Category Archives: Our Team News

The Light of the World

The last version of the Light of the World by William Holman Hunt o.m. (1827-1910)

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This famous painting, ‘The last version of the Light of the World’, nearly life size, hangs in St Paul’s Cathedral, where it is admired by thousands of visitors every year. Sales of postcards and bookmarks of it also run to thousands annually. Very few people, however, will know of its peregrinations before it arrived in St Paul’s.

The painting was commissioned by Charles Booth, a rich ship owner and friend of the Hunts in 1903, by which time Holman Hunt was virtually blind, a combination of glaucoma and working in that minute painstaking Pre-Raphaelite way had taken its toll. So most of the painting was done by E R Hughes under Holman Hunt’s instruction, but this fact was not made public and Hunt took all the credit. When the painting was finished, it was decided that it should go on exhibition to the Christian parts of the Empire.

After a brief exhibition at the Fine Art Society in the Spring of 1904, ‘The last version of the Light of the World’ and its vast frame, together they weighed just under a ton, were crated up and sent to Glasgow. They set sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia in February 1905. In Halifax, where frame and canvas were reunited, it was exhibited in the York Theatre Assembly Rooms. Booth had already employed two men to accompany it and a third was hired here with the sole task of removing it from its frame in under three minutes in case of fire. Percy Fennell, one of its custodians, gave lectures about its symbolism during day and took up station in a hammock beside it at night, with a loaded revolver at the ready. From Halifax the painting went by train to Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg. It reached Vancouver in September.

From Canada, it travelled to Australia. In Sydney it was seen by 25,000 visitors a day. People thought they had seen Jesus. They prayed in front of the painting, fainted and had profound religious experiences. The crowds in Sydney were pushing through turnstiles at the rate of one person every 2.99 seconds, ‘ladies had their hats crushed, sashes torn and blouses deranged’, to quote a local journalist and the Police struggled to keep order.

“The Light of the World” visited Adelaide, Broken Hill, Melbourne and Sydney and then arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on the morning of Easter Day, April 15th, 1906. After Auckland, it spent a day in New Plymouth and then went by train to Wanganui (I once sold to the National Gallery of New Zealand some drawings made by a Scots doctor of his house and garden which was the first building in what became Wanganui. I hadn’t a clue about the importance of what I was selling and completely under-sold them. I’m happy they found their way home, however!)

In Palmerston North it was displayed in the Opera House, where 15,000 people came to see it. Then on it went to Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and finally Invercargill. After a terrifyingly stormy crossing of the Tasman Sea it arrived in Hobart. Artificial lighting in Hobart was a problem, but the Tasmanian Woolgrower’s Association had a vast and well-lit warehouse, which they offered as a venue. “The Light of the World” was exhibited there, propped up on sacks of wheat, surrounded by bales of wool and seen by over 11,000 visitors in the first two days.

It made a return trip to Adelaide. The Director of the Museum there wrote a letter to Booth thanking him for the loan and telling him that 104,000 people had seen it in eight days. After exhibitions in Brisbane and Rockhampton, it set sail for Capetown and was shown there. It was also exhibited in Durban, Pietermaritsburg and Johannesburg, where, just as in Australasia, it drew vast crowds, 25,000 in Johannesburg alone.

By the time it returned home in 1907 after two years abroad, it had been seen by more than seven million people. It is extraordinary to reflect on what an impact this old fashioned, latter-day Pre-Raphaelite painting made on Britons and their empire when one considers that Fauvism was raging in France at the same time and Impressionism was dead.

But what of the model for Jesus, then one of the most recognisable images on the planet. He was called Domenico Mancini (b.1873) and he was a handsome, athletic lad who stood over six feet tall. He and six or seven siblings left Picinisco, the highest village in the Abruzzi mountains in central Italy and settled in Hammersmith in the late 1880s. They became barrow boys, often defending their pitches with their fists. Domenico’s nephew, Alf, in fact, became a professional boxer and had a career of 148 fights, between 1920 and 1931, starting as a featherweight and ending up a middleweight. The Golden Gloves pub in Fulham Palace Road, owned by the Mancini family, was a famous local landmark, when I first arrived in London.

It was in 1889 that the good-looking Domenico was first approached by Sir William Blake Richmond to model for him. Richmond had settled in Hammersmith after his second marriage and was an Italian speaker, having worked for some years with Nino Costa and the Etruscan school. He was also an old friend of Holman Hunt and may well have introduced the two.

It wasn’t long before Domenico suggested to his brothers that they, too, could make a decent living as models, posing in the studio in the winter and keeping costermongering for the summer months.

