HesettledinBrusselsin1632
wherethismagnificentportraitwaspainted.
Itwasacceptedinlieuin1999andallocated
totheNationalGallery.©NationalGallery.
12.Titian:
Venus Anadyomene
Titian(TizianoVeccellio)d.1576,Venus
Anadyomene,oiloncanvas,75.8by57.6
cm.ThepaintingdepictsthebirthofVenus
assheisbornfullygrownfromthefoam
ofthesea.Thepaintingwasacceptedin
lieuin2003andallocatedtotheNational
GalleriesofScotlandwithadditionalfunding
fromtheHeritageLotteryFund,TheArtFund
(withacontributionfromtheWolfson
Foundation)andtheScottishExecutive.
©NationalGalleriesofScotland.
12
Cases
2009/2010
Acceptance in Lieu
1.MedalsofGeorgeUnwinDSO,DFM
WingCommanderGeorgeUnwin,DSO,DFMandBar(1913-2006),
wasoneoftheleadingfighterpilotsoftheBattleofBritain.Hejoined
theRAFaged16asanapprenticeclerkandwasselectedforpilot
trainingin1935.Onreceivinghiswingshewaspostedto19Squadron,
flyinginopen-cockpitGlosterGauntletbiplanes.ThisSquadronwas
thefirsttoreceivetheSpitfireinAugust1939and,followingtheend
ofthe‘PhoneyWar’inMay1940,itwasinvolvedinprotectingthe
retreatingBritishExpeditionaryForceatDunkirk.Hissobriquet,
‘Grumpy’Unwin,issaidtohaveoriginatedatthistimewhenhe
madehisfeelingsknownatnotseeingactionuntilthesecondday
oftheengagement.
HeflewoutofRAFDuxfordformostoftheBattleofBritainandfor
partofthetimewasDouglasBader’swingman.On15September
1940Unwin’ssectionengaged30BF109Germanfighterswhich
wereaccompanyingaformationofbombers.Unwinshotdown
threeenemyplanesthatdayandwasimmediatelyawardedthe
DistinguishedFlyingMedal.Inthenexttwomonthsheshotdown
afurtherthreeGermanfightersandwasinvolvedintakingouta
furthertwo.TheBartohisDFMwasgiveninDecember1940.
Afterreceivinghiscommissionin1942,Unwinactedasaflying
instructoruntillate1943whenhejoinedNo613Squadroninthe
monthsbeforeD-Day,flyingover50intruderoperationsintoEurope
toattackenemyfuelsupplies,airfieldsandroadandraillinks.
AfterthewarhesawserviceinIraqandSingaporewherehe
commandedNo84SquadronandwasawardedaDSOfor
operationsduringtheMalayancampaign.
TheoffercomprisednotonlyUnwin’sfullsetofmedalsbutalsohis
log-bookscoveringhiscareerfrom1935toMarch1958and12
combatreportsfromtheBattleofBritainalongwithhisServiceand
Messdressuniforms.
ThePanelconsideredthatthecollectionmetthefirstcriterion,that
itwasinacceptableconditionandsuggestedtotheofferingestate
thattheofferpricewasundervaluedandshouldbeincreasedbyover
60percent.Thisresultedinthecollectionsettlingmoretaxthanwas
actuallypayable.TheImperialWarMuseummetthedifferenceofjust
over£43,000,withtheNationalHeritageMemorialFundcontributing
£39,844.Thecollectionhasbeenpermanentlyallocatedtothe
ImperialWarMuseumfordisplayatDuxfordinaccordancewith
theconditionoftheofferor.
Below: The medals of Wing Commander
George Unwin. © Imperial War Museum.
2. Archive of the Marsham family, Earls of Romney
The offer comprised the papers of the Marsham family who originated
from Norfolk but whose principle lands were in Kent. In 1630 John
Marsham, later first Baronet, bought Whorne’s Place in Cuxton, near
Rochester in Kent and acquired other lands around Rochester later in the decade. A supporter of the King in the Civil War, he became MP for Rochester and was knighted at the Restoration and made a
Baronet in 1663. He was a considerable scholar and travelled widely
on the Continent in his youth. His son, also John, purchased The
Mote, near Maidstone which was the principal family seat until the late
19th century. The house was rebuilt from 1793 to 1801 to the austere
designs of the architect Daniel Alexander, who was later to design
both Maidstone and Dartmoor Gaols. The archive documents in great
detail the construction of this important late Georgian house which
was the only domestic building by Alexander.
The archive is of considerable extent and amounts to 35 metres of
shelf space. It not only contains the estate records of the Marsham
family but it touches on all aspects of their intellectual, social,
economic and military affairs. The earliest manuscript is a 12th century
copy of the Book of Ecclesiasticus with marginal commentary of the subsequent century which is believed to have belonged to an
archbishop of Canterbury. The archive contains the scholarly papers of three generations of the family including the literary and historical
papers of Sir John Marsham; the papers of John Marsham while
preparing his history of England; an important series of Chancery
cases in the 1640s; and a Book of Pleas of the Court of Wards from
1575 to 1605.
The Panel considered that the archive met the third criterion within the regional context of Kent, that it was in acceptable condition and,
following negotiation, that it was fairly valued. The archive has been
allocated to Kent County Council for retention at the Centre for
Kentish Studies, Maidstone. As the acceptance of the archive could have settled more tax than was liable, Kent County Council
contributed a hybrid element of £10,374.
3. Adam de Colone: Earl of Winton and his Sons
The portrait by Adam de Colone, oil on canvas, 114.3 by 83.8 cm,
depicts George Seton (1584-1650), 3rd Earl of Winton and his two
sons, George (1613-1648) and Alexander Seton (1621-1691). The
inscription records that they are aged 40, 12 and 8, which would date
the portrait to c. 1625.
George Seaton became Earl of Winton in 1607 when his elder brother
Robert was confined on grounds of insanity and resigned the peerage.
He married Anne Hay, daughter of the 9th Earl of Erroll, two years
later. He had been a member of the Scottish Privy Council since he
inherited the title and at the time that the portrait was painted he was
the Council’s President. He entertained both James VI and Charles I at
Seton Palace on their visits to Scotland in 1617 and 1633 respectively.
On the latter royal visit the family chronicle records that Winton’s
second son, Alexander, greeted the King and his entourage with a Latin oration which resulted in him immediately being knighted. He was created Viscount Kingston by Charles II within days of his
coronation at Scone Palace in 1651.
The Earl of Winton had been educated by the Jesuits in France which
aroused suspicions among his Presbyterian countrymen of his being
‘popishly affected’ and on the outbreak of the first Bishops’ War in
1639 his estates were sequestrated when he left Scotland to attend
King Charles.
The elder son, George Seton, was captured by the Covenanter Army
in September 1645 following the defeat of the Marquess of Montrose
at the Battle of Philiphaugh and a ransom of £40,000 was paid by his
father to ensure his safe return.
This portrait is the finest surviving example of Adam de Colone’s work.
He is thought to have been born in Edinburgh shortly before 1597 and
it has been suggested that he was the son of James VI’s court painter,
Adrian van Son. It is thought that Adam used his mother’s name,
Declony, as his father died while he was still a child. About 30 extant
works are known and all are distinct in their technique as well as the
inscriptions that they bear. Whether they were painted in London or in
Edinburgh is unknown as his sitters were predominantly Scots who had
connections with the London court. No works are known after 1628
and it is not recorded whether he ever made use of the permission he
sought in 1625 to travel abroad.
The Panel considered that the portrait met the second and third
criteria, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was offered at a fair market value. It has been permanently allocated to the Scottish
National Portrait Gallery, where it had previously been on loan, in
accordance with the condition of the offeror.
Above: Adam de Colone: Earl of Winton and his Sons.
© National Galleries of Scotland.
4. Sir Francis Grant: The Meet of the Fife Hounds
The painting on offer, The Meet of the Fife Hounds, oil on canvas,
88.9 by 119.4 cm, is signed and dated 1833. It was commissioned by
Anthony Keith, 7th Earl of Kintore, and retains its original frame. The
painting was one of Grant’s most successful early works and is in the
tradition of Ferneley who had already painted several hunting scenes
for Lord Kintore.
Frances Grant (1803-1878) was born in Edinburgh to a Perthshire
landowning family who also had estates in Jamaica. He was educated
at Harrow and developed in his youth a fondness for both fox-hunting
and painting. When he came into £10,000 on the death of his father
in 1818 he was able to indulge both passions but soon spent his
inheritance. Although he briefly studied law, he took up painting as his profession. His second wife, Isabella Norman, whom he married in 1829, was the niece of the Duke of Rutland, the leader of society in the area of the Melton Mowbray hunt with which Grant had ridden
since the early 1820s. He had met at this time the sporting painter
John Ferneley who had a studio at Melton and briefly studied with him although he was essentially self taught.
His early paintings clearly show the influence of Ferneley with their
depiction of hunts and sporting action. This was to change in 1838-1839 when he received a Royal commission. The result, Queen
Victoria Riding Out (Royal Collection), depicts the recently crowned
Victoria riding out from Windsor Castle with her Prime Minister, Lord
Melbourne, and greeting the Lord Chamberlain, the Marquess of
Conyngham. The success of this painting led to Grant spending much
of the rest of his career as a fashionable portrait painter.
Despite further royal commissions, when Grant was elected President
of the Royal Academy in 1866 the Queen was not in favour. Lord
Russell noted, “She cannot say she thinks this selection is a good one for Art. He boasts of never having been in Italy or studied the Old Masters.”
The Panel considered that the painting met the third criterion, that it was in acceptable condition and, after discussion, that it was
acceptably valued. The painting has been permanently allocated to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where it had previously been on loan, in accordance with the condition of the offeror.
Below: Francis Grant: The Meet of the Fife
Hounds. © National Galleries of Scotland.
5. Edgar Degas Sculpture
Dancer Looking at the Sole of Her Right Foot, bronze, with dark
brown patination, 45.5 cm high, (Herbrard 40) is taken from one of the sculptures that were discovered in the studio of Edgar Degas
(1843-1917) after his death. The original sculpture in wax with cork support is in the National Gallery, Washington. In the years
immediately following Degas’s death, from 1918 to 1937, casts were made of all of the artist’s original sculptures and the Parisian
foundry E A A Herbrard produced bronze versions in an edition of 22.
Eighteen were marked A to T and a small number of further copies
were made for the artist’s heirs and for Herbrard himself. Recent
research suggests that further castings were being made from the late 1940s.
Edgar Degas (1843-1917) was one of the founding members of the
Impressionist group and organised several of its exhibitions. He was
equally at home working in oil, pastel, print medium and drawing. By the 1880s he was a successful artist free of financial concerns and
for his last years he largely withdrew from the Paris art scene to work
in his studio exploring his own artistic interests. He had exhibited one
sculpture, Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, in 1881 but otherwise his
sculptures were private explorations of his favourite themes, most
frequently ballet dancers and the female nude figure but also horses.
The sculpture on offer bears the Herbrard mark and is lettered ‘J’. It was acquired by the great English collector Samuel Courtauld
(1876-1947) soon after it was produced and following its exhibition in London in December 1923. This sculpture has been described as
one of Degas’s most dynamic creations. The complex movement of
the dancer’s body as she turns to examine the raised right foot had
special significance for Degas and he returned to the theme in three
other variations of the pose. Although it is now impossible to give a precise chronology of the development of this figure, the statue in question is considered to have been the final version because it is the most developed and sophisticated of the group.
