A history lesson for the Schools Minister

On 10^th January Chris Skidmore MP (Con, Kingswood) secured a Westminster Hall debate on the teaching of history in schools. Mr Skidmore, who is a research fellow in history, along with fellow historian Tristram Hunt MP (Lab, Stoke on Trent) and others, put forward the case for making history compulsory to age 16.

The debate, apparently well attended by Members across the main parties, brought to light some interesting facts. The UK is the only European nation aside from Albania which allows students to drop history at age 14; and the number of pupils studying history beyond 14 dropped below 30% for the first time last year.

These statistics give me cause for concern. Firstly in general terms because, as a history graduate, I believe that knowledge of the past leads to a fuller understanding of the present, and therefore produces a more mature and cohesive society.

Then I consider the long-term implications for the trade in old books and prints. Some of my customers are collectors in their chosen field as a direct consequence of their academic studies. Perhaps they studied the trade union movement, or Catholic emancipation, or the slavery abolition campaign at school or university (and perhaps pursued those interests into a career as a lecturer or museum curator). They come to dealers like me looking for “primary evidence” in the form of contemporary cartoons, pamphlets, handbills etc.

If history as an academic discipline diminishes in importance, then inevitably that means fewer of these potential customers in future.

But my chief concern is not that there will be fewer career historians, librarians and archivists. It is rather that I perceive a narrowing of cultural horizons more generally. If standards of historical research slip, then in time will future generations of potential collectors be discouraged from investigating the origins of material culture, of whatever form?

This has obvious implications for the whole antiques trade.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb: “The new national curriculum will be based on a body of essential knowledge that children should be expected to acquire in key subjects during the course of their school career. It will embody for all children their cultural and scientific inheritance, and it will enhance their understanding of the world around them and expose them to the best that has been thought and written.”

Fine words, but let it be remembered that recorded history did not begin with Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933.

Not all that glitters is gold in 2012

Well the great Olympic year of 2012 is upon us, and from the politicians and economists, few crumbs of optimism. Plenty of grumbles too from the small-to-medium sized dealers I talk to, who look back on 2011 with little fondness and view prospects for business in the year ahead with, if anything, even less enthusiasm.

It is clear that last year saw plenty of challenges for the trade, but also opportunities for growth and expansion. While some established firms went out of business, others consolidated, adapted to changing trends by increased specialization, or invested in the future. Witness the impressive Richard Green gallery re-development on Bond Street.

Provincial auctioneers reported buoyant revenues for 2011 – boosted by record levels of consignments across all categories as owners rushed to turn their illiquid assets into cash. Low interest rates and high market values in gold and silver contributed.

It seems that buyers across the board, including now those with the deepest pockets, are increasingly selective about what they wish to pursue. Most of us in the trade, sadly, cannot count the international super-rich as regular clients. And as for the “squeezed middle”, I suspect that the generally gloomy economic outlook is, if only psychologically, forcing your average collector on a modest income to reign in his or her acquisitions.

So it is up to people like me, now more than ever, to make the case for traditional British-based collecting categories – like antique prints (to take a random example!), or oak furniture. Commodities which change hands away from the market vagaries and vicissitudes of the glamorous contemporary art scene or the great Chinese boom may yet weather the storms by navigating calmer waters.

I have to believe that the printed record of our past – be it in pictorial or in text form, or in combination of the two – will never become irrelevant. And hope that there are enough collectors out there with the imagination to appreciate and invest in it.

A very Happy New Year to all readers.

I always knew I was cool…

A hip young couple browsing my stock last week

First there was Greg Rusedski. And now another good news story from Canada. Just when I had resigned myself to dealing in the most resolutely unfashionable commodities in the entire wide world of antiques I read that Toronto decorative print dealer Elisabeth Legge has never been more hip and cool – she’s even down with the kids!

