October 2014 auction summary

Summers Place sealed bid auction

Bids opened 22 October 2014. Photos and catalogue descriptions courtesy and copyright Summers Place Auctions 

Caen stone balustrade

Below: 25no balusters, capping and bases sold for £510

1850s zinc bath

Mid 19thC zinc bath with drain hole and tap, 64cms high by 157cms long sold for £550. We are guessing this was French or continental and had a zinc clad wooden base to which the sides were nailed, with a wood cover strip over. The X framing is a stiffener for the sides. Originally this bath was most likely set on a wheeled trolley, kept in a cupboard and wheeled to where it was needed.

Carved white marble Italian planter in the style of a Roman sarcophagus

Early 20thC with a seascape depicting putti and fish-tailed hippocamps, 47cms high by 200cms long by 22cms wide sold for £9,100 (est £5k - £8k). The catalogue stated:

In the funeral and burial practices of ancient Rome, elaborately carved marble and limestone sarcophagi were characteristic of the social elite from the 2nd to the 4th centuries AD. At least 10,000 Roman sarcophagi survive, with fragments possibly representing as many as 20,000. Although mythological scenes have been mostly widely studied, carved sarcophagus reliefs have been called the richest single source of Roman iconography, and may also depict the deceased's occupation or life course, military scenes, and other subject matter. 

From the 17th century onwards it became fashionable for the British aristocracy to return from their Grand Tours of Italy with ancient Roman and Greek sculpture reaching its nadir in second half of the 18th century.

Sir William Hamilton, British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800 amassed a large collection of vases and antiquities, some of which were subsequently acquired by the British Museum. Likewise Italian sculptors and designers such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Bartolomeo Cavaceppi were restoring and in some cases faking ancient sculpture to satisfy the growing English market. By the end of the 19th century demand was considerably outstripping supply and a number of Italian sculptors were carving copies from scratch, as in this example, often distressing them to give the appearance of great antiquity. Some were sold as copies of Roman marble originals, whilst others were passed off as the real thing.

Modern painted pine dovecote

This 58ins wide painted pine dovecote, with seven roosts wide to the base and sides, and a wooden shingle roof (possibly not English) sold for £505 (est £400 - £600)

Scottish gothic cast iron seats

A pair of white painted gothic pattern, both seats replaced, 39ins wide sold for £3,300 (est £2,500 - £4,000).

Rarely marked for Scottish foundries, and if unmarked normally (wrongly in my view) attributed to the French tall wood-fired foundries of Val d'Osne, this pair of gothic seats, possibly dating from as early as the 1820s but catalogued as c1860, had knobbed bolted connections harking back to the first structural uses of cast iron at Coalbrookdale in the 1770s. 

Both benches had a demi-lune plaque set in each back with the raised lettering EAGLE FOUNDRY No 2 GLASGOW which was started by James Edington, son of Thomas Edington of  the Phoenix Foundry founded in 1804, and John McDowall at Port Dundas in 1820. James Edington was declared bankrupt by Scotch Sequestration in 1837 by which time the foundry became McDowall & Robertson, and by 1862 had become McDowall Steven & Co Ltd - the famed makers of Royal Mail post boxes, fountains, bandstands and structural ironwork.

Graces Guide: McDowall Steven & Co

Wrought and cast iron kissing gate

Later 19thC kissing gate with cast iron octagonal post, wrought iron gate and embrasure, the gate 57ins high by 36ins wide, sold for £905 (est £300 - £500). 

The octagonal post is a stretched version of the ubiquitous cast iron octagonal bollard and would have been cast by a regional foundry, while the gate and embrasure was probably made by the local estate blacksmith.

Cast iron Irish stick stand

Umbrella stand with a figure of a Irishman in clover wielding a cudgel or shillelagh, cast iron 30ins high, raised lettering IRELAND and Erin Is My Home, sold for £1,180 (est £800 - £1,200)

Seventeen bronze planters from Camden Lock

Eight lots of two bronze planters, and a single lot, the planter with identical horse reliefs to the bodies, 39ins high, sold for a total £84,000 (est £6,400 - £10,000) for 17 planters - approx. £5,000 each.