The Panel considered that the sculpture met the second and third
criteria, that it was in acceptable condition and valued at a fair market
price. It has been permanently allocated to the Samuel Courtauld
Trust for display at the Courtauld Galleries, in accordance with the
condition of the offerors.
Above: Edgar Degas: Dancer Looking at the Sole
of her right Foot. © Courtauld Gallery, London.
6. Sir Peter Lely: Portrait of ‘Ursula’
‘Ursula’, oil on canvas, 90.1 by 75 cm was painted by Sir Peter Lely
(1618-1680). He was born in Soest in Westphalia but by 1637 he was
a pupil of a painter in Haarlem and by 1643 he was in England where
he remained for the rest of his life. It is believed that for his first few
years in London he specialised in landscapes populated with figures.
He was also influenced by the work of Van Dyck, and through him, by Venetian painting. He soon responded to the English preference for portraits and during the Commonwealth achieved a position of
pre-eminence in English portraiture which he was to retain after the Restoration.
Although Lely is best remembered today for the images of the
voluptuous beauties of the court of Charles II, his earlier portraits have
a quieter and more reflective quality as demonstrated in the portrait
offered in lieu. When this work appeared on the London art market in 1928 it was said to be a portrait of Lady Howard. The previous lot
was a Lely portrait of Sir George Howard and the pair had been listed
in the 1769 Dunham Massey inventory of the collection of the Earls of Stamford under these titles. It was bought in 1931 by Lord Lee of
Fareham who proposed that it was in fact a portrait of Lely’s long-term
mistress, Ursula, about whom little is known other than that they met in the mid 1660s, that she bore Lely two children, and that she died in 1673. Lord Lee published an article on the painting in 1932 at the
time it was displayed in ‘The Age of Walnut’ exhibition. The intimate
nature of the portrait suggested to Lee that it depicted a woman with
whom the artist was on most familiar terms. He also considered that
the sitter could be identified with the female figures in Lely’s The
Concert (Courtauld Institute) which was then mistakenly believed
to be an image of the artist, his children and Ursula.
Above: Sir Peter Lely: ‘Ursula’ (Portrait of an
Unknown Woman). © Courtauld Gallery, London.
Samuel Courtauld bought the painting from Lord Lee sometime
between 1942 and his death in 1947. In 1942 he published an article
for ‘Apollo’ in which he compared three female portraits, including this
Lely. He described how he felt that in this work, which he accepted to
be of Ursula, Lely had produced “a work of unsurpassable quality.”
Modern scholarship, however, has not accepted the identity of the
sitter, who remains unknown. Oliver Millar in his catalogue to the
monographic exhibition in 1978 pointed out that the painting came
from early in Lely’s career, long before he had met Ursula. He dated it to c. 1647 and this has been accepted by subsequent writers on the artist.
The Panel considered that the portrait met the second criterion and, after negotiation, that it was valued acceptably. The portrait has been allocated to the Courtauld Institute pending a decision on permanent allocation.
7. Seaton Delaval
The successful transfer into public ownership of the great Vanbrugh
house of Seaton Delaval must rank as one of the most important
acquisitions of the last few decades. Under the Acceptance in Lieu
Scheme the house, over 80 acres of the surrounding gardens, park
and land and the principal contents, which total almost 200 items of furniture, sculpture, paintings and ceramics, were transferred to the nation.
The Hall was built between 1718 and 1731 by Sir John Vanbrugh
(1664-1726), architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. It is
widely regarded as one of the finest works of the English Baroque and
one of the most important houses in Britain. The relevant volume of
Pevsner’s Buildings of England notes that “no other Vanbrugh house
is so mature, so compact and so powerful.”
The house, however, has had a turbulent history. Neither architect nor his patron, Admiral George Delaval (1667-1723), lived to see the
building completed and, as the latter had no children, it passed to his nephew, Francis Blake Delaval, who moved into Seaton Delaval
soon after its completion in 1731. The Delavals were a rumbustious,
fun-loving family who finally became extinct in 1822. Thereupon the
estate passed to the Astleys, one of whom had married a Delaval
daughter in the 18th century. Since the Astleys’ principal residence was
Melton Constable in Norfolk, Vanbrugh’s house was relatively little
used. Then, in 1822, the centre block was devastated by a fire that left it as a roofless shell. The centre block was abandoned in its fire
damaged condition until 1862 when it was re-roofed and transverse
steel columns and brick walls added in the south facing saloon to
prevent further structural damage. Following the succession in 1956 of Sir Edward Delaval Henry Astley, 22nd Lord Hastings, further
restoration was carried out including the renewal of the turrets and
towers and the roof of the main block was improved. At last, the hall was receiving the attention that such an important architectural
house deserved. Lord Hastings made the hall a family home again by
converting the west pavilion which had been built as a service block
into a suite of domestic rooms. The matching eastern pavilion which
flanks the opposite side of the great forecourt retains its layout as a stable.
The contents of the house include many Astley and Delaval portraits
and much furniture which was formerly at Melton Constable. The most important of many items of furniture is a Queen Anne walnut
suite consisting of a pair of sofas and eight chairs upholstered in
contemporary needlework which depicts historic scenes from the 15th
century relating to the Astley family. There is also an exceptional pair
of George II carved parcel-gilt pier tables, in the manner of William
Kent, circa 1740. Many fine portraits of members of the Delaval and
Astley families dating from the 16th to the 20th century are included.
One of the most poignant items is the leather military surcoat of Jacob
Astley, a Royalist military commander, who fought at the Battle of
Edgehill in 1642. His famous prayer on the morning of the battle in
which he was himself wounded speaks of his simple piety and rapport
with his troops – ‘O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I forget thee, do not thou forget me... March on, boys!’
Above top: Seaton Delaval, Admiral Sir George Delaval
(1667-1723) by Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723). © NTPL/John Hammond.
Above centre: Seaton Delaval, The Interior of the central
hall, gutted by fire in 1822. © NTPL/Dennis Gilbert.
Opposite: Seaton Delaval, The South Front.
© NTPL/Dennis Gilbert.
Thegroundsofthehallcontaintwoimportantleadstatuesbythe
18thcenturyEnglishsculptorJohnCheere(1709-1787)whichwere
partoftheoriginalgardenlayout.Thefirst,Samson slaying the
Philistines,isaversionofthefamousmarblestatuebyGiambologna
whichisoneofthehighlightsofthenewlyrefurbishedMedievaland
RenaissanceGalleriesintheVictoriaandAlbertMuseum.Thesecond
life-sizegroupdepictsDavidandGoliathandisbasedonasculpture
byoneofGiambologna’spupils.
ThetransferofSeatonDelavalanditscontentstotheNationalTrust
isjustthelatestinalonglineofhousesandtheircontentswhichhave
comeintotheTrust’sownershipthroughtheAILScheme.Themost
importantareCotehele(1947),PenrhynCastle(1952),MountGrace
Priory(1953),CastleWard(1953),Petworth(1954)Ickworth(1956),
Saltram(1957),Hardwick(1959),BrodickCastle(NationalTrustfor
Scotland,1959),ShugboroughHall(1965);Cragside(1977)and
CalkeAbbey(1985).Intotal150NationalTrusthousesandtheir
contentshaveobjectswhichhavebeenacceptedinlieusincethe
AILSchemebegan.
ThePanelconsideredthatsomeofthechattelswereofpre-eminent
importanceandthattheremainderwereassociatedwithabuilding
whichwasitselfbeingacceptedinlieuoftaxandthattheyshould
remaininthatbuilding.Theofferofthelandandthebuildings
washandledbytheDepartmentforCulture,MediaandSportin
consultationwithEnglishHeritageandNaturalEngland.
TheNationalTrustpledged£6.9mofitsownfundstoprovidean
endowmentforSeatonDelaval.Morethan£3mwasraisedby
publicappeal.
8. Daniel Gardner: Three Witches from Macbeth
Three Witches from Macbeth, pastel and other media, 92.1 by
78.6 cm is by Daniel Gardner (c. 1750-1805). The artist was born in
Kendal where he received early encouragement from George Romney
who was a friend of his mother. He moved to London in his late teens
and studied at the Royal Academy schools from 1770 when Benjamin
West, Johan Zoffany and G B Cipriani were teaching. In 1773 he won
a silver medal for drawing and exhibited at the Academy for the first
and last time. On finishing his studies he entered the studio of Joshua
Reynolds as an assistant but his work in oil is considered to be heavy
and unrefined. He found his metier as an artist, however, in a unique
form of pastel work which combined oil, gouache, and pastel on
paper later laid on canvas, unvarnished but glazed.
This technique maintains a lasting freshness and vivacity as can be seen in Three Witches from Macbeth which depicts Elizabeth
Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (1751-1818), Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1818) and the Hon. Mrs Seymour Damer (1749-1828). Elizabeth Millbanke had married Sir Peniston Lamb in 1769. Her husband was created an Irish peer as Lord Melbourne in 1771, becoming a Viscount in 1780. Melbourne was not a faithful
husband and Lady Melbourne followed suit beginning a series of
discrete affairs. Despite this, her social skills were deployed to further
her husband’s political career and she acted as the leading political
hostess of the time. This position was challenged when Georgiana
Spencer, the eldest daughter of the 1st Earl Spencer married William
Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire. Rather than be rivals, Lady
Melbourne made herself the new Duchess’ firmest friend. The two
political wives were together the leaders of fashion and among the
chief political operators of the day.
The third sitter in the portrait, Mrs Anne Seymour Damer, was the
daughter of the Whig politician Henry Seymour Conway who was
related through his mother to Sir Robert Walpole. Horace Walpole
bequeathed Strawberry Hill to Anne Damer who lived there for 14 years following Walpole’s death in 1797. She was a bluestocking
and a notable sculptor whose artistic talent was much praised by
Walpole. Through her father’s position as Secretary of State under
both Rockingham and Chatham, she was closely linked to the Whig
political hostesses with whom she is depicted in a self-mocking way as the three witches foretelling to Macbeth his political future and the troubles that lie ahead.
The Panel considered that the pastel met the third criterion, was in
acceptable condition and, following negotiation, that it was fairly
valued. The painting has been allocated to the National Portrait
Gallery pending a decision on permanent allocation.
Above: Daniel Gardner: The Three Witches from Macbeth.
9. Chattels from Lyme Park
Lyme Park, in Cheshire, nestling on the western edge of the Peak
District, has been the home of the Legh family for over 600 years. The most familiar view of the house is the Palladian south front
designed by the Italian architect Giacomo Leoni (c.1686–1746) in the 1720s. Its giant pilasters and massive Ionic portico disguise Lyme
Park’s complex architectural history, which began in Elizabethan times
and continued until the early 20th century.
The chattels that were offered are primarily from the first half of the
18th century as is appropriate to a house which received its most
thorough redesign at the hands of Leoni, who not only designed the
south front but produced in the interior courtyard, a recreation of a
North Italian palazzo.
