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NEWS All the latest WHAT’S ON IN OCTOBER ANTIQUE news Constable’s The Haywain is the focus of a new exhibition this month, while an online resource for collectors is revealed Above More money is required to preserve the Vicars’ Close in Somerset Right Pages from WR Harvey’s 2008 catalogue Below left The women were dressed as the six wives of Henry VIII Below right Ceramic cremation vessel decorated with a gladiator fight between a secutor and retiarius, Colchester, 2nd century AD, © Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service PARR OUT Commuters at Waterloo Station almost lost their heads when they were confronted by six women in Tudor dress this summer. The regal sight was to bring attention to the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens which ended last month. The queens then made their way from the station to the gallery to reunite with their 16th-century portraits. Exhibition curator Dr Charlotte Bolland, said: “Often reduced to the rhyme ‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, the exhibition wanted to restore the queens’ individuality.” Close call Fundraising continues to raise £7m to preserve 30 medieval houses and buildings part of the most continuously occupied medieval street in Europe. First built over 600 years ago, the Vicars’ Close in Wells, Somerset, has housed generations of singers as part of the world-famous Vicars’ Choral. Despite a £4.4m boost from The National Lottery Heritage Fund more money is needed for critical conservation works. The houses are arranged in two terraces and face each other, with distinctive octagonal ashlar chimneys set on the front eaves of the wall. Free to view Collectors of fine English furniture now have a terrific free resource at their fingertips after one of the UK’s leading dealers put its exhibition catalogues online. WR Harvey, owned by Antique Collecting columnist David Harvey, has digitalised decades of research and expertise dating back to its first exhibition in 1978. The online resource joins more 60 video masterclasses by David which are available at www.wrharvey.com, with the catalogues available at www.archives.wrharvey.com GLADIATORS READY The overlooked history of gladiatorial contests in Roman Britain is explored in a new touring exhibition opening next year. During almost four centuries of Roman occupation, as well as numerous cultural and civic advancements, Britons were introduced to armed combat as a public spectacle. One highlight – the Colchester Vase – shows the battle between two reallife gladiators in Colchester: Memnon, a secutor, and his retiarius opponent, Valentinus. After opening at Dorset Museum and Art Gallery in January, Gladiators of Britain will travel to Northampton, Chester and Carlisle. 6 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
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1Carry on Constable John Constable’s (1776–1837) masterpiece Th e H a y Wain is the focus of a new exhibition opening at the National Portrait Gallery in London this month. Seen as almost ‘chocolate box’ today, when Th e H a y Wain was painted in 1821 it was viewed as radical. At the time, not only were landscapes considered inferior to historic subjects, it was the result of several preliminary sketches, created en plein air – a revolutionary approach for the period. The use of green (as opposed to traditional brown) to show foliage was also innovative, as was the precise – almost scientific – depiction of cloud formations. Discover Constable and The Hay Wain can be seen from October 17 to February 2. 3High lights The highs and lows of intoxicants taken in some form by every culture ever known is explored in a new programme of exhibitions titled Why Do We Take Drugs? at the Sainsbury Centre, part of the University of East Anglia in Norwich. The first exhibition Power Plants: Intoxicants, Stimulants and Narcotics, on until next February, considers the psychoactive properties of plants as an integral part of social, ceremonial and religious life. Running alongside it Ayahuasca and Art of the Amazon explores the impact of the mind-altering, psychotropic vine – ayahuasca – within Western Amazonian social life. Left Constable’s sketchbook, © V&A Images / Victoria and Albert Museum, London Below left A palette owned by John Constable, © Royal Academy of Arts, London Right Jan Siberechts (1627-1703) View of a House and its Estate in Belsize, Middlesex, 1696. Ta t e n Below right Unknown artist, Wellclose Square, Stepney, c.1845, © London Metropolitan Archives (City of London) to see in October 3 Left John Constable (1776–1837) The Hay Wain, 1821, oil on canvas, © The National Gallery Right Giovanni Canaletto (1697-1768) Old Somerset House from the River Thames, c.1750. Lent from a private collection Below far right Richard Evans Schultes (19152001) Cano Guacaya, Miritiparana, 1962, © Richard Evans Schultes, courtesy of Govinda Gallery Below right Container for snuff or medicine, late 19th century, Makonde, Tanzania, Sainsbury Centre, UEA Bottom right Pipe, late 19th century, Kongo or Yombe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sainsbury Centre, UEA 2 Capital affair London’s lost gardens are the subject of an exhibition opening this month at the Garden Museum in Southwark. Thousands of gardens have vanished across London over the past 500 years – ranging from princely pleasure grounds to eccentric private. Highlights includes Canaletto’s 1750 painting of Somerset House, which, at the time, boasted a public garden “suitable to a Royal Palace”. Meanwhile A View of a House and its Estate in Belsize, Middlesex (1696) by the Antwerp painter Jan Siberechts is so old it shows Westminster Abbey in the distance. Lost Gardens of London opens on October 23. ANTIQUE COLLECTING 7

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NEWS All the latest

WHAT’S ON IN OCTOBER

ANTIQUE

news

Constable’s The Haywain is the focus of a new exhibition this month, while an online resource for collectors is revealed

Above More money is required to preserve the Vicars’ Close in Somerset

Right Pages from WR Harvey’s 2008 catalogue

Below left The women were dressed as the six wives of Henry VIII

Below right Ceramic cremation vessel decorated with a gladiator fight between a secutor and retiarius, Colchester, 2nd century AD, © Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service

PARR OUT Commuters at Waterloo Station almost lost their heads when they were confronted by six women in Tudor dress this summer. The regal sight was to bring attention to the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens which ended last month. The queens then made their way from the station to the gallery to reunite with their 16th-century portraits. Exhibition curator Dr Charlotte Bolland, said: “Often reduced to the rhyme ‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, the exhibition wanted to restore the queens’ individuality.”

Close call Fundraising continues to raise £7m to preserve 30 medieval houses and buildings part of the most continuously occupied medieval street in Europe.

First built over 600 years ago, the Vicars’ Close in Wells, Somerset, has housed generations of singers as part of the world-famous Vicars’ Choral.

Despite a £4.4m boost from The National Lottery Heritage Fund more money is needed for critical conservation works. The houses are arranged in two terraces and face each other, with distinctive octagonal ashlar chimneys set on the front eaves of the wall.

Free to view Collectors of fine English furniture now have a terrific free resource at their fingertips after one of the UK’s leading dealers put its exhibition catalogues online.

WR Harvey, owned by Antique Collecting columnist David Harvey, has digitalised decades of research and expertise dating back to its first exhibition in 1978.

The online resource joins more 60 video masterclasses by David which are available at www.wrharvey.com, with the catalogues available at www.archives.wrharvey.com

GLADIATORS READY The overlooked history of gladiatorial contests in Roman Britain is explored in a new touring exhibition opening next year. During almost four centuries of Roman occupation, as well as numerous cultural and civic advancements, Britons were introduced to armed combat as a public spectacle. One highlight – the Colchester Vase – shows the battle between two reallife gladiators in Colchester: Memnon, a secutor, and his retiarius opponent, Valentinus.

After opening at Dorset Museum and Art Gallery in January, Gladiators of Britain will travel to Northampton, Chester and Carlisle.

6 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

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