3D images of all the ancient crosses on the Isle of Man that so inspired Archibald Knox are now online. They can be viewed at this link . As is often the case I am grateful to the Archibald Knox Forum for this information.

Inspired by my latest purchase of a Knox pendant I have published some thoughts and insights on a genre of Knox’s work that is perhaps his most radical – what I have called “Cloisonne opal”. It can be found at this link (updated Sunday 24th May). I have since updated further. To see the 31st May paper click here

The purchase of a stunning ceramic and silver bowl marked FAE has lead me to publish new research on Edwardes, best known as the design head of the Duchess of Sutherlands Cripples Guild from 1907-1921. See this link for details.

I am delighted to see that the Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, is now displaying two items previously in The Peartree Collection. A wonderful Archibald Knox Liberty Cymric box with large turquoise and a very special tea caddy and spoon designed by Herbert and Frances Macnair.

Just listed is a piece of such unequivocal Knox design that is one of the only, maybe the only, known piece that unequivocally provides a link between Knox, the Silver Studio, and the early Cymric range.  Speaking as someone who championed Oliver Baker and Haseler as the true originators of the Cymric range I think this unequivicollay shows the Cymric range had its roots in London, with Liberty and the Silver Studio, as well as Birmingham and Haseler and Baker.  It is priced accordingly.

When I first started out as a dealer in antique silver, without doubt the hardest aspect of my new career was photography. I tried using professional photographers but they were expensive, involved frustrating delays and ultimately took photos that I was not very happy with. It turns out photographing silver is just about the hardest thing to do in the world of photography. It requires a specialist professional photographer – not easy to find. It is not just the myriad of reflections you have to deal with, but getting silver to look like clean shiny silver in a photograph is in fact very tricky. Over the past five years I have crawled up, as well as down, the learning curve. I have reached the point where I am finally satisfied with most of my photographs. By popular demand, and with the time and boredom created by “lock-down”, I thought I would share my experience for others’ benefit. This write up is full of links so that you can see what I mean by clicking on highlighted blue areas. There is a photo of my set up at the end of this article. I am still learning, and if anyone would like to offer improvements to this approach, do please let me know.

Celebrating Archibald Knox’s birthday with this old clip from the BBC of his blue plaque unveiling in 2014, featuring yours truly!

I have posted a research project of mine – a wonderful silver pill box by Child and Child. See link. A mystery gift from a lover. Can you help? Something to amuse during lockdown I hope. Thank you. Anthony

So far I am using my free time effectively and have written this guide to collecting works by Archibald Knox for the LAPADA website. Do let me know if that triggers further questions. Stay safe and well. Anthony

Despite these challenging times, I plan to remain open for business.  I hope to use my new found spare time to keep the website moving by posting research snippets in the News section  so watch out for those.

I am still buying items and if you have items to sell please email me at info@thepeartreecollection.com

I will be posting fewer items for sale in the coming months. If you wish to keep updated of my current stock please contact me directly.  All items already listed remain for sale.

Stay safe and well. Best wishes

Anthony

I wanted to let you know that I have decided to withdraw from The Open Art Fair and therefore will NOT be exhibiting. The Fair is continuing and will open as planned on Wednesday the 18th March. The Peartree Collection tickets are still valid.
 
My decision is an entirely personal one, taken in conjunction with my family, and in the light of increasing concerns over the Coronavirus and the steps necessary to stop its advance.
 
If you are interested in any item of stock, I will of course be available online and by phone.  Subject to how the virus develops, I am always readily available and happy to meet privately to show items. Normality will undoubtedly return and when it does I will find alternative opportunities to exhibit.
 
I hope everyone is, and stays, safe and well.

Returning exhibitor: Anthony Bernbaum

Delighted that The Open Art Fair chose to feature the Peartree Collection’s own Christopher Dresser teapot in today’s FT. Image attached.

Country Life features the forthcoming Open Art Fair (previously BADA fair) in this week’s issue and I am very proud to say that The Collection’s Georgie
Gaskin necklace is featured as one of the highlights. The full article can be read at this link.

I have written a guide on collecting the Gaskin’s jewellery that has been published in this month’s Antiques Collecting Magazine. It can be read at this attached link

Shirley Mueller, a US neuroscientist and collector, has written in today’s ATG “Collecting gives meaning to life [sorry kids] and gives life a spark, in contrast to the day to day drudgery of life. It encapsulates the thrill of the chase and is overall a very pleasant experience. I believe collectors are lucky. We have a passion that drives us”. Never a truer word said.