A pair of George II mahogany library armchairs upholstered in gold
cut velvet and attributed to the London furniture maker Giles Grendey
(1693–1780), are displayed in Lyme’s drawing room. Two further sets of George II seat furniture are included in the offer: a set of six
mahogany side chairs upholstered in pink floral damask and a set of seven mahogany chairs including an armchair with needlework
covers in imitation of cut velvet. From the same period is a George II
giltwood side table with a ‘verde antico’ marble top. Also displayed in the drawing room and included in the offer is a George I giltwood
pier glass with scallop cresting.
In addition, the offer included two mid-18th century tray-top commodes
with a pierced gallery, a burr walnut and crossbanded chest on stand
dated to the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries and two Dutch items:
a River landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt from the circle
of Paul Brill and a brass six branch chandelier.
The Panel considered that the chattels were closely associated with a building in National Trust ownership and that it was appropriate that they should remain so. The chattels were in acceptable condition
and, following negotiation, it was agreed that they were appropriately
valued. The chattels have been permanently allocated to the National
Trust for retention at Lyme Park.
Above: Lyme Park – A George II mahogany
armchair © NTPL.
Below: Lyme Park – A George II giltwood
side table © NTPL.
10. Marcellus Laroon: A Musical Party
A Musical Party with a Knight of the Garter, a Cleric and other Figures
in an elegant Interior, oil on canvas, 102 by 127 cm, is by the English
painter Marcellus Laroon (1679-1772).
Laroon the Younger (or Marcellus II Laroon) trained with his father, a Dutch artist of French origin, and after a period abroad worked in
his father’s studio before briefly beginning his own independent career.
He turned, however, to the theatre where he sang with Colley Cibber
at the Drury Lane Theatre before joining the army and serving in
Spain: he was captured there and held prisoner for two years before
being ransomed. On returning to London he briefly took up his artistic
career again but returned to military life in 1715 and remained a
soldier until he retired on a captain’s full-pay aged 53. In this way he
was able to be financially independent of the need to receive artistic
commissions and it was not until 1732 on his retirement that painting
became his primary focus.
It is clear that he was painting while still a serving soldier. One of his
best known works, A Dinner Party (Royal Collection), was painted in
1725. A drawing of the composition, formerly on the London art
market, is signed and dated 1719 and the artist has added, ‘premiere
pensee/Presented to King George 1st/a picture I painted in 1725’. The painting offered in lieu, like the work from the Royal Collection, is a conversation piece depicting a fashionable aristocratic group
gathered in a fine interior into which are introduced various humorous
observations. Whether these are real people or fictitious it is not
possible to say but it is certainly a fine depiction of the manners of the
fashionable society of its day and an unusually large work for Laroon.
When the subject was etched by George Cruickshank in 1819 it was considered to be a work of Hogarth. Subsequently, however, it was recognised as by Laroon and was included in the Laroon
exhibition held at Tate and Aldeburgh in 1967, the last time that it was publicly exhibited.
The Panel considered that the painting met the third criterion and that
it was acceptably valued. It has been allocated to the Tate pending a
decision on permanent allocation.
Below: Marcellus Laroon the Younger:
A Musical Party © Christie’s Images.
11. Chaïm Soutine: Jeune femme à la blouse blanche
Young Girl in a White Blouse, oil on canvas, 45 by 34 cm, by
Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943) was painted c. 1923. Soutine grew up in a Lithuanian Jewish ghetto. Even though the Talmudic tradition
disapproved of the depiction of images this did not deter the young
Soutine’s early interest in drawing. From 1910 to 1913 he studied at an academy in Vilnius where he was introduced to Russian avantgarde painting. As with so many artists in the early decades of the 20th century, he was drawn to Paris where he enrolled in the
Académie des Beaux-Arts from 1913 to 1915. He considered,
however, that his study of the old masters in the Louvre was of more importance to his artistic development.
In 1915 Soutine was introduced by Jacques Lipchitz to Amedeo
Modigliani who admired his work. He was to become a leading
member of the inter-War School of Paris and his interests centred on three principal areas: landscapes, still lifes – often of food – and
portraits. In all of these areas he was rooted both in the European
tradition and in the contemporary artistic culture of Paris. Cezanne
and Matisse as well as Chardin, Goya and Rembrandt were all artists
he studied and admired. Despite these influences his work is entirely
personal and, arguably, reflects the anxiety of a poor Russian Jewish
immigrant in a sophisticated European city where he never felt truly at home.
In his early years in Paris he had little commercial success until 1923
when he was noted by the American collector Dr Albert C Barnes who started to acquire his work in quantity through the art dealer Paul Guillaume. Young Girl in a White Blouse was owned by
Guillaume and passed to his wife who sold it to her sister in law in
1937. It was sold at auction in London in 1985 and acquired by the
family from whose estate it was offered in lieu.
The Panel considered that the portrait met the third criterion and
following discussion, that it was in acceptable condition and fairly
valued. The painting has been temporarily allocated to the Courtauld
Gallery where it had previously been on loan, pending a decision on
permanent allocation.
Above: Chaïm Soutine: Young Girl in a White Blouse.
12. Domenico Tiepolo: The Café by the Quay in Venice
The drawing, The Café by the Quay in Venice, pen and wash, 288
by 413mm, signed ‘Dom o Tiepolo f.’ is by Domenico Tiepolo (17271804), the son of the painter Giambattista Tiepolo. Domenico was not
only a painter of fine ability but also a superb draughtsmen who, when
his career as a painter had ended, continued to produce drawings into
his old age. For a long time he was somewhat overshadowed by the
reputation of his father. Since the middle of the 20th century, however,
his distinctive personality, attuned more to contemporary life and the
comic than the sublime visions that dominate his father’s output, has
become better understood and appreciated.
The drawing is an outstanding example of the artist’s assured
technique and also of his humorous observation of contemporary
society in the twilight years of the Venetian Republic. The scene
depicted shows the throng gathering around the tables and under the stripped awning of a Venetian café. At its centre, a young lady and man exchange glances. She wears a high-waisted dress and he
too is dressed in the latest fashion. J Byam Shaw in his 1962 study of
the artist’s drawings notes, “to judge from the dress of the ladies, the
bonnets and high waists, the date can hardly be earlier than c. 1800.”
It is one of the series of scenes from contemporary life which currently
numbers just over 70 works but which may originally have been larger.
Several of the drawings are dated 1791 but the series must have
occupied the artist over a number of years. Another of the series, The Street Market, where high-waisted dresses are also depicted, is
signed and dated ‘800’ which is believed to be an abbreviation for
1800. By this time Venice was occupied by French troops and the
Republic had ceased to exist. The drawing must, therefore, have been done in the last few years of Tiepolo’s life.
The series has no particular narrative thread but is linked by its subject
matter and the similar dimensions of the sheets. It seems likely that it was produced purely for the delight of the artist as were the even
later Punchinello drawings which have a title page, Divertimento
per li Regazzi (Amusements for the Young).
The Panel considered that the drawing met the second and third
criteria, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly
valued. The drawing has been temporarily allocated to The British
Museum, pending a decision on permanent allocation.
Below: Domenico Tiepolo: The Café
by the Quay in Venice.
13. Paul de Lamerie: Four candlesticks
The set of four candlesticks, bearing the mark of the outstanding
Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751), is dated
1744-1745. They are each 23.5 cm high and have scratch weights
between 25.2 and 25.16 ounces. De Lamerie was one of the most
eminent goldsmiths of the 18th century and headed a workshop of
considerable size. His father was an officer in the Dutch army of
William III. In 1689, the year after Paul was born in ‘s-Hertogenbosch,
the family came to London in the wake of the accession of William
and Mary. He was apprenticed in 1703 to the Huguenot, Pierre Platel,
who was one of London’s most important silversmiths, receiving
commissions from many of the leading aristocrats surrounding
the court.
Paul de Lamerie registered his first mark with the Goldsmiths’
Company in February 1714. He joined the livery of the Company in
1717 but although he served in various roles including fourth, third
and second warden, all in the 1740s, he never rose to be prime
warden. He enjoyed considerable commercial success as is shown by
his list of prominent patrons who included Sir Robert Walpole and the
Spencer family. He was the leading exponent of the Rococo style in
silver from the 1730s onwards and, given the quantity of material he
produced, it seems that he must have employed teams of craftsmen
and designers to meet demands. In some cases a consistent, albeit
anonymous, style can be recognised in the works bearing the Lamerie
mark. At the same time other pieces are so close in design to the
works of makers such as Crespin, White and Kandler as to suggest
either some form of co-operation between the workshops or that
de Lamerie met the demand for his silver by subcontracting to other
silversmiths but punching the finished piece with his own mark.
The four candlesticks offered are particularly fine examples of the
Rococo style of English silver in the mid 18th century. The stem and
base are decorated with images of beehives and bees which was part
of the armorial device of the London-based Huguenot Le Heup family
who obtained a grant of arms in the same year that the candlesticks
were hallmarked. The set belonged to the banker Peter Le Heup and
his wife Clara of Albemarle Street in Mayfair.
The Panel considered that the silver met the second and third criteria
and that it was acceptably valued. It has been permanently allocated
to the Victoria and Albert Museum where it was previously on loan
and in accordance with the condition attached to the offer.
Right: Two of the set of four candlesticks
by Paul de Lamerie, 1744/1745.
14. The Fitzwilliam silver soup tureens
This pair of George III Neo-classical silver soup tureens, covers and
liners measure 30.5 cm across the handles and are 22.9 cm deep.
The tureens have weights of 172 and 180 ounces. They were made by the London silversmiths Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp after a
design by Sir William Chambers. One bears the mark of Daniel Smith
and Robert Sharp, 1770-1771 and the other the mark of Robert Smith,
1793. The tureens which are engraved with the Fitzwilliam coat of
arms were commissioned by William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam.
These tureens form part of a small group of surviving objects which
were made to the refined Neo-classical designs of William Chambers
(1722-1796). Chambers was working at Milton Hall, Fitzwilliam’s
Cambridgeshire seat, between 1770 and 1776, and also at his
London house in Piccadilly from 1770 to 1771.
A closely related design for the tureens is preserved in a group of 14 designs for metalwork by John Yenn (1750-1821) who was a
talented draughtsman and one of Chambers’ pupils and assistants. It is believed that these 14 drawings are the office copies or finished
versions of original designs by Chambers, one of which he later
published as being his own invention.
The Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp partnership (1763-1788) supplied
high-quality silver in the Neo-classical style to the most fashionable
retailers and clients, including the Prince Regent. They were the
principal manufacturers of a series of magnificent race cups that are
an important feature of the 1770s and 1780s. One of the cups was
designed by Robert Adam.
Below: One of the Fitzwilliam soup tureens.
The Panel considered that the tureens met the second and third
criteria, that they were in excellent condition and that the price at
which they were offered was acceptable. They have been permanently
allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum where they had previously
been on loan, in accordance with the condition of the offeror.
15. Nine early 20th century British paintings
1
The offer consisted of nine paintings which had formed part of the
collection of Robert Alexander (Bobby) Bevan and his second wife,
Natalie. Bobby Bevan was the son of the painter Robert Bevan
(1865-1925) and seven of the paintings are by his fellow artists from
the Camden Town Group: four by Harold Gilman and one each by
Charles Ginner, Spencer Frederick Gore and Walter Sickert. The final
two paintings are by Mark Gertler. All of the works were painted
between 1910 and 1928.