Whilst uncertain economic times and fluctuating currencies seem to have hit the contemporary art markets harder than others, Legge says young consumers have suddenly rediscovered the aesthetic appeal, desirability and value of her antique prints, maps and pochoir prints.

The former President of the Canadian Antique Dealers Association has a few theories. “I think that we are leaving behind the starkness of the mid-century modern redux. Consumers are realising that it’s okay to collect and display what makes them happy and not what designers and magazines dictate. For the past twenty years we’ve been stuffing our attics with our prized possessions regardless of the fact that they are meaningful to us. Young collectors today are savvy and confident enough to admit that they share the taste of their grandparents – that they had cool stuff.”

My legions of loyal followers know that I have been banging on for years about the relative good value of old prints as compared with other sectors of the art market. If they really are trendy with new collectors then we are witnessing that rarest of beasts – a fusion of head and heart in the art world.

Elisabeth adds that recently she has been “sending prints that we have had in stock for nearly two decades as far away as South Asia and the Channel Islands.” With the fad for minimalism passing, interior designers have apparently been turning to Legge Prints like never before as well.

Halleluiah! Rest assured I will welcome enquiries from potential customers be they 19 or 90.

Move over Hay-on-Wye, go to Monte Carlo!

Regular readers of this column will know that wherever I travel I cannot resist paying a visit to an old bookshop.

I am just back from visiting an old friend in Monaco, not the kind of place perhaps you would associate with dingy rooms piled high with dusty tomes. And you’d be right; the ILAB website records only one solitary member trading in the ostentatious tax haven.

The delightful lady proprietor (proprietress?) in question welcomed me to her admittedly smarter-than-average premises, confirming that she had no competitor in the tiny principality. Always interesting to peruse a bookseller’s stock and gain a feel for the local market (and what a potential market!), but this was never a shop likely to yield a bargain.

So that afternoon I turned my antiquarian eye to a Riviera town just along the coast, which was Nice.

Nice as you might expect boasts a rather more thriving scene for the bibliophile and lover of old paper. At my first port of call, the reassuringly-fusty Librairie de l’Escurial close to the central train station, the very pleasant “patron” produced a guide listing several booksellers. For the record, he crossed off several addresses immediately – recent closures, an all too familiar story for our trade, anywhere in the world.

I was able to visit a few, and soon discovered that anything which caught my eye commanded a premium so punchy as to be well out of my range, even allowing for a trade discount. Wherever I go in the Eurozone I seem to come up against prohibitive pricing, and the current exchange rate further weakens British buying power.

So I made only one modest purchase in the end, back at l’Escurial. It is an obscure bibliography of monographs on printmakers, published in Belgium in 1918.

The little book may in some small measure enhance my pool of knowledge, but will it be of any practicable use, much less be resalable at a profit? I have my doubts on both counts, but have found myself developing a strange preoccupation – obsession almost – with reference books. I am sure this is a phenomenon other dealers will recognise.

It’s not as if I regularly consult all of these books on prints that multiply at an alarming rate on my shelves. I just like having them around.

Go figure.

Spot of “goff” anyone?

On 20th April Dreweatts auctioneers (www.dnfa.com, 01635 553553) will hold their sale of the Norman R Bobins Collection of British sporting prints at their Donnington Priory salerooms near Newbury, Berkshire.

Among the largely hunting, racing and equestrian subjects collected by Chicago banker Bobins over 25 years is a wonderful print of perhaps the best-known picture of a golfer ever painted, and the first British golf engraving.

Commonly called ‘The Blackheath Golfer’, and famously dedicated ‘To the Society of Goffers at Blackheath’ by the painter Lemuel Francis Abbott (c. 1760 – 1802), a fine early example of the classic portrait of William Innes (1760 – 1803) and his caddie is going under the hammer, with an estimate of £6,000 – 8,000.

You will be familiar with the image, reproduced as it has been countless times over the last 200 years or so: a leading member of the golfing Society that was to become the Royal Blackheath Golf Club, Innes is posed haughtily on the Heath in the uniform of a Captain, Morden College and a windmill in the background. He rests a long-nosed wood over his shoulder and clutches a large feather golf ball in his other hand. Behind him is his caddie, dressed in the pensioner’s uniform of the nearby Greenwich Naval Hospital, carrying a bundle of early clubs under his arm (bags weren’t regularly used until c.1890).

First published in London in 1790, it is difficult to establish categorically the first issue of the mezzotint, though it is extremely rare – perhaps less than 15 are known to exist. The market has been saturated with various reprints and reissues throughout the 19^th century and into the first half of the 20^th. This is undoubtedly an early pull from engraver Valentine Green’s copper printing plate and appears to be a magnificently rich, velvety impression, in superb condition. It is a view emphatically endorsed by Nick Potter, specialist dealer in sporting prints, pictures and memorabilia (www.nickpotter.com, 07802 407705). He describes the Bobins print as “the finest impression I have seen”.

In his 30 years in the trade, Nick says he has only handled 3, maybe 4, truly early examples, making Abbott’s 1812 portrait of Henry Callender, another Blackheath golfer and the nearest to a companion piece, appear relatively common.

According to different accounts, the original oil painting (painted in 1778) was either destroyed with the Blackheath Club’s early records in an 18th century fire, or during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 when mutineers in Lucknow burnt down the house of Innes’ illegitimate grandson, a General in the Indian Army!  Which hints at the somewhat mysterious character of the enigmatic sitter – he has been identified as a London merchant and  M.P. for Ilchester, an upstanding figure in his community who died without issue; yet some have suggested he was involved in bribery and the slave trade and had nine children out of wedlock!

Also in the sale is a fine large engraving of Charles Lees’ ‘The Golfers, A Grand Match played on St Andrews Links’, together with the very rare key plate, guided at £1,200 – 1,800.

Contact Specialist Robert Hall (rhall@bloomsburyauctions.com) for more information.

A Happy New Year?

So what are the prospects for the antique print trade in 2011? On the face of it not too bright, given the economic uncertainties of the last couple of years largely remain, and buyer confidence in all but the very best material remains low.

The UK VAT rise to 20% doesn’t help; it’s an additional cost dealers will in the end have to pass on to their customers.

Positives? There’s still value for money to be had for the collector of good quality printed material. The cricket memorabilia market showed signs of ruder health in 2010 and one hopes this year will see it continue to emerge from the trough of the last four years or so. Football has received a boost with the high profile lots that went under the hammer in the second half of last year, though golfiana still struggles for the most part.

I still happen to believe that there is an as yet untapped pool of potential buyers out there – perhaps mainly young and fresh to the art and antiques market – who could be attracted to the idea of old prints and books as an accessible and under-exploited collecting field. Modern and contemporary British prints continue to perform well; am I naive to hope that collectors might start to cast their eyes back to previous centuries?

I’ll keep trying to raise awareness in my own small way, and keep hoping. May I wish all my loyal readers (I know there are thousands of you out there) a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

When restoration becomes alteration

 

One of the lots pulled from the sale by Bonhams

Bonhams withdrew 16 lots from a recent Bond Street furniture sale (combined top estimate £200,000+) after they discovered that the consignor was connected with disgraced ex-BADA dealer John Hobbs. Hobbs’ former restorer Dennis Buggins provided evidence to suggest that four of the lots had undergone significant alteration in his workshop in the 1990s – Buggins has turned ‘whistleblower’ following a bitter financial dispute with his long-term former employer. The embellishment Buggins carried out for his client went well beyond the confines of acceptable restoration – but his skill is such that it has proved very hard to spot, even by experts.

 

One of the lots in question was described as “a Regency larchwood, banded and rosewood marquetry centre table, attributed to George Bullock”, originally offered for sale by Hobbs at £37,000 and estimated by Bonhams at £10,000-15,000. Buggins said the bracket feet had been altered and a new rosewood design inlaid to the platform base to enhance its connection to Bullock.

