Arts & Culture

I started ‘OBJECTS OF DESIRE’ ten years ago this summer, as a brokerage offering clients the opportunity to buy and/or sell works of art privately, and to accept commissions to find works by specific artists, and during that time we are delighted to have bought, and/or sold, many works of Art for our clients.

So, we thought it would be fun to mark this Anniversary by recalling various amusing stories about specific deals, without divulging the identity of the clients, so here are some ‘Tales of Sales’.

Masterpiece doesn’t care about looking like a museum or being cool; it cares about money and what you can buy with it. It is about the object. It is an event whose sheer range of expensive things defies the taste of the most hardened collector. It challenges collectors, making them aware of excellence that is just outside of their usual field of vision.

Masterpiece-2015-Portrait-of-a-Gentlewoman

David Fursdon DL, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for Devon:

“This is a book to read slowly; to dip in and out of and to savour and to read with the seasons. It is a book for the Devon connoisseur and the Devon beginner and celebrates an endangered way of life. It is full of colour and of wisdom. It is, quite simply, a delight.”

These words greet the newly published ‘My Devonshire Year’, I cannot improve on them. This book is being published by my very good friend, Richard Webb, who lives in a beautiful house in Warfleet Creek, at the entrance to Dartmouth harbour where he can sit at his desk and watch all manner of boats and ships arrive and depart.

The Vintage Magazine is delighted to have been introduced to Claudia Morris, a new discovery for us but a lady who has firmly established herself on the tour circuit and we would love to bring her talent to a wider audience. To whet your appetite, we have 10 copies of her latest album, Secret Love, to give away on a first come, first serve basis and then we would suggest you visit her website and book to see her forthcoming tour which starts on Friday 13th February at Millfield Arts Centre, Edmonton.

The prevailing wisdom is Masterpiece has now surpassed all others and can honestly be called the finest show on earth for decorative arts. And for many international collectors it is their favorite show to visit. Masterpiece offers a hugely diverse range of exhibitors and their treasures, as well as dining at some of London’s finest establishments contained within the fair, against the backdrop of Christopher Wren’s Royal Hospital Chelsea with it’s 300-year history. All of this walking distance from the heart of London.

I invite you to visit the fair for the last three days. And if you can’t make it this year, please make sure you put it in your diary for next year. – Michael James

Back to the Marsh by Michael Fontes of Les Orchidées de Najac:-

I’m going to write about a field, a marshy field. You may have a vision of elderly English people who retire abroad, dreamily sipping white wine by their swimming pools on hot summer evenings, as they prepare to tuck into the foie gras and the goat’s cheese. My expat idyll is very different: I spend my afternoons in wild places, studying the butterflies and wild flowers of the Aveyron, one of the most remote parts of deepest France. In my last article for The Vintage Magazine, I described the joys and pains of selling my photos in our village market. Here I’m going to write about a place, a field, a marshy field, where I took all the photos in this article.

Also being offered in the sealed bid sale is one man’s entire collection of garden-related objects in one single lot.

A collection that has been amassed over 100 years by three generations of the Crowther Family, who are synonymous with the production of leadwork, will be offered at Summers Place Auctions, Billingshurst, West Sussex in their biannual sale of Sculpture and Design for the House and Garden on Tuesday, May 20, 2014.

The Crowther Collection of Lead Garden Statuary

One of the missing Imperial Fabergé Easter Eggs made for the Russian Royal family will be on public view for the first time in 112 years, at Court Jeweller’s Wartski in Mayfair in the run up to Easter. The magnificent Third Imperial Fabergé Easter Egg will be on view for four days only from the 14th April 2014, 11am to 5pm. Entrance is free, but queues are expected but it will be worth the wait as it is unlikely to be seen again by the public for a long time, if ever.

Summers Place Auctions are the world’s leading auctioneers of Garden Statuary and fossil decoration. The sales are held in the new award winning 5000sq ft gallery nestling within 6 acres of walled gardens and the arboretum of the Victorian mansion, Summers Place. Their specialist sales of Sculpture and Design for the House and Garden in May and October include examples of the finest garden ornaments. Evolution is their first specialist sale of natural history in which the first sale of a large dinosaur skeleton at auction in the UK will take place on 27th November 2013.

Eric Clapton is best-known for his musical talent, but his investment skills would be the envy of most investment professionals. In 2001 Eric Clapton bought three paintings by Gerhard Richter for what was then the huge sum of £2 million (US$3.2 million).

In 2012 the rock guitarist sold one of these paintings for US$34 million at Christies, a sum that would go down in history as the highest priced ever paid at auction for the work of a living artist.

"The Vintage Magazine is full of good things. It is the first web magazine aimed at the mature, 50+ man about town,
which I actually found interesting and relevant. Compensation for being older!"

Nicholas Coleridge C.B.E, President of Condé Nast International

The Vintage Magazine is unashamedly aimed at the active, affluent, over 50s who intend making the most of their later years, and have the resources to do so.

The Vintage Magazine is the best private club to which you could imagine belonging, but with many more benefits and advantages...

We want members who want to live life to the full, and are ready, willing, and able to do so!

The Vintage Magazine is for like-minded people to share their knowledge and experiences - it is for those people who feel they have saved the best for last.

We are a very exclusive, but enjoyable club where ideas and information will flow freely...

The Vintage Magazine brings you interesting authors and reports, along with exclusive reviews and offers and superb ideas to make the best of your free time!

Find quality, hand-picked services and businesses, with some of the most exclusive hotels, restaurants, and clubs in the world.

Arts & Culture

Objects of Desire – ‘Ten Years After’

Masterpiece Review by Angus Broadbent of Broadbent Gallery, London

The Genius of Richard Webb, and his new potential best seller, ‘My Devonshire Year’

Claudia Morris Goes on Tour with her Tribute to Doris Day

The Silver Fund at Masterpiece London 2014

‘London Thinking’ Just Doesn’t Cut It In Rural France

Summers Place Auctions To Sell The H.Crowther Collection In Their Auction Of Sculpture & Design For The House & Garden

Lost Treasure Found After Almost 100 Years – Chance of a lifetime to see one of the most romantic Easter gifts ever made

Summers Place Auctions – First Large Dinosaur Skeleton to be sold at Auction in the UK

‘Let It Grow’ – A Story of a Magical Musician and a German Artist

"The Vintage Magazine is full of good things. It is the first web magazine aimed at the mature, 50+ man about town, which I actually found interesting and relevant. Compensation for being older!"

Nicholas Coleridge C.B.E, President of Condé Nast International

The Vintage Magazine is unashamedly aimed at the active, affluent, over 50s who intend making the most of their later years, and have the resources to do so.

The Vintage Magazine is the best private club to which you could imagine belonging, but with many more benefits and advantages...

We want members who want to live life to the full, and are ready, willing, and able to do so!

The Vintage Magazine is for like-minded people to share their knowledge and experiences - it is for those people who feel they have saved the best for last.

We are a very exclusive, but enjoyable club where ideas and information will flow freely...

The Vintage Magazine brings you interesting authors and reports, along with exclusive reviews and offers and superb ideas to make the best of your free time!

Find quality, hand-picked services and businesses, with some of the most exclusive hotels, restaurants, and clubs in the world.

Arts & Culture

"The Vintage Magazine is full of good things. It is the first web magazine aimed at the mature, 50+ man about town,
which I actually found interesting and relevant. Compensation for being older!"