ARTIST’S HOME FROZEN IN 1870S COULD NOW BE YOURS FOR £20K
Original features still in place at cottage going under the hammer
WHEN artist Tim Chitty snapped up a former worker’s cottage in Stokeon-trent, he wanted to preserve its original features.
The property in Normacot Road, Longton, was like stepping back in time to the late 19th century, with a scullery, coal house, outdoor toilet and parlour.
Over the years, the unassuming two-bedroom terrace became an extension of his own artwork and would provide a backdrop to collages, ‘found’ images and paintings.
He would use materials from the late Victorian and Edwardian period as a source for his creative work, which he produced in a studio upstairs. There were rooms cluttered with a magical world of imagined lives, and wallpaper decorated with period features.
Tim, who grew up in the Cotswolds, moved to the Potteries to study at Burslem School of Art. He went on to exhibit his work as far afield as London and Bristol. He died this year aged 64, following a long illness.
Now the house, its contents and artwork are going under the hammer at three separate auctions.the terrace property itself comes with a guide price of £20,000.
Melissa Alford, from Town & Country Property Auctions, said: “It’s a very difficult property to value because of the extent of the work required. But we’ve had an awful lot of interest in it.”
The artist never installed a bathroom, but simply relied on a tin bath in front of the fire.
Meanwhile, the only concession to modern living in the brick-floored scullery was a gas oven. The doors, cupboards and dados were done in scumbling – a thick brown varnish, brushed or feathered to achieve a wood grain effect. And the house was overlooked by bottle kilns from Hudson and Middleton’s china works. Tim’s terrace was in a row of three cottages built in the 1870s for employees of the pottery company.
He would cut an eccentric figure in the town, with his trademark black three-piece suit and cane, often en route to Longton library.
His sister, Gill Chitty, said: “The house was his whole world. He was a very kind and gentle man, with a great sense of humour.
“But he was something of a recluse towards the end.”
Inside the property there was everything from musical boxes to
Edwardian toy soldiers. “He didn’t like to sell his work a lot because it was part of an assemblage.
“But he would give away work to people he loved,” added Gill. To make ends meet, Tim worked as a glass engraver and furniture restorer for many years.
He first stumbled across the house one wintry day in 1987, when he spotted there were no footprints in the snow by the front door.
Tim twigged the house was vacant and managed to buy it for £4,000. Apart from sorting out the electrics, he kept it just as he discovered it.
Following his death, the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery took some of Tim’s work to form part of its collection.
The general house contents, which will be sold next month by Adam Partridge Auctioneers, includes oddities, furniture and ceramics.
Tim’s main art pieces are set to go under the hammer in the new year. The house sale on November 17 is through Town & Country Property Auctions in Wrexham.
Gill said: “It would be lovely if someone would treat it for what it is. A very rare and unaltered house. If they could find a way to extend it and modernise it, while being sympathetic and to keep its character.”