Where does restoration end and ‘significant alteration’ begin? It can be a rather thorny question, in some cases clear-cut, in others perhaps rather cloudier.  I must confess that what actually happens to that old piece of paper in the restorer’s studio is something of a mystery to me – and am I in no great hurry to find out, truth be told. Perhaps ignorance in some cases is bliss.

 Myself, I prefer to use the term ‘conservation’ when I talk to customers. In these days of austerity when customers need to know they are buying the best they can possibly get for their money, condition is at more of a premium than ever. So I tend to avoid buying anything for stock that needs major restoration. Where I deem treatment to be necessary, my concern is primarily preventative –  to arrest the spread of ‘rust’ spots say, by having the paper de-acidified; or to stop a marginal tear spreading  (by the use of a tissue backing perhaps).

Until relatively recently, it was routine practice for galleries to send monotone engravings and lithographs to be coloured by a professional colourist, often first washed as a batch to give a crisp, white, uniform paper tone. These days, with buyers ever-more sophisticated and an emphasis on authenticity, that practice has slowed. I for one do not approve of that approach.

Colour must in reality routinely be re-applied by restorers though, after the unavoidable loss of some original pigment during the cleaning process. This is often done expertly and very conscientiously by skilled and experienced restorers, who carefully consult similar examples with original colour as a reference.

Where a print in my inventory has been restored, I always inform a potential customer. They often ask anyway.

But just how honest should a seller be about the treatment a print has undergone? When describing condition when cataloguing, my guiding principle is to mention those defects that affect value. If I documented every single blemish, scuff, hairline marginal crease or minute speck, 90% + of potential buyers would recoil in horror. A certain level of acceptance that anything hundreds of years old shows signs of ageing must be assumed on all sides.

With experience one learns to find a balance; and with an enhanced vocabulary of terminology, the sophistication and accuracy of the description increases.

But in the end, as always in the antiques game, that old maxim applies: ‘caveat emptor’ – ‘buyer beware’.

 

Antiques are officially Green

So now we know for sure – antiques are officially green.  An independent report by Carbon Clear, an independent consultancy specialising in carbon management and carbon accounting, has concluded that a piece of antique furniture is likely to have a carbon footprint 16 times lower than that of a newly manufactured item.

This is based on exhaustive investigation of every aspect of the manufacture and life of two specific pieces – a mahogany-veneered chest of c.1830, and a modern piece of roughly equivalent value from a reputable high street retailer.

The carbon emissions associated with the manufacture of the antique piece were very low. Cabinetmakers’ workshops in the 1830s were not generally powered and all work was done by hand and in daylight. The lifespan of the antique piece was assumed to be 195 years, though it could be much longer. Its average emissions per year were shown to be 16 times less than those for the modern chest. (The lifespan of the new chest was estimated at 15 years based on expert opinion.)

This got me thinking whether this analysis translates to the staple commodity in which I trade – prints on paper.

Well in printmaking terms, 1830 was before the introduction of photomechanical processes and images were printed mostly from steel or copper plates worked by hand – from presses operated by hand. While paper production was starting to become mechanised in paper mills, many artists and printmakers preferred to use finer, hand-made papers produced by traditional ‘low energy’ methods.

I confess I know nothing about the modern manufacture of paper – I’m sure the technology terribly “energy efficient”.

But then what is the average lifespan of the contemporary reproductive print that typically adorns the wall of the young professional’s spruce mezzanine flat? Once purchased, can it be expected to have any re-sale value?  Not in most cases. What happens when our trendy couple upgrades to the suburban semi to have kids? It’s unlikely that the Warhol reproduction travels with them (it doesn’t suit the new place).  The best we can hope for is that it ends up in a paper recycling bin!

I can only conclude by whole-heartedly endorsing the message of Nigel Worboys, the dealer fronting the Antiques are Green campaign: “Antiques should be recognised for their genuine green hallmark – sustainable, re-usable and re-saleable.”

