N.Z. man at Christie’s, surrounded by an artistic treasure trove

Press, 12 April 1980, Page 15

N.Z. man at Christie’s, surrounded by an artistic treasure trove

From

KEN COATES

in London

Deep in the basement of Christie’s, in St James's,. London, the oldest fine art auctioneers in the world, is tne viewing room. It is usually kept locked. In almost hushed tones, Peter Rose, one of the most authoritiative writers on art and antiques in London, says that in this room priceless works of art, often worth millions of pounds, can be viewed by appointment by genuine buyers before sale. Not that he looks on Christie’s as a place only for those with thousands to spend. A New Zealander who comes originally from a Bay of Plenty farm, be* tween Tauranga and Katikati, Peter Rose, assistant public relations director for Christie’s, tries to encourage as many people as possible to visit the famous display and auction rooms at 8, King Street.

"You can pick up a bargain,” he says. “A William IV clothes press was recently bought at a furniture sale for only £22 when it could have sold for up to £2OO. But it was near the end of the sale and it had to go.” Britain, because of its colopial history, is still a

vast treasure trove of art and antiques from all over the world. He says there is not a house in the country which does not have something to sell “if put in the right context.” This is well illustrated by the latest boom in antique chess sets. It began when a man from Wimbledon asked whether Christie’s would sell 15 sets. “We had sold sets in gold boxes, but never 15 of them,” Peter Rose says. “As our prime responsibility is to get the seller the best price, we decided to sell them in New York (where Christie’s have two salesrooms). “We had the curious situation of a man from Yorkshire flying to New York to buy two chess sets from a man in Wimbledon.” The sale was an enormous success, with $B5OO and $6200 being the two top prices for the sale. The first London chess set sale followed in June last year. The sequel was another sale — this time of 115 chess sets in London on April 3. There were ivory chessmen, intricately carved, from India, Japan, China, Burma, and Macao; Mexican clay pieces; a German set designed as marine animals; a glass set representing Vikings versus Saxons; porcelain sets from Germany, France. and Czechoslovakia; chessmen of bone, stained fruitwood, Swiss softwood with a “Bears of Berne” design; and even a set made of coloured shells. There has been an explosion in art and antique prices, particularly for gold, coins, and medals. “During a period of high inflation, when the going is tough, people look at

ways of getting ready money.” Peter Rose says. "By selling one or two items from their homes, they can achieve this fairly easily. “Also, there is a tremendous influx of people who want to put their money into a sound investment. We have no trouble in finding buyers for 2500 sovereigns in mint condition at £75 each.” There is a sale at Christie’s main saleroom every day, “at 11 a.m. precisely.” The firm was founded in 1766 by James Christie, who gave up a career in the Roval Navy to become an auctioneer. Today, Christie’s is a public company with a staff of 300 and 35 departments at St James’s, and a world-wide organisation. It sells each year more than 150,000 pieces of furniture, silver, porcelain, jewellery, books, arms and armour, and “objets d’art.”

"Frank Muir dropped in the other day and asked us to sell his sporting gun,” Peter Rose says. The New Zealander, who has always been interested in art, and who trained as an art teacher at Ardmore Teachers’ Col-

lege, has worked for Christie’s for two years. Fie loves his job. It gives him scope to work among thousands of works of art, some admittedly better than others, and write about them. He writes a daily report on sales for consumption by the national press — the prestigious “Financial Times” usually publishes his accounts in full, under someone else’s by-line. Curiously, it was an ambition to become a TV news-reader, rather than a teacher, that sparked Peter Rose to take a polytechnic journalism course in London. He worked for a security firm by night. One of his jobs was guarding the treasures at Sothebys — Christie’s main rivals — where there was a collection of Impressionist paintings being sold for Somerset Maugham. He took the journlism and Pitman’s College course because ITN told him news-readers were recruited from daily newspapers. He got a job., on the Hampshire “Chronicle” in Winchester and in 1966 married an English girl. After three years they went to Canada, where Peter worked on a paper in Southern Ontario, and later on the "Montreal Star.” One day he saw an advertisement by Christie’s in “The Times,” “And as I have always been fortunate with jobs, I applied.” Publicity, for sales is vital for Christie’s. The company produces high quality, illustrated catalogues for international distribution, with colour reproductions of paintings and art treasures. Christie’s sells on a 10 per cent commission and charges

10 per cent buyer's premium. Buyers fly in from all over the world for important sales — sometimes bids are taken' by international telephone hookups. But this is not always entirely successful. “Bids for an important picture had reached £226,000 when suddenly we lost the connection with the buyer bidding by phone from abroad,” Peter Rose recalls. “We tried to get the call re-connected, but all we got was a frantic babble of voices in Italian. There was impatience in the sale-room, to say the least . . .” Eventually, contact was re-established, and the overseas buyer.

bought the work. ... Christie’s also caters for “the lower end of the market,” at its salerooms in Old Brompton Road, South Kensington. A mass of Victoriana flows through these premises — dolls, cameras and photographs, tools, scientific in-, struments, mechanical music, motoring mascots, cigarette cards, and even pot lids, or more accurately, ceramic tops from pickle and relish jars. New Zealand is among the countries from .which the English returning home from the colonies have brought spoils. A marquetry writing table made by Antoine Seuffert, and presented to Lord Wakefield in New Zealand, .will be auctioned on April 16. It is similar

to one which belonged to Bishop Selwyn and which sold for £3OOO three years ago. The relative positions of Sothebys and Christie’s is rather a delicate subject, but London’s pre-eminence as a centre for the international art market, is reflected in turnover last year — £125 million for Christie’s, 185 million for Sothebys. Christie’s claim, modestly. it has the advantage of being the firm always used by the titled families. On the staff in London is Lady Laura Meade, daughter of the Earl of Clanwilliam. This week she took a special interest in the sale of a rare Hawaiian feather cape, formerly

owned by her father. It fetched £lB.OOO. She recalls that she and her sisters played at dressing up in it as children. The cape was made of, red, black, and yellow feathers .of two birds now extinct. It had been handed down from Sir Arthur, Kennedy, a former Governor of Western Australia, Hong Kong, and Queensland. Once, a woman from the Isle of Wight brought in her grandmother’s teapot. It was examined by Mr Arthur Grimward, .the world famous silver exlargest collection of icons, chalices, vestments, and religious objects outside the Soviet Union will be sold. They come from a collection of the late George R. Haan, who

pert — the woman exphasised she would not part with it for under $2O. It .turned out to be worth $lBOO. It was a rare, seven-sided teapot made by a Huguenot craftsman, Ribouleau. Then there was the precious. fourteenth century Chinese wine jar discovered in use as an umbrella stand. It sold for £220.500. And a Suffolk farmer dug up a twelfth century gilt bronze statuette of St John the Evangelist, which sold for £36,750 — after his young son tried unsuccessfully to swap it for a toy car. There is always an element of surprise in the art dealer’s world. At New York next month, the

ma'de a fortune in avia* | . tion. i And in England, wine i connoisseurs will be watching for the May 8 auction of the 3500-bottle wine cellar stocks of John Arlott, whose voice all cricket-loving New Zealanders will know well. Then there is the collection of Mr H. J. (Jim) Joel, millionaire racehorse owner and breeder, who is moving from his London flat in Grosvenor Square. Some of the contents of the flat — old Masters I and English pictures, I French and English furni-' ture, and rare porcelain — are arranged in the view- 1 ing room at Christie’s at | present. “The collection should fetch about £1 million,’.’ Peter Rose says.