Harold Gilman (1876-1919) studied at the Slade School of Fine Art
from 1897-1901 but the major influence on his painting came from his meeting with Walter Sickert in 1907. He formed part of the group
of artists, centred on Sickert, who rented a studio at 19 Fitzroy Street. He was a founder member of the Camden Town Group and his work
was included in all three of their exhibitions between 1911 and 1913.
The four works by him are
2
1. Portrait of Madeleine Knox, c. 1910-1911, oil on canvas,
58.4 by 43.2 cm;
2. Portrait of Spencer Gore, c. 1911, oil on board, 38.1 by 31.7 cm;
3. Nude at a Window, c. 1912, Signed ‘H Gilman’ lower left,
oil on canvas, 58.4 by 50.8 cm;
4. Portrait of Stanislawa de Karlowska c. 1913, oil on canvas,
59.7 by 45.1 cm
Madeleine Knox was a pupil of Sickert and she helped him both
practically and financially when he opened a school for etching in
Hampstead Road in 1910. She later married Arthur Clifton founder of
the prestigious Carfax Gallery in Ryder Street, St James’s, which was
the venue for all of the Camden Town Group exhibitions. The portrait
was a gift from the artist to Robert Bevan.
3
Gilman had first met Spencer Gore when they were both students at the Slade and they had worked together since they shared the
Fitzroy Street studio. Although the portrait may be unfinished it is an
expressive and intimate demonstration of Gilman’s bold handling of paint.
Nude at a Window was owned by Spencer Gore before it was
acquired by Robert Bevan. It is one of a number of nudes painted by Gilman between 1911 and 1913 and is clearly related to Sickert’s
paintings with their frank naturalism and undisguised sexuality.
Stanislawa de Karlowska was the Polish wife of Robert Bevan. They
had married in 1897 and lived in Swiss Cottage. She was an artist in her own right and studied at the Académie Julian in Paris. It is the
second of three portraits of her painted by Gilman, each of which was bought by Bobby Bevan when they appeared on the art market in the years following Gilman’s death.
4
Below:Caption.
Charles Ginner (1878-1952), the son of British parents, was born in
Cannes and only settled in London at the end of 1909, soon forming
a close friendship with Gore, Gilman and Bevan.
5
5. La Vieille Balayeuse, Dieppe, 1913, Signed ‘C GINNER’
lower right, oil on canvas, 70.0 by 45.7 cm
The painting of a street scene in Dieppe demonstrates the bold use of paint and texture which reflect Ginner’s great admiration for Van Gogh. One critic described his technique as treating paint as
pieces of mosaic to inlay on a canvas. Ginner exchanged the painting
for one of Bevan’s works.
Spencer Frederick Gore (1878-1914) met Harold Gilman at the
Slade and became friends with Augustus John and Wyndham Lewis. In 1904 while on a painting trip to France he met Sickert who had
been living in France since 1898 and aroused his interest in the new
generation of painters emerging from the Slade. He was the first
President of the Camden Town Group. He died of pneumonia in his mid 30s.
6. Conversation Piece and Self-Portrait, c. 1910, Signed ‘S.F.G.’
lower right, oil on board, 29.4 by 43.2 cm
6
This subtle self-portrait shows a sophisticated handling of space with the subject seen only in reflection and partially obscured. It was
bought directly from the artist by Robert Bevan’s wife, Stanislawa de Karlowska.
Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) was the most influential English
painter of the first part of the 20th century. Not only was he the focus
for many younger artists but his polemical ability and his journalism
brought English art to a new audience. It has been said he took
English painting out of the drawing room and into the kitchen and his influence on 20th century art in Britain has been profound.
7. The System, 1924-1926, Signed ‘Sickert A.R.A.’ lower right,
oil on canvas, 59.7 by 38.1 cm
7
After the war, Sickert lived for a number of years near Dieppe and The System which depicts an old man leaning over the baccarat table
at the town’s casino apparently in despair at the turn of the cards is
based on the numerous drawings that Sickert made while living in
France. The canvas was purchased by Bobby Bevan from the Mayor
Gallery in 1951.
Mark Gertler (1891-1939) was never a Camden Town artist but was
part of the London art world in the early 20th century. He grew up in
poverty and despite showing early talent his brief artistic education
was cut short due to the need to earn a wage. A Jewish educational
charity, however, enabled him to attend the Slade from 1908 to 1912 where he won numerous prizes. The collector Edward Marsh
soon took an interest in him and he became associated with the
Bloomsbury Circle partly as a result of his unrequited love for Dora
Carrington. He felt, however, ill at ease in such society and estranged
from his Jewish roots. Through Lady Ottoline Morrell he met Sickert.
His pacifism during World War I further alienated his position. In the
1920s he frequently visited Paris and his admiration for Renoir and
Cezanne is reflected in his subsequent work. Ill-health increased his
social isolation and detachment. Although he married in 1930 it was
not a success and ill-health, financial worries and depression led to his suicide in 1939.
8. Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, 1924, oil on canvas,
73.7 by 68.6 cm
Gertler’s mother, Kate (Golda) Berenbaum (c.1862–1932) was a
favourite subject of the artist from very early on in his career. This is his last portrait of her, produced when she was in her early 60s. He
sold it soon after it was painted for £200, the highest price he ever
achieved for any painting. It was bought by Bobby Bevan in 1956 for
the advertising agency S H Benson Ltd where Bevan had worked since
1924 and it was presented to him on his retirement from the firm in 1964.
9. Supper (Natalie Denny), 1928, oil on canvas, 106.7 by 71.1 cm
Natalie Denny (1909-2007), was described in her obituary as, “one of the most beautiful and charismatic women of her generation.” She
was a popular figure in the artistic milieu of London in the late 1920s.
She met Mark Gertler at a New Year’s party held by Augustus John in
1927 and sat for two portraits by him. Supper, the most celebrated of
the two, exudes the sensuality of the 19 year-old model and the artist’s
passion for her.
The Panel considered that all nine paintings variously met the second
and third criteria, that they were in acceptable condition and were
valued at a fair market price. Items 2, 4 and 9 have been permanently
allocated to the National Portrait Gallery; items 1, 3 and 5 to Tate and items 6, 7 and 8 to the National Galleries of Scotland, all in
accordance with the condition of the offerors.
8
9
16. English delft plaque: The Royal Oak
The English delft oval portrait plaque, 23.2 cm high, c. 1665, was probably produced in London. It is painted in shades of blue,
manganese, green, ochre and yellow and shows a bust-length portrait
of Charles II in a tree with three crowns to the left, right and above.
Around the trunk of the tree is a banner with the inscription ‘The Royal
Oak’. The plaque has a moulded painted border and is set within a
varnished bark frame.
Tin-glazed earthenware was first made in the Netherlands at the
beginning of the 16th century but reached is zenith in the first part of the 17th century. The finest examples were produced in the city of
Delft, hence the name delftware given to earthenware with a white tin glaze and then decorated with coloured glazes. These glazed
earthenwares had been copied in London potteries from the 1570s
but the number of skilled craftsmen, often immigrants, was limited. It provided a much cheaper alternative to the Chinese porcelain that
was expensive and the preserve of the wealthy. As in the example on
offer, the decoration was often in a provincial and naïve manner and
did not pretend to the sophistication of continental styles. Patriotic
motifs are a common theme of their decoration.
Above: The Royal Oak: an English Delft Plaque, c. 1665.
The Royal Oak commemorates the events surrounding the last battle
of the English Civil War, the Battle of Worcester, at which Charles II
and his supporters, mostly Scots, were defeated by Cromwell’s New
Model Army. Charles fled the battlefield and evaded capture by hiding
in a large oak tree in the grounds of Boscobel House. On the king’s
restoration in 1660 the story became part of the common mythology.
The tale later reached such popularity that souvenir hunters eager for parts of the tree lopped so many pieces from it that by the 18th
century the oak had died. The memory remains alive today in the
numerous pubs that still bear the name The Royal Oak.
The Panel considered that the plaque met the first and third criteria,
that it was in acceptable condition and, after negotiation, that it was
fairly valued. In accordance with the condition of the offeror, it has
been permanently allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum where it was previously on loan.
17. Archive of the Earls of Kintore
The Keith family held the hereditary office of Marischal of Scotland
from the 12th century. Sir William Keith (d. about 1407) acquired
through marriage the coastal stronghold of Dunnottar Castle. The
earliest document in the archive dates from 1405 in the time of Sir William. His grandson, also William, was created Earl Marischal in 1458.
John Keith, son of the 5th Earl Marischal, was created Earl of Kintore
in 1677. Previously, while still a youth, in the winter of 1651-1652, he played a vital part in preserving the Scottish regalia during the
siege of Dunnottar Castle by Cromwell’s soldiers, acting as a decoy
while the regalia were taken from the castle and hidden in a local
church. When, after eight months’ siege, the castle fell he swore that
the regalia had been sent to Charles II who was then in France. As a
result the Roundheads ended the search. He accepted, albeit initially
with some reluctance, the events of 1689 and was a supporter of the
Union of 1707.
Although the majority of papers are of 19th century date, the archive
contains estate records from the 17th century for the Keith lands in
Aberdeenshire, Brechin, Dumfries and Montrose. There are some
papers of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Earls of Kintore and more substantial
bundles relating to the 5th Earl (1765-1804). There are also papers of
George Keith who was declared a traitor and had his estates forfeited
due to his support of the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. He spent most of
his life abroad, latterly in Prussia where he was Frederick the Great’s
ambassador, first to France and then to Spain. Later papers are of the
time of the 7th and 9th Earls. There are a number of papers relating to the latter’s time as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of South
Australia from 1889-1895. The archive contains 12 volumes of diaries
from 1897-1915 of Sir John Baird (later 1st Viscount Stonehaven) who
married the daughter of the 9th Earl of Keith. From 1896 he was in
the diplomatic corps and was posted to Vienna, Cairo, Abyssinia, Paris
and Buenos Aires. Elected an MP in 1910 he served in the Intelligence
Corps during the first part of the war. In the 1920s he was appointed
Governor-General of Australia.
The Panel considered that the archive met the third criterion, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was acceptably valued. The archive has been permanently allocated to Aberdeen University
Archive where it was previously on deposit and in accordance with the condition of the offeror.
Above: The 9th Earl of Kintore (seated left),
J L Stirling (seated right) and party following
their crossing of the Australian continent from Darwin to Adelaide in May 1891 while
Kintore was Governor of South Australia.
18. Pollard collection of medals and plaquettes
The collection of medals and plaquettes was formed by Graham
Pollard (1929-2007) who was Keeper of Coins and Medals at the
Fitzwilliam Museum from 1966 to 1988. For all but the first three years of this period he served as Deputy Director. He was a leading
authority on Italian Renaissance medals and catalogued two of the greatest museum collections, those of the Bargello Museum in
Florence (3 volumes, 1984-1985) and of the National Gallery of Art,
Washington (2 volumes, 2007). The publication of the latter was
pushed forward so that its author was able to enjoy it before his death.
His interest in medals began soon after starting at the Fitzwilliam as a museum attendant in 1947 when he chanced upon a collection of several hundred medals in a local antique shop. This started his
life-long interest in the subject and his collecting habit. His own
collection developed over the years but only contained items that the
museum had confirmed it was not interested in purchasing. During his time as Keeper, Pollard’s collection was on loan in the coin room
and on his retirement the most important items remained on deposit.
