A rare flambe ceramic figure by Bernard Moore, depicting the legendary Gazeka. This mythical creature, also known as the Papuan Devil Pig, was reportedly sighted by British explorers in Papua New Guinea during the early 20th century. The exaggerated features and whimsical stance of this figure capture the fantastical nature of the beast, which was rumored to be a giant marsupial resembling a tapir or a pig. Bernard Moore, a master of high-temperature flambe glazes, created unique experimental ceramic works known for their deep red and iridescent finishes. This particular example showcases Moore's mastery of glaze effects, with rich crimson and dark oxblood hues accentuating the expressive details. Artist marked.Artist: Bernard MooreIssued: c. 1920sDimensions: 5.5"HCountry of Origin: EnglandCondition: Age related wear.
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A rare Bernard Moore flambe-glazed porcelain figurine depicting a seated elephant with a charming and expressive pose. The deep red glaze, characteristic of Moore's renowned flambe technique, showcases a rich tonal variation with subtle black and crimson hues. Bernard Moore, a celebrated ceramic artist of the early 20th century, was known for his mastery of flambe glazing, a process that creates a unique and unpredictable finish, making each piece distinct. This seated elephant is a fine example of his artistic legacy, combining elegance with whimsical charm.Artist: Bernard MooreIssued: 20th centuryDimensions: 3.25"HCountry of Origin: EnglandCondition: Age related wear.
A collection of three jazz-themed paperback books: Really The Blues by Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe (Anchor Books, 1972), The Sound of Surprise by Whitney Balliett (E.P. Dutton, 1959, First Edition), and Somebody’s Angel Child: The Story of Bessie Smith by Carman Moore (Dell Publishing, 1975, First Laurel Printing). These books explore the world of jazz, from personal memoirs to critical essays and historical accounts. Lot measures 7.25"L x 2"W x 4.5"H.Issued: 20th century Dimensions: See DescriptionCondition: Age related wear.
Bernard Meadows, British 1915-2005 - Relief: Watchers, 1966; bronze, from an edition of 6, H52.5 x W41.5 x D8.5 cm (including board) (ARR)Note: titled, dated and numbered to the label on the reverse 'Relief: Watchers Opus 78, 1966 1/6'Provenance:with Gimpel Fils, London, GF1504 (according to the label on the reverse) Literature: Alan Bowness, 'Bernard Meadows: Sculpture and Drawings', The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1995, BM99 p.144, (plaster version illus. p.144) Note:a sculpture by the same name from 1979 is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. As an assistant to Henry Moore in the 1940s, Meadows turned to animal and biomorphic forms in his sculpture to avoid being compared to his teacher, and other reliefs evoke his popular subjects of birds and crabs. Meadows was included in the seminal British pavilion exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1952, alongside Geoffrey Clarke, Lynn Chadwick and Kenneth Armitage.
Bernard Meadows, British 1914-2005 - Drawings for sculpture, 1966; pencil and gouache on paper in a shared mount, two, each signed with initial and dated 'M 66', each 13 x 17 cm (ARR) Provenance: the Collection of Klaus Hinrichsen (1912–2004) Note: Klaus Hinrichsen (1912–2004) was a German-born art historian who fled Nazi Germany in 1938. He was interned at Hutchinsons Camp on the Isle of Man from 1940, where he organised exhibitions featuring refugee artists such as Kurt Schwitters. Prevented from working in public art institutions after his release, he dedicated himself to collecting and researching maps, ethnographic works, and lithographs, meticulously cataloguing his acquisitions. He sourced items from Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and antique dealers, prioritising historical significance and conducted extensive provenance research at the British Library. His archive, including records and ephemera from his time in internment, is now held at the Tate Gallery. As an assistant to Henry Moore in the 1940s, Meadows turned to animal forms in his sculpture to avoid being compared to his teacher, and his drawings evoke abstracted anthropomorphic forms. Meadows came to public attention following his inclusion in the Venice Biennale in 1952, alongside Geoffrey Clarke, Lynn Chadwick and Kenneth Armitage.
