Bonhams antiquities auction

Bonhams are having an auction of antiquities - a couple of unusual items caught my eye:

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Lot No: 251

A large South Arabian alabaster ibex fixture
Circa 1st Century B.C./A.D.
Carved from a block of stone, the roughly hewn back and base forming a thick raised border, the ibex standing on short chunky legs with thick hooves, the broad arching horns curled underneath, with small pointed ears, the long face with large domed eyes and a thick stylised beard under the chin, 16¾ x 11 x 5in (42.6 x 28 x 12.7cm), mounted

Estimate: £20,000 - 30,000

 

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Lot No: 298

A Roman athlete's ablution set
Circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
Consisting of a glass aryballos with folded collar rim, the short neck with two thick applied handles complete with bronze suspension loops and double loop-in-loop chain with a bronze oil flask stopper attached, the body of typical spherical form, 2¾in (7cm) high; accompanied by a bronze strigil, with concave slender curving blade, the fluted loop handle with ribbed suspension ring and hook, 5½in (14cm) high, excluding the suspension loop, mounted (2)

Estimate: £4,000 - 6,000

Early Televisions and radios

Bonhams are having a sale of early technology

There are a lot of wonderful early TVs, radios, computers and the like (they clearly have quite a conservative notion of what constitutes technology) anyway here is a selection of the TVs that they have

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Lot No: 595^W

A Perdio 'Portorama' type 11 mains/battery portable television,

the world's first all-transistor portable, 1962,
8-inch screen, in grey and white moulded plastic case with controls, aerial and carry handle on the top - 10.1/2in. (27cm)

 

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 Lot No: 609^W

A Decca 'bowfront' Decola television wireless and record-player salon suite,

a specially made commission order in bleached birds-eye maple, possibly unique, circa 1954,

Estimate: £3,000 - 5,000

 

 

What I especially like about this is the notion of luxury technology that it encapsulates, something which is pretty much completely lost today - we all use the same computers for example (there's no 'luxury" operating system out there that the rich use). In some sense this could be a manifestation of the American sense of democracy - there's a very nice Warhol quote about Coca-cola being an expression of a uniquely American ideal: 

 

"What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."

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 Lot No: 619^W

A GEC type BT2147 table model television,

1952,
8-inch screen with cream mask, vertical bar speaker grille, in brown Bakelite case - 15.1/2in. (39.5cm) wide

 

 

 A bakerlite TV, wow...

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Lot No: 626^W

An Ambassador type 10CC corner-form television console,

1950,
12-inch screen with white mask, main knobs below with central smaller adjustment controls in Bakelite, in walnut veneered cabinet, with the profile omitting the need for CRT end cover to back panel, on wheels - 37.1/2in. (95cm) high

Estimate: £350 - 550

I love the practicality of this - it fits into the corner of the room (part of a longer tradition of corner side tables for example). It's nice as well in harking back to a time when the TV wasn't the centrepiece of a living room, but just another elements in it.
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Lot No: 59

A Murphy Model 188 'Batman' radio

Estimate: £70 - 100

This is just lovely - such a cute radio (not easy to make such a large block of wood cute!)

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Automobilia

Bonhams are having a sale of Automobilia as part of the Goodwood Revival. A few items I like:

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Lot No: 85

The British Empire Trophy Race, Donington 1936,

Est £200 - £300

Fantastic graphic design, to me it looks more modern than the 30s (really looks 50s I think), which probably emphasised the modernity of the event.

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These two lots I thought were interesting to compare - two sets of race overalls: one from the 60s and one from the 00s, interesting to note (amongst other things) the spread of sponsors logos on the recent pair...

Lot No: 153

A pair of Andre Lotterer's Jaguar Formula 1 Team racing overalls,

in green and white, with 'Jaguar Racing', 'HSBC', 'Becks', 'Du Pon', 'EDS', 'Michelin', 'AT&T', 'hp', and 'S.Oliver' logos, with handwritten driver identification to inside of belt, good condition.

Estimate: £200 - 300

Lot No: 168

A pair of Jim Clark's Dunlop racing overalls,

mid 1960s, two piece type, in blue, zip fastening with button to top, with 'Dunlop, 'Esso', 'Lotus' and 'GPDA' logos attached, good condition, some light race wear, offered together with a letter outlining the provenance of the overalls and a photograph of the former owner wearing them in 1965.

Estimate: £2,000 - 4,000

 

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Hobbs of Barbican letterhead

Hobbs of Barbican were one of the top British racing cycle manufactures of the 30s and 40s (you can read more about them here). Accompanying the auction of one of their frames on Ebay there is a tantalising glimpse of their letterhead, they were noted for their lavish catalogs and clearly had an eye for commissioning graphic design

+ update +
I emailed the seller of the frame and he generously supplied this high resolution scan of the letterhead (thanks again Martin). It brings out some of the detail not visible in the low resolution image - like the directors listed under the monogram (click on the image below for the high resolution version).

Bonhams Sale 16834 -15 Sep 2009

The catalogue for Bonhams forthcoming sale of clocks and watches is online now.

Some nice things in it as always - here are a few of the stranger itesm that caught my eye:

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Lot No: 109

Jaeger LeCoultre. A gold plated centre seconds alarm stirrup watch

Estimate: £300 - 500


I have no idea what a stirrup watch is (I guess it's the kind worn by nurses, pinned to their uniform), but this clearly isn't for a nurse (maybe some sort of military officer?)

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Lot No: 110

Omega. An early 20th century open face pocket watch conversion with Russian inscription on the reverse

Estimate: £300 - 500


I love the early pocket watch conversions - indeed having the crown at 12 o'clock feature was something I used on the series 2 case design.

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Lot No: 120
Heuer. A single button yachting recorder

Yacht Timer, 1960's

Estimate: £300 - 400


not sure what this is for exactly, but I like the combination of delicate colours and massive button!

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Lot No: 123

Omega. A split seconds chronograph within a specially designed red protective case

Olympic Timer, 1960's
65mm (Case, 95mm diameter).

Estimate: £700 - 900


This is a guess, but I imagine that the 60s were probably the last time that these kind of analogue human-operated timers were used at the Olympics (estimate sounds quite a lot, but I might be in there if it goes low enough!)
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Lot No: 303

An early 20th century desk timepiece and appointment book circa 1939

"Time Secretary", US Patent D-105,811, the movement by Imhof
The tooled leather bound diary with pen holder and centrally mounted Swiss jewelled timepiece movement with lever escapement, 2.25 inch dial, Arabic numerals and hour sectors followed through onto the diary pages 22cm (8.5in) x 15.5cm (6.25in).

Estimate: £250 - 300



This is without doubt my favourite item in the sale - such a strange combination of watch and diary. I wonder if anyone who brought one ever actually used it?

Selbach Catalogue

Selbach were one of the very top racing bicycle producers in the 1920s -30s (right up until the untimely death of the owner in 1935). Their shops were once just around the corner from me in Kennington.

I saw this catalogue on ebay - very nice, but i'm holding out for one of their bikes!

Lady GaGa

I'm loving these images of Lady GaGa's Glastonbury outfits, I like the oddly nostalgic 80s-futuristic look (well it looks that way to me...). I especially like the tessellation on the synthaxe.

Mike Mak Design

I love this modern, minimalist take on the old-fashioned rolling-eye clock which was popular from the late 1920s. Designed by Mike Mak (not sure if it's in production or if it's just a sketch, I'm guessing with no pricing info etc that it's the latter)

Mike Mak Design

Sotherby's auction

Sotherby's are having an auction of extremely expensive furniture. I rather like the legs on this one:

LOT 40

- A GEORGE III MAHOGANY SIDE TABLE
CIRCA 1760, BASED ON A DESIGN BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

30,000—50,000 GBP

Kennington Theatre

This Theatre once stood quite close to my flat, and was a significant South London musichall venue (it's a block of flats now, the original building was destroyed in the war).

I love the graphic design of the program: