Monet as you never saw him draw before – because customs officials seized his oils
This stunning view of London's Waterloo Bridge is on sale for over a million pounds - and it only exists because Claude Monet's paints were seized by customs officials.
The French impressionist travelled to England in 1901, but was forced to buy some pastels after his equipment was taken at the port.
He hadn't used the medium for some years but sitting on the balcony of room 618 at London's Savoy Hotel he began to create 26 works of art.
At first he wrote to his wife from his sixth floor room and stated that he 'tried in vain to make some sketches in pastel.'
But after a few days he had changed his tune and wrote: 'This amuses me a lot, even though I'm no longer accustomed to it, it occupies me and might be useful.'
Of the 26 pastel works from this period, only one is currently on the market.
It shows the bridge through the fog with a barge in the foreground and chimneys in the distance.
After a week his oil paints and brushes arrived and he set about completing his series of Westminster that he had planned for his visit.
But he later said that working with the pastels in London that week had been a valuable experience and helped his later career.
Works by Monet in pastel on paper are very rare - there are just over 100 known to exist - and the subject matter on the Thames makes this one hugely desirable.
This painting is being shown in several exhibitions in the U.S. and is being sold by London's Trinity House dealers.
Simon Shore, from Trinity House, said: 'Monet came over in January 1901, but all his materials were held up at customs.
'He was annoyed but went to a shop in Charing Cross and bought some pastels and sat on the balcony and drew Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge.
'He hadn't used pastels for some time but later said how important that week using them had been.
'He enjoyed the light coming through the fog, but others who were there couldn't see what he was describing.
'He produced 26 works in pastel at this time and this is the only one currently available on the market.
'It was in a collection in Switzerland until 1947 and is now to be shown at the Milwaukee art museum in the U.S. and at our own exhibition in Manhattan.
'The scene shows the bridge and chimneys in the background that were used to produce lead shot.
'It is a very important picture and has commercial appeal because it is by Monet and it is of London.
'Monet is one of the most important artists of all time and his art has never decreased in value so it is a good investment.
'And people are looking to invest in art because other areas are just not attractive.'
Source: Daily Mail Website
Sunken treasure chest: 1941 ship torpedoed by U-boat is discovered…
...on sea bed with £155m of silver still onboard
The wreckage of a British cargo ship believed to be carrying up to 240 tons of silver has been discovered in the North Atlantic – 70 years after it was sunk during the Second World War.
SS Gairsoppa was steaming home from India in 1941 while in the service of the Ministry of War Transport when she was torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat.
She sank in icy seas more than three miles deep about 300 miles south west of Ireland. Only one of her 84 crew survived.
Eerie: A ladder leads down to the cargo hold on the SS Gairsoppa as it lies on the sea bed 300 miles south of Galway
Well preserved: A brass part of the Gairsoppa is in good condition, suggesting that the cargo is also undamaged by its time beneath the waves
Raised from the depths: A sonar image of the SS Gairsoppa on the bottom of the sea
U.S. salvage firm Odyssey Marine Exploration announced the find, about 4,700 metres, or three miles, below the sea, yesterday.
In what is believed to be the deepest and largest ever retrieval of a precious cargo, the firm will next spring dive to recover a haul estimated to be worth £155million.
Under its contract with the Department for Transport, Odyssey will keep 80 per cent of the value of the silver. The 412-ft steamship is sitting upright on the seabed, with its holds open.
Odyssey said a robot submersible captured video footage showing tea chests, a sign that the heavier consignment of silver was underneath.
Hoard: The ship, which was torpedoed after breaking away from a convoy, was carrying silver
Uncovered: An intact toilet sits on the bridge deck of the SS Gairsoppa
Pick-up: Odyssey crew will no use remotely operated vehicles to get to the wreck and unload its precious cargo
'This should enable us to unload the cargo through the hatches,’ chief executive Greg Stemm added. The Gairsoppa is so deep the usual steel cable used in the grab mechanisms will have to be replaced by synthetic fibres.
The ship, recognisable by the red-and-black paintwork of the British-India Steam Navigation Company and the torpedo hole in its side, was sailing in a convoy from Calcutta in 1941.