The collection consists of nearly 300 items ranging in age from the
mid-15th century to the 21st century. The most important is a Portrait
medal of Borghese Borghesi, cast bronze, 6.2 cm diameter, 14791480. This very rare example of a portrait medal from Renaissance
Siena was designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501). The
medal commemorates Borghesi’s role in the defeat of the Florentines
at the Battle of Poggio-Imperiale in which the Sienese were allied to
the papal forces of Sixtus IV, Naples and those of Federico da
Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Borghesi, was ‘commissario generale’ of
the Sienese army and after the battle he was both knighted and given
the title ‘Pater Patriae’, as the medal attests. The reverse bears an
image of Minerva. Also particularly significant is the mid-15th century
bronze plaquette of St Jerome in the wilderness, 18.5 by 12.7 cm. This has been attributed to ‘Filarete’, Antonio di Pietro Averlino (c. 1400-c. 1469).
The Panel considered that the collection met the third criterion, that it
was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued. The medals
have been permanently allocated to the Fitzwilliam Museum in
accordance with the condition of the offeror.
Above: Francesco di Giorgio Martini:
Portrait medal of Borghese Borghesi;
recto (top) and verso (bottom).
19. Essex House Press books
The collection of Essex House Press books was formed by CR Ashbee
(1863-1942). The Essex House Press was established in 1898 as part
of the Guild of Handicraft founded by Ashbee in 1888, and named
after the Guild’s headquarters on the Mile End Road. The Guild and
Press moved to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire in 1902. The
Press’s Bibliography, published in 1909, lists 83 publications and a few more were printed after that date.
The Essex House Press and the Guild were part of the tradition of
British socialism influenced by John Ruskin and William Morris. It
sought a return to craftsmanship, co-operation and a meaningful
engagement with work which Ashbee, like Morris, believed had been
lost during the process of industrialisation. The Guild Rules of 1899,
drawn up by the members, underlines the link with that tradition: ‘The
Guild of Handicraft is a body of men of different trades, crafts and
occupations, united together on such a basis as shall better promote
both the goodness of the work produced and the standard of life of
the producer. To this end it seeks to apply to the collective work of its
members whatever is wisest and best in the principles of Co-operation,
of Trade Unionism or of the modern revival of Art and Craft… ‘.
The Essex House Press was also part of the private press movement
established by Morris with the Kelmscott Press in 1891. The Eragny
Press was begun by Lucien Pissarro in 1894, Charles Ricketts ran the
Vale Press from 1896 and before the end of the century the Doves
Press had also been established. Essex House carried on the Kelmscott
tradition acquiring Morris’s two Albion presses after his death in 1896
and employing three of the Kelmscott craftsmen. It produced a wide
range of work, some using existing type and others employing
Ashbee’s own type designs.
The collection offered was that formed by C R Ashbee himself and
includes all but a handful of the Press’s output. Most of the volumes
bear Ashbee’s bookplate. Also included are the proofs of the Essex
House Press’s most ambitious work, The Prayer Book of King Edward
VII, a sumptuous folio volume of 1903 for which Ashbee designed
both a new typeface and over a hundred engravings.
The Panel considered that the collection met the third criterion and
that it was in acceptable condition. They also considered that the offer
price was an undervaluation and suggested an increase of 40 per cent,
which was agreed. The collection has been permanently allocated to
the Guild of Handicraft Trust for retention at the Court Barn Museum,
Chipping Campden, in accordance with the condition of the offeror.
Above: Decorated initials by C R Ashbee, in C. R. Ashbee,
The Private Press: A Study in Idealism (1909).
20. Cornelis van Poelenburgh: Italianate Landscape
Italianate Landscape with Nymphs Bathing, oil on panel, 13 by 12.4 cm
by Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1594/5-1667) is a typical example of
the small landscapes that were produced in considerable number by
this prolific artist. He was born in Utrecht and studied with Abraham
Bloemaert, achieving sufficient fame by 1618 to be included in a work
listing the famous painters of Amsterdam, the youngest artist to be so
included. He was in Rome from 1617 to 1623 where he worked for the Orsini family and he also received a commission to work for the
Medici court in Florence. Several works by Poelenburgh remain in
Florentine collections. When in Rome he collaborated with Paul Brill
and copied works by Adam Elsheimer. He was also aware of the
developments in landscape painting being introduced by the Carracci.
He was back in Utrecht by 1625 where he received commissions from
the city authorities. Rubens who owned several of his works visited him
in his studio. He travelled to Paris in 1631 but was back in his native
city by 1632 when he received a major commission along with
Bloemaert for paintings for the newly built palace of Frederick Henry,
Prince of Orange at Honselaarsdijk. He also worked for Charles I in
London between 1637 and 1641. He was important both as a figural
artist and as a landscapist. He painted history, mythological and
religious scenes as well as pastoral landscapes.
Above: Cornelis van Poelenburgh:
Italianate Landscape with Nymphs Bathing.
The painting offered is of particular interest as a mid-19th century
label on the back of the frame records that it was acquired at the
Strawberry Hill sale in 1842. It was bought on day 11 of the sale (6 May) as lot 11 and the description from the catalogue reads, ‘A Landscape with Ruins, Nymphs Bathing, by Poelemburg. An equally
charming cabinet gem.’ It was bought for £8.18.6. Horace Walpole
had hung the painting in the Blue Breakfast Room on the upper floor
at Strawberry Hill.
The Panel considered that the painting met the fourth criterion, that it
was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued. The painting
has been temporarily allocated to the National Gallery with a view to
it being permanently allocated to Strawberry Hill once it is reopened
to the public in late 2010.
21. Collection of 20th century
photography
The offer comprised 49 photographs by the following artists: Bernice
Abbott (1898-1991), 3 prints; Richard Avenden (1923-2004); Roger
Ballen (b.1950); Herbert Bayer (1900-1985); Hou Bo (b.1924);
Dorothy Bohm (b.1924); Bill Brandt (1904-1983), 4 prints; Brassaï
(1899-1984), 3 prints; Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902-2002); Henri
Cartier Bresson (1908-2004), 2 prints; Calum Colvin (b.1961), 12
prints; Martin J Cullen (b.1967); František Drtikol (1883-1961); Elliot
Erwitt (b.1928); Robert Frank (b.1924); Jo Alison Feiler (b.1951); Lee
Fridlander (b.1934); Tim Gidal (1909-1996); Lucien Hervé (19102007); Paul Joyce (b.1944); Dorothea Lange (1895-1965); Jacques
Henri Lartigue (1894-1986), 2 prints; Yau Leung (1941-1997); Man
Ray (1890-1976); Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989); Dario Mitidieri
(b.1959); Irving Penn (1917-2009), 5 prints; Sebastião Salgadio
(b.1944); W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978); Peter Suschitzky (b. 1941);
Edward Weston (1886-1958), 2 prints and James Van der Zee
(1886-1983).
The collection has been assembled over the last 30 years by Barbara
Lloyd and the photographers represented include many of the greatest
names in photography from the 20th century. Of particular significance
are the five images by Irving Penn which include two New York
cityscapes of 1947 and 1985; two portraits from New Guinea and
Morocco; and a portrait of the French writer Colette of 1960. The
Mapplethorpe is a 1976 portrait of the New York singer-songwriter
Patti Smith. One of the Edward Weston photographs, taken in 1924, is a dramatic image of the Mexican senator and general, Manuel
Hernández Galván, titled Galván Shooting. Galván fought by the side
of the revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. When Weston took the
photograph, Galván was campaigning for political office, but was
assassinated shortly after their meeting.
Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1935 is one
of the outstanding images of the 1930s. In 1960, Lange spoke about
taking the photograph: “I saw and approached the hungry and
desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she
asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and
closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history.
She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had
been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to
buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled
around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.”
The Panel considered that the collection met the second and third
criteria that it was in acceptable condition and fairly valued. The
photographs have been permanently allocated to Tate in accordance
with the condition of the offeror.
Above: Edward Weston: Portrait of Manuel
Hernández Galván , Mexico, 1924.
Opposite: Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother,
Nipomo, California, 1935.
22. R B Martineau: A Woman of San Germano
A Woman of San Germano, oil on canvas, 57.5 by 65.2 cm, signed
and dated 1864, by Robert Braithwaite Martineau (1826-1869) is a
rare work by an artist who produced very few paintings. He was born
in London and, like his two elder brothers, having graduated, he
started a career in law. After four years articled to a firm of solicitors, in 1846 he began an artistic career, attending the Royal Academy
Schools from 1848 where he won a silver medal for drawing from the
antique. He wrote to the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt in
1851 asking to be taken on as pupil and he worked with Hunt during
1851/1852; this was to be the beginning of a steady friendship. Hunt
oversaw Martineau’s first painting Kit’s Writing Lesson, 1852 (Tate),
executed in the Pre-Raphaelite style which he was to maintain
throughout his career. It was the first of 11 works which he exhibited at
the Royal Academy during his brief career. His painstaking technique
and his habit of reworking his canvases meant that his output was
limited and only about 17 finished paintings are known.
His best known work, The Last Day in the Old Home (Tate), was
painted in 1862. It was first shown in the British Galleries at the South
Kensington International Exhibition of 1862 where, along with Maddox
Ford’s The Last of England (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery),
it was the most popular work in the show. It was exhibited in 1864 at the New Gallery, Hanover Street, in a joint exhibition with Hunt.
Martineau moved in Pre-Raphaelite circles and he is portrayed as the man on the horse in the background of Ford Maddox Brown’s
masterpiece, Work (Manchester City Galleries). Braithwaite’s portrait
in coloured chalks by Hunt was given by the artist to the Walker Art
Gallery in 1907.
A Woman of San Germano depicts a mother suckling her infant in
the shade of a leafy pergola in an Italian village. The reference to
Italian old master paintings and the allusion to the Madonna and
Child would have been immediately apparent to contemporary
viewers. The painting was sold in 1869 and had remained in the
family of the purchaser since then. It had not been seen in public for almost 150 years.
The Panel considered that the painting met the second and third
criteria, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued.
It has been temporarily allocated to the Ashmolean Museum pending
a decision on permanent allocation.
Above: R B Martineau: A Woman of San Germano
© Ashmolean Museum.
23. Papers from the Lyttelton Family Archive
The Lyttelton family has been established at Hagley Hall since the mid 16th century and has been involved in both national and local
politics from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. It reached particular
prominence in the first half of the 18th century with the rise of George
Lyttelton (1709-1773), 1st Baron, who was influential both in politics
and in literary circles. He was also responsible for transforming Hagley
into one of the great 18th century landscapes on a par with that of Stowe, which was owned by his uncle, Lord Temple. His brother,
William Henry Lyttelton, 1st Baron, 2nd creation, (1724-1808), held
several important colonial offices including that of Governor of South
Carolina and then of Jamaica. Later he was British Ambassador to
Portugal. Another brother, Charles Lyttelton, was Bishop of Carlisle
and a leading antiquary who acquired important documents on the
history of Worcestershire, including the manuscript of the first history of Worcestershire by Thomas Habington (1560-1647) which is
included in the offer.
In the 19th century William Henry, 3rd Baron (1782-1837) was MP for Worcestershire from 1806-1820. He married the eldest daughter
of the 2nd Earl Spencer who was a lady of the bedchamber (18381842) and governess to Queen Victoria’s children (1842-1850).
