[CARTOON] iPad Evolution

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Railway’s Golden Age

Malcolm Guest

A unique insight into the Golden Age of Railways will be seen today at the second auction of items from The Malcolm Guest Railway Collection. A telephone call from a local solicitor led to a visit to a small terrace house in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire and to the discovery of the most amazing railway collection. The collection, coming under the hammer at Morphets of Harrogate, includes over 2,500 railway and transport posters, original artwork, GWR and other regional railway archives dating from the 19th century, books and ephemera railway items ranging from porters' caps to a cast iron locomotive sign and corresponding cab number.

The man behind the collection was Malcolm Ivor Guest, born in Torquay, Devon, in 1943. Even as a child he had a love for the Great Western Railway and all things connected with it, and as he grew older his hobby became a lifetime passion.


GWR - Known as "God's Wonderful Railway"


South Devon on the Great Western Railway

When the chance came to work on a temporary basis at Paddington Station before he took up his place to study architecture in Cardiff, Malcolm seized it. He enjoyed his time there in the Publicity Department so much that when he was offered a permanent job he accepted with alacrity, and from that time the basis of his collection of all things railway related was formed.

While working at Paddington Malcolm had the vision to see that so much of the Great Western Railway output, considered superfluous under British Rail, consisted of works of art that should be preserved rather than disposed of. Doing so brought him much joy and accounts for the great depth of the collection, which represents a lifelong appreciation. In the following years his interest widened to include other forms of transport, but the main focus was always on railways, whether artwork and posters or leather bound records of the Great Western Railway Officers' Minutes, and he continued to add to his fascinating collection until he died in July 2009.

The first part of the collection came under the hammer in a two-day sale on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th January. The sale included 580 lots of vintage railway posters followed by original artwork for posters and printed matter, railway collector’s items, GWR and other regional archives, books and ephemera. A leading expert in vintage posters has said that he believed the sale to be the largest and most important collection of posters to have ever come on the market.




Scottish Rail Posters

Part I of the collection created a huge amount of interest with coverage by the television, radio and newspapers. Collectors travelled from all parts of the UK in atrocious weather conditions to view and attend the sale. A bank of seven telephone bidding clerks fielded in excess of 500 telephone bids over the two days, with one buyer in New York bidding on 170 lots over a duration of eight and a half hours. An unprecedented number of commission bids were logged and the live bidding on the internet was virtually constant throughout the sale with over 100 active bidders at any one time. The sale realised £410,000.

Part II of the collection will be offered in the Spring Fine Art and Antique Catalogue sale to be held on 4th March and will include a work by David Shepherd, oil on canvas, 61 x 91 illustrated here and estimated at £8,000-£10,000.

David Shepherd

A parcel wrapped in brown paper and string, stored amongst the railway items, when opened revealed the most amazing find - the original artwork by William Heath Robinson for GWR's centenary publication Railway Ribaldry 1935, comprising eighty four pen and ink drawings.




William Heath Robinson

These iconic works will also come under the hammer today (4th March) together with watercolours and drawings by Charles Mayo, Samuel Warburton and Claude H. Buckle. The remaining posters, approximately two thousand, mainly dating from the 1960s and 1970s, will come up for auction later in the year.

Today’s auction includes 84 pen and ink drawings by William Heath Robinson and watercolours by Charles Mayo. The third and final sale of about 2,000 posters dating mainly from the 60s and 70s takes place in July. Elizabeth Pepper-Darling, of Morphets, said the posters were seductive for their artwork and the nostalgia they evoked for a more elegant age. She said: "When I was working through them they lifted the spirits somehow."

Mr Guest worked for British Rail's publicity department when he began collecting. The posters, which Mr Guest started collecting at Paddington Station in the early 1960s, were carefully filed away on shelves. With the commercial acumen, for which they were rightly famous, British Rail burnt 30,000 similar ones at Waterloo Station which would be worth £20m today.






The sale at Morphets, North Yorkshire centres on original artwork like the oil painting by William Hoggarth for this Isle of Man poster.




The first auction in January included 580 posters and made £410,000 - with this one for Southport Lido fetching £6,200.

Southport Lido

Railway historian Dr Richard Furness said the collection was probably the best of its kind ever seen.

Morphets
6 Albert Street
Harrogate
North Yorkshire HG1 1JL
Tel: 01423 530030
Fax: 01423 500717

E-mail: enquiries@morphets.co.uk


Morphets Salesroom

Venus won again at the Billie Jean Cup after recent success

Venus Williams hitting back the ball. (AP)

Kim Clijsters with her furious move. (AP)

That's what sports is about after the game. Friendship. (AP)

Venus Williams has done well again this time at the Billie Jeans Cup after her recent success at the Dubai Open. It seems like she and her sister will take turn to win games. But no doubt they are a pair of champion sisters. They have been playing at games and achieve the standard where they are now. One thing about why they are successful is probably because they have good training partners themselves.

Venus won third ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova at the semi finals and at the final she won Kim Clijsters former World No. 1 comeback champion 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. She walked away trophy and US $400,000 of the $1.2 million prize money for the tournament.

