Here’s more behind the scenes ‘gossip’ on the Year of the Dealer films – this time the Charles Duveen (C. J. Charles) film at Lady Lever Art Gallery – you can see the film here
We were fortunate in this film that Russell Fielding, one of the visitor assistants at Lady Lever Art Gallery who introduced the suite of antique Italian furniture, was also an enthusiastic amateur actor – his enunciation in his introduction to the suite is fantastic! Russell sadly is no longer working at Lady Lever Art Gallery – perhaps he is treading the boards somewhere?
There were numerous edits to the script for the Charles Duveen film at Lady Lever Art Gallery – we had to cut some sections to keep to our sub-4 minute rule. So a section (lasting about 35 seconds) telling the story about the early history of the Duveen dynasty of antique dealers (the family is of Dutch Jewish extraction, but started out in Britain in Hull of the east coast of England in the 1840s) was cut. As was a short section (about 40 seconds) on the significance of the close relationships between collectors and networks of antique dealers – this was illustrated in the image of C. J. Charles’ invoice for the suite of Italian furniture (see below – the image of the invoice was actually included in the film).
The handwritten notes on the invoice illustrate the tightly grouped network of London antique dealers that Lord Leverhulme used as key suppliers for his antique collecting activities. Moss Harris & Sons were one of Leverhulme’s most trusted antique dealers and Leverhulme regularly acquired antiques from Moss Harris’ Oxford Street shop. One of the the handwritten pencil notes on the invoice indicate that the suite acquired from C. Charles was located at ‘Mr. Charles’ warehouse, 25 Woodstock Street, Oxford Street‘ (which was just off Oxford Street and New Bond Street near to Charles’ shop in Brook Street). Another note (in pen) states ‘To be removed to M. Harris & Sons 44 New Oxford Street WC1‘. A shipment by Moss Harris’s van (see below) would be the most efficient way of getting antiques from various London antique dealers to Leverhulme’s various houses.
Unfortunately, we could not fit either of these fascinating details into the script and audio for the C. Charles film at Lady Lever Art Gallery, but we did get this lovely image of M. Harris van in one of the films focused on M. Harris & Sons at Lady Lever Art Gallery though!
See next week for more Behind the Scenes of the Year of the Dealer
Mark
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