Reviewing the fabulous archive of the Artificers Guild held at The Goldsmiths’ Company Library, I found this wonderful watercolour for a pendant. Unmistakably a Phoebe Anna Traquair enamel and design, made by the Artificers Guild. A collaboration I believe previously unrecorded. Image courtesy of The Goldsmiths’ Company Lbrary. The original pendant “Out of the deep” can be seen at National Museums Scotland. See link
I would be delighted for you to join my Zoom talk on 21st July at 7pm. This has been organised by David Parr House, a relatively new and exciting Museum in Cambridge that is currently showcasing an exhibition on The Newton School of Metalwork, put together by David Marshall of Hammer and Hand. Information on David Parr House can be found at this link and tickets for my talk booked at this link.
A very fitting obituary for Jan was published in this week’s ATG and I have reproduced below. He had a moving and appropriate wildwood burial yesterday (Thursday 9th).
See my write-up for a wine jug I have for sale at this link.
I am sorry to say that Jan van den Bosch, founder of the Van den Bosch gallery, passed away in May, aged 88. Many of you will have known Jan and his gallery. Firstly based in Camden Passage and then based in Grays Antique Centre. Jan holds a very special place in my heart having introduced me to, and educated me on, the wonderful world of artistic silver and all things Knox, Ashbee, Baker, Harris and many others.
Jan was fundamentally a very lovely man. He always would engage deeply and share his passion for arts and crafts silver and jewellery His knowledge was unparalleled. Little unsourced snippets would get causally dropped into conversation “Oliver Baker, you see, he was always keen on the money”. How on earth did Jan know that? And yet Baker’s diaries, buried in an archive in Stratford, meticulously record what he was owed for the sale of his designs. Show Jan a John Paul Cooper piece of jewellery and he would gently say he thought it was by Edward Spencer. You would undoubtedly then find the original drawing in Spencer’s archive weeks later.
His enthusiasm certainly rubbed off on me. It only took one fortuitous visit to his Camden Passage gallery in around 2002 and I was smitten. I think I spent about two hours listening to Jan regale stories about the pieces in his gallery, the designers, and their “genius”. More wisdom was to be imparted over the following years. “Ashbee’s the one” he would say, recognising not only the brilliance of his designs but also his design and social influence on a global scale. He was of course right. Mention Kate Harris and he would do small jumps up and down as he explained her unique position as a woman designer in British history.
He was a brilliant dealer because of, not inspite of, his generous nature. His enthusiasm and imparted knowledge would turn a causal shopper to a passionate collector and client. And clients soon learnt that Jan truly only stocked the best. Not for Jan damaged or over restored items. Soft enamelling would get his “hot pin” treatment, and be sent back to the vendor without compromise. His commercialism was bolstered by his A4 green folder containing all his stock prices. Meticulously adhered to, he would conjure up the image of a very irate Carole, his wonderful and surviving wife, were he to depart even a fraction from what she had written down.
I know only a little of Jan’s prior life. But it was certainly rich and unusual as you might expect. He was in one of the most successful skiffle bands (think pre guitar, 60’s rock), still enjoying royalties right up until his death. He was also, I believe , a maths or physics graduate of some note. Fortunately for me, and many others, he turned to his dealing passion some time in the 70’s.
He was dealing and collecting right up until the end of his life. It was quite clear that he was just happy to sit in his gallery surrounded by all his beautiful pieces, selling perhaps being just an occupational hazard. We can all toast to that.
Another snippet from the Harts’ Silversmiths Guild of Handicraft archive. This time the visitors book. Elisa de Szasz, wife of Tsombor, together huge patrons of Ashbee, signed the Guild’s visitor book on 3rd August 1906. Was she taking delivery of the coffee pot in the Collection stock code A12, made for the Tsombors and assayed for 1904/5. I like to think so.
A trip to see Hart Silversmith’s at the Guild of Handicraft in Chipping Campden paid dividends when I found an original photo of the the recently listed opal set box I am selling. It is such an unusual design I think almost certainly the exact box. Full details at this link.
Archibald Knox’s influence on European design is a theme I like to explore and a bowl has emerged at auction that is a near copy of Knox’s Ostia bowl designed in 1898. It is by leading Swedish silversmith Gustav Mollenberg, dated 1905. See links below.
Link to the Knox Ostia
I have just listed a whole host of new items, and my related newsletter can be found at this link
A rare and rather lovely silver and enamel bowl has lead me to research the somewhat forgetten but very interesting Henry Ambrose Pudsey Littledale. See this link.