In the end, Domenico gave up the street life and became a professional model for the rest of his days. Amongst others, he posed for Alma Tadema, Sargent, Frank Brangwyn and Sir Jacob Epstein. He is the boy riding the horse in G F Watts’s magnificent sculpture “Physical Energy” in Kensington Gardens. He wore Edward VII’s robes for a state portrait of the King. Whilst posing for this, they had to slice the King’s patent pumps to accommodate Domenico’s bunions! Getting models to pose for portraits, notably full-length ones, is a tradition going back centuries. Grandees, and especially monarchs, have better things to do than stand for hours in heavy clothing. John Evelyn described going into Van Dycks studio and seeing, propped up against the wall, countless eight foot canvases of men in armour. This work was carried out by assistants. The portraits had no hands and their faces were blank ovals waiting for the great man to paint the important bits from life.

Last, but by no means least, his legs were used by Alfred Drury for his sculpture of Sir Joshua Reynolds, completed in 1931 and now in the courtyard of the Royal Academy, most of us will have seen them. Domenico Mancini died in 1958, the year I went to prep school.

NB

This article was only made possible by the brilliant, scholarly research done on the painting by Jeremy Maas, an old friend of mine and father of Rupert, who entertained our Wednesday Club in his gallery in the Summer. Jeremy published a 240 page book on this one painting in 1984. I dedicate the article to his memory.

Female Silversmiths

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Does this title sound a little niche? One would hope not in the 21st century, but what about the preceding generations? If you have the slightest interest in silver, it is likely that you will have heard of the prolific maker and great matriarch Hester Bateman. She certainly deserves the recognition. She led the Bateman firm during the second half of the 18th century, during which time the company flourished, innovated, and was eventually taken on by her sons, daughter in law and ultimately her grandson, when, in 1800 the mark of Peter, William and Ann Bateman was registered.

It is often assumed that female silversmiths, goldsmiths and other prominent female woman in trade and industry acceded to prominence by association with their husbands, or families. In the case of Hester Bateman this is true, she married a gold chain maker called John Bateman and it was his death which catapulted her into the running of the firm. However, there were many women working in trades during the 18th century and earlier and not all of them were there by matrimonial or familial association. Although men dominated in commerce, and both the law and custom gave men precedence in most areas, there were successful woman who pursued business in their own right.

Women were occasionally apprenticed to learn a trade and although the majority of female silversmiths and goldsmiths would have learnt their trades through a family connection and without formal indentures, 14 woman silversmiths have been identified in the registry of London makers whose names appear to bear no connection to any male counterparts.

In her work ‘Woman Silversmiths 1685-1845’ Philippa Glanville writes of Welthian Goodyear, a Bristol spoon maker, Ellen Dare of Taunton and Elizabeth Haslewood of Norwich acting as ‘autonomous agents’ with their own workshops and selling their pieces locally. She goes on to say that this is known about as there are records of them being fined for sub-standard work by the Goldsmiths Company, taking apprentices and buying insurance for their shops, workshops, and stock.

The work of silver smithing is physical. Silver is beaten out with heavy hammers; female silversmiths would have needed to be fit and strong to undertake the process. They would undoubtedly have had to do this themselves, especially if they hoped to enter their touch mark at the Goldsmiths’ Hall.

Although women had far more obstacles to overcome to succeed, this sometimes gave them an edge. Hester Bateman’s work is elegant and has been thought of as delicate, even feminine. This is not wholly justified, as those attributions might easily be ascribed to many of the neo-classical pieces produced at the end of the 18th century, including furniture and ceramics. Hester Bateman was, however, instrumental in producing the first machine for flattening or as it was then called ‘flatting’ silver. In contrast to the ‘feminine’ style of Hester Bateman, her near contemporary Elizabeth Godfrey championed a heavy Rococo style, influenced by her first husband, a French Huguenot. Elizabeth outlived two husbands and ran a successful and business in Norris Street, where her prestigious clientele were served by beautifully mannered staff, who were courteous and bilingual, able to converse in both French and English. Her elaborate card shows that she was no shrinking violet, rather, an astute businesswoman.

Rebecca Emes was the most commercially successful female silversmith of the 19th century. She, with partner Edward Barnard formed the formidable firm Emes and Barnard, which in turn became the Barnard Brothers whose pieces turn up in almost every silver auction in the country on a regular basis. Their skill was in producing high quality domestic silverware, a prerequisite in every household of substance in the 19th century.

Happily, today women silversmiths are not a rarity or an anomaly. A quick Google search on the topic reveals the following as the top two results.

