Antiques: 50 Years Of Dealing

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31678, 14 May 1968, Page 9

Antiques: 50 Years Of Dealing

<>V TXXRy COLtMAN In tht “Guardian.” Reprinted bv arrangement.)

It is a truth universally rammed home, that “today Britain is the acknewledged centre of the art world.” Usually it’s Christie’s and Sotheby’s, who sell lots and lots of beautiful things, who keep saying so. Now it is the turn of the British Antique Dealers' Association to say so, and it does in the catalogue of its golden jubilee exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition is not, as such exhibitions usually are, of things for sale. The 208 exhibits are examples of the best that have been sold by the association's members in the 50 years of its existence, and have been lent by the present owners. Here are silver and gold and pottery and paint and a seventeenth-century rock crystal ewer and cover, and a Russian icon, and a Rhenish reliquary. Perhaps the most important work of all is a

twelfth-century portable altar, which has high reliefs of the crucifixion, and Christ in majesty, and the Apostles standing under canopies. Medieval church dignitaries used to take it round with them to say Mass away from home. There is a diamond collar of Catherine the Great; and a pair of diamond earrings (c. 1780) believed to have been given by George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Robinson, at the time an actress and later his mistress; and a ruby and diamond spray “tremblant in the form of thistles and corn-flowers,” part of the crown jewels of the Empress Josephine, which, says the association’s handout, is. “unlike some historical pieces, supported by documentary evidence.” Then there are perquisites of British officers in time of Empire. No. 73 is a particularly fine gold Freedom Box,

presented by Trinity House, Newcastle, to Augustus Keppel, Admiral of the Blue, In 1776, for faithful services and gallant conduct. No. 120 Is a porcelain vase, mark and period of Chien-Lung. This, says a note, can be traced to the Summer Palace in Peking before it was looted in 1860. The note then adds, without drawing conclusions, that Sir Frederick Bruce added it to his collection, and that he was secretary of the expedition which took Peking. Some of the pictures are fine. An Avercamp winter scene; a Zoffany of George Hl playing cards and looking like a tea merchant; a Reynolds, a Rubens, a Canaletto; and Tissot’s “Ball on Shipboard,” lent by the Tate. It is a quiet picture, which is usually a bit tucked away at the Tate; in this small exhibition it is displayed at the end of a narrow gallery and makes you look at it.

But, if you consider that these are examples of 50 years of paintings sold by the association, isn't this a disappointing display? Could not one year’s sales at, say. Sotheby’s, reveal as much? Oh, said Mr C. L. de Beaumont, president of the association, Sotheby’s and Christie’s are not members. They are auctioneers, not dealers. And the association does not accept any old dealer, no. “It's a national sport, you know, being an antique dealer, but we don’t agree with that." No? No. Of the country’s maybe 20,000 various dealers, only 520 are members, and they have to be experienced, and men of integrity, and willing to guarantee what they sell. They admit a few new members, and, occasionally, they decline to renew membership. “Can't have people who are just second-hand dealers, you know.” .

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