The planters were part of a large group of sculpture and reliefs commissioned in the early 1990s as fixtures in and around the old stables and three storey market hall designed by the architect John Dickinson. Some Camden Lock lots were sold in the live auction the preceding day (see SalvoNEWS: Camden horses gallop away to £40k at Summers Place live auction).

  

Camden Lock market is set in the stables and hospital for ponies which worked pulling 19thC canal boats loaded with manufactured goods, materials and fuel, along the Grand Union canal from Birmingham to London.

Four large circular lead plaques representing the four Seasons

The roundels were 29ins diameter, featured reliefs emblematic of the four seasons after ones by the neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and made in the later 20thC by the leadworking enterprise of H. Crowther Ltd of Chiswick. This was one of the more expensive of a group of lots from The Crowther Collection in this sale, and sold for £6,200 (est £2,000 - £4,000)

The Crowther Collection

James Rylands of Summers Place Auctions writes: 

When I held my first sale of Garden Statuary here at Summers Place under Sotheby’s auspices back in 1986, there were three branches of the Crowther family all plying their trade in London. All were descended from John and Mary Crowther who arrived in London in the 1860s with two sons and four daughters. By 1901 one of the sons, Thomas had moved to 282 Northend Road in Fulham selling fireplaces, garden ornament and architectural fittings before closing his doors in 1992.

Crowthers of Syon Lodge, located next to Syon House, sold an even bigger range of garden ornament before finally auctioning the residue of its stock with us in 2002. This just leaves the venerable firm of H.Crowther and Son, established by Henry ‘Mash’ Crowther in 1908, at the same premises it still occupies in Chiswick High Road, London. 

From the beginning Mash specialised in making lead garden ornaments, a skill he had learnt from his father Tommy, who, at the advanced age of 60, took a stand at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1914 displaying lead ornament and wrought iron gates, which earned him a gold cup. It says something for the continuity of this branch of the family, that Mash’s grandson, Paul Crowther, the present proprietor of H.Crowther and Son, also exhibited his lead wares at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2007-2009, winning commendations as well as supplying the leadwork to Chris Beardshaw’s gold medal winning garden.

Throughout the twentieth century, the company’s collection played an important role for garden designers to draw upon. As Gertrude Jekyll, the outstanding Edwardian garden designer remarked, ‘There can scarcely be a doubt that the happiest material for our garden sculpture and ornament is lead' … and it was Crowthers who supplied lead statuary and ornament to the newly created Jekyll gardens at Hestercombe, Sissinghurst Castle and Hidcote Manor, to name but a few. Crowthers also supplied pieces to many fine 18th century gardens being restored; indeed it is said that there are few important gardens where you cannot find at least one example of Crowther’s work.

Paul wants to develop the workshops at the back of the garden and no longer needs the main house, since no family members are living in it, necessitating the emptying of the vaults, bringing to light a number of pieces which haven’t been seen for years including many of the plaster originals from which the moulds were made with which to cast the lead pieces.

Paul Crowther remarked, "I decided it was time to rationalize our family business which has been going in the same premises here in Chiswick for over 100 years. As a family, we no longer use the main house and vaults, which have become a treasure trove of old lead models and plaster moulds. We also felt that the pieces in our display garden, many of which have been here for up to 100 years and which have achieved a wonderful patina, were no longer representative of the new pieces we sell. In order to continue expanding our business, I need to concentrate on developing our workshops adjacent to the garden."