  • Women in Silver smithing at the V&A (an exhibition in 2018).
  • Meet the 10 emerging jewellers and silversmiths who are set to shine at New Designers One Year In – (sponsored by The Goldsmiths Hall). This is particularly interesting as the category is not gender specific, it just happens that of the ten artists featured 9 are women.

In selecting examples of contemporary female silversmiths, I am spoilt for choice. This is as it should be. Jocelyn Burton who died in 2020, was originally rejected from the Sir John Cass College in London when she applied for their silversmithing course in 1966, on the basis she was a woman. Instead, she enrolled on a jewellery course and studied silversmithing a night school. Such was her eventual success that she was commissioned to produce pieces for the Fishmonger’s Hall, The Butcher’s Company and Lichfield Cathedral.

Rauni Higson is a particular favourite of mine. Her candelabra for the Weavers’ Company and The Goldsmith’s company rosewater dish show an affinity between nature and silver that is intrinsic to much of her work.

Today we should not need to differentiate male and female silversmiths, we should instead concentrate on the craft of the silversmith. It should be remembered however, that this owes much to the female forebears who forged their trade against the significant obstacles of the day.

The importance of professional valuations for HNW clients

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Up to date valuations of assets are becoming ever more important – and the quality of that valuation can be critical. The last time anyone wants to discover it is missing or out-of-date is when a claim comes in and there are coverage issues.

Valuations are key for policyholders to:

  • Prove ownership
  • Describe the item, with a photograph
  • Give a current true replacement value for insurance purposes

Professional and up-to-date valuations are also key for brokers, AR’s and insurers because:

  • They help an underwriter correctly assess and price the risk – reducing the risk of underinsurance
  • They make policy negotiation conversations easier – e.g. clarity over what is owned, how much is actually worn vs. kept in a safe

  • Jewellery setting checks reduce the risk of loss/damage, and therefore claims
  • Should an item be lost/damaged, it is easier and quicker to assess the loss and handle the claim with a detailed description and accurate valuation (reducing claim management costs for all)
  • Better claims management = happier policyholder = higher retention (where you want to keep the client!)
  • Indicative of a “good insured” – they have invested in, and take care of, their property.

So what’s the problem with “valuations” in the industry at present?

There are many issues that can arise:

  • No valuation at all.
    This could be because the item was a gift or has been recently inherited, or because the receipt or valuation has been lost/mislaid.Surprisingly, on visits to clients’ homes by valuers, high-value assets that are not specified (and therefore not covered) are often identified – simply due to oversight by the client. This could be a painting, a Hermes handbag collection, or jewellery the client has forgotten about. Many policyholders do not realise that a piece of furniture, a tapestry, or some books or antique ceramics are actually very valuable (hence the popularity of “Antiques Roadshow”!)Brokers are sometimes unable to visit clients’ homes due to time-pressure – which means this is a real but unrecognised risk. A home visit by a valuer can mitigate this.
  • An out-of-date valuation.
    Prices for HNW assets can fluctuate dramatically, but at different levels over different time periods (see below). An out-of-date valuation will mean the item is underinsured, leading to underpayment at the point of claim.
  • A simple purchase receipt.
    This may state that £10k was paid for a diamond ring, but does not give enough information to replace it easily. It can also lead to underinsurance – as some collectible items can increase in value immediately after purchase.
  • Unreliable valuations and receipts.
    At the point of claim, an insurer may accept a receipt from Goldsmiths or Sotheby in the UK as evidence of an item having been purchased and owned. They are reputable companies, and the receipt will be in £’s sterling.What if there is an issue or error with a valuation? Does the company providing it carry PI in the UK? Do they have the expertise to correctly value an item? Do they follow industry best-practice standards e.g. FSQS? Are they GIA registered?A receipt or valuation may be from a company in Russia, or India, or Hong Kong. It may be written in that language, with no easy way of knowing whether the company is reliable and trustworthy. Is this a genuine purchase receipt, or could it be a fraudulent, inflated valuation? Even if genuine, it is still an issue for claims teams at the point of claim.

    What currency is the valuation in? Sterling, US dollars and Euros are currencies which can be reasonably relied upon. But how comfortable is a claims team with a valuation in Russian Rubles or Venezuelan Bolivars, currencies that can fluctuate wildly. What about a valuation in Bitcoin? What value should go in the policy – who decides?

Poor valuations typically lead to underinsurance, difficult claims handling for everyone (client, broker/AR and insurer), and even claims being rejected.

This underinsurance also means GWP can be left on the table for the insurer, and less commission is earned by the broker or AR.

