Queen of arts
A friend and patron to some of Britain’s finest artists, the late Barbara Holiday’s beautiful home is a treasure trove of desirable pieces
THIS collecting antiques lark is just that… a lark and not to be taken too seriously. After all, since there are no pockets in a shroud, we’re only “borrowing” the stuff we collect. When the inevitable day comes, it will all have to be passed on, if you can find someone charitable enough to give it a home. And that’s where the problems start.
Children these days mostly want none of it, save for a few choice mementos. We have two, whom I have referred to throughout the many years I’ve been writing this as the “young apprentices”.
Sadly, among the traits we have failed to pass on is a love of antiques. They do appreciate antiques, but neither has a love of the stuff.
It’s not surprising. With today’s fluid jobs market and smaller, often rented homes, where are they going to keep dad’s collection of vintage tractors? (I made that last bit up).
We plan to follow the tried and tested path of calling in the local auctioneers. They can sort it out and send our beneficiaries a cheque.
It’s also good news for fellow collectors. Rarities and coveted items that have been off the market for the lifetime of the owner are back on sale and available once more (not that we have any of the latter). It’s what makes the antiques world go round.
That’s the only way the pieces illustrated here would ever have found their way into these pages.
One is a bronze bust by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005). It dates from the 1980s and depicts Count Basie, the American jazz pianist and bandleader from the 1980s and there are just three in existence. One is in the Tate Modern Collection. The second is currently held by the National Galleries of Scotland.
This one, the third, was once the treasured possession of the late Barbara Holliday Collection. Since the other two are in public ownership, this will be the only version ever to come to market.
As a result, Sworders auctioneers, who have been entrusted to sell Barbara’s collection, have estimated its saleroom value to be £15,00025,000. It could well make more.
It is one highlight of an outstanding collection of Modern British Art that Barbara assembled for her Cumbria home over the last 50 years. She died in March this year aged 82.
The 440 lots are expected to realise around £400,000. The sale at the Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet, Cambridge, is on Tuesday, January 15, 2019. From the early 1970s, Barbara scoured the auction rooms on trips to London and the provinces, regularly picking up treasures. Her goal was to turn The Gale, a handsome Victorian house hidden from the road by trees in Highlaws, a hamlet 20 miles south west of Carlisle, into a home.
Newly married, she and her husband, Ormond, purchased the property in the early 1960s and while “Ormie” was occupied running the adjacent farm, Barbara set to work on her other great passion: her garden.
She was soon turning the somewhat sparse, small gardens into glorious formal landscaped terraces, now populated with mature trees and shrubs, enriched by garden statuary and urns, many to be included in the sale.
However, the glorious gardens did not prepare the visitor for what was to be found inside The Gale: an expansive collection of Georgian and Victorian furniture, paintings, ceramics, silver and jewellery.
As London visits became more frequent, staying at the Farmer’s Club proved less attractive, so soon the couple bought a pied-à-terre overlooking the Chelsea Arts Club. From her early days in Cumbria, Barbara became a close friend of local artist Sheila Fell (1931-1979). By then a significant talent having been given her first one-person show at the age of just 24 at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London’s Bond Street in 1955, Sheila taught at Chelsea School of Art and was elected an RA (member of the Royal Academy) in the mid-Seventies.
She had both trained and lived in London, but painted mostly scenes from her birthplace in Cumbria.
The friendship between the two women encouraged Barbara who became a passionate collector of contemporary art and Left-right: A bronze of a golden eagle by Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) Estimate £5,000-8,000 and a bronze of a baby’s head, by Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959). Estimate £3,000-5000 sculpture, particularly by Royal Academicians, whose company Barbara enjoyed through her membership at the Academy.
Barbara enjoyed buying direct from her artist friends – the collection includes an oil on canvas by Sheila titled “Allonby, Approaching High Tide”, estimated at £8,000-12,000 – and Olwyn Bowey and Carel Weight in particular also became close family friends, making long trips to The Gale to paint and guide Barbara in her collecting.
Barbara was instrumental in arranging the major Carel Weight exhibition at Abbott Hall in Kendall, entitled Carel Weight, Anne McEntengart: Paintings in early 1986, and in Olwyn she found someone who was dedicated to the tradition of the artist plantsman. Works by both artists feature prominently in the collection.
Through them she met and bought works by several of the significant Academicians of the late 20th century, among them Dame Elizabeth Frink, Sir Jacob Epstein, Sir Robin Phillipson, Anthony Gross, Bernard Dunston, Ruskin Spear, Mary Fedden and William Roberts. All are represented in the sale. Late in his life she formed a friendship with Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, from whom she bought his Count Basie bronze and who gifted her several plaster sculptures. Barbara lived in the era of the hand-written letter and delighted in writing to her artist friends. Those paintings and sculptures that have letters directly relating to them are being sold with the original correspondence.
Barbara and Ormie had two sons. Mark and his family have made their life in Africa, and Johnny, with a career in aviation, travels extensively from his base in the East Midlands, so does not have a home that could house the extensive collection.
As the auction catalogue notes: “Having chosen a few personal items to keep, it is with a mixture of sadness and pride that they offer their mother’s diverse and fascinating collection for sale.” Sounds familiar.
More information: Sworders Auctioneers 01279 817778.