Breadboard Annie: a slice of her life
The dealer Annie Marchant (1951-2020) collected everything related to the unfitted kitchen and was known as Breadboard Annie in her early days.
After her untimely death on January 9, 2020, her personal kitchen and dairy collection of more than 300 items was donated to the Jacobean Kiplin Hall in North Yorkshire (ATG No 2456).
Her will had included many substantial bequests to charities, cousins and friends but, with no immediate family, she left instructions that her collection be donated to a museum together with a substantial financial sum to ensure its safekeeping. Kiplin Hall was the successful applicant.
However, the other items from her vast collection of stock will now come for sale at The Canterbury Auction Galleries on April 12-13.
Marchant first became a dealer in 1980, having worked at an antiques shop, Chattels, in Camden Passage, north London. Specialising in kitchen objects, she was a regular at the weekly Covent Garden market and the summer Olympia fair.
The Canterbury sale is by instruction from her executor.
Spring events held by BADA Friends
BADA Friends, part of The British Antique Dealers’ Association, has continued its events virtually until in-person versions can take place.
The group, formed in 1991 to work with members of the public to support the work of the BADA’s Cultural and Educational Trust, has announced a new run for the spring.
Focused on promoting learning and expertise in the fine art and antiques trade, the lectures and tours include, in March, a Zoom video lecture on The Antique Dealer in Fact & Fiction. The light-hearted talk, hosted by Mark Westgarth, associate professor in art history and museum studies at the University of Leeds, will cover examples from Dickens to Lovejoy and is priced at £15.
For those in need of an Arts & Crafts fix, a virtual tour on Zoom will examine the David Parr House in Cambridge. The small terraced house was once owned by artist-painter and decorator David Parr, who worked for Cambridge decorative arts firm FR Leach & Sons. It is now a charitable trust.
Tickets for March 24 are £18. Attendees also get 48-hour access to the David Parr House platform after the tour to have more time to explore.
To sign up, visit the BADA Friends website below.
bada.org/friends/friends-events
Raskin Sharp starts online auctions
Natasha Raskin Sharp and her father Philip Raskin.
TV presenter and auctioneer Natasha Raskin Sharp has founded an online auction site called Exhibit Auctions.
Raskin Sharp, who presents Bargain Hunt and appears on other TV shows, will launch the business with a sale of a selection of work by her father, Scottish landscape painter Philip Raskin (b.1947), which will be offered on March 17.
The auction will be broadcast live online from the artist’s studio in Strathaven, south Lanarkshire. Raskin Sharp said she plans to introduce a 0% buyer’s commission.
Appeal launched to buy de Sade original
The 120 days of Sodom manuscript.
The French state has launched an appeal for donors to raise €4.55m to buy the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom manuscript.
It had been due to be auctioned with an estimate of €4m-6m in December 2017 as one part of the huge haul of works from defunct manuscript inve s tment scheme Aristophil.
However, it was declared a national treasure by the French government prior to the sale and since then funds have been sought to buy the manuscript. The government has said it will incentivise corporations to donate funds which are tax-deductible contributions.
The original 18th-century pornographic manuscript is 39ft (11.9m) long and was written on a scroll made from bits of parchment smuggled into prison in the Bastille where de Sade was held. It was nearly lost when the Paris prison was overrun at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789.
The manuscript was rediscovered decades later but remained unpublished for more than a century.
Northern Irish pathway to reopen
The Northern Ireland executive has set out plans for the easing of lockdown. However, no dates have been stated for the five-step sequence to lift restrictions gradually in each of nine identified sectors, one of which is retail. There will also be a rolling review every four weeks. The next review is scheduled for March 16.
The summary document can be found by visiting atg.news/NIpathway.
Bell-Ogilby motors into Bonhams
Bonhams has appointed Roger Bell-Ogilby as global business director in its motoring department.
Bonhams has appointed Roger Bell-Ogilby as global business director in its motoring department.
Brought up in Melbourne, Australia, where he worked in banking and finance, Bell-Ogilby was most recently with Sotheby’s where he established a programme of exhibitions and sales in Moscow, Doha and Dubai as head of its European regional business.
Most read
The most viewed stories for week February 25-March 3 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 ‘Bible that Charles I carried to the block’
2 Art and antiques trade in England to reopen on April 12
3 Breadboard Annie’s kitchen collection comes to auction in Kent
4 $150m art collection of a US cattle rancher, oil magnate and philanthropist comes to auction at Sotheby’s
5 A Clarice Cliff jug and an Edwardian travel desk are among the five lots to watch at auction
In Numbers
100%
Christie’s is undertaking a pilot project with Rokbox to use 100% recyclable materials for its packaging and printed materials. It is part of the company’s pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030, the first of the major auction houses to formally set this goal.