Buffeted by high winds and running low on coal, the captain decided he would not make it to Liverpool and broke from the convoy to head for Galway.
A single torpedo from U-101 sank her in 20 minutes, on February 17, 1941. Three lifeboats were launched, but only Second Officer Richard Ayres made it to land, reaching the Cornish coast after 13 days.
Odyssey said yesterday the UK government was ‘desperately looking for new sources of income’ and was urging it to find more British wrecks. It is also investigating HMS Sussex, lost off Gibraltar with 10 tons of gold in 1694, and HMS Victory, a precursor to Nelson’s flagship.
In 2008 a U.S. judge ordered the firm to hand back gold and silver coins worth £300million to Spain, which said the treasure was taken from a frigate that sank in 1804.
Odyssey said the wreck’s identity was unclear and had been found in international waters
Treasure hunter: The RV Odyssey Explorer, bristling with high-tech equipment, which went looking for and found the wreck of the Gairsoppa
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Amelia Earhart’s goggles sell at auction for $17,775…
Goggles worn by Amelia Earhart and photographs of the famed aviator pulled in more than $31,000 at an auction in the saleroom in Oakland, California.
A spokesman for Clars Auction Gallery says the winning bid for the set of 1920s Luxor aviator goggles with a cracked left lens was $17,775.
The goggles previously were owned by Barbara Englehardt, a Contra Costa County resident who got them from a friend about 20 years ago.
Sold: An original, unpublished personal photo of Amelia Earhart dated 1937, along with goggles she was wearing during her first plane crash
In addition to the goggles, 24 photographs were auctioned off Sunday morning for a total of $13,509.
The photographs included shots of Earhart making preparations for her round-the-world flight, as well as her plane taking off on March 17, 1937.
The March flight was one of two attempts Earhart made that year to circumnavigate the globe.
Her plane disappeared in the Pacific during the second attempt a few months later.
Sprucing up: Aviator Amelia Earhart has a haircut in Miami ahead of her doomed attempt to fly around the world in 1937
The photographs were unearthed along with Earhart's Luxor aviator goggles which she had worn during a flying lesson with instructor Neta Snook in 1921. The pair were involved in a minor crash and one eye-piece of the goggles was smashed.
The goggles and photographs were given by Mrs Snook to her daughter Diane Brown around 40 years ago and were almost thrown out.
Mrs Brown, 66, said: 'I thought at the time it was just old papers that weren't needed anymore. But something said not to throw it out. I don't know why, but something just kept telling me, "Get that back out of that bag".
Poignant moment: The aviator prepares for her attempt to fly around the world during which she disappeared
Source: Daily Mail Website
Meldonfoot classic car collection fetches £250,000…
A 1904 Cadillac was part of the Meldonfoot collection sold at auction
A selection of 13 classic cars from the Scottish Borders, some more than a century old, has raised more than £250,000 in the saleroom at auction.
The Meldonfoot collection went under the hammer at the Bonhams sale at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu.
The auctioneers said the collection had been shaped by an appreciation of the "mechanical genius of Henry Ford".
Among the highlights were a 1904 Cadillac and a very early 1910 Ford Model T Tourer. The vehicles were part of a large collection built up over several years. The first car bought was a 1923 Ford Model T Tourer.
After its purchase a large purpose-built motor house and workshop were built at the owner's Scottish Borders country home to accommodate the vehicles. They went under the hammer at the saleroom Bonhams sale on Saturday, raising a total of £259,225.
Source: BBC News Website
Amazing lost sketches of life inside Japanese PoW camp discovered…
in a shoe box by British war veteran's stunned family - and now they're going on the Antiques Roadshow
Astonishing drawings of British soldiers in brutal Japanese Prisoner of War camps have turned up nearly 70 years later on TV's Antiques Roadshow.
The lost sketches showing the appalling conditions the men endured were drawn by artist soldier John Mennie who gave them to fellow PoW Eric Jennings.
Mr Jennings never spoke about his wartime experiences and his family were stunned when they found the sketches stashed away in a shoe box after his death.