  

Acton Hall oak barn frame  

A rare double aisled oak framed tithe barn, circa 1650. Length 121ft. Width 28ft (main aisle 16ft with each side aisle 6ft). Ridge 25ft 6in. Unsold (est £100,000)

Almost entirely in its original condition and dismantled more than 25 years ago. The barn originally would have had a thatched roof and walls of wattle and daub over the oak aisled wall frames. There were two main threshing bays, each with large double doors. Ten main bays (of approx. 12ft) formed by very substantial jowled oak posts connected to the arcade plate and tie beams by main mortise and tenon, subsidiary teazle tenon and lapped dovetail joints. Aisle wall frames of substantial oak studs. The main tie beams and arcade plates were supported and braced by mainly heavy curved braces, with a few replaced in the 19th century with solid knee braces.

Acton Hall is part of Acton Place, near Stowmarket, Suffolk, England. The site on which the barn originally stood was described in the Domesday Book as an extensive Manor known as the hall with capacious cleared farmlands, woodlands, barn stables, brew houses and livestock. It was the home of Henry Bourchier, second Earl of Essex during the early 14th century, a great friend of Henry VIII and Acton Hall was the first resting place of the young Catherine of Aragon when she first arrived in England to meet her future husband Henry VIII.


This lot was offered in a dismantled, fully numbered state and was viewable by appointment in Suffolk. Full plans were available of it prior to its dismantling and an estimate for its re-assembly by John Langdon of Heritage Oak Buildings in the region of £100,000 (in addition to the purchase cost). 

(In the Daily Mail) John Langdon said the barn dated back to the mid-17th century when it would have been used as a tithe barn … it was dismantled about 25 years ago on a big farm estate where it was in the way of modern farm buildings … and was going to be sold off as individual timbers so he bought the lot, numbered it, dismantled it and found a new home for it with a brewery. 

The plan was to use the barn for functions but the brewery could not find a site so eventually it asked John Langdon to buy it back.

He said, "The barn is made up of many tonnes of beams that we have been storing. It's like the ultimate Ikea flatpack, which is exactly how things were made back then. The only difference is that we will deliver it to the buyer and they won't need an Allen key to put it up - we will help re-erect it too. The barn is hugely historic - very few buildings last as long as its been around, and it will easily last another 500 years. The framework is hand hewn from oak and it is held together entirely with mortise and tenon oak pegs and it's in amazing condition. I can confidently say there will never be another barn like this come up for sale. It is an exceptional building, a unique situation and an absolute bargain." 

Angkor by tuk-tuk

Above: Bayon, Angkor Thom

Above: Carved stone relief, Banteay Srei

Above: Carved stone relief, Banteay Srei, showing the Ramayana legend at Preah Ko

Above: Carved stone relief, Banteay Srei

Above: Bayon, Angkor Thom

Above: Bayon, Angkor Thom

Above: Bayon relief

Above: Bayon, Angkor Thom

Above: Angkor Wat

Above: Angkor Wat

Above: Angkor Wat

Above: Angkor Wat relief

Above: Angkor Wat stone window (how was this made? turned on a lathe?)

Above: Angkor Wat

We travelled by coach from Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) to Phnom Pen which took about seven hours - quite a lot of slightly seedy looking single western male tourists, an overnight stay and then another six hours bus ride to Siem Riep - a town built and paid for by tourism at Angkor - where we stayed at the excellent and very cheap by western standards, Golden Mango Hotel - a 5 minutes Tuk Tuk drive to town and 10 minutes to the Angkor complex.

Angkor is situated in the middle of the vast fertile, central flood plain near the huge lake of Tonle Sap and on the Tonle Sap river, a tributary of the huge Mekong river and close to modern Siem Riep.

Tonle Sap lake rises and falls 8 metres between the wet and dry seasons and supplies much fish and, with the rice harvest, has fed much of central Cambodia for centuries. The lake is 2,700 square miles in dry season expanding to 16,000 in the rainy season

The central plain is only relieved by small hills called phnoms - thus Phnom Pen.