The bulk of the archive consists of some 75 boxes and includes family
correspondence from the 17th century, including royal appointments
by Charles II, James II and William III. There are significant letters from
major 18th century political families to which the Lytteltons were
related including the Pitts, the Temples and the Grenvilles. A small
section includes letters from Pope, Samuel Johnson and Voltaire. The papers of William Henry Lyttelton as Governor of Jamaica
comprise three letter books totalling about 300 letters. Some of his
private family letters are also included. Two important letters are
addressed to him from the President and Commissioners of the Board
of Trade concerning Indian affairs in South Carolina. The Hagley
estate accounts cover the period 1839-1955 and run to over 100 volumes. There are papers relating to the 4th Baron and his
involvement with the establishment of the Province of Canterbury in
New Zealand. The archive, however, is not complete as disposals
occurred in the 1970s.
The Panel considered that the papers were pre-eminent under the first and third criteria both in a national and a regional context.
The condition of the archive was considered acceptable as was the valuation. The papers have been temporarily allocated to the Worcestershire Record Office pending a decision on their permanent allocation.
24. Seat furniture from Hagley Hall
The offer comprised a pair of carved mahogany and limewood open
armchairs c. 1760 and a George II carved mahogany and limewood
camel-backed settee, en suite with the pair of chairs. The settee is 267 cm wide. They are part of the extensive suite of seat furniture
which, along with mirrors and girandoles, was commissioned by Sir George Lyttelton, (later 1st Baron Lyttelton) for the gallery at Hagley
Hall. The suite originally comprised 14 chairs, one large settee and
one small settee.
Hagley Hall was built between 1754 and 1760 by the gentleman
architect Sanderson Millar although the final plans were drawn up by
the professional architect John Sanderson. The gallery, which extends
along the whole of the east side, is the most classical of the rooms of this Palladian house. It is divided into three areas by the use of
Corinthian columns and pilasters acting as screens. The furnishing of
the room seems to have taken its cue from the series of 17th century
portraits bequeathed to Lord Lyttelton’s grandfather by the 3rd Baron
Brouncker in 1684. These were reframed by George Lyttelton in
Rococo oak and lime frames inspired by Grinling Gibbons. There is no gilding used either on the frames or on any of the furniture.
The designer of the furniture is not known but there are parallels with
broadly contemporary commissions. The earliest is a chair at Rousham
designed by William Kent and supplied by an unknown cabinet maker.
As with the Hagley chairs, the square tapered column legs are applied
with carved details, although the Rousham chair is in gilt wood.
Comparison can also be made with the seat furniture for the Tapestry
Room at St Giles’s House, Dorset, the picture gallery at Corsham
Court and the gallery at Osterley Park. The Hagley furniture is,
however, distinct in its relatively severe form and angular frames
enriched with light and playful Rococo carving.
Above: A carved mahogany and limewood
open armchair from Hagley Hall c. 1760.
Below: A George II carved mahogany and
limewood camel-backed settee.
The Panel considered that the furniture met the second and third
criteria and that it was acceptably valued. It has been permanently
allocated to Leeds City Council for display at Temple Newsam House,
in accordance with the condition of the offeror.
25. Euan Uglow: Laetitia
Laetitia, 1961-1962, oil on canvas, 93 by 93 cm was painted by
Euan Uglow (1932-2000). The artist attended Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1948 to 1951 where he was taught by Victor
Pasmore and William Coldstream. When Coldstream moved to the
professorship of Fine Art at the Slade, Uglow followed him and stayed
for a further three years of study until 1954. He won numerous prizes
and bursaries and was recognised by his teachers as a student of
special talent and dedication. He was deeply influenced by old master
artists, particularly Piero della Francesca, Poussin and Chardin.
He kept to a strict routine in his working life, working every day in his
Battersea studio. As well as painting he would often build the furniture
and props used in his pictures, and always made the distinctive frames
for his paintings. Uglow was a figurative artist and his primary interest
was in the female nude but he also produced still lifes and landscapes.
His output was small as a result of his meticulous technique. He rarely
produced more than two or three major paintings a year. His first solo
exhibition was in 1961 at the Beaux Arts Gallery and from the late
1970s he showed regularly with Browse and Darby.
Uglow was famous, if not notorious, for the demands that he made
upon his models frequently requiring them to keep difficult poses for
long periods of time. His particularly laborious method of painting
involved mathematical calculations, meticulous, even obsessive
measuring and complicated constructions of sighting wires and
plumb-lines.
Laetitia is a nude portrait of the artist Laetitia Yhap who was born
in London in 1941 to mixed Chinese and Vietnamese parents. Like Uglow she studied at Camberwell and the Slade but a decade after him.
The Panel considered that the painting met the third criterion and,
following negotiation, that it was acceptably valued. It has been
temporarily allocated to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, pending a decision on permanent allocation.
Above: Euan Uglow: Laetitia.
26. Graham Sutherland: Study for Thorns
Study for Thorns, oil on canvas, 45 by 25 cm, was painted by Graham
Sutherland O.M. (1903-1980). It is signed with initials ‘GS’, upper
right, and inscribed and dated ‘Study for Thorns 1945’ on the canvas
overlap. In addition it is further signed, inscribed and dated on the
verso, ‘Worked on April/1953/G. Sutherland’.
Sutherland’s early artistic career, following his studies at Goldsmith’s
School of Art between 1921 and 1926, was primarily in etching. In the
1930s he became part of the trend in English art which, while keenly
aware of the developments on the Continent, eschewed any particular
movement and retained its roots in an English pastoralism and
vernacular tradition dating back to the work of Samuel Palmer in the 19th century. Sutherland sought his inspiration during the 1930s in the landscapes of Pembrokeshire where he found the starting points
and ‘moments of vision’ that were to be transformed on his return to
the studio. He responded to the exhibition of Picasso’s Guernica in
London in 1938 by noting how the artist had used a paraphrase of
appearances to make things look more vital and real and how, “things
found a new form through feeling.” This was to be what Sutherland
attempted, and in his best work achieved, over the next two decades.
Sutherland’s mixture of intense romanticism and spiritual agony
reflected the emotions of the time and was to bring him both critical
and commercial success. Study for Thorns is one of a series of works
that he produced immediately after the war following a commission he had received from the Rev. Walter Hussey to paint a religious work
for St Matthew’s Church, Northampton. Sutherland decided upon a
large-scale crucifixion. He wrote in 1946, “I had been thinking of the
Crucifixion... [and] my mind became preoccupied with the idea of
thorns (the crown of thorns) and wounds made by thorns. Then on
going out into the country I began to notice thorn trees and bushes.
Especially against the sky, the thorns on the branches established a limit of aerial space. They were the dividers pricking out points in
space in all directions, encompassing the air, as if it were solid and tangible.”
Above: Graham Sutherland: Study for Thorns.
The painting was bought directly from the artist in 1953 in which year
he had returned to the subject of thorn paintings following observations
from nature in the south of France. It has never been publicly displayed.
The Panel considered that the painting met the third criterion within a regional context. Following negotiation, it agreed that it was
appropriately valued and in acceptable condition. It has been
temporarily allocated to the Castle Museum, Norwich, pending a decision on permanent allocation.
27. Baruch Spinoza: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Baruch Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670) is widely
regarded as one of the most important philosophical works of the
early modern period and the item on offer is a first edition of the
book, printed in Amsterdam by Christoffel Conrad for Jan Rieuwertsz
in 1669 or 1670.
Baruch (or, Benedict de) Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632 to a Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese origin. His enquiring mind, which would not accept the absolutism of Jewish scripture, led to his conflict with the Jewish community in Amsterdam and to his expulsion or excommunication in 1656. His first publication in
1660 was a mathematical treatise inspired by the French philosopher
Descartes. The only other work published in his lifetime was the
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. All his other works, including his Ethics,
were published posthumously. Even the Tractatus was published
anonymously and because of the radical nature of its contents it bore a title page that gave its place of printing as Hamburg.
For Spinoza, God was essentially a philosophical idea and quite
impersonal. In contradiction to Descartes he held that mind and body
were one and so was all created substance. God and Nature were
two names for one reality which is the single substance forming the
basis of the Universe. This substance may have many modes but these are in essence one.
In the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Spinoza puts forward a critique of
Judaism in particular and organised religion in general. All revealed
religion had to be analysed on the basis of reason and not accepted
by blind faith. All organised religion was simply the institutionalised
defense of particular interpretations. Spinoza discusses at length the historical circumstances of the composition and transmission of the Bible, demonstrating the fallibility of both its authors and its
interpreters. He argues that free enquiry is not only consistent with the
security and prosperity of a state but actually essential to them, and
that such freedom flourishes best in a democratic and republican state in which individuals are left free while religious organisations are subordinated to the secular power. The arguments put forward in the ‘Tractatus’ have profoundly influenced the subsequent history of political thought.
The Panel considered that the book met the third criterion, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued. It has been
temporarily allocated to The British Library, pending a decision on
permanent allocation.
Above: Baruch Spinoza: Tractatus
Theologico-Politicus. ‘Hamburg: Henricus
Künraht’ [i.e. Amsterdam: Christoffel Conrad
for Jan Rieuwertsz. I], [1669 or] 1670.
28. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff: Dangast Dorf
The woodcut Dangast Dorf by the German artist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
(1884-1976) was produced in 1911 and printed on wove paper. It is
signed and dated in pencil. The print block is 393 x 500 mm and the
sheet 450 x 550 mm.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff studied architecture in Dresden but soon left to
become an independent artist and joined Kirchner and others to form
the group ‘Die Brücke’. He visited Emile Nolde in 1907 and went on to stay at Dangast, a village on the north German coast. He returned
there every summer until 1912. He served in the German army in
Russia during World War I after which he developed a successful
international artistic career. With the rise of Nazism he fell out of
favour and in 1937 more than 600 of his works were confiscated.
Twenty-five of them were exhibited in the notorious Degenerate Art
exhibition of 1937 held in Munich and by 1941 be had been forbidden
to paint.
Above: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff: Dangast Dorf.
He was rehabilitated after the war and received a professorship in
Berlin in 1947. He was the leading figure in the establishment of the
Brücke Museum in Berlin in 1967.
This very rare woodcut from the artist’s finest period when he was at the heart of the German Expressionist movement was previously
owned by the art historian Dr. Rosa Schapire who was one of the first
and most important patrons of the Brücke group. Schmidt-Rottluff
carried out a decorative scheme in her Hamburg apartment in 1921
and painted her portrait on several occasions. In 1924, she produced
the first catalogue of Schmidt-Rottluff’s graphic art. She came to
Britain as a refugee from Nazi persecution in 1939. After the war she
worked for Nikolaus Pevsner collating information on the Buildings
of England series. She offered to donate her extensive collection of
Expressionist artists to the Tate but it was rejected and a similar offer to donate her very large print collection to the British Museum met
with no greater enthusiasm. On her death most of her graphic
collection was bequeathed to German museums.
The Panel considered that the print met the third criterion, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued. It has been
temporarily allocated to The British Museum, pending a decision on permanent allocation.
