Off the List: 2009

Tuesday 22 December 2009

I've dropped the blogging ball!

Everything has rather got in the way with the onset of December - yes, yes it's nearly gone - Christmas sales, Christmas presents, preparations for impending three weeks of sun & rubble gazing in Southern India. NON-STOP!

Also, the website has ratched up somewhat, with sales well up on the previous year - whether or not this is due to different stock or more efficiency having been injected by new partner. Good news all round.

Perhaps the most exciting news is our latest acquisition:

Much to look forward to post the Indian extravaganza with a new hang in order.

Have a wonderful Christmas one and all.

Monday 30 November 2009

The utterly wonderful......

Syrie Dining Chair

Coco de Mer in polished bronze

The 'Stirrup' Light

Webb tasters

The 'Halo' light

Handles

I've been busy tearing off the bottom of the newly built and painted cabinets in the dining room - this is entirely due to my laziness; basically i have been avoiding bending down to pull open the cupboard doors carefully with my paws and resorting to using the tip off my shoes. Until today that is - issue resolved (& no, I have not overcome my legendary idleness - or terribly bad back). Today i took delivery of

The Helter Handle from Webb

The smaller version on the right but in antique bronze as per the door handle on the left. Nanz eat your heart out, this Scot has an ever growing range of door furniture and I covet the lot.

The originally named 'Link' turning handle

The super cool 'Blimp' - this shall be the final barrier before my Gabinetto Segreto.

Thursday 26 November 2009

Coveting this

The maquette for Guy the Gorilla at London Zoo (one of my namesakes)

Launching (quietly) this

What I've been up to

Image from The Peak of Chic

Wednesday for breakfast here.

Thursday 19 November 2009

Silence

Is not golden in this instance:

a) I'm flat-out at Olympia (Erotica 09 starts at the weekend for some amusement) selling antiques - http://www.olympia-antiques.co.uk/ - super dull punters & exhibitors.

b) Getting the new website into as many ears and mailboxes as possible - http://www.offthelist.co.uk/ - spread the word; we'll ship to the States too.

Monday 2 November 2009

Sir Thomas Tresham’s Triangular Lodge

Was what leapt to mind on seeing the aforementioned stool - image care of Martin Sutton / Flickr.

The ultimate in Symbolist Architecture, was built in the late 16th century by Thomas Tresham in Rushton, Northamptonshire. A devout Catholic who was imprisoned for his beliefs on his release he built this ode to the Holy Trinity.

I think the stool is very much in the 'Antiquarian' taste of the mid-nineteenth century.

Saturday 31 October 2009

A 19th.C.Carved Oak Triangular Stool,Later Painted

Most irritating day - I failed to buy this against an estimate of 30 - 50 Pounds. Livid.

A) I woke up at 7.30 am on a Saturday morning.

B) The sale was slow and late starting.

C) I bid up to £400 and was the under-bidder

D) I should have gone with my gut and bid on

The problem is I have to pay for India for a month, a birthday present and a Birthday Party but I am still absolutely furious at not being the buyer.

To top it all off I know I shall see it again..................

I shall explain why I covet it so at a later / non-irritated date. Also when it isn't my birthday and have 14 people to stay.

Forgive the spleen venting.

Thursday 29 October 2009

It's my wife's B-day party this evening.......

......and the theme is London Gothic (forgive the editing)........my costume arrives any minute and I've not a clue what it might be!

Une plaisanterie

Jean-Leon Gerome (1850 - 1913)

Yours to bid on at Christies in a few weeks time - I spotted it on the cover of the catalogue this morning at South Ken and wasn't sure whether it leapt out because of the similarity of the dog to mine or because of the wonderful tile panels (see title of blog); anyway catalogue was bought and bank balance checked - NOPE!

Twombly in the steps of Blake

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Winters here and the fires on and........

.........Freud influenced this photo. My wee beastie.

Cy Twombly - many years before

I was once set the task of copying a Twombly canvas - I failed but have wanted one ever since. All in good time.

Rome

Almost a year ago to the day my darlin' wife took me on a seriously wonderful B-day weekend - just found these pictures.....how cool is it to be able to photograph on the Capitoline!

Pictures utterly untouched but by God the place is spectacular - and the restaurants were spot on too.

The reason I was harking back was that it's her 30th and I'm not sure I can trump her!!!!

An unexpected find

Picture the scence:

North of England
Walled garden
Perfect herbaceous border
Thatched Edwardian summerhouse
Spades, hoes, bamboo canes, plastic plant pots, Roman tombstones, wheelbarrow
Rain
Sundial
ROMAN TOMBSTONES!!!!!!!!

