“Small is beautiful”
A number of new, smaller, pieces have been added to the website by such designers or silversmiths as Charles Ashbee, Latino Movio, Bernard Cuzner, Omar Ramsden and A E Bonner.
Peartree Collection featured in this weeks ATG
The Peartree Collection is featured in this week’s (September 21st) Antiques Trade Gazette. The sale at the LAPADA Fair of The Collection’s Gilbert Marks’ plates is highlighted. See article extract below.
Manx Life article on Libertys
The attached article has just been published in Manx Life. The Peartree Collection was delighted to provide the images. Lots of good Knox, mainly form the archive.
Gilbert Marks plates
I am delighted The Collection’s Gilbert Marks’ plates will be showcased at the “LAPADA Legends” stand at the LAPADA Fair, Berkley Square from 12th September.
Maxwell Armfield watercolour
Delighted to have helped recreate this still life by Maxwell Armfield featuring a Powell sea green roman decanter. The original watercolour available at Sarah Colegrave Fine Art.
New items added, from Gothic Revival to Jensen via Knox
It may be the holiday season but I have been lucky enough to get hold of a wonderful and diverse collection of pieces acquired in the 1970’s. These will be listed over the coming week or so.
New hallmark of women silversmith sisters uncovered
A lucky, if educated guess, and the help of the Birmingham Assay Office, has led to the rediscovery of Effie and Eleanor Ward, working together as jewellers/silversmiths. Their mystery E&EW mark was registered at the Birmingham Assay Office on 7th March 1902, exactly the same day as Bernard Cuzner and Alfred H Jones registered their mark – I assume they all went to the assay office as a group of friends. Effie is best known for her enamels and as assistant to Arthur and Georgie Gaskin. The mark is on a lovely, classic set of arts and crafts spoons. See more details at this link.
When is a tea caddy a biscuit box?
When is a tea caddy a biscuit box? When it says so on the original water colour design drawing! Originally catalogued by me as a tea caddy this Artificers Guild silver and copper “caddy”, is infact a biscuit box. The original watercolour for this box can be found in the Artificers Guild Archive held at Goldsmiths Hall, Box G, item 2474. It is initialled ES for Edward Spencer and in what is probably his handwriting says “of a size to hold a pound of biscuits”. It is also inscribed “copper bronzed” in keeping with the patina still found on this piece. The watercolour is shown in the images at this link.
Artficers Guild silver and copper tea caddy
Peartree Collection features in the Daily Telegraph
It’s fair to say I don’t always agree with the Daily Telegraph but on this occasion their advice is spot on……this is extracted from a full page spread in today’s Telegraph.
Daily Telegraph jewellery feature with Peartree Collection
Antiques Trade Gazette features The Peartree Collection
Guild of Handicraft Ashbee hand mirror
This week’s issue of the Antiques Trade Gazette previews BADA, including The Peartree Collection’s very special Ashbee hand mirror for the Guild of Handicraft.
“Those on the look-out for museum-level purchases might also seek Anthony Bernbaum of The Peartree Collection, who offers a Guild of Handicraft silver and enamel hand mirror by Charles Ashbee.
It features striking peacock enamel to the back and is hallmarked for 1903. Until now, the only other known example was in Cheltenham’s Wilson Museum.
The mirror is one of a number of pieces Bernbaum will exhibit by Ashbee and Archibald Knox, whom he describes as “two of the most collectable designers from the Arts & Crafts period around 1900”.”
The Peartree Collection features in Antique Collecting Magazine
Anthony Bernbaum, founder of the Peartree Collection, writes about some of the more unusual pieces he is taking to BADA Fair and how he researched them. Click Antique-Collecting-Magazine-Article-March-Edition-2019 to read the article
Antique Collecting March 2019
Ashbee dish from The Peartree Collection appears on BBC2’s “Victorian House of Arts and Crafts”
Charles Ashbee Guild of Handicraft silver bowl
I am delighted to have arranged for a lovely Ashbee bowl, sold last year to a client, to have been used for filming on the BBC’s new series “The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts”. This four part series can be seen on BBC2 on Fridays. The first episoode is available on BBC iplayer. Not to be missed!!
The Peartree Collection will be exhibiting at BADA Fair
We will be exhibiting at The BADA Fair from 19th to 26th March, Duke of York Square, Chelsea, London. If you would like a ticket please do get in touch. More details can be found here.
A calculator to see if your silver with ivory meets the 10 per cent de minimis test
In a matter of months the UK government is likely to introduce legislation that will restrict the sale, import or export of any (silver) item which has, by volume, more than 10% ivory (excludes musical instruments). The detailed legislation is still to be worked out but I have built a simple spreadsheet you can plug in your silver item’s weight and measurements of ivory components to calculate whether the piece meets the likely de minimis rule. If you would like a version please contact me.
New research into early Guild of Handicraft work
In the early 1890’s the Guild of Handicraft exhibited some of their earliest metalwork at a little known exhibition at Armourers’ Hall, home of the Armourers and Brasiers Company in the City of London. I have, finally, found an article on the 1891 exhibition which included a sketch of a door or finger plate the Guild exhibited. This won a competition the Exhibition was hosting to design a finger plate for the Hall and the design was subsequently made up and fitted, where it can still be seen today. The article is in the attached pdf The-Armourers-and-Brasiers-Exhibition-1891. The designer and maker of the finger plate is given in the article as John Williams, with a total of six plates ordered for the Hall in total. Separately, Alan Crawford notes that Hardiman and White both designed prize winning exhibits for Exhibitions at this venue in 1890 and 1892 respectively.