29. John Wilson: The Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar, oil on canvas, 76.2 by 105 cm was painted
by John Wilson (1774-1855). He was born near Ayr in south-west
Scotland to a shipmaster. At 13 he was apprenticed to a house-painter
and minor landscape artist, subsequently taking lessons with
Alexander Nasmyth. After a brief period as drawing master in
Montrose he moved to London in 1798 to work as a house-painter.
He met the Scottish scene-painter, Charles Cooper, who employed
him as a colour-grinder and assistant in the painting room. Over the next two decades he worked as scene-painter in several London
theatres. In 1824 he was responsible for the scenery for the English
premiere of Weber’s opera, Der Freischütz at the Lyceum Theatre,
Covent Garden.
From 1807 he was exhibiting almost annually at the Royal Academy
and later at the British Institution. In 1823-1824 he was one of the
founding members of the Society of British Artists and was its president
in 1827. From 1807 until his death he exhibited over 500 works with
these three organisations. In 1827 he was elected an honorary
member of the Royal Scottish Academy and regularly exhibited with
the academy thereafter.
The Battle of Trafalgar was exhibited at the British Institution in 1826
where it won a prize of £100 and was immediately acquired by the
great collector and art connoisseur, Lord Northwick, who had been a friend of Horatio Nelson. The painting passed to the 3rd Lord
Northwick and was inherited in 1912 by Captain George SpencerChurchill who also inherited Northwick Park. It was included in the
sale following his death in 1965, when it was acquired by George
Bonney whose maternal ancestor had commanded the French ship
Héros at Trafalgar.
The painting is considered to be Wilson’s most significant painting and
although untypical of his work its rediscovery is a major addition to our
knowledge of a painter who was held in high regard in the first part of
the 19th century.
The Panel considered that the painting met the third criterion and that
it was in acceptable condition. The offer price was considered to be an under-representation of its worth and this was doubled. The painting
has been temporarily allocated to East Ayrshire Council pending a
decision on permanent allocation.
Below: John Wilson: The Battle of Trafalgar.
30. Jan Lievens: Portrait of the 1st Earl of Ancram
Portrait of Robert Kerr (1578–1654), 1st Earl of Ancram, oil on
canvas, 62.2 by 51.4 cm, was painted by the Dutch artist, Jan Lievens
(1607-1674) in the last year of the Earl’s life. In 1604 Kerr had been
appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber in the household of Prince
Henry and Princes Elizabeth, children of James I. On the death of
Henry in 1612 he served Prince Charles, accompanying him in 1623
on the visit to Madrid to seek the hand of the Spanish Infanta. His
career at court prospered further when Charles succeeded to the
throne two years later. He was the king’s emissary in The Hague in
1629 where he first met Jan Lievens. While in Holland he was given
four paintings by Lievens and Rembrandt, three of which he presented
to Charles. He was made a member of the Scottish Privy Council in
1631 and accompanied the king on his visit to Scotland in 1633.
His fortunes began to wane in the 1640s perhaps because his eldest
son, the Earl of Lothian, was a leading opponent of Charles’s religious
reforms in Scotland and by 1647 he was obliged to seek protection
from debtors. By 1650 he had moved to the Netherlands and was in
Amsterdam the next year. He died at the end of 1654 in such poverty
that it was only the financial intervention of Cromwell in May 1655
that allowed his burial to take place.
Above: Jan Lievens: Portrait of Robert Kerr,
1st Earl of Ancram.
The portrait was described in the catalogue of the major exhibition on Lievens held in Washington and Amsterdam in 2009 as “one of
Lieven’s most compelling portrayals of human dignity and frailty. Set
against a dark background, the nobleman’s angular face is imbued
with a pathos that rivals that of Rembrandt’s best portraits.”
Lievens was a child prodigy and had his own studio by the age of 12.
His versatility is shown by the range of subject matter of his paintings
which included portraiture, still life, landscapes, depictions of everyday
life, grandiose allegorical scenes and biblical narratives. He was never a pupil of Rembrandt who was only a year older but the two
Leiden-born artists knew and appreciated each other’s works, used the same models and painted similar subjects. From 1632 to 1635
Lievens worked in London but little, if any, of his output from this period remains.
The Panel considered that the painting met the second and third
criteria, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued.
It has been permanently allocated to Scottish National Portrait Gallery
in accordance with the condition of the offeror.
31. Bernard Meadows Collection
The offer comprised works by Bernard Meadows (1915-2005) and Henry Moore (1898-1986). Meadows was a major sculptor of the second half of the 20th century but his reputation has been
overshadowed by that of his friend and mentor, Henry Moore, with
whom he worked for most of his active life. Born in Norwich, his
parents wished him to become an accountant but after it became
clear he had no aptitude for that profession he attended Norwich Art School. A casual visit to Henry Moore’s studio resulted in an
invitation to come and help Moore during holidays and Meadows
soon decided to become a sculptor.
He studied at the Royal College of Art but only completed the course
after the war. Initially, he was a conscientious objector but after Hitler’s
invasion of Russia he joined the Royal Air Force and was soon posted
to the Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean where he was to remain for
most of the war. While there he became fascinated by the giant crabs
that would later become a recurring motif in his sculpture.
After the war his reputation increased when he took part in the British Pavilion exhibition at the 1952 Venice Biennale. There, a new generation of British sculptors such as Lynn Chadwick, Kenneth
Armitage, Reg Butler and Eduardo Paolozzi, was given an international
platform to launch their careers. From 1948 to 1960 he taught at the Chelsea School of Art and for the next 20 years was an
inspirational professor of sculpture at the RCA. On his retirement in 1980, and with Moore ill, he returned to his mentor’s studio and
became the first acting director of the Henry Moore Foundation at Perry Green.
The collection offered consists of sculptures, maquettes, studies and
documentary material that covers not only the whole of Meadows’
career but also includes seven works by Henry Moore, including a bronze stringed sculpture from 1939. The collection records the
development of Meadows’ engagement, both in drawing and
sculpture, with the crab and bird themes that dominate his work.
The Panel considered the collection met the third criterion, that it was
in acceptable condition and that it was valued fairly. The bulk of the
material, including the works by Moore, have been permanently
allocated to Leeds City Council for retention at the Henry Moore
Institute. Four smaller groups await permanent allocation.
Above: Bernard Meadows: Fallen Bird, 1958.
Below: Henry Moore: Stringed Figure, 1939.
32. Archive of Dollie and Ernest Radford
This extensive archive gives an important insight into the lives of Ernest
(1857-1919) and Caroline (Dollie) Radford (1858-1920). They were
poets and writers active in the literary, artistic and socialist circles of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries and came to be regarded as
leading figures in the late-Victorian world of literature and art. Their
interests extended beyond their personal world to embrace a wider
social responsibility. They were involved in the founding of art and
literary groups, including the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society and the Rhymer’s Club, as well as in political and charitable societies such
as the Socialist League and the Fabian Society.
The Radfords’ wide circle of contacts and friends included William
Morris, Walter Crane, H G Wells, George Bernard Shaw (who set one of Dollie’s poems to music), Eleanor Marx, Ford Madox Ford, Amy Levy, and several of the leading writers, artists and social reformers
of their day. Through their friend Ernest Rhys, poet and editor of
Everyman’s Library, the Radfords met D. H. Lawrence in 1909.
The couple had first met in 1881 in the Reading Room of the British
Library where Dollie was helping Eleanor Marx in the editing of the
works of her father, Karl. Ernest was invited to Shakespeare readings
at the Marxs’ home and it was there that their romance flourished.
They married in 1883. In the same year Dollie’s poems were first
published in the radical magazine Progress. She was later to be
published in The Yellow Book, The Athenaeum and The Nation.
The offer also includes an original print of The Triumph of Labour
from Walter Crane’s woodcut and an embroidery designed by D. H. Lawrence and worked on linen by Frieda Lawrence. The
embroidery depicts Dionysus in the boat which steered of its own
accord, with dolphins, vines and grapes. This was a wedding gift to the Radfords’ son, Maitland. When in 1917 the Lawrences were
expelled from Cornwall as suspected spies they took refuge with the
Radfords and Dollie was the basis of the character, Hattie Redburn, in Lawrence’s 1923 novel, Kangaroo.
The Panel considered that the archive met the third criterion, that it
was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued. It has been
permanently allocated to the British Library in accordance with the
condition of the offeror.
Below: Ernest (top left), Dollie Radford (right)
and their children, Maitland, Margaret and Hester.
33. Louis XIV Boulle cabinet on stand
The Louis XIV ormolu-mounted premiere and contre-partie tortoiseshell
and floral marquetry cabinet on stand is attributed to André-Charles
Boulle, circa 1680. It stands 184 cm high, 119.5 cm wide and 52 cm
deep and incorporates later giltwood monopedia supports, circa
1800. As with so much of the finest French 17th century furniture it came to England in the early 19th century following the French
Revolution. It was acquired by George Byng MP (1764-1847) for his
country house, Wrotham Park, where it was recorded on Byng’s death
and remained until 2009.
Byng was the great-nephew of Admiral John Byng and inherited
Wrotham on the death of his father in 1789. The next year he became
MP for Middlesex, the seat he was to hold for 57 years until his death. A Francophile both in politics and in his taste, he enriched the furnishing at Wrotham by astute purchases of French furniture and porcelain and a fine collection of Old Master paintings.
The cabinet is one of a small series of elaborate cabinets on stands
which Boulle developed in the period 1670 to 1700. The cabinets
became more elaborate and the decoration more sumptuous as the
series progressed. The earliest is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Another earlier cabinet is in the Wallace Collection and further
examples are in the Getty Museum and the collection of the Duke of
Buccleuch at Drumlanrig Castle. A second cabinet at Drumlanrig is
the closest in design to the Wrotham example and retains the original
supporting figures of Ceres and Bacchus. The cabinet on offer had
these replaced by Egyptian monopedia circa 1800, almost certainly in England. At the same time the drawers which flank the medallion of Louis XIV were re-veneered seemingly using Boulle panels from
another cabinet. The giltwood Egyptian herms of the stand introduce a note of neo-classical restraint in place of the baroque exuberance of the originals.
The Panel considered that the cabinet met the second and third criteria, that it was in acceptable condition and that it was fairly valued.
It was temporarily allocated to the Wallace Collection to allow it to be seen and studied alongside the Collection’s own Boulle cabinet on stand. In September 2010 it was permanently allocated to The Fitzwilliam Museum.
Opposite: Louis XIV Cabinet on stand
attributed to André-Charles Boulle.