Did you spot them?

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Chatsworth Sculpture Gallery

I am borrowing a vast tract from someone infinitely more able to explain the gallery than me - Professor Alison Yarrington, who has just overseen the 'restoration' of the gallery:

William Spencer Cavendish became the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1811, and as part of his development of Chatsworth House during the 1820s and early 1830s he created a new north wing that included a Sculpture Gallery to house his collection of contemporary sculpture, the majority of which was sourced in Rome, and other rare and precious marbles. A major project was begun to re-display the sculpture gallery began in 2008 and was completed in 2009.

After the Duke’s death, his thoughtfully arranged collection of sculptures and bases was gradually dispersed elsewhere in the house and garden. The Sculpture Gallery has now been returned to the way it looked in 1857, the year before he died.

The re-display is part of the Chatsworth Masterplan, a major project of essential restoration and development to safeguard Chatsworth's heritage and continue its history. The Sculpture Gallery project has required months of work. Historical evidence has been found and evaluated, missing pieces have been re-discovered and many tons of stone and marble have been carefully re-positioned by a team from Chatsworth and Cliveden Conservation. The lions have been raised to their original height, sculptures have been brought out of their niches in the Orangery, and the central Berlin granite tazza (vase) had to be dismantled to bring it in from the Garden. The Sculpture Gallery re-opened to the public in March 2009.

Professor Alison Yarrington is academic adviser to the Sculpture Gallery project, working with Charles Noble (Curator, Fine Arts & Loans, Chatsworth), Matthew Hirst (Head of Arts and Historic Collections, Chatsworth), Hannah Obee (Curator, Decorative Arts, Chatsworth), Andrew Peppitt and Stuart Band (Archivists, Devonshire Archives).

http://www.chatsworth.org/

The gallery has spectacular works by Canova and Thorvaldsen amongst others but my favourite thing is the use of rare marbles.

Monday 19 October 2009

Chatsworth

A couple of other things I love about the house:

The exteriors of the South facing windows are gilded.
The Sculpture gallery is utterly beguiling.

Book

I've started the research and it's like being back at school but actually having a ball. Joy and rapture.

This picture was taken at the place of the epiphany - the Chatsworth Sculpture gallery - and though I have ambled through here dissecting the minutiae I had never spotted this small window of delight:

The note below - I had hoped to be able to read it from the photo - records them as being used by Canova in December 1802. No doubt given by the sculptor to the 6th Duke of Devonshire. Such a subtle location too.

Thursday 15 October 2009

2000 years - has man really evolved?

I'm glad to say that it appears we have not. Never has Aphrodite been more lovely, modern or coveted (coveted to the tune of $1,426,500) - I asked for it for my birthday and Christmas.

On the subject of Thistles.....

......we have discovered the artist who will (by begging, reasoned debate & blackmail) be commissioned (she's super busy) to (I hope) paint a piece for the wall of our dining room.

Sarah Graham, a London based botanical artist, caught our attention at the Sims Reed gallery with a single, large-scale, iris which was a) unbelievable fresh & striking b) the perfect blue!

Stolen Fern, 2009. (65" by 44")

Amaryllis, 2009. (52.5" by 40")

Iris Frieze, 2008. (118" by 39")

Iris Frieze is exactly what I have in mind for the dining room; fingers crossed. Those of the beady-eye among you will no doubt have bells ringing with regards to Sarah's work.........look no further than Bunny William's Kips Bay show room - a heavily discussed topic earlier in the year. William's used a pair of flowering Artichokes either side of the fireplace; they somewhat stole the show.

This Thistle

Rolls off the tongue so wonderfully - THISTLE - which is probably part of the reason for buying this THISTLE with no rhyme or reason........ All 2 and a half feet of it

Friday 9 October 2009

Oxford Wednesday 7th October 2009

Venue: Bonhams Oxford

Sale: The Robin Symes Collection - to sell without reserve

To those of you following the Banier / Bettancourt story in France, there is also another case ebbing and flowing through courts across the World at the mo - that of the Papadimitriou vs. Symes story. Symes was at the very top of his game - antiquities - until the tragic death of his partner Christo Michaelides when things took a nasty turn. Read the story, perhaps biased here:

http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/projects/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue15/watson.htm

Anyway, thats by-the-by, I'm more interested in Bonhams on Wednesday which was full to brimming with some of the greats of the European antiques trade, circling the contents of one of Symes' warehouses. From Picasso drawings to homo-erotic photographs to Antiquities - needless to say the sale went down a storm.

Here are a few of the gems: