NEWS All the latest
WHAT’S GOING ON IN NOVEMBER
ANTIQUE
news
From the launch of a London auction house to a new fly-on-thewall TV series, catch up on all the
latest from the world of antiques
and fine art
Terence’s stamp A collection of items from Barton Court, the home of the late Sir Terence Conran (1931-2020), goes under the hammer next month.
Design guru Conran, known for his retail businesses Habitat and The Conran Shop, lived in the Berkshire house for more than 40 years. He opened his first Habitat
shop in Chelsea in 1964, which soon expanded into a chain bringing affordable design to the masses. Lots on offer at the sale at Bonhams New Bond Street on December 14, include Conran’s large walnut desk, expected to make £3,000-£3,500 and maquettes by the furniture maker with estimates from £200 to £2,000.
Above A Bugatti type 52 replica motorised model car, painted in Conran blue, has an estimate of £6,000-£8,000
Top right Vest said to have been worn by Charles I at his execution, © Museum of London
Above right Axe from Newgate Prison, made for the execution of the five ringleaders of the Cato Street conspiracy who plotted to kill the prime minister in 1820, © Museum of London
Below right The works are expected to fetch a collective $50m this month
Below left A Thonet beech bentwood chaise longue Model number 9702, c. 1890, has an estimate of £600-£1,000 at next month’s sale
Capital punishment 700 years of public executions are the subject of a new exhibition at the Museum of London, the city which staged the most high-profile public executions in the UK.
From Smithfield to Southwark and Banqueting House to Newgate Prison, executions became embedded in London’s landscape and its inhabitants’ consciousness. The exhibition, which runs until next April, includes the vest said to have been worn by King Charles I when he was executed, a recreation of the Tyburn gallows and a wrought iron gibbet cage used to hang the bodies of the executed. For more details go to www.museumoflondon.org.uk
DUTCH COURAGE Three paintings from the collection of the Dutch American abstract artist Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) are expected to fetch a collective $50m when they go under the hammer this month at Sotheby’s New York.
The three large-scale works, created by the abstract expressionist between 1960 and the 1980s, include Montauk II (1969), a blue, green and white-hued painting expected to make $10m- $15m. A 1979 untitled canvas is estimated at $30m-$40m, with the third work The Hat Upstairs (1987) expected to fetch $8m-$12m.
They were painted at De Kooning’s East Hampton studio where he lived from the 1960s until his death in 1997. Nautical elements featured prominently in his work as he drew on his experiences as a stowaway aboard a ship from the Netherlands to America in 1926.
6 ANTIQUE COLLECTING