What should a valuation contain?

A professional valuation will provide a comprehensive document that includes:

  • An overall description of the item, including dimensions and overall condition
  • For jewellery:
    • details of the stone(s), including size and quality. If a stone is certified, the report number and date should be noted within the description, as well as the name of the grading laboratory.
    • the metal and overall setting
    • any marks (such as hallmarks or maker’s marks)
    • a value, which should be dated and confirm the purpose/type of valuation
    • confirmation that the clasps and settings of jewellery have been checked. This will help if a “clasps and settings” clause has been applied. It will also reduce the risk of loss or damage overall.

What’s happening in the HNW asset market at the moment?

Values change all the time. The replacement value for something bought 10 years ago will be different to the purchase price (if known). There is a common misconception that antiques have no value – it may be difficult to sell them, but can prove very costly to replace them if damaged or lost.

The costs of restoration and repair have increased exponentially. If an item of furniture or jewellery has been damaged, it can possibly be repaired – but this is likely to be at a substantial premium. It’s not just the time and skill of the artisan you are paying for, their rates, rents, stock and materials have all increased significantly.

Ceramics and glass from the early 20th Century are often overlooked by clients. These items are achieving record-breaking prices at auction – the owner may well not know this, but this can be spotted and a problem avoided during a home visit.

Paintings and artworks often represent some of the highest valued items in a home, yet little regard is paid to ensuring their insurance cover is up-to-date and adequate. The value of art can change/fluctuate significantly, and sometimes overnight (e.g. death of an artist). The value is often linked to taste and fashion – which artists are most desirable at the time. John Constable’s iconic “Hay Wain” was the Nation’s favourite artwork for generations; it has now been displaced by Banksy’s “Girl With Balloon”. How is a broker/AR to know during a client home visit whether the artwork on the wall is likely to be valuable and needs a proper valuation?

What’s the solution?

Clients should be encouraged to get a professional valuation of all their HNW assets done on a 3 yearly basis. If the client is a collector of watches, they should consider reviewing values annually – makers discontinue styles over time, thereby increasing their values.

For many clients, a home-visit is the quickest, easiest, and safest way to achieve this – as the valuer(s) will come to their home at a time of their choice. This helps ensure no potential HNW asset is left unidentified and unspecified.

Ideally, a valuer should be able to value all items (e.g. paintings, jewellery, watches, guns, clothing/shoes/handbag collections), not just some of them. A one-stop-shop service – with the right expert for each area.

A good valuation service will be FSQS registered – meaning they adhere to finance industry-recognised standards. This provides confidence in the quality of the valuation and the safety of customer data. They should also carry UK-based PI in case of a mistake or error.

Brokers and AR’s are critical in the valuation process. The client may need convincing to invest in a professional valuation – they are often not as expensive as many think.

A good valuation service will be happy to do an initial phone call with the broker/AR in attendance to explain the process, why this is so important, and the risks of not being correctly valued. Having the broker/AR at the site visit is also very useful, as it helps cement their relationship with their client, and helps them more fully understand the needs of their client.

Who are Doerr Dallas Valuations?

This article was written by Rachel Doerr of DDV.

Rachel has spent her career specialising in valuing HNW assets, setting up her own business to do so in 2016. The business is FSQS registered, and carries PI of £5m.

Doerr Dallas pride themselves on their relationships with brokers and ARs, and are keen to support them in many ways free-of-charge, for instance:

  • Quotations, often including different cost options to meet the needs of different clients
  • Training for staff
  • Articles for websites and newsletters
  • Presenters at events e.g. speakers, free valuations at a wine-tasting
  • Joint phone calls to clients
  • Reminders when the market has changed and certain items need revaluing

Doerr Dallas Valuations can help eliminate concerns about the correct valuations of a client’s HNW assets in all categories, for clients in the UK and across Europe. The team includes some of the most renowned and internationally recognised specialists in their areas of expertise – including Fine Art, Antiques, Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Classic Cars, Books and Manuscripts, and other valuable collectibles as well as handbags, wardrobe contents and general household contents.

Rachel can be reached on 01883 722736 or 07876653602 and email [email protected]

The watch markets – Let’s talk about secs… mins, and hours

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Let’s not beat around the bush, one of the most common watches that I have to value is the now almost immortal Patek Phillipe Nautilus 5711 and again one of the most common questions (or statements) is that the value is plummeting but let’s just have a quick look at the facts here – if you bought your watch any time before Christmas of last year, it’s still probably going to have to be insured for more than you bought it for. The timeline of this watch is probably the most extreme, and well known of any of the mid pandemic boomers so let’s just have a look at the statistics;

In November of 2019, these watches were in demand and trading above their retail price, and this flexed around the £50,000 mark with occasional spikes and troughs.