THREE PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS CONTAINING SIGNED PHOTOGRAPHS OF CELEBRITIES AND POLITICIANSSee below for signature names. We are unable to guarantee the authenticity of all signatures and advise viewing in personRed Celebrity Album: Raquel Welch, Michael Cane, Richard Burton,. Elizabeth Taylor, Roger Moore, Client Eastwood, Isla Blair, Deryck Guyter, Jeremy Beadle, Brigit Forsyth, Robert Gillespie, Christopher Benjamin, Tommy Cannon, Bobby Ball, Kenny Everett, Brian Glover, Peter Egan, Arthur English, Tony Britton, Penelope Keith , Jim Davidson, Michael Bentine, Leonard Rossiter, Leonard Parkin, Martyn Lewis, Cilla Black, Matthew Parris, Bernie Winters, Janette Brown, Bob Holness, Jim Browen, The Cast of Rainbow, Sarah Green, Roy CAstle, Rod Hull, John Pertwee, David Attenborough, Arthur Negis, Barbara Cartland, Cyrill Fletcher, Paul Daniels, Tom O'Connor, Ted Rodgers, Gordan Burns, Glynis Barber, Nigel Havers, Peter Davison, Giles Branderth, Gina Anderson, Nigel Davenport, James Cossins, Hannah Gordan, Donald Churchill, Michael Denison, Glynn Edwards, Michael Elphick, Lionel Blair, Richard Attenborough, George Cole, Dennis Mortimer, Timothy Spaal, Timothy Healy, David Jason, Victoria Wood, Keith Barron, June Whitfield. Blue Album: Morcombe & Wise, Ronnie Corbett, Ronnie Barker, Frankie Howard, Steve Davies, Mel Smith Griff Rhys Jones, Pamela Stephenson, Marti Caine, Max Boyce, Rowen Atkinson, Reece Dinsdale, John Thaw, Irene Handl, Patricia Hayes, Melvin Hayes, Bernard Cribins, James Bolan, Dickie Davies, Alistair Burnet, Henrey Cooper, Jack Charton, Eric Bristow, Terrance Griffiths, Kenneth Kendall, Harry Carpenter, Bruce Forsyth, Melvin Bragg, Des Lynam, Gordon Honeycommbe, Pamela Armstrong, Pat Coombs, Jimmy Cricket, Russel Harty, Frank Bough, Harry Secombe, HArold Goodwin, Lenny Henry, Nigel Hawthorne, Benny Hill, Carole Drinkwater, Michael Hordern, Brian Johnston, Jimmy Greaves, Ian St John, Carole BArns, David BEllamy, Sandy Gall, Peter Sissons, Celina Scott, Angela Rippon, Esther Rantzen, Richard Baker, Rolph HArris, Noel Edmunds, Michael Aspel, Terry Wogan, Michael Parkinson, Eamonn Andrews, Lorraine Chase, John Unman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Russ Abbott, Windsor Davies, Peter Bowers, John Cleese, Mike Yardwood, Christopher Biggins, William Franklin, Val Doonican, Patrick Moore, Brown Album: Harold McMillian, Alec Douglas, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, Denis Healy, Michael Foot, J.Enoch Powell, Geoffrey Howell, George Brown, Peter Alexander Carrington, Cyril Smith, David Steel, Shirley Williams, Tony Benn, Sally Oppenheim, Norman St John- Stevas, Winston S Churchill, Pope John Jonas Paulas II, George Thomas 1st Viscount Tonypandy, Barbara Castle, Lord Denning, Mrs Indira Ghandi (Indian prime minister), Douglas Hurd, Also others indistinctly signed
A collection of six prints The first after Godfried Schalcken (Dutch 1643-1706), a young instrument player, engraving; the second François-Bernard Lépicié (French 1698-1755) after C. D. Moore, 'Le Jeu des Échecs', engraving, c.1746; a prospect of a Paris boulevard of the Louis XVI period, hand-coloured engraving; a boy with his mother holding grapes, etching and aquatint; 18th Century Welsh School, charcoal kiln view on the River Teivy, hand-coloured aquatint, 22cm x 23cm; and an offset lithograph after an aquatint of an interior scene.Qty: 5The first with notable toning, some damage to the paper in the upper left and minor damage to the figure's face. The second with some mount burn and light foxing. The third with notable toning and foxing, particularly in the upper half. The fourth with notable foxing. The fifth with some damage and repairs to the frame, losses to the black-painted glass slip, notable toning throughout. The sixth with some worm damage.
