Topic: The Parkington Collection Part 1 Ysart section

[Gary]

Roberta give me the idea(from an other thread) to try and put a shape code to all the the uncoded Monart pieces from the Parkington collection sold at Christies.
As I have only got part one, I can only comment this catalogue.

After studying the catalogue I believe there is at least 5 errors with naming of shapes.
lot 423 is listed as shape HF and is shape EA
lot 425 is listed as shape HF and is shape EA
lot 427 is listed as shape A and is shape N
lot 428  is listed as shape A and is shape N
lot 429  is listed as shape A and is shape N

The moral of the story is do not always trust what an auction house catalogue prints.
If in doubt check Frank's Ysart Glass site.
Gary

[orangeglass]

I've taken to not believing anything auction houses say - you have to check it out yourself!
What would we do without Franks site - thank you very very much for it Frank - much appreciate all your hard work!

Roberta

P.S. look out for my next post soon

[Paul S.]

Well, you've made a start Gary  -  all you need to do now is buy part two ............ 

Only wish I could assist but regret I'm an ignoramus  -  but just to give you a taste of what you have to look forward to, can say that the catalogue for Part II of the sale includes something like 69 variously shaped items of Monart vases/bowls etc., of which about a dozen appear to me to be without a shape code.
This is in addition to 21 various Monart ashtrays (some with paper labels)  -  15 variously shaped Monart small bowls and dishes  -  ditto similar quantity of various Monart/Strathearn/Vasart vases  -  and 6 Vasart bowls on stands.

I remember a time when catalogues (from the top end houses) used to say....... 'the property of a gentleman'  -  perhaps they still do.

[orangeglass]

Hi,
I wish I was lucky enough to have any parts of the catalogue - are they all full colour?

Some of the auction houses do still say " the property of a lady / gentleman" believe it or not 

Roberta

[Paul S.]

hello Roberta  -  yes, all illustrated in colour - lavishly so

Although I can't help remotely with Scottish glass, if there was a question or two - re the contents of the catalogues - I'm more than happy to assist if I can.

also, glad to hear that etiquette is still alive and well - thanks.

[KevinH]

I suspect that the catalogue details were influenced by coding on partial or complete labels applied to some items. But ...

For Gary's list of incorrectly stated shape codes, Lots 427, 428 & 429, I agree that the shapes are "N" and not "A". However, Lot 428 has in the description: "... Paper label, inscribed 'LONG Neck' V.A.71" and for Lot 427".. remains of paper label inscribed V.A"

So ...

Were those labels originally not on the stated items, or were incorrect codes added to the labels at Moncrieff's, or was there a mix up in label references when the catalogue was prepared?

So many things to think about!

[Frank]

There were a number of mistakes in the catalogues.

[helenaJ]

I'm one of those lucky people who not only has a copy of both catalogues, but I also attended both sales.    For me it was magical as back then I was really ignorant about Monart glass having only started collecting a couple of years earlier and didn't know much about what to look for and what to buy, money was really tight and prices were high.   

What really took my breath away was the size of some of the pieces - huge and the colours and shapes absolutely wonderful.   

The catalogues, even with some shapes incorrectly identified, are a great source of interest together with the other Christie's Monart catalogues bought when I attended the sales over subsequent years.

Mary

[Paul S.]

would agree with the comments re the size of some of these pieces........... was looking yesterday at what was probably an HF shouldered vase in stunning blue - c. 25 cms. tall.         Together with the sunlight and the shape they do look large and very impressive.
I see this morning it had disappeared - so presumably sold.

As we are always looking for the ultimate in pix, then one thing that would have improved the catalogue would have been to increase the image size - some of the smaller items do require a little more magnification.............  but then if you had been viewing in person this would have been unnecessary.