One of the drawings is a rare image of the 'Selerang Square Squeeze' - a shocking atrocity meted out to 16,000 PoWs in Changi, Singapore in 1942.
The Japanese kettled the Allied soldiers in a cramped square for five days in unbearable heat to make them sign documents stating they would not try to escape.
Many men died from disease and dysentery during the incident and four more were callously executed by their sadistic captors.
A second drawing shows a British surgeon carrying out a life-saving operation on an emaciated prisoner in the open.
Another picture shows a group of impoverished prisoners in their underpants singing Christmas carols to keep their spirits up.
There are also 30 excellent pencil portraits of PoWs and six larger colour drawings that depict the horrors of the situation.
Resolve: Wearing only their pants, these servicemen are depicted singing in a bid to keep their spirits up
After finding them in the shoe box Mr Jennings' family took them along to the BBC's Antiques Roadshow. They will appear on the programme this Sunday.
Graham Lay, an expert on the show, said: 'Artists risked their lives by drawing and painting in the camp because many of these drawings were used after the war for war crime trials, as evidence.
'Men like John Mennie could have been put into solitary confinement, they could have had food restricted from them, and they would have died as a result of this.
Stash: Eric Jennings, pictured during the war, never spoke of his experience in a Japanese prisoner of war camp
'Of the 60,000 Allied prisoners, 16,000 died as a result of working on that railway.' Mr Mennie, from Aberdeen, trained as an artist before he joined the Royal Artillery and was sent to Singapore in 1941.
When the British colony fell to the Japanese in 1942 thousands of Allied soldiers were rounded up and taken to PoW camps.
Mr Mennie, who died in 1982 aged 70, traded packets of cigarettes for Chinese watercolours and used scraps of paper, including rifle practice target paper, to work on.
It is unclear how the drawings were smuggled through his three-and-a-half years of incarceration in Singapore and Thailand.
It is thought Mennie gave the drawings to Mr Jennings, who was working as a journalist and was a member of the voluntary defence force when his liberty was taken.
Mr Jennings, who went on to continue his career as a journalist in the far east after World War II, kept hold of the drawings but told no one of their existance.
His granddaughter Kimo Morrison, whose mother-in-law Chris Booth took them to the roadshow in Manchester, said: 'My grandfather never spoke of his time during the war.
'He worked as a journalist in Singapore and was captured and spent four years as a prisoner in Singapore, Thailand and Burma.
'He was very lucky to survive and I think they had a doctor with them which was fortunate 'Only when he died about 15 year ago did we find these drawings in a shoe box.
'It was a real surprise.
'We think my grandfather and Mennie must have been held together at some point and my grandfather was given them.
Secret: Eric Jennings's family discovered John Mennie's drawings hidden in a shoe box after his death. Artists like Mennie risked their lives to capture the appalling conditions in the camps
A scene from the film 'Bridge On The River Kwai': Many prisoners would have worked on the infamous Thai-Burma railway, the 'death railway' as it's known, immortalised in the film
'We now hope to sell them to an institution or collector who would appreciate them. They are not the type of things I'd like on the wall because of the horrible story they tell.' Mrs Booth said: 'I love the Antiques Roadshow and when I said I was going Kimo said the family had some sketches and would I take them.
'I was delighted and the story was quite incredible. Eric never spoke about what he went through and to hear the story was very moving.' Graham Lay, the expert on the Antiques Roadshow, said: 'When the Japanese first captured the Allies, they forced them to sign a document to say that they weren't going to escape as prisoners of war.
'There were 16,000 PoWs squeezed into a square in Singapore and kept there for days on end under the blazing hot sun, in order to force them to sign this non-escape document.
'Here we have a drawing - I've never seen one before - showing that incident in September 1942.
'But the extraordinary thing is the quality of the drawing.
'It is a very important archive and the drawings are valuable. I think if these came up for auction today, they would be worth somewhere in the region of £800 to £1,200.'
Mr Mennie trained at the Grays School of Art in Aberdeen and then at the Westminster School of Art in London. He went on to teach art after the war.
High Fashion inspired by Antique Chinese Porcelain!