Today I'm Loving...........

These luxurious tassels from Wendy Cushing. They really are delightful and these Modern Moroccan tassels are just the thing to dress up your drapes.

 

  

 

The Maroush collection, as seen above, is made to order from original metal and silver filigree beads made in Marrakech and is combined with hand made glass beads from India. All items can be made to order in any colour yarns combined with silver work.

These Meski Tassels are also made to order and available with silver or copper discs. £25 each.

Ceramic Art

I managed to get myself down to the Ceramic Art Exhibition this weekend, a unique  showcase for contemporary studio ceramics featuring work from leading national and international designers.  This year saw a total of 75 leading artists displaying their unique pieces. It really was an international event as the UK, France, Germany, South Africa, Israel and Japan were just some of the countries with artists showing their work at the Royal College of Art.

There was a wide variety at the exhibition of style, colours, forms and works, all on sale ranging from £10.00 to £10,000. From sculptural pieces to smaller ornaments from tableware to objects d'art, it really was a creative affair.

One of my favourite artists was Chris Keenan, his pieces are just exquisite. Showcasing a range of small bowls and pots in gorgeous muted colours, they were just so adorable and had a delicate feel to them. I completely fell in love with his work, and can just imagine these decorative pieces looking great in any interior space. Wouldn't they look lovely in a warm cosy country house........shame I don't have one!

Lord Cashcroft

Biggles and his Co-Pilot

Conservative donor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has admitted he does not pay UK tax on earnings outside Britain. His statement ends years of questions from opponents about whether he was "non-domiciled" in the UK for tax. He said he agreed with Tory leader David Cameron's call for anyone in the Lords to be "resident and domiciled".

Labour's Jack Straw accused the Tories of "concealing the truth" for 10 years. The Lib Dems said the Tories had been "bought like a banana republic". BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the 63-year-old, who is estimated to be worth £1.1bn by the Sunday Times Rich List, was one of the biggest ever donors to a political party and was at the centre of the Conservatives' election campaign.


Lord Ashcroft of Tax Exile in the County of Belize

Lord Cashcroft is in a long tradition of Great British Patriots who are too patriotic to pay taxes, such as "Union" Jack Hayward who bankrolled the Tories from the Bahamas! Why do we stand for this nonsense? Have a British Passport or live in Britain, pay British Taxes on your worldwide income, period. That's the way it is in the Good 'Ol U. S of A where you are liable to US Federal Income Tax no matter where you live once you have a US passport. This is why there is no such thing as an American Tax Exile. Who does the Great British legal nonsense of "Domiciled", "Ordinarily Domiciled”, "Resident" and "Resident but non-Domiciled" suit? Certainly not those who earn their living (and pay taxes) on the fruits of honest labour?

Lord Ashcroft was initially rejected for a peerage in 1999 by the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee on the grounds that he spent most of his time abroad in Belize and Florida and conducted almost all of his financial matters overseas. His company Bearwood Corporate Services Limited has been the largest single contributor to the Tories since 2005, although his millions make up less than 5% of their total donations. For a company to make a donation it must be trading in the UK and in February 2009, the Electoral Commission launched a formal investigation to determine whether this was the case.

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has called for the full details of Lord Ashcroft's status to be made public and criticised "evasive and obfuscatory" replies given by senior politicians on the subject. Ashcroft is the Tory Deputy Chairman and maintains a “private” office at Conservative HQ and he personally bankrolls a campaign to unseat the Labour / Lib-Dem incumbent in 186 target constituencies.
To go back to the American example, there he wouldn’t be allowed make political contributions and would be treated under American Law as “An agent of a Foreign Power.”


Cameron Air

One aspect of Lord Cashcroft’s influence over the Tories is his splendid bankrolling of Cameron Air. Dave “Vote Blue to get Green” Cameron and his chaps travel in style: they go in ‘Lord’ Ashcroft’s Falcon jet ($30 million second hand). Altogether shadow cabinet ministers and aides have flown 184,000 miles on the Ashcroft jet over the last five years with Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, flying 65,453 miles and shadow foreign secretary William Hague flying 49,670 miles. It would be churlish to complain about all this privileged transport, given P.R. Dave’s understandable pride in his privileged background.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/we-will-fight-them-selfridges.html

Monday Blues

It's that dreaded day of the week, Monday! So instead of all that doom and gloom here's a little something to brighten up your day. Each month I will be choosing a colour scheme and picking out my favourite items which I think will look great!

Bright colours are the hottest trends at the moment, therefore this month I'm feeling blue.

(click on image to enlarge!)


1. Acoy Rug, £469, Boconcept; 2. Sport Watch, £124.99, Toywatch @ Julesb; 3. 'Fazzoletti Opallini Bicolore' Vase, £TBC, Venini; 4. Vinstra Chest of Drawers, £259, Ikea; 5. Stone Stool, Marcel Wanders, £110, Kartell @ John Lewis; 6. Andalucia Wall Tiles, £2.50 each, Fired Earth; 7. Jean Sofa, Antonio Citterio, £TBC, B&B Italia; 8. Bright Turned wood table lamp, £165, Heal's.