Auctioneer's Choice
AUCTIONEER'S CHOICE
As we near our double bill of auctions this Saturday, 22nd July, we are catching up with our Auctioneers & Valuers here at Rogers Jones & Co. to discuss some of their favourite lots from our Welsh Sale taking place in Cardiff.
MILDRED ELDRIDGE RWS SCRAPER BOARD CHOSEN BY PHILIP KEITH
Pair of choughs on a clifftop, 'Choughs, Bardsey', "As a wildlife enthusiast I love this scraper board work of choughs, an iconic Welsh crow, perched on rocks on Ynys Enlli, an island I know well from my schooldays having spent a windy week there for my Biology A level field course counting limpets!"
£400-600
JOHN PETTS STAINED GLASS CHOSEN BY BEN ROGERS JONES
Important stained glass installation in two sections with bespoke aluminium stand - abstract, signed and dated 1963, 127 x 228cms (incl. inner frame) Provenance: private collection since 2008, purchased from British Gas when located at Helmont House, Churchill Way, Cardiff Auctioneer's Note: We have sold many works by the versatile John Petts over the years but most of those have been paintings or prints which are seen most regularly at auction rooms. However, perhaps ironically, John Petts' most famous work is not a painting but is a stained glass installation from 1963. On 16th September 1963, a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Planted by a splinter group of the Ku Klux Klan, it killed four young girls who were attending Sunday school – Cynthia Westley, Carol Robertson, Denise McMair and Addie-May Collins – and seriously injured many more. The nation was shocked and this incident became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Act a year later. John Petts was so moved that he launched a newspaper campaign to raise money to replace the stained glass windows of the church with a message, ‘From the people of Wales’ and an image of a Black Christ figure pushing away hatred and injustice. Black and white children queued up in Tiger Bay, Cardiff to donate their pocket money. The window still stands today as a living reminder of the horrors of the violence of Birmingham, Alabama, and the bonds of friendship that grew out of it. To our knowledge another stained glass piece by John Petts has never been offered at auction and so we are absolutely thrilled to offer such an important piece which is of sensational quality and shares a similar style and colours to the famous Black Christ of Alabama. The glass was previously and for many years part of the fabric of the former Wales Gas headquarters building in South Wales known as Snelling House (before restructuring and relocating to Helmont House). Snelling House is a building which was inspired by the Cubist art movement and is now a hotel. The piece was created in the same year as Petts' most famous glass installation for the Baptist Church in Alabama.
£4000-6000
PRIMITIVE WELSH CHAIR CHOSEN BY CHARLES HAMPSHIRE
19th Century, nine-stick back, carved arms, bowed supports, shaped seat, turned legs joined by H-stretcher
£300-500
CAMARTHENSHIRE QUILT CHOSEN BY STEPHEN ROBERTS
n the current high cost heating climate we are in, this has reminded me of how warm they made you feel, tucked up in bed in the winter with the inside of the windows all frozen up by morning. The patience and skills needed to create them taught by generations, literally finishing up as a work of art in their own right. Much of the knowledge has been forgotten with the easy access to "The Continental Quilt" arriving in the 1970s but my daughter who is 35 years old is currently in the process of making one, you never know 100 years from now this too may be offered for sale in auction. A treasured item needing to be treasured for another 120 plus years
£150-250
SIR KYFFIN WILLIAMS OIL CHOSEN BY JOHN ROGERS JONES
It is simply iconic, a signature dish by the palette master. A fabulous image.
£18000-25000
CHARLES WYATT WARREN OIL PAINTING OF SAILBOATS CHOSEN BY RICHARD HUGHES
standsThis one stands out for me. The Welsh artist, born in 1908, was basically self taught but had guidance from Sir Kyffin Williams, who was ten years his junior, certainly influencing his use of a palette knife and thick impasto. This particular example differs from his usual ‘landscape’ format landscape in that it is ‘portrait’ format, unusual for the artist. It depicts a sail boat with yellow hull and a small white rowing boat by a jetty with the Eryri mountains in the background. Estimated at £300 – 400 I think this has strong appeal
£300-400