Appendices
Acceptance in Lieu
Appendix 1
Appendix1–casescompletedin2009/2010
Case/Description
1. GeorgeUnwin:
MedalsandLogbooks
2. ArchiveoftheEarlsofRomney
Dateof
offer
Feb2008
May2008
Dateof
approval
Apr2009
July2009
Dateof
completion
Aug2009
Nov2009
3. AdamDeColone:
Earl of Winton and sons
4. FrancisGrant:
The Meet of the Fife Hounds 5.EdgarDegas:Sculpture
Apr2008
Apr2008
July2008
Aug2009
Aug2009
Mar2009
Jan2010
Jan2010
July2009
6. PeterLely:‘Ursula’
July2008
Mar2009 July2009
7. SeatonDelaval
8. D
anielGardner:
The Three Witches
9. ChattelsfromLymePark
10. MarcellusLaroon:
A Musical Party
11. ChaïmSoutine:Jeune femme
12. DomenicoTiepolo:
Café by the Quayside
13. PauldeLamerie;
Fourcandlesticks
14. TheFitzwilliamTureens
15. Nineearly20th-century
Britishpaintings
16. Delftwareplaque:
The Royal Oak 17. ArchiveoftheEarlsofKintore
18. PollardCollectionofMedals
19. EssexHousePressCollection
Oct2008 Dec2009 Dec2009
Aug2008 Apr2009 July2009
ImperialWarMuseum
(Duxford)
CentreforKentishStudies,
Maidstone
£245,000 ScottishNationalPortrait
Gallery
Gallery
£175,000 CourtauldInstitute
(SamuelCourtauldTrust)
£297,500 CourtauldInstitute
(SamuelCourtauldTrust)
£4,883,599 NationalTrust
£140,000 tobeconfirmed
Sep2008 May2009 Sep2009
Nov2008 Feb2009 Aug2009
£178,920 NationalTrustforLymePark
Dec2008 Aug2009 Sep2009
Dec2008 Feb2009 Apr2009
Jan2009
Jan2009
Jan2009
Feb2009
Feb2009
Feb2009
Mar2009
20. VanPoelenberg:
Mar2009
Italianate Landscape 21. 20thcenturyphotography
Mar2009
22. RBMartineau:
Apr2009
A Woman of San Germano
23. Lytteltonfamilyarchive
Jun2009
24. SeatfurniturefromHagleyHall Jun2009
25. EuanUglow:Laetitia
Jun2009
26. GrahamSutherland:
Study for Thorns
Jun2009
Tax
settled
£53,254
£54,626
Permanentallocation
Apr2009
Aug2009
£140,000
VictoriaandAlbertMuseum
Apr2009
June2009
Aug2009
Aug2009
August2009
Nov2009
£80,500 VictoriaandAlbertMuseum
£1,046,500 Tate;NationalPortrait
Gallery:ScottishNational
GalleryofModernArt
£87,500
Aug2009 Jan2010
May2009 Jun2009
Oct2009 Dec2009
£46,550
£51,100
£70,000
July2009
Aug2009
£5,600
AberdeenUniversityArchive
FitzwilliamMuseum
CourtBarnMuseum,
ChippingCampden
tobeconfirmed
Jun2009
July2009
Aug2009
Aug2009
£227,290
£126,000
Tate
tobeconfirmed
Sep2009
Oct2009
Oct2009
Feb2010
Feb2010
Nov2009
£385,000 TempleNewsam,Leeds
Jan2010
Feb2010
£49,000
tobeconfirmed
Case/Description
27. BaruchSpinoza:
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
28. KarlSchmidt-Rottluff:
Dangast Dorf
29. JohnWilson:
The Battle of Trafalgar
30. JanLievens:1st Earl of Ancram
Dateof
offer
Dateof
approval
Dateof
Tax
completion settled
Permanentallocation
July2009
Oct2009
Nov2009
£7,000
tobeconfirmed
July2009 Oct2009 Nov2009
Jun2009
(Sep2009) Nov2009 Jan2010
July2009 Dec2009 Jan2010
£4,900
tobeconfirmed
31. BernardMeadowsCollection Aug2009 Nov2009 Jan2010
32. ArchiveofDollie
andErnestRadford
33. LouisXIVBoulleCabinet
onStand
TotalTaxsettled
TotalAgreedValue
£8,750
tobeconfirmed
Gallery
£321,370 LeedsCityCouncilfor
HenryMooreInstituteand
otherstobeconfirmed
Sep2009
Dec2009 Mar2010
£42,000
BritishLibrary
Sep2009
Nov2009 Feb2010
Total
Total
£465,700 TheFitzwilliamMuseum
£10,789,759
£15,669,520
Appendix 2
Appendix2–MembersoftheAILPanelduring2009/2010.
Jonathan Scott CBE
hairman of AIL Panel since August 2000. C
Previously: Chairman of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art,
Deputy Chairman of the Trustees of the V&A, Trustee of the Imperial War Museum.
Geoffrey Bond DL OBE Chair MLA London, MLA Board Member, Broadcaster and Lawyer.
Lucinda Compton
onservator, member of the Historic Houses Association, former committee
C
member of the British Antique Restorers’ Association.
Patrick Elliott
Senior Curator, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.
Katharine Eustace
Editor, The Sculpture Journal, Trustee Compton Verney Collections Settlement.
Mark Fisher
P and former Minister for the Arts; author of ‘Britain’s Best Museums M
& Galleries’, Penguin, 2004.
Andrew McIntosh Patrick
Dealer and collector; formerly Managing Director of the Fine Art Society, New Bond Street, London.
David Scrase
Assistant Director Collections, Keeper, Paintings, Drawings & Prints, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Lindsay Stainton
ormerly curator in Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum F
and subsequently with London dealers Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox.
Christopher Wright OBE
ormerly, Keeper of Manuscripts, British Library, member of Reviewing Committee
F
on the Export of Works of Arts.
Lucy Wood
S enior Curator of Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Dept., Victoria and Albert
Museum; former curator at Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral.
Appendix 3
Expertadvisers2009/2010
PhilipAtwood
BritishMuseum
AlastairLaing
NationalTrust
NicholasAves
NJAvesCoinsandMedals
MartinLevy
HBlairman&Sons
WendyBaron
IndependentConsultant
LowellLibson
LowellLibsonLtd.
PeterBoughton
GrosvenorGallery,Chester
TimothyMcCann
AnthonyBrown
ConnaughtBrown
formerlyWestSussexRecord
Office
ChristopherBrown
AshmoleanMuseum
EdMaggs
MaggsBrothers
JonathanBourne
HollandFineArtLtd
PietervanderMerwe
NationalMaritimeMuseum
PatrickBourne
TheFineArtSociety
AnthonyMould
AnthonyMouldLtd
AdamBowett
TennantsAuctioneers
JeremyPattison
TennantsAuctioneers
RobinBowman
RobertBowmanGallery
SusannahPollen
SusannahPollenLtd
AlexanderCorcoran
LefevreFineArt
MarkQuayle
Spink
JoshuaDarby
BrowseandDarby
ThomRichardson
RoyalArmouries
DianaDethloff
UniversityCollege,London
MurraySimpson
NimrodDix
DixNoonanWebb
PeytonSkipwith
ElizabethEinberg
PaulMellonCentreforthe
StudyofBritishArt
AnthonySmith
IanSmith
BernardQuaritchLtd
GilesEllwood
GilesEllwoodLtd
LewisSmith
KoopmanRareArt
MarkEvans
SimonTheobald
TheobaldJennings
PeterFiner
PeterFinerLtd
DuncanThomson
MatthewGale
Tate
MichaelTollemache
TollemacheFineArtLtd
ChristopherGibbs
JohnTomasso
TomassoBrothers
RenéGimpel
GimpelFilsGallery
DinoTomasso
TomassoBrothers
PhilippaGlanville
JulianTreuherz
JohnHarris
CharlesTruman
C&LBurman
JonathanHarris
HarrisLindsayLtd
RobertUpstone
Tate
MarkHaworth-Booth
UniversityoftheArts,London
JohnnyVanHaeften
JohnnyVanHaeftenGallery
RobertHolden
RobertHoldenLtd
RowanWatson
JamesHolland-Hibbert HazlittHolland-Hibbert
AnthonyWells-Cole
JamesHolloway
ScottishNationalPortraitGallery
CatherineWhistler
AshmoleanMuseum,Oxford
MichaelHoppen
MichaelHoppenGallery
ThomasWilliams
ThomasWilliamsFineArtLtd
JonathanHorne
Sampson&HorneAntiques
JohnWilson
JohnWilsonManuscriptsLtd
SpikeHughes
SpikeHughesRareBooks
ThomasWilson
JamesHyman
JamesHymanGallery
TheOpenEyeGallery,
Edinburgh
DavidFraserJenkins
TimothyWilson
AshmoleanMuseum,Oxford
SimonSwynfenJervis
PaulJohnson
ArthurAckermannLtd
RobinKatz
RobinKatzFineArt
RobinKern
Hotspur
Appendix 4
Allocation of items reported in earlier years but only decided
in 2009/2010.
The Declaration of Outlawry on Napoleon which was
case 11 in the 2007/2008 report has been permanently
allocated to The British Library where it had been on
deposit both prior to and since being accepted.
Sir John Lavery’s Portrait of Violet Trefusis which was
allocated to the National Trust for display at
Sissinghurst Castle, Kent.
Thomas Gainsborough’s Portrait of Isaac Donnithorne
which was case 2 in the 2008/2009 report has been
permanently allocated to Falmouth Art Gallery.
Ambrosius Bosschaert’s Flower Painting which was
allocated to the National Gallery, in accordance with
the wish of the offeror.
The Archive of Frank Martin which was case 4 in the
2008/2009 report has been permanently allocated to the
Tate Archive, in accordance with the wish of the offeror.
Frank Auerbach’s Portrait of Julia which was case 10
in the 2008/2009 report has been permanently allocated
to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in
accordance with the wish of the offeror.
Jean-François Millet’s The Angelus (pastel) which was
allocated to Glasgow City Council.
John Runciman’s Hagar and the Angel which was
case 12 in the 2008/2009 report has been allocated to
the Hunterian Art Gallery of the University of Glasgow.
Sir Joshua Reynold’s Portrait of the Harcourt Family
which was case 14 in the 2008/2009 report has been
permanently allocated to the Ashmolean Museum,
in accordance with the wish of the offeror.
The Hand Clubs and Stone Axe which was case 15
to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, in
accordance with the wish of the offeror.
The Punch and Judy Archive which was case 16 in the
2008/2009 report has been permanently allocated to
the Victoria and Albert Museum, in accordance with
the wish of the offeror.
Bonaventura Peeter’s Shipping on the Schelde
which was case 24 in the 2008/2009 report has
been permanently allocated to Bristol Museum
and Art Gallery.
Sir John Everett Millais’s The Proscribed Royalist
(reduced-sized replica) which was case 25 in the
2008/2009 report has been permanently allocated
to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Jean Tijou’s Architectural design which was case 26
to the Library of the Royal Institute of British Architects,
in accordance with the wish of the offeror.
The Roman funerary altar and monument which was
allocated to the Ashmolean Museum, in accordance
with the wish of the offeror.
Howard Hodgkin’s Portrait of Peter Cochrane has
been permanently allocated to the National Portrait
Gallery, in accordance with the wish of the offeror.
Paris Bordone’s Narcissus which was case 36 in the
2008/2009 report has been permanently allocated to
the Ashmolean Museum, in accordance with the wish
of the offeror.
Leading strategically, we promote best
practice in museums, libraries and
archives, to inspire innovative, integrated
and sustainable services for all.
Museums, Libraries
& Archives Council
Grosvenor House
14 Bennetts Hill
Birmingham B2 5RS
T 0121 345 7300
E [email protected]
www.mla.gov.uk
For further information
on the Acceptance in Lieu
Scheme contact MLA’s
Acquisition, Export
and Loans Unit on
020 7273 1456 or the
Chief Executive’s Office
on 020 7273 1476.
© MLA 2010
Registered Charity No: 1079666
ISBN 978-1-905867-49-3
Design: red-stone.com
Printed on 75% recycled paper
AEL251010

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