The city of Angkor was built between the tenth and thirteenth centuries and was the capital of the most powerful and opulent empire of south east Asia. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site. The main Angkor Wat temple complex covers 800 hectares (3 sq miles), but there still remain in Cambodia other temple complexes to be excavated from beneath the jungle. There are nine main temple complexes within the main city and many smaller temples. All nine should be visited if one has the time but, if not, then just Angkor Wat - where the sculpture is currently being conserved by a German team - and Angkor Thom and the Bayon - being conserved by the Japanese.

Banteay Srai (Lady Temple) should not be missed. This is a small temple some 12 kilometeres from the main complex at Ankor.  Built on a much more human scale, and reasonably well preserved, the carvings are exquisite and the finest of the temples we visited.

The architecture at Angkor is closely related to southern Indian Hindu temple architecture - the Khmers became Buddhist in the 11th century

Angkor Wat is the best preserved temple but it is only a small part of what was once a vast city.

The temples are constructed with a core of laterite - a hard dark red clay coloured by iron oxide - which is easy to cut when quarried and is relatively light. Laterite hardens when it is dried and forms the inner core of most of the buildings. The outer surfaces are of sandstone or a mixture of sandstone and brick. The sandstone was brought 80 kilometers from quarries in Mt Kulen to the North and ferried to the site by a network of canals only recently rediscovered by satellite survey.

What we see now are only the massive stone remains, the only sign of timber screens, doors, shutters and the timber living accommodation are plug holes drilled into the stone, the wood has long since disappeared, either vandalised or eaten by termites.

One temple alone, Ta Prohm - the inspiration for scenes in Tomb Raider - needed a population of 90,000 people to maintain it. Ta Prohm is probably the most romantic of the ruined temples but although some of it has been left to nature, much is undergoing to stop it falling into complete ruin. The site was initially cleared of undergrowth between 1908-11 but many of the larger trees were left with their roots strangling the buildings.

Restoration, conservation and consolidation continues at Angkor using the anastylosis reconstruction technique - rebuilding on firm foundations and replacing missing elements with unfinished stones, but due of its sheer scale this work will never be completed.

Baphuon Temple within Angkor Thom was completely reconstructed after the French took it apart, numbered over 300,000 pieces, and while preparing for rebuilding it was overrun by the Khmer Rouge who destroyed all the drawings. Fortunately it was able to be reconstructed from memory, this must count as the world largest jigsaw puzzle.

In 1922 the minor scandal of L'affaire André Malraux, the French author who thought stealing sculptures from Banteay Srai and sending them for sale in the west was an excellent way of making a quick franc highlighted the problem of looting of the temple sculptures. On his return to France he was arrested and held briefly in prison, which is considered ironic given that the French authorities had themselves removed large numbers of statues and bas-reliefs. Malraux believed he had acted within the law as it then stood, and unsuccessfully contested the charges.

In the 1980s the Khmer Rouge did not help matters, but thankfully the large scale theft of sculpture from Angkor is not so easy any more. The Cambodians are very proud of their heritage.

The Angkor National Museums at Siem Riep (currently privately funded by a Thai company) and the National Museum in Phnom Pen both have very good study collections of the sculpture from Angkor. Closer to home there is a large collection of Cambodian artefacts at the Musee Guimet in Paris

A million tourists visit Siem Riep and Angkor each year, and this figure is rising. The town is modern, but as in the rest of Cambodia, although very poor, the people are delightfully friendly and helpful, and keen to practise their English on you by trying to sell you something, but are not in the least offended if you do not buy. We avoided Pub Street but the more youthful might enjoy it.

Food is good, though not as good as Vietnam, beer is cheap and the ruins at Angkor are probably the eighth wonder of the world - if one is interested in architecture they are not to be missed.

There have been plenty of books published but for a good general overview Angkor, Heart of an Empire published by Thames and Hudson is a good start.

[The architectural heritage story and the beautiful photos were kindly submitted by a SalvoNEWS trade reader who preferred to remain anonymous