At London Fashion Week which officially opens today (Friday 16th September) Up-and-coming Greek designer Mary Katrantzou will showcase her fabulous new Spring/Summer 2012 collection.
Katrantzou states Sotheby's as one of her favourite cultural hotspots in London which comes as no surprise to us at UKauctioneers HQ having seen the pictures from her Autumn/Winter 2011 collection on the catwalks of February's London Fashion Week.
One dress which really stood out as we were leafing through the gallery of pieces was a high-necked oriental inspired shift dress, the skirt panel exactly replicating the pattern on the 18th Century Qianlong porcelain vase sold by Bainbridges auctioneers for a record-breaking £43 million back in November 2010.
Will we be seeing more antique inspired pieces from in her S/S 2011 collection? Tune in to Topshop live (http://live.topshop.com) to watch her catwalk show which takes place September 20th at 9am.
The record breaking £43mil Qianlong vase
The Mary Katrantzou dress inspired by Chinese Porcelain
Napoleon’s hair found at Sir Walter Scott’s former home
The lock of Napoleon's hair was contained in a small handwritten note
A lock of Napoleon's hair has been unearthed during a visit by a TV antiques show to the former home of Sir Walter Scott in the Borders.
The historic item was contained in a small handwritten note at Abbotsford House near Melrose.
The hair was found by the Antiques Road Trip team during studies of a blotter book which had belonged to Napoleon.
Jason Dyer of the Abbotsford Trust said it showed the "importance of preserving this wonderful home and its contents".
The hair was rediscovered as one of the show's antiques experts, Anita Manning, and Mr Dyer examined the blotter book which had been on show in the library.
It contained a small handwritten note dated 8 November 1827, written to Sir Walter Scott from a Mr Dalton.
In the note, Mr Dalton explained that the lock of hair was given to him by Lt Col Elphinstone who served under Wellington, and that he believed it would be of great interest to Scott who was famed for his passion for collecting.
The blotter, which is in an extremely fragile condition, the note and hair have now been removed from Abbotsford and are being examined by a team of conservation experts.
They will go on show again to the public once that work has been completed.
The lock of Napoleon's hair is just one of a host of "fascinating objects" in Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford collections.
Other items include a silver urn gifted to Scott by Lord Bryon, a clock that is reputed to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, Rob Roy's broadsword, dirk, sporran and gun, as well as numerous artefacts collected from the field of the battle of Waterloo.
A multi-million pound regeneration is now under way at Abbotsford including the first extensive cataloguing of all of the historic objects in the house, as well as conservation work on many of the pieces.
Abbotsford Trust chief executive Mr Dyer said: "We're obviously delighted by this latest rediscovery which we believe demonstrates further the importance of preserving this wonderful home and its contents for the future.
"For the last four years, we have been developing plans and raising funds to enable us to preserve Abbotsford and create a world-class attraction where visitors can learn about Scott, his legacy and his wonderful collections.
"We believe the restoration process involved will unearth even more treasures and are greatly looking forward to seeing the progress of this exciting project."
'Hidden gems'
Wendy Rattray, executive producer at STV Productions, which produces the TV series, said they had been delighted with the "truly breathtaking find".
"Our experts are always on the lookout for hidden treasures as they drive across the UK but never did we imagine we'd find something of such historical importance," she said.
"It just goes to show that there are still hidden gems waiting to be discovered and our experts are still managing to thrill and excite the audience with their finds."
The episode of Antiques Road Trip featuring Abbotsford is due to be screened on BBC Two on 14 September.
Source: BBC News
Father John Gribben & Bloomfield Auctions Invite You to a Fantastic Charity Sale this October
Some of the Star Lot Items to be Auctioned on October 22nd
In May of this year we were contacted by Father John Gribben from the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield - a modern monastic community who are trying to raise money to renovate their historic church. They have an ambitious target of raising £1,600,000 and hope to raise some of the proceeds during a charity auction in October.
The Community was founded to act as an association of Christians who desire to follow the Gospel life after the pattern of those recorded in the Acts of the Apostles of whom it is said "they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and in the fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers. The company of those who believed were of one heart and one soul and no one said that any of these things which he possessed was his own but they have everything in common".