Bernard Moore (1850-1935) - a pottery flambé Solifleur vase, of shouldered form, rouge decorated with stylised turquoise and gilt coloured fish, stamped mark to underside, h.13cmSome colour inconsistencies to red ground areas.Top rim appears slightly ground-down to conceal former chipped losses.
Sixties EPs, approximately three hundred and fifty EPs, mainly from the Sixties with artists including Cilla Black, Louis Cordet, Judy Garland, Anita Harris, Francois Hardy, Lesley Gore, Eve Boswell, Christine Campbell, Charlie Drake, Violet Carson, Peter Sellers, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, George Formby, Charlie Drake, Bob Hope, Kenneth Williams, Arthur Askey, Spike Jones, Bernard Bresslaw, Danny Kaye, Bobby Darin, Helen Shapiro, The Hi-Los, Kathy Kirby, Brenda Lee, Cliff Richard, Petula Clark, Doris Day, Eydie Gorme, Rosemary Clooney, Connie Francis and many more - various years and conditions
Comedy / Spoken Word LPs, approximately one hundred and forty albums of mainly Comedy with artists including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Beyond The Fringe, Stanley Unwin, Frankie Howerd, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, The Goons, Bernard Cribbins, Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes, Ronnie Barker, Kenneth Williams, Tony Hancock, Round The Horne, Terry Thomas, TWTWTW, Michael Bentine, Stanley Baxter, Morecambe and Wise, Fawlty Towers, The Frost Report, Benny Hill and more - some duplicates - various years and conditions
Autographs: Stage, Screen, Music, and Dance, including Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Clint Eastwood, Dusty Springfield, Mary Quant, Marianne Faithful, Lulu, Eric Morecambe, Ernie Wise, Barbara Windsor, Ninette de Valois, and others, 1960s-1970s. Autograph album, faux brown leather covers, ownership name to first page, containing approx.. 95+ signatures, many of which are dedicated to ‘Ceril’, and further captioned by her in ink, 5 x 8.5cm, signatures include:Jeremy Etheridge, Marguerite Vacani (signed on a small card loosely inserted), Roger Moore, with an additional ink sketch of the Saint stick-man logo (signed on a single-page), Ernie Wise with Dave Clark (Dave Clark Five) on reverse, Eric Morecambe (signed on a single-page), Jimmy Tarbuck, Janette Scott, John Rostill (The Shadows), five members of The Searchers including, John McNally, Tony Jackson, Mike Pender, Chris Curtis, and one other, Clint Eastwood, Dick Van Dyke, Richard Attenborough (signed on a single-page), Oliver Reed signed on a piece of paper taped in, Gracie Fields, David Kossoff, Britt Eckland, Kenny Ball, Harry Secombe, Susan Maugham, Cliff Richard (whilst he was filming Summer Holiday in 1962), Richard O’Sullivan, Ninette de Valois, Susan Hampshire, Eric Sykes, Una Stubbs, Dilys Laye, Joan Regan, Frankie Howard, Brian Rix, Bernard Bresslaw, Max Bygraves with Barbara Windsor on reverse, Freddie and The Dreamers, including, Freddie Garrity, Roy Crewdson, Bernie Dwyer, Derek Quinn, Peter Birrell, Beryl Grey, Donald Houston, Sean Connery (signed on a single-page), Des O’Connor, Alfred Marks, Dusty Springfield, Bruce Wells (The Shadows), Patrick Cargill, Vince Hill, Arthur Askey, David Jacobs, Frank Ifield, Hayley Mills, Melvyn Hazel, Charles Hawtrey, Nicholas Parsons, signed on a magazine page pasted down with Joan Sims on reverse, Leo Franklyn, Norman Vaughan, David Frost, Sid James, Peggy Mount, Warren Mitchell, Hermione Gingold (both sellotaped over signatures), Danny La Rue, Dick Emery, Mary Quant, Jimmy Edwards, Topol signed on a magazine page taped in, Marianne Faithfull signed on a piece of paper tipped in, and Marty Feldman signed on a sheet of paper loosely inserted. Provenance:The Collection of Ceril Campbell, celebrity stylist, TV Presenter, motivational speaker, life coach, author, and independent celebrant. Signed in person for Ceril Campbell who grew up in Chelsea, London and on Saturdays, whilst still at school, worked on the Kings Road in boutiques, Mr Freedom, and later Jean Machine, whilst studying fashion design. As a result, Ceril hung out with ‘the Chelsea crowd’, who at that time included Mick Jagger's brother Chris, Jane Birkin's brother and Marianne Faithfull, Patti Boyd, and others. Ceril’s father worked in the film industry and would often take her to the studios where many of these signatures were signed.
