‘COLLECTING IS MY PULSE’

A 332-lot sale of pieces from a Spitalfields gem

Phillip Lucas has spent the last decade painstakingly restoring and furnishing his atmospheric silk weaver’s house in London’s Spital!elds. But an overabundance of antiques le" him with li#le space, prompting an enticing sale of selected pieces at Drewea#s in Berkshire

Barrister Phillip Lucas was at home in Spital !elds – that tiny but beautiful oasis of Georgian architecture in the heart of London – when his collection of antique furniture, art and objects came up for sale last December. Si"ing snug inside the 1725 silk merchant’s house, a keen sense of anticipation se"led over him. ‘I couldn’t be at the Drewea"s sale because of the pandemic and I thought I wouldn’t watch it online because I had a mountain of paperwork to get through. But I kept having a look. And, as the lots went under the hammer, it felt exciting, not sad, to let these things go. I’d enjoyed them and now I could ! nd something else to buy. As a collector you have to enable change or you stagnate.’

The thumping sale catalogue, a collaborative e#ort between Phillip and two Drewea"s specialists, Charlo"e Schelling and Ben Brown, set the scene. It presented a feast of pieces Phillip had collected over 30 years, fuelled by a passion for the

Georgian period that began when he was aged just 12, a !er a school visit to No. 1 Royal Crescent in Bath, which dates to the 1760s. ‘ I fell in love with its neoclassical elegance and bought a postcard of the drawing room, which I still have,’ says Phillip. In the introduction to the catalogue, his renowned Spital "elds neighbour and TV historian, Dan Cruickshank, sums up Phillip’s collecting quest, writing that he has ‘a keen eye for quality and character’ and that his house is furnished to ‘suggest the # avour of life in the early 18th century’ – a compliment indeed from such an expert on the era.

Slightly tongue-in- cheek, Phillip himself describes his current taste in furniture, honed over many years, as ‘extreme Georgian’, focusing on the period between 1680 and 1730. ‘ It all goes wrong a !er 1735, pieces become slightly chunkier and fussier in contrast to the elegance and re" nement of the William and Mary, Queen Anne and early Georgian styles. However, the objects I like go up to 1830.’ The capsule collection consigned to Drewea$s was a re#ection of his re" ned collector’s palate and his pursuit of creating ‘atmosphere and a sense of everything being of a piece and appropriate’ in the carefully restored original interiors of his Spital "elds home. A wide variety of "ne, late 17th and 18th- century walnut and oak furniture – tables, chairs, stools, candlestands and desks – tussled for a$ention with gorgeous mercury plate mirrors, quirky portraits of bewigged gentlemen, writing boxes, cabinets and chests of drawers, and so!ly gleaming bronzes. There

‘Phillip loves to collect – he lives and breathes it. Years of hunting have honed his eye and all the antiques are good examples of their type’

Phillip Lucas has been amassing antiques for 30 years. ‘As a collector, you buy something, then a few months later you find a piece that’s different or better, so I’ve ended up with multiples of things, from gateleg tables and side chairs to candlestands and bronzes.’

RIGHT A George II shagreen perfume box with engraved brass mounts and original cut-glass decanters fetched £450. This dummy board, lot 109, was as tall as Phillip and the wrong proportions for the house. It sold for £1,800.

ABOVE Lot 63, a 1690 silvered gesso wing armchair had threadbare upholstery in parts, yet still sold for £3,000. RIGHT A George III mahogany cartonnier made £2,400. BELOW Phillip bought an unusual triangular stool, lot 199, to place next to a spinet piano ‘but then several months later found something better’. It fetched £1,000.

LEFT ‘I don’t mind a modest amount of honest damage,’ says Phillip of this little cat, which made £190.