March 15, 2014
Following the last blog entry on images of dealer shops I found some more photographs of R.W. Partridge’s shop in St. James’s Street, London. They really do give a flavour of the ways in which antiques were displayed (in the top market London trade at least) in the opening decades of the 20th century. Here’s the ‘Interior of the shop’: 
Still quite a crowded space….and here’s the ‘Second Floor Gallery’: 
Which illustrates the range of art and antiques offered for sale. And the ‘Top Red Gallery’: 
I assume it was the ‘red’ gallery because the wallpaper was red?….As part of the project we are assembling an image database of dealer’s shops, interiors and exteriors, they provide such a fascinating picture of the changing fashioning in displaying, selling and marketing antiques over the course of the 20th century.
Mark
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March 9, 2014
We’re compiling a database of images of dealer shops…interior and exterior photographs. Here’s an example of the interior of R.W. Partridge’s shop at 19 St James’s Street, London, in c.1910. It was, interestingly, called ‘Chippendale Gallery’…it looks rather stacked out…..
…..a bit like a warehouse, rather than a swish emporium in St. James’s…..!
The images (subject to any copyright restrictions of course) will be archived in the interactive project website…so if you do come across any images of dealer shops (especially prior to the 1950s) do send them on to us at antiquedealers@leeds.ac.uk
Make sure you send all associated information with any images though (date, name of dealer, location etc etc)…
Mark
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March 7, 2014
Thank you to Mabel Jowsey, from Dunedin, New Zealand, who very kindly send us family history information on the antiques dealer John (Jack) Craggs – youngest brother of Mabel’s husband’s grandmother. John Craggs (1881-1969) traded from a shop at 3 High Street, Tenby, Pembrokeshire, and apparently he sold objects to the London trade, including Mallett….it’s great to know that the project is making connections over 11,000 miles away!
Mark
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March 7, 2014
Thank you to Michael Kauffmann, who sent us a little booklet on the history of his father Arthur Kauffmann, the well-known art dealer trading in Grafton Street in London (1939-77) and later in Knightsbridge. 
Arthur famously sold the Master of Flemalle’s ‘Entombment of Christ’ to the collector Count Seilern – it’s now at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Arthur sounded like a real character – as Michael says, ‘he was still bidding at the sale of the Robert von Hirsch collection at Sotheby’s in 1978 when he was 91 years old.’
Thanks Michael for sending this information.
Mark
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March 6, 2014
Mark (Sparky) has now begun to populate the interactive project website with real data, and we can begin to see what the website might look like (still work in progress) but it does give you a sense of how the data will be visualised….
The small coloured circles are all numbers of dealerships in particular towns and cities..we will have literally tens of thousands of data sets we reckon, by the end of the project in a couple of years!….
Mark
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March 6, 2014
We have a new volunteer research helping on the Antique Dealer Project – Alix Brodie-Wray, has been doing fabulous work on gathering data on dealer names and addresses ready to upload into the interactive website….here’s Alix!
Alix is a part-time PhD student at the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, and an experienced Higher Education Administrator. Her PhD research examines the production of ‘Vintage’ as part of larger markets in second-hand clothing, motivations of second-hand and vVintage shoppers, and the cultural implications of Vintage in an age of austerity (so she is already keyed into aspects of the current Antique Trade project!)….Alix has considerable experience of working with data and spreadsheets, and has all the right skills we need from project volunteers…Thanks again Alix…fabulous work!
Mark
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March 6, 2014
We are making good progress on the project interactive website. ‘Sparky’ (Mark) has been building and testing the website during the past few weeks and he’s composed a short video to illustrate how the site might work….
More updates soon.
Mark
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December 14, 2013
Bluett & Sons exhibition of the George Eumorfopolous Collection; advert from Connoisseur, March 1935.
Dominic Jellinek, formerly of the major Chinese Works of Art dealership Bluett & Sons, contacted the project last week – thank you Dominic!
Bluett & Sons were one of the most significant dealerships in Chinese Works of Art; the firm was established c.1884 and continued trading until 1992.
Dominic has composed an extensive essay on Bluett & Sons, based on the archives of the dealership, with extracts from letters in the archive and overviews of the history of the firm. The essay is part of another Arts and Humanities Research Board (now AHRC) funded project called CARP (