Which I interpret as: don’t buy modern art reproductions – buy old prints, thereby saving paper, saving trees, saving rainforests!

Back the campaign:  http://www.antiquesaregreen.org/

Magnificent Maps

Lacs, Fleuves, Rivieres et principales montagnes de L’Afrique

At this month’s 53rd London International Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia the overall take was slightly down at £3,269,645 on the previous year (2009 £3,308,432, see my post last year). Meanwhile, over at the London Map Fair at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, takings for the 35 exhibitors increased by more than a third on 2009; total sales of close to £750,000 were the best to date. Since moving to the RGS the public have accounted for a third of sales, but this year a robust 40% of sales were to private collectors, including many first time buyers.

What accounts for this apparently stark difference? Any fair takes a little time to establish itself in a (relatively) new venue, as the RGS is for mapsellers (they used to be at Olympia also). I believe the ‘Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art’ free exhibition at the British Library (until 19th September, see http://www.bl.uk/magnificentmaps/), and the accompanying promotion (including a BBC TV series), has helped to raise the general profile of maps.

But perhaps it goes to show what a well-known dealer I used to work for always said: maps offer outstanding value relative to other collecting fields.

I do believe it is true that this niche but expanding market has not yet fully matured beyond its relatively exclusive following, and is perhaps yet to realise its full potential. Sure, it is good advice in any genre to buy the best example you can afford as a collector; but perhaps that axiom has never been truer than in the map world. Those buyers prepared to put their hands deeper into their pockets for scarce quality maps in good condition may be rewarded in time should they ever come to sell. Just a thought.

P.S. I noted from the fair reports that foot fall for both fairs was actually slightly down on 2009. While this would seem in to some extent to contradict my argument re. map popularity, I prefer to see the phenomenon as symptomatic of the general rise of the website as a selling tool. As the breath of stock and quality of navigation and illustration on offer on dealers’ and auctioneers’ websites improves, more and more business is conducted on the world wide web.

This Sporting Life

c.1840 illustrated cricket broadside

As an armchair sports fan of many years standing, I have always had an interest in the art, literature and bygones associated with the games that developed into the multi-million pound industries followed by legions of fans around the world that we know today. In the last year or so I have been actively seeking out sporting memorabilia, primarily prints and books, in the salerooms and at the fairs. Such material now forms a significant part of my stock, and is the subject of my blogs for collectors on the All Out Cricket and Golf Monthly magazine websites.

I have come to the market at a ‘difficult’ time. Perhaps more than most collectable areas, sporting sales in 2009 suffered from those twin foes: a lack of buyer confidence and a shortage of rare and exciting consignments. Perhaps as recession bit, so under-pressure executives felt less inclined to participate in or watch sport – which can let’s face it be an expensive as well as time-consuming business. My hypothesis is that this reduced involvement in sporting activity might have in turn lessened interest in the associated by-products, i.e. collectables.

I have encountered the alternative, perhaps counter-intuitive theory: that in an uncertain economic climate, when they are anxious or “depressed”, people tend to spend more money on the things that cheer them up –like sport. That may be true to an extent with commodities such as lipstick and perfume (as some have suggested), but all the evidence I have heard suggests that the idea has not translated into sales by sporting dealers. (Perhaps that says something about the different mentalities of the two sexes, sports being a male-dominated collecting field, but that’s a discussion for an altogether different blog!)

On an upbeat note, I believe I do detect some signs of the green shoots of a recovery in 2010. I have noticed that auction prices have picked up for realistically estimated material that might be considered anywhere above run-of-the-mill (but nevertheless unspectacular). It has been a struggle to find sales to really get one’s teeth into so far this year but there are one or two lots to merit a second glance from the sport’s enthusiast in April.

See my latest blog for a sample of the upcoming cricket and sporting lots that have caught my eye:  http://www.alloutcricket.com/jaspers-gems-4/