The late Robert Kime at his Provencal home ‘La Gonette’. Image: Tessa Traeger.
1. English School portrait
An English School portrait of a man with pickaxe and a spade in a landscape. It is estimated at £10,000-15,000 at Dreweatts.
The collection of Robert Kime (1946-2022), the collector, dealer and interior decorator who died last year, will be offered at Dreweatts over three days this week.
The auction titled Robert Kime: The Personal Collection will take place on October 4-6 with more than 750 lots ranging in value from £30-100,000. In total it could raise more than £1.5m.
The collection includes items from both his homes in London and Provence. Among the highlights is this English School portrait of a man with pickaxe and a spade in a landscape. It is estimated at £10,000-15,000.
View the Robert Kime sale via thesaleroom.com
2. Suffragette money box
Suffragette money box, estimate £4000-5000 at Bonhams.
One of the largest private collections of material on the Suffragette movement will be sold next month.
Amassed by Lesley Mees from the 1980s onwards, it features printed material, jewellery, ceramics, rosettes and a range of notable novelties.
The 109-lot collection will be sold in a timed online sale at Bonhams Knightsbridge ending on October 3.
As well as that medal – awarded to Maud Joachim in 1912, estimate £12,000-18,000 – a Suffragette money box (pictured above) is among the rarities on offer.
The significance of its pillar box form and the Suffragette inside who pops up with a squeak or a screech when a coin is inserted would not have been lost on contemporary audiences. In late 1911 Emily Wilding Davison was arrested for trying to set fire to a pillar box on Parliament Street.
Other Suffragettes followed her lead, either firing boxes, or pouring ink and other substances inside to ruin the post. In February 1913, the year this novelty box (estimate £4000-5000) was made, five postmen were burned in Dundee when handling a phosphorus Suffragette letter bomb addressed to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.
View the money box via bonhams.com
3. George III secretaire bookcase
George III inlaid satinwood secretaire bookcase in the manner of Gillows, c.1790, estimate £5000-8000 at Woolley & Wallis.
The first day of the October 4-5 furniture and works of art sale at Woolley & Wallis includes items offered under the banner Kenneth Neame: An Enduring Legacy.
Neame began his career as an antique dealer after studying architecture at Cambridge. His first shop was in Handel’s House in Brook Street, Mayfair, and soon became the destination for clients staying at Claridge’s. After over 30 years in Handel’s House the business relocated to Mount Street in 1990.
Now, after seven decades of decorating and acquiring antiques for a glittering array of clients, Neame has closed his London business and is selling a selection of his remaining stock and items from his London home in Cadogan Square. The 227 lots are being offered without reserve.
This George III inlaid satinwood secretaire bookcase in the manner of Gillows, c.1790, a piece bought at Hansons in 2012 for a hammer price of £20,500, is guided at £5000-8000.
View the bookcase via thesaleroom.com
4. Mary Fedden early work
Portrait of Professor Robert Donington, playing the Viola de Gamba by Mary Fedden, estimate £10,000-15,000 at Gorringe’s.
Shown here is one of three early works by Mary Fedden (1915-2012) that Gorringe’s of Lewes is offering on October 3.
A 23½ x 19½in (60 x 50cm) oil on canvas signed and dated 1948, this Portrait of Professor Robert Donington, playing the Viola de Gamba is estimated at £10,000-15,000.
Robert Donington (1907-90) was educated at St Paul’s School, London, and studied at the University of Oxford. His expert knowledge of early instruments and the interpretation of pre-classical music owed much to a period of study with Arnold Dolmetsch at Haslemere, Surrey.
In the late 1940s Donington shared a studio with his friend Julian Trevelyan. There he met Mary Fedden and although already married, became enamoured with her. By repute, in an effort to cool his pursuit of Fedden, his wife encouraged him to commission work from her and thus place their relationship on a more professional basis.
Fedden painted his portrait as well as a view of Donington’s holiday home, a converted fisherman’s hut at Cadgwith (also on offer guided at £15,000-20,000). He also acquired a further work from her, The Lion and the Lamb. Regardless of Donington’s affections, Fedden married Trevelyan.
View the Mary Fedden portrait via thesaleroom.com
