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WHAT’S ON IN SEPTEMBER
ANTIQUE
news
Summer may be drawing to an end but there is a host of events and exhibitions to delight
collectors this month
CLOCK THIS A London museum has revealed plans to showcase clocks by one of the world’s greatest gilders – the Frenchman André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732).
Five timepieces from the Wallace Collection will explore how Boulle, who worked for the court of Louis XIV, used scientific discoveries to create unique clock designs, the influence of which soon spread across the western world and beyond.
Keeping Time: Clocks by Boulle, runs from November 27 to March 2, ahead of an international conference on the maker held at the Wallace Collection in early 2025.
Above Conservator Sophie Reddington at work on Diomedes and Cressida, © National Trust Images, Michael Cole
Right An example of a Plate 77 Penny Red which sold for £550,000 in 2012, which remains a record for a single UK stamp
Below left A mantle clock attributed to André-Charles Boulle, c. 1726, © Trustees of the Wallace Collection
Below right Th e depiction of the Deposition of Christ from the Cross has been saved for the nation, © V&A
Shining light Infrared technology has been used to reveal new discoveries about a painting by Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807) one of the most celebrated artists of her day.
The conservation work at the National Trust’s Petworth House in Sussex has brought her work Diomedes and Cressida back to life, 250 years since its conception revealing a “magnificent” under drawing beneath the paint.
Conservator, Sophie Reddington, said: “It was wonderful to gradually uncover little brush strokes hidden for decades, along with many other lost details.”
Born in Switzerland, Kauffman trained in Italy before moving to London in 1766. Her work attracted the patronage of royalty and aristocracy across Europe and she enjoyed the support and friendship of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Kauffman was also one of only two female founder members of the Royal Academy.
Red hot The UK’s most valuable stamp has gone on sale with a price tag of £650,000. The Victorians issued 21 billion Penny Reds, which replaced the Penny Black in 1841. But just nine examples, of the 240 printed from defective plate 77, survive today after the faulty plate was destroyed.
eds, which replaced the
Paul Fraser Collectibles’ CEO, Mike Hall, selling the stamp, said: “While most people know the Penny Black was the first stamp, it ’s actually the rare Plate 77 Penny Reds that send collectors into a frenzy.”
CROSS PITCH A 12th-century walrus ivory carving showing Joseph of Arimathea lifting Christ’s body from the cross is to remain in the UK after the V&A raised £2m to acquire it.
UK authorities put a temporary export ban on the 18cm-high sculpture after it was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The carving is seen as one of the finest and most important examples of English Romanesque ivory still surviving, praised for its embodiment of feelings of human suffering and compassion. It had previously been in the collection of John and Gertrude Hunt.
6 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