Bernard Moore (British 1850-1935) Three Art Pottery Figures and Another Early 20th century, comprising two monkeys in flambe and lustre glazes, both unmarked, and a white-glazed "Diakokan" figure, this bearing BM monogram, together with a further spill vase modelled as a monkey in mottled turquoise glaze in the style of Bernard Moore or Burmantofts, this unmarked.The larger monkey 9cm highOnly the larger monkey retaining one glass eye, this with some small glaze scratches, otherwise no damage or restoration to note.
Bernard Moore (British 1850-1935) Two Flambe-Ware Vases Early 20th century, waisted and bottle form respectively, the latter marked, together with two small vases, the wider by J. Howson (a pupil of Bernard Moore) and dated 1913, the other by Edward R. Wilkes (a decorator for Bernard Moore), these both signed.The largest 16cm highThe larger Moore vase with some scratches to one side, otherwise light generalised wear but no damage or restoration to note.
Modern Poetry and Literature in original wraps. Including. Ronald Bottrall, Day and Night. 1974, London Magazine Editions, with ink dedication from the author to the title page. Imagination Dead Imagine by Samuel Beckett 1967. Beginnings by Eric Walter White 1976. Bernard Shaw and William Morris. London Wiliam Morris Society 1957 Limited Edition 350 copies, Collected poems by Humphrey John Moore. Outposts Publications Surrey. 1975. Poems from Prison by Said Zahari 1973 [dedicated and signed by author?].The Vanishing Island, Peter Howard and Cecil Broadhurst 1956 and others [14]
A Bernard Moore Arts and Crafts lustre bowl, of circular footed form, decorated with chrysanthemum flower heads and leaves, with cruciform floral band and Latin 'Friendship' script over graded ground, painted marks to base, diameter 26cm, (damaged), together with a 20th Century Japanese style porcelain bowl, circular footed form, decorated in the imari palette, faux painted marks to base, diameter 24cm. (2)
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS ink and watercolour with wax resist on paper 24.5cm x 19.5cm (9 5/8in x 7 ¾in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS signed, gouache with wax resist on paper with collaged elements 22.5cm x 16.5cm (9in x 6 ½in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS signed, ink and watercolour on paper 20.5cm x 16.5cm (8in x 6 ½in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) TWO STUDIES FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS gouache with wax resist on paper with collage elements 22cm x 16cm (8 5/8in x 6 ¼in); 22.5cm x 17cm (8 5/8in x 6 5/8in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS gouache, watercolour with wax resist and oil on paper 25.5cm x 17.5cm (10in x 7in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS signed, coloured pencil, watercolour and gouache with wax resist on paper 20.5cm x 16.5cm (8in x 6 ½in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS gouache and watercolour with wax resist on paper 20.5cm x 16.8cm (8in x 6 5/8in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS ink, crayon, oil, watercolour and gouache with wax resist on paper with collage elements 19.5cm x 17cm (7 5/8in x 6 ¾in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS watercolour and gouache with wax resist on paper with collage elements 25cm x 20.5cm (9 ¾in x 8in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS ink, watercolour and gouache on paper 24.5cm x 19.5cm (9 5/8in x 7 ¾in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) THREE STUDIES STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS crayon, pencil, watercolour and gouache with wax resist on paper 11.8cm x 9cm (4 5/8in x 3 ½in) each The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) FOUR STUDIES FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS signed on one of the works, gouache with wax resist on paper, some with additional collage 25cm x 19cm (9 ¾in x 7 ½in) each The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) FIVE STUDIES FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS gouache with wax resist and oil on paper 12cm x 9cm (4 ¾in x 3 ½ in) (4); 12cm x 3cm (4 ¾in x 1 1/8in) (1) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