Then when COVID-19 decided to appear, suddenly things started getting extreme with Patek also announcing that they would be ‘Discontinuing’ the watch and around November of 2020 12 months on, they had pretty much doubled in price to a £100,000 watch.

March of 2021 and things had just got to a stage where asking prices were up to nearly £200,000 for what is a stainless-steel sports watch, I even knew of some trading around the £180,000 for sealed examples, which in my opinion is a bit of a nonsense anyway.

Today’s market has changed and now in the summer of 2022 the 5711 has taken a retreat and is currently sitting at around the £150,000 – there are fluctuations and deals being done, so this is a fairly liberal figure so yes, it has lost some value but ultimately those prices could not carry on rising – people were at one stage tipping the Patek to be a £250,000 watch, which quite frankly would have been amazing.

In the same breath, we can also talk about the other big hitter in this market, the Audemars-Piguet Royal Oak – similar style, similar quality and similar demand. A fairly similar course of events has occurred and now a good AP Jumbo can be bought on the secondary market for £90,000 when back in those days of Zoom calls and toilet paper shortages you would be paying closer to £130,000 – still, let’s not forget that this was a £35,000 watch.

So, is the whole market in decline? Absolutely not.

Rolex are still playing the field and keeping their desirability levels at an all-time high…is this because they are slightly more ‘affordable’? possibly. Is it because they are releasing more interesting variations on their ever-expanding roster of watches? Probably.

So why is this happening? The common thought thread seems to be a mixture of the potential economic issues that may or may not be coming into play over the next year, and the other big factor is the massive decline of crypto currencies.

At one time a gold Nautilus went with a large wallet of Bitcoin and Ethereum like it did with a very noisy Lamborghini (usually on The Kings Road) whereas now you are more likely to be heading to your local Casio store.

Whichever way we look at it, the watch market will always be volatile, it’s a luxury item that is really not just a watch, but a collectible, a piece of jewellery, a statement, a piece of art…
it’s everything.

The one that got away…

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In the early 1950s, L.S. Lowry completed a very small number of large industrial landscape compositions, each of which included many, if not all, of his favourite motifs, people, chimneys, dogs, children, houses, lakes, etc… this particular 1953 ‘Industrial’ features another favourite, Stockport Viaduct, seen towards the rear of the composition.

In a letter from Lowry to the Tate about the 1955 large Industrial in their collection, Lowry writes ‘this is a composite picture, a blank canvas, I didn’t have the slightest idea when I started the picture, but it eventually came out the way you see it, this is the way I like working best.’

In fact, there are only four of these monumental Lowry industrial landscapes, all were painted between 1950 and 1955. The picture below, which I first encountered in 1988, dates from 1953 and was at the time, the only one of the four still left in private hands and available to own. The other three were already part of permanent Museum collections.

Then one day in the late summer of 1988 I received a call out of the blue from the director of a kitchen manufacturer in Manchester, he told me that they owned a Lowry ‘industrial’ painting and that for fiduciary reasons the company needed to sell it before the end of the year and could we (Christie’s) help. At this stage, I knew very little about the picture, as back then there was no email or internet, so I was flying blind as to whether it was th one I was thinking it was or a print or something else…

I put the phone down having made an appointment to see it the next day and I made my way up to Manchester, arriving at an unpromising anonymous industrial estate just outside the centre.

As I made my way up to the top floor, I notice there was nothing on the walls anywhere except for a few Lowry poster type prints. I was beginning to think I was on a wild goose chase when as I turned a corner, there in front of me on the director’s office wall was an utterly monumental and glorious 45” x 60” inch industrial landscape oil painting, truly a Lowry masterpiece!!

I was blown away by it but manage to compose myself enough for a conversation with the MD who was charming and easy to talk to. I established that in principle the company was very happy to sell it with me, at Christie’s in our upcoming 11th November 1988 auction with a then world record estimate of £100,00-150,000. Today it would probably be £3-5 million! However, in every good auction tale, there is a wrinkle. In this case the MD had offered the Salford Art Gallery the option to buy the picture before the auction if they could raise £100,000 in time. Back then, Salford City Council’s Lowry collection was housed on the top floor of the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, in Peel Park, Salford. The state of the art ‘Lowry’ Art Gallery and theatre complex was just a twinkle in somebody’s eye.