Guild Handicraft finger plate at Armourers Hall
The Peartree Collection letter published in the ATG, 23rd July
ATG letter: Why I waved bye-bye to Online Galleries
MADAM – I wanted to add to the discussion (ATG No 2344) on the recent fee increase by Online Galleries (Anthony Bernbaum of The Peartree Collection writes).
I chose not to continue with Online Galleries (or its parent, 1stdibs) as a result of a subscription increase that, in my case, was from £175 per month to £400 per month and in the middle of what I considered an annual subscription agreement (a case of ‘always read the small print’, it seems).
Coming off Online Galleries will, without doubt, cost me valuable referrals, and according to Google analytics, has already reduced traffic to my own website. When I Google relevant search terms like ‘Archibald Knox silver’ I have the galling experience of seeing my images as previously listed on Online Galleries linking to their home page.
My analysis of the direct value of Online Galleries to me is that it is indeed worth over £400 per month, generating well over £10,000 of sales per year.
Squeezed on costs
So why come off it? Well, I believe that the internet will become an increasingly dominant channel for antiques and design galleries and so control of that channel is critical.
With this in mind, I cannot envisage partnering with an internet site for the long term when there is such a breakdown in trust. When my sales are, say, 50%, not 5-10%, through Online Galleries, what then?
Will I be asked to pay £4000 per month, or, as for 1stdibs, well over 10% of sales?
Physical galleries are being squeezed by increasing rents and now we have intermediary listings providers trying to recreate an online equivalent.
More than this though, it is important to ask what is the valueadd of an intermediary like Online Galleries? Just 10 years ago the answer was ‘quite a lot’.
Building workable websites was expensive, listings sites even more so, and that warranted high fees. With the emergence of HTML templates however, it is inexpensive and easy to create very effective websites.
Longer-term gain
So, what are we, as dealers, paying for? The reality is we are paying an intermediary to promote itself at our expense. My images on Google from Online Galleries are there for a reason, indirectly I have paid for it. So why would I pay to become more and more dependent on an intermediary whose value-add is to a large degree a function of my expertise, my products and, in fact, my money?
So, it’s bye-bye Online Galleries and hello to BADA and LAPADA, who have created listing sites empathetic to both the consumer and industry, and also to Instagram.
With increased investment in my own site I am confident that what I may lose in the short term will be more than gained in the longer term.
Anthony Bernbaum
The Peartree Collection, London
The Peartree Collection joins LAPADA
I am delighted to announce that the gallery has become a member of LAPADA. A selection of items for sale can now be found at both BADA’s and LAPADA’s listing websites. The Peartree Collection no longer lists items with 1st dibs or its subsidiary, Online Galleries.
Major new pieces to be showcased at BADA Fair – Catalogue available
Major new pieces to be showcased at BADA Fair
Catalogue available
We will be exhibiting a number of major new pieces by Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co at the BADA Fair. Highlights are in the attached catalogue and will include a rare Cymric clock, a large enamel and stone set tankard, two great Knox inkwells and enamelled vase. Overall fifteen new Knox Cymric silver pieces from a private collection will be for sale, together with other items from the Wiener Werkstatte, Charles Ashbee, Christopher Dresser, Gilbert Marks, Kate Harris and Ramsden & Carr.
The BADA Fair, London, opens on 14th March. Please contact me if you require a ticket.
View the Peartree Collection Catalogue
The Peartree Collection will exhibit at BADA Fair, 14 – 20th March
The Peartree Collection will be exhibiting at the BADA Fair, Stand C28, from 14-20th March, Chelsea, London. Please contact me for a further details and a ticket. I will be exhibiting a number of new pieces from private collections, most notably an exceptional collection of Cymric silver by Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co.
New research on Voysey’s auminium clocks published
I have just published new research into Voysey’s aluminium clocks. It can be found in the Research section of the website. Published in The Orchard, the Voysey Society Journal, it provides further insight into the provenance of these rare cloccks.
Exhibition in Madrid now open
The Fundacian Juan March opened its new British arts and crafts exhibition on Friday evening to resounding success, queues were sighted around the block. It’s a phenomenal exhibition with exhibits from major private collectors (present company excepted – Jimmy Page being one) and strong support from the V & A and Hunterian. My paltry images capture a small flavour only. Well worth a trip if you are looking for a weekend away.
Details on Spanish arts and crafts exhibition released
Details for the the arts and crafts exhibition to be held at the Foundacion Juan March in Madrid have been released and can be found by clicking here.
Opening on October 17th it promises to be a major exhibition on the British arts and crafts movement with over 300 exhibits by all the leading participants in the Movement including Morris, Voysey, Ashbee, Mackintosh, Baillie Scott and Gimson.
Exhibiting at Stand E3, The Art and Antiques Fair, Olympia
The Peartree Collection will be exhibiting at Stand E3, as for last year, at The Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia from 26th June. Please contact me for tickets.
We will be exhibiting over 70 new items purchased since last year, many of which are not on the website, including a wider selection of jewellery.