JOHN PIPER (BRITISH 1903-1992) STUDY FOR WATSON HOUSE MURALS gouache, ink and watercolour on paper 18.5cm x 13.5cm (7 ¼in x 5 ¼in) The following lots (260 – 275) represents the most complete collection of studies by John Piper for his landmark commission to decorate the exterior of Watson House in south-west London. After the nationalisation of the gas industry post-war, the newly-formed North Thames Gas Board redeveloped a site on the banks of the river that had previously been the offices of the Gas Light and Coke Company, building Watson House in 1959 – at the time a very modern statement in concrete and glass, created four years before Harold Wilson’s famous speech about Britain’s future fuelled by the ‘white heat of technology’. Although Piper had come to the fore in the 1930s, as part of a European-leaning British avant-garde that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, by the late 50s he was still very much at the centre of the ‘new’ in Modern British Art, having created – alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and Keith Vaughan – a visual language that was inspired by natural forms but which excavated behind those forms to express human emotion and frailty. And Piper and Sutherland had just recently been engaged on the decorations of Basil Spence’s stunning modernist cathedral for Coventry, which opened in 1962 – the same year Piper was invited to create a 250ft long mural for the porte cochère of Watson House. The mural was to be entitled ‘The Spirit of Energy’ and consisted of 32 fibreglass panels – again a very modern material for an architectural setting (and according to Piper expert Frances Spalding, these murals are also believed to be the only example of Piper using fibre-glass moulds for external use). Piper’s preliminary studies anticipate the visual and tactile possibilities that fibreglass allows, not least a contrast between opacity and translucence – which in the studies is expressed in the interplay of opaque oil and bodycolour over translucent layers of wax and watercolour. The idea behind the commission – the expression of a metaphysical concept, ‘the spirit of energy’ – also allowed Piper to approach the work with the same freedom that he had applied to the windows at Coventry, whose purpose was to express equally metaphysical ideas of the divine. His work had never been so loose and abstract. As such, Piper’s work at Watson House – both the studies and the final panels themselves - represent a key moment in his career. By the mid-1980s, the Gas Board had moved out of the building and it lay empty for a number of years. It was scheduled for demolition in the early 1990s, when Crispin Kelly – a developer and one of Bernard Kelly’s sons – acquired the site and redeveloped it, transforming the main block of laboratories into 70 apartments and the ground floor into spaces for artists’ and photographers’ studios. The architects Lifschutz Davidson oversaw the project, retaining the building’s mid-century character, including the double height spaces and large windows of the main building, giving London one of its earliest iterations of American-style industrial ‘lofts’. Upon completion, Watson House was re-named ‘The Piper Building’, in honour of the creator of its unique and striking decoration – with Lifschutz Davidson adding electric sun blinds to the new steel balconies in a bright ‘Piper’ yellow to extend the artist’s imprint across the whole building. The murals themselves were afforded Grade II listing in 2022, in recognition of their cultural significance.These wonderful, spirited gouaches, executed with Piper’s trademark bravura use of watercolour over a wax resist, were until recently displayed in the building’s foyer – on loan from Bernard Kelly’s collection - and though they have been seen by its many residents and those using the studio spaces, this is the first time they have been on public view. Having long been an admirer and collector of Piper’s work, it seemed very appropriate, then, that Bernard Kelly should take an apartment in the building that bears the artist’s name. Bernard proceeded to buy not only more work by Piper but also paintings by his son Edward Piper and grandson Luke Piper - the latter being commissioned by Bernard to paint the view of Wandsworth Bridge from his apartment.