Founded in Oxford in 1892 by the Rev Charles Gore, the Community moved to Mirfield in 1898 to be close to the then thriving industrial centres.
Members of the Community of the Resurrection follow a routine of daily prayer and worship. The Community undertakes charitable work at home and overseas; this includes pastoral, evangelistic, literary, educational and other charitable works for the advancement of religion. The Community also makes grants and give support to others engaged in similar activities.
The auction will be held with the help of Father John's brother George Gribben of Bloomfield Auctions in Belfast and they have amassed a number of interesting and valuable pieces thanks to generous friends and supporters of the community.
Since May, Father John has amassed a number of Key pieces to include some Robert Mouseman furniture, a limited edition publication of 'The Passion of Lord Jesus Christ' by Eric Gill, a Leon Underwood 'African Madonna' statuette, an incredible carved head thought to be a medieval church carving for a misericorde, and an eerily beautiful Simon Palmer landscape.
More recent additions include a stunning cross, composed of two different types of silver and set with rock crystals, a pair of Victorian silver candlesticks and a 19th century ivory statuette depicting the Flagellation of Jesus.
Here Father John writes about The Centenary Appeal, the task of organising the fund-raiser auction, and the key pieces he hopes will achieve great results:
“It was in late October 2010 that I proposed an Auction to celebrate the Centenary of the Church and to raise money towards The Appeal. I didn’t realise that it could be such hard work or so exciting. Almost immediately we had inquiries and offers of items, some of them very acceptable and others which, sadly, I had to refuse.
When the auctioneer visited Mirfield he was bowled over by the House of the Resurrection and by the College refectory where the auction will take place. He says that is a perfect venue for such an event – graceful and romantic, a perfect background for antiques and memorabilia where each lot carries a story.
And already there are a great number of such lots. Our friends and supporters have been generous and the Community has discovered that it is able to donate many articles of interest and value that will make 22nd October 2011 a very exciting day. We set a target of £10,000+ for the auction and I feel confident that we will achieve this but I have set my own hopes much higher. To friends and well-wishers: Please keep the donations coming! The auctioneer is giving his services entirely free and as a charity auction there will be no commission charged on articles so seller and buyer get the best possible deal.
So whether you have a tenner to spend or a thousand to invest there is a bargain for you. For the serious lover of antiques there are very fine pieces of Georgian and Victorian furniture, a Jacobean Candle box and an intriguing little piece of church carving which may be very old indeed. In fine arts there are icons, etchings and paintings (not to mention a unique original cartoon of Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx autographed by Ken Harrison!). In rare books we have an Eric Gill limited edition of The Passion. There are coins, medals, stamps, postcards, Annuals, toys in fact it will be a collectors festival”
How to Buy Antique Books
Are you interested in collecting antique books, but are not sure where to begin?
There are a few basics you will need to learn before you get started. If you try to pursue an antiquing venture without doing your homework, you could lose out on a lot of time and money. After all, why buy antique books if they are not truly valuable? That is the entire point of antiquing.
Steps on How to Buy Antique Books
Step #1 - Know How to Determine if a Book is an Antique
The most important lesson you will learn is the fact that just because a book is old, does not mean it is valuable. There are books dated back to the 1900s that have no value at all, while some books that were written after this time are very valuable. The key is to determine what makes a book antique. In order for a book to be an antique, it must pass several tests. It cannot pass just one. It must pass all of the following test questions:
* What is the age of the book? - While age is not the only thing that matters, it does need to be old in order to even be considered.
* What is the content of the book? - The information inside a book matters. You will want to find books that are historical, have preliminary or early reports of scientific inventions, or books that have illustrations that were created by a famous artist. These are just a few examples.
* Is the book rare and is there a demand? - A book is considered rare if there are very few copies. A book is considered in demand if the book is rare and there are not enough copies to accommodate those who want it.
These three key factors will help you determine if a book is in fact an antique. Once you determine a book is truly antique, you will want to know if it is valuable or not.