Whilst trawling through the British Newspaper Archives (as you do on a dull day over Christmas), I found an unlikely letter in the London Evening Standard written by the one and only Archibald Knox, whilst still in the Isle of Man, dating to 1893. The letter concerns Knox’s regret, even anger, at the demise of the main Peel Cathedral, a theme that was a constant throughout his life. Whilst it is hard to square Knox’s modernist design brilliance with his traditional faith, he clearly found no contradiction whatsoever in the two, an area worthy of more research.

If you were ever in doubt that Christopher Dresser was a “rock-star” of the decorative arts, see this link for further details on Christies’ recent sale of a plated teapot by Dresser for nearly $400,000. I am delighted to list an entire tea set by Dresser, and in sterling silver, at a fraction of that price. A bargain!

The purchase of a lovely sterling silver teapot marked for N&E Spittle ((Norman and Ernest) set me on the trail of this relatively obscure partnership, mostly known for their copper and bronze lighting and metalwork. It seems their important history has been in part obscured by the early death of Norman and subsequent company name changes. They nevertheless were highly influential on Gustav Stickley’s metalwork in the US, and produced fittings for some of Britain’s most modern buildings in the period 1900-14.

It’s been an unusual and rewarding two days. First, the Collection’s Milon Andreewitch plaque has been acquired by family descendants wishing to obtain a great example of their ancestor’s brilliant but limited works. And then today the Collection’s lovely Bertha Inglis spoons have been bought by a family member, also wanting to celebrate and remember their ancestor. To reunite pieces sold c 100 years ago is really very touching – and great testimony to the power of the internet too.

I have about twelve buckles for sale in the Collection (excluding those sold) and have just added two absolutely excellent ones by Liberty and Anton Michelsen. It is fair to say they are not terribly practical objects, although I know a very elegant lady who frequently sports an Oliver Baker buckle to great effect. They are however perfect examples of the era, usually encapsulating some of the best, most creative designs of the period and often mixing silver with stones and enamel. If you want to create a vibrant, small, and relatively affordable collection of arts and crafts silverware, I commend them to you.

As a footnote I am delighted to have recently assisted in the sale of a very rare and valuable Georg Jensen dragonfly buckle, more information here

I have just listed several new items by Charles Ashbee, bought privately and with direct provenance back to the Guild of Handicraft in 1900. Despite my ambivalence towards silver plate, I am particularly taken by a really beautiful pair of vegetable dishes listed here

The pieces have direct provenance to Arthur Currer Briggs who acquired the pieces in c. 1900. Briggs was an outstanding patron of the arts and crafts and besides purchasing items from Ashbee and supporting the major Leeds Arts and Crafts Exhibitions, he commissioned one of Voysey’s most important houses Broad Leys on Lake Windermere.

I have finally researched successfully Alfred Edward Bonner, the silversmith and enameller with makers mark AEB. He was born in Norfolk in 1862 to a farming family.  In the 1891 census, at the age of 29, Bonner was living at home with no occupation given. By the 1901 census (and after his father’s death in 1898)   he is boarding in London and gives his occupation as an “artist painter”  By the 1911 census he is in Kensington and listed as an “Artist metalworker”.  In 1912, at the age of 50,  he married Mary Wright, a minor aristocrat.  Based on the absence of hallmarked Bonner pieces after c 1918 it is assumed he retired from metalwork at that time.  He died in Scotland in 1943, having lived for much of his later years  in Limpley Stoke, Wiltshire.  He was childless.

Bonner was one of those small group of arts and crafts silversmiths who flourished prior to 1914. He was described by the Studio in 1904 as a “designer of and worker in silver and jewellery” based in Kensington.  He was clearly also a skilled enameller  and wrote an article on enamelling for “Arts & Crafts” Journal vol 2, 1905, from which I have reproduced what I believe is a previously unknown photo of Bonner see link

Just in time for Christmas I have added a fantastic collection of Gaskin and other arts and crafts jewellery to the site. Acquired privately, the collection was put together over the past twenty years.

I have loaded onto the website in the “Research” section a rare 2013 catalogue of the Court Barn Museum Exhibition on the Gaskins. It can be found at this link