Let’s step back for a moment and set the scene back in 1988: the Art market, particularly Modern and Impressionist Art, was roaring away. Contemporary Art was 30 years away from being the dominant force it is today and the market for Art and Antiques was at an all-time high, even today some of the prices achieved back then have never been beaten and buyers were hungry for rare pictures. Interestingly, also at this time Donald Trump was in London making his first ‘state’ visit. He and his wife Ivana were in town and appeared as guests on Terry Wogan’s nightly TV chat show, Wogan even makes a rare ‘slip up’ by calling Ivana, ‘Diana’. Donald doesn’t even notice the gaff as he launches into his ideas on how he ‘could make America great again’.

A few days after my visit the Lowry picture arrived safely from Manchester and I was relieved and pleased to see it matched up with all our research so we could get on and prepare our catalogue entry and get it photographed for the upcoming 11th November auction, where it was included as lot 480. The catalogue came out in the second week of October and calls began to come in for the various lots, including lot 480, which was beginning to create a real buzz around it. I remember one major dealer coming in to view it before the public viewing and telling me that he thought it could make £250,000 or more, and that he was prepared to bid up to £350,000, a price well over three times the then world record. This would have set the Lowry market alight which is what I was secretly hoping for…

Of course, I was also hoping Salford would be able to acquire the picture and as the auction day drew nearer this looked increasingly likely and indeed, I think by Wednesday 9th November I had verbal followed by written confirmation that Salford has purchased the piece and the picture was duly withdrawn from sale and later transported up to Salford where it hangs today in pride of place in the Lowry Salford Quays next to the new Media Centre.

This was truly one that got away and looking back I am certain that if it had been offered there was enough presale interest for it to have made a huge price, thus electrifying the Lowry market 20 years earlier. Had that been the case, who knows where prices would be now!!

Reflections on the old master sales

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It is hard to know what to make of the Old Master Sales at the beginning of July. The totals of Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams at under £50m were only just above half of what they were last year at £80m.

The wonderful Lucas Cranach (lot 6 in Christie’s evening sale) of the Nymph of the Spring, a naked girl in a rocky river landscape, sold for £9.4m. More than the whole of the Sotheby’s Evening Sale put together (£7.1m).

There were some strong individual prices, just not enough of them. I’ve chosen 3 pictures from last weeks crop of Old Masters to write about, one from each of the major London salerooms.

What these three have in common is that they are all in beautiful state and, to my mind, are attractive images, but they are all slightly old-fashioned English “Country House” taste. It was going to be very interesting to see how they fared, in a market obsessed with the quirky and the novel.

My Bonhams choice was lot 60, a fine horse portrait by James Seymour. It was described as “a brown thoroughbred”, traditionally identified as “Spanking Roger”. I thought the presence of two foxhounds and a groom who looked as if he was wearing Beaufort Hunt livery implied that he was a hunter, but my brother-in-law, Hamish Alexander, who is in the racing world said the horse was too fine-boned to be a hunter. I take his word for it. He is an expert and Bonhams got it right.

Despite a suggestion that the signature and date were added later, he galloped away from an estimate of £30,000-50,000 to a very respectable £157,000.

My Sotheby’s choice was the star lot, a marvellous Willem van de Velde the Younger of “The Surrender of the Royal Prince during the Four Days’ Battle”. Although the subject was war, there was no gore, not too many burning vessels, nor drowning sailors and the composition was well -balanced and harmonious, but it didn’t find a buyer. I think the problem was the estimate; at £4-6m the top end was already a world record for the artist at auction. At half that estimate, it would have sailed away.

We finish on an optimistic note! Christie’s offered, as lot 12 in their evening sale, a Pastoral Landscape by Jacob van Ruisdael, the great Haarlem landscape painter. There was a panel join in the sky, but it hardly showed and the evening sun catching the sandy bank of the stream in the foreground, was just the sort of touch that appealed so much in Jacob’s work to John Constable. He owned four of them and made copies of others. This painting more than doubled the estimate with the price of £3.4m including buyer’s premium. It was painted in oil on a small oak panel, just over 2 feet wide and it was a very gentle subject, but it struck a chord in the hearts of several bidders.

If there is a lesson to be learned from these sales, it is that good Old Masters still command strong prices, but it is difficult for auctioneers to persuade collectors to part with their paintings in a time of conflict and inflation.

The one that got away…

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Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Back in 2005, I was newly married, London based and high on life. Money was tight, but we were cool. I’ve always loved poster art. Remember Athena? Later New York subway graffiti album cover art and band posters. Maybe because that’s all I could afford. At that time we read alternative magazines, went to all manner of clubs, listened to house music and drank Smirnoff ice.