Step #2 - Determine if it's Valuable
There are many different factors that determine a book's value. The condition of a book is the most critical factor. Paying attention to the condition of an antique book is critical to your success in antiquing. The book must be in "mint" or basically perfect condition in order to be valuable. However, it still can have some value to it even if it is considered in "good" or "poor" condition. If it is in poor condition, this will significantly decrease the value. Knowing to look at the condition before you buy antique books will help you make more informed decisions. Now that you are a little more informed, you can begin your search. But, where do you go to find antique books?
Step #3 - Places to Look for Antique Books
There are many different places you can go to find a variety of antique books. Some of these places will require a little more work from you on determining if it is truly an antique, while other places have done the leg work for you. Generally, these places will cost you more money. Antique books can be found in different places, such as: online, used book stores, auctions, and even car boot sales. Probably one of the easiest ways to buy antique books is to search for them online.
Find antique books on www.ukauctioneers.com
Bagging rare books
If you're in the market for a copy of Chase Salman Osborn's "Madagascar: Land of the Man-Eating Tree," Madlyn Blom can help.
The obscure geography book on the island country off Africa's southeastern coast – written in 1924 – is just one of thousands of unique, out-of-print collectible books lining shelves in the Old Bag Lady Books inventory.
From her Fort Duquesna home, Blom specializes in finding books most of her customers would rather keep preserved rather than on a coffee table.
Since 1991, Blom, a former home health care worker from Grand Rapids, Mich., has scoured estate sales, auctions, books stores, antique shops and even flea markets looking for bound collections of obscure, rare or just forgotten writings.
"I had just gotten married, I was stressed out from working at a domestic violence shelter and I said, 'I really don't want to do that again,'" she said. "My husband, Bob, asked what I wanted to do and I always wanted a bookstore, so this is it."
Blom, who originally opened her book business in Holland, Mich., first moved the business to St. Augustine. Five years later, in 2001, it moved with her to Punta Gorda, so she could be near her mother. There, most of her stock were on sale in an antique mall, both of which were destroyed in Hurricane Charlie.
Since moving to Sun City Center in March, Blom has bought or sold nearly 5,000 books, with about 1,000 sold online.
Among the books Blom has found was a 1948 copy of "American Harness Racing" by John Hervey at a Sarasota flea market. She ended up selling the book she paid $10 for to the president of the American Harness Racing Association for $300.
"I couldn't find where a copy had sold since the 1970s," she said. "I knew nothing about the book. I bought it because I liked the looks of it. I had no clue what it was worth."
Blom found the copy of "Madagascar" among a box of other books in a 2010 auction in Venice. When she opened it, she noted it was signed by the author and had a detailed map inside.
"It's on a topic that you're not going to find in Barnes & Noble. It is instructional, it is illustrated. I bought it for $25, I'm asking $175," she said.
Blom said she spends most of her workdays putting books into a database and listing them on professional rare book selling sites such as Alibris.com, ChooseBooks.com and Biblio.com, as well as Amazon.com.
Among Blom's most popular sellers are auto manuals, military unit histories and black Americana.
Serena Wyckoff, owner of Copperfish Books LLC in Port Charlotte, said Blom's experience in finding rare books has made her renowned among rare book sellers.
"She's been doing it for years. She knows what a good book to get is and what isn't. She has a real keen eye, for sure," she said.
Among the books Blom sells are ones that wouldn't normally be found in a particular genre. For example, "Narrative of Suffering and Defeat of the North-Western Army Under General Winchester," by A. G. Hodges, printed in 1842, is for sale for $167 due to its regional context.
Some of Blom's customers said they've found books through Old Bag Lady that they've spent years trying to find elsewhere.
Narges Ahmadi of Cape Coral said she had gone through myriad booksellers trying to find a copy of an autobiography by Ignacio Jan Paderewski, a concert pianist and composer who was a Polish pianist, composer and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. She said Blom was able to find it in a matter of months.
"She's really easy to work with and she really has a lot of unique books. She knows what she's doing and has a lot of experience and knowledge," she said.
Blom said she likes the challenge of finding diamonds in the rough in the rare book business and hopes to continue doing it for years to come.
"I plan to do this indefinitely. It's a fun and rewarding. A lot of these books, the longer someone keeps them, the more valuable they become," she said.
Source: TBO Website