Signed Presentation Copy by Thomas Moore Moore (Thomas) The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore, Collected by Himself, 10 vols. sm. 8vo, L. (Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans) 1840-1841, each with engd. frontis, dated engd. title pages, Inscribed f.e.p. on Vol. I "From the Author," with further inscription on hf. title. Vol.1 "To Mrs. Eliza Ann Bernard, not only as the Friend of a very dear friend of mine, but as one who is herself worthy of all admiration and regard, I have great pleasure in presenting this copy of my Poetical Works, April 29th, 1841, Thomas Moore," uniform blind decor green cloth with harp, gilt decor. & lettered spine. Nice Association Set. (10)
Four boxes of 7 inch singles, labels include; Coral, Parlophone, RCA, HMV, Columbia, etc. artists include; Dolly Parton, Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper, Ultravox, Motorhead, Dr. Feelgood, Buddy Holly, the Crickets, Manfred Mann, Pat Boone, etc. plus some comedy including Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Tony Hancock, Bernard Miles, the Goons, etc. Condition fair to good.
Modern Poetry and Literature in original wraps. Including. Ronald Bottrall, Day and Night. 1974, London Magazine Editions, with ink dedication from the author to the title page. Imagination Dead Imagine by Samuel Beckett 1967. Beginnings by Eric Walter White 1976. Bernard Shaw and William Morris. London Wiliam Morris Society 1957 Limited Edition 350 copies, Collected poems by Humphrey John Moore. Outposts Publications Surrey. 1975. Poems from Prison by Said Zahari 1973 [dedicated and signed by author?].The Vanishing Island, Peter Howard and Cecil Broadhurst 1956 and others [14]
R R TOMLINSON for BERNARD MOORE, a large pottery bowl decorated with a dragon, on a smoked ground, in a flambé red glaze, Bernard Moore signature and impressed artists marks, 16cm high,36cm diameterCondition Report: discolouration and fading to dragon claw in bowl, and one fading/discolouration spot.Some wear and scratching to the exterior. Some glaze pops.
THREE PIECES OF EARLY 20TH CENTURY BERNARD MOORE FLAMBE POTTERY VASES, comprising an inverted baluster vase decorated with stylised fish , bubbles and waves, printed marks, height 20cm, a small baluster vase, mottled lustre glazes, printed marks, height 10.5cm and a squat baluster vase, height 11cm (3) (Condition Report: all appear to be in good condition)
Bernard Moore (1850-1935): An English lustre-glazed double gourd 'carps' vase, dated 1910H 30,5 cm Bernard Moore (1850-1935) was an English pottery manufacturer and ceramic chemist known for the innovative production of art pottery, especially his flambe glazes and pottery with reduced lustre pigments.
A Bernard Moore flambé and silver lustre ‘mermaid’ ginger jar and cover, by Hilda Lindop, c.1910, decorated with three mermaids and fish and the god of the sea Triton blowing a conch shell, in silver and ruby lustre on a midnight blue ground, the cover with grotesque fish, printed Bernard Moore mark and inscribed decorators initials HL, 25cm high Variations in the lustre from a lighter silver on the cover and on one side of the jar to a dark bluish silver lustre on the reverse, typical minor glaze imperfections, occasional minor scuffs and scratches, no restoration, chips or cracks detected. In good conditionPLEASE NOTE:- Prospective buyers are strongly advised to examine personally any goods in which they are interested BEFORE the auction takes place. Whilst every care is taken in the accuracy of condition reports, Gorringes provide no other guarantee to the buyer other than in relation to forgeries. Many items are of an age or nature which precludes their being in perfect condition and some descriptions in the catalogue or given by way of condition report make reference to damage and/or restoration. We provide this information for guidance only and will not be held responsible for oversights concerning defects or restoration, nor does a reference to a particular defect imply the absence of any others. Prospective purchasers must accept these reports as genuine efforts by Gorringes or must take other steps to verify condition of lots. If you are unable to open the image file attached to this report, please let us know as soon as possible and we will re-send your images on a separate e-mail.
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