However, the Country was also at war. Mobile phone and personal computers were becoming commonplace, and the traditional methods of communication and control were on the wane. There felt a real burgeoning of youthful expression against the ‘accepted norm’. Artists such as Faile, Eulus and Banksy, to name but a few, were hosting the odd show and having read an article on Banksy, an early Internet search took me to the now notorious and now defunct ‘Pictures on Walls’.

On their website was Banksy’s CND Soldiers and Jack and Jill. Signed copies were £156.50. I forget how much the unsigned copies were.

So, for my birthday we went all in and bought a signed Banksy CND soldiers. Limited Edition of 350. Arrived rolled up in a tube! It shows two soldiers in full combat gear surreptitiously painting a red CND sign on a wall. I loved it. It said everything about my views on the current war, the bold colours, glorious details and it was subversive in a very nice way!

We had it framed and it hung in our house, carefully shaded from sunlight for 10 years.

By 2016, I was a single mum of two boisterous boys whose parkour moves were practised upon all pieces of furniture and under the gaze of the, often wonky, CND soldiers. I had followed in the rise of Banksy and one day realised I really should insure it. An art broker friend suggested to have it insured for between £7,000 and £10,000. I was stunned. I simply did not have the money to ensure the picture, coupled with the fact I needed a new kitchen.

So, with the help of my broker, a nice Belgian gentleman offered an astounding £14,000 (inc fees) and also offered to pay for packing and transport. I did offer it to the Andipa gallery in Knightsbridge, but they felt £7,000 was the most they would go to.

So, off my Banksy went to Belgium, as part of a pension pot, and I built a lovely kitchen. However, within a couple of years the same picture went for £32,000 at auction and now commands in the region of £50,000.

Yes, I am gutted I sold the picture, as it would be in my pension pot now. However, that piece of art gave a single mum the chance to have a new heart to her home. To feel good about having people over and to look to the future. The one that got away, yes, but left great memories, and sometimes that might be more worthwhile.

The one that got away

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I don’t recall the life-changing opportunity that was missed; perhaps that’s just as well. It would be galling to know that one had passed up an opportunity to buy something that went on to make multiple times the purchase price.

I do remember seeing two wonderful pairs of enamel cufflinks being sold very inexpensively at an antiques fair. The seller was insistent that he would only accept cash, and as I didn’t have that sum of money on me I asked him to hold them whilst I went to a cash point. When I returned, having extracted the maximum possible from three bank accounts, he nonchalantly informed me he’d sold them to someone else. Hard money on the spot clearly talks.

I also remember the insurance valuation I did for a couple who had recently downsized. Referring to a previous valuation schedule I queried the whereabouts of an impressive Victorian inkstand by a well-regarded maker. They informed me that they had had to dispose of a great deal in the move and they had sent the inkstand to a local charity shop, believing it to be silver plate and of little consequence. They were stoic about the discovery. No point in crying over spilt ink!

What has got away from me is trends. I wish I could have called the rise and fall of gold prices better. If only I’d known that as cigarette smoking fell from grace, there would be an unexpected rise in the popularity of cigars and cigar related memorabilia. Thirty odd years ago American Marvin R. Shanken launched Cigar Aficionado, and this venture set off perhaps the most unforeseen social craze of the 1990s — the renaissance of cigars and an explosion in the popularity of all cigar-related paraphernalia. This too has now largely fallen away.

One of my career-long passions has been cufflinks. I have supplied literally thousands of pairs of antique and vintage cufflinks to organisations both here and in America. I’ve constantly been told that they would be going out of fashion and that no one would want the bother of double cuffed shirts anymore. However, even as the tie has fallen from grace, the tailored shirt has remained a wardrobe staple and notwithstanding the hiatus of the pandemic cufflink sales are on rise again as workers return to offices. I have just sourced an Art Deco dress set for a well-known film franchise that wanted the genuine article and not a modern copy. I’m really glad that one didn’t get away.

The great thing about our world is that there is always tomorrow. There is endless speculation about where trends are going and what individual pieces might make. It’s one of the things that makes the art world so interesting. We all bring our expertise to bear on determining accurate prices, but the marketplace can be capricious and that’s what makes it exciting. Fashions come and go, and unexpected left-field shifts like the rise of NFTs can cause a significant change in thinking. Being able to foresee these repositioning of market forces would be a really useful superpower.

Eventually, most people are pragmatic about missed opportunities, which sometimes presents a chance to rethink and learn. I have a huge collection of single cufflinks that are partnerless. I shall let you decide if this collection should be viewed as the ones that got away or the ones that were saved. I prefer to think of them in the latter category, however, I’d be overjoyed to find their partners and restore the marriages.

The one that got away…

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The “ones that got away” would be a more apt description of my career! Jan van de Capelle, Hugo van de Goes, John Constable, they have all slipped through my hands.

When you are young, you don’t always back your own judgement: you buy paintings speculatively and then start to research them. This involves showing photographs or the picture itself to whoever is the acknowledged expert. If they come back to you and say: “no, it isn’t by such and such”, you take it on the chin. You would never have the temerity to ask them to justify their opinion. That comes later, when you are older and have seen how fallible scholars are.

The picture I have chosen is a Transfiguration by Ludovico Carracci. I bought it at Phillips Son and Neale (now Bonhams) 40 years ago, catalogued as Italian School. I thought it was beautifully painted and probably Bolognese. It had a noble provenance “The Earl of Darnley” and was housed in a fine, if bulky, William IV carved and giltwood frame, all of which felt very positive to me. My brother, James, still has the frame with a mirror in it, in his hall.

After cleaning, which revealed a surface in remarkable condition, I had it photographed and sent images to the two most eminent scholars on Bolognese Baroque Art, one in the USA and the other in Germany. Their names are available upon request! Sadly, neither of them had a clue who painted my picture, nor did they show any enthusiasm for it. I advertised it in Apollo (Art Magazine) as “Italian School” and there was no response to that either!

Several years passed and I got a call from a friend who had found an old copy of Apollo and wondered if I still had the painting and, of course, I did. By some extraordinary fluke he had been working in a provincial museum Print Room and had come across two 17th Century engravings after my painting where the author was given as Ludovico Carracci, so he immediately realised the significance of what he’d seen. He asked me what the best price was and we shook hands on £6,000. It had cost me £3,000 before cleaning and reframing so it wasn’t a greedy price despite looking as if I had doubled my money.

He was not a rich man so I knew that he must know who the author of my Transfiguration was and that’s when he told me about the two prints. Good luck to him but, why on earth didn’t the two scholars I had consulted know about the prints and, therefore, the missing picture? Anyway, my friend kept it for decades, but in 2007 he sold it to the National Gallery of Scotland where it hangs to this day.

The moral of the story is… be patient and back your own judgement.

The one that got away…

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The world of watches is not only a fascinating one, but also a frustrating one. For example in 2014 had I known that the world of Rolex sports watches would have become such a lucrative market place I would have purchased their entire stock and waited for the elevated position that their most desirable watches currently occupy.

There are of course limited runs of pieces that you always would like to own, but only when as it transpires, they are all sold out and you are late to the party – this is a classic situation with the Rolex Submariner with the famous green bezel…

The year was 2009 and a Rolex Submariner was known to be one of the most desirable sports watches on the planet with… wait for it, sometimes a waiting list if the authorised dealer of your choice didn’t have the model you required, fast forward to today – you would almost be laughed out of a dealer if you asked to buy a brand new Submariner – it is that popular.

Rolex had made a bold move, they had issued the fairly conservative Submariner with a green bezel. Instantly every Rolex aficionado let it be known how appalled and disgusted they were that such a great mark could do such a thing.

So, back to that year of 2009 when I happened to be speaking to a Rolex dealer, whom shall remain nameless when I was offered the ‘Kermit’ (I don’t think Rolex nicknames were such a big thing then) for the unimaginable price of £4,800, and if I took two of them then it would come with a discounted price of £9,000.

Fast forward to this moment in time and the green bezel Submariner is one of the most desirable watches on the planet, with similar incarnations such as the ‘Starbucks’ and the ‘Hulk’ offering buyers additional variations on a theme, with secondary market figures varying from £18,000-£25,000 each.

The next incident is actually ongoing and may well change over the next year, but currently one of the hottest pieces on the secondary market is the Swatch and Omega collaboration the ‘Moonswatch’. A ‘bioceramic’ (basically plastic) quartz watch in the manner of the Omega classic moonwatch.

Announced on the internet with 48 hours’ notice, the range of watches instantly became the most sought after item from either Swatch or Omega with Swatch boutiques having to close and call in for police security after mobs started storming the little shops all around the world – the demand was so huge they had to apologise.

Within hours the watches were appearing on secondary market sites for up to £3,000 – and considering this was a £200 watch, it seemed rather sad and cynical however.

The one thing that we can be sure of though is that the watch market will be constantly reinventing itself with new and different ways to attract buyers and collectors and as long as this keeps happening, no doubt I will always be looking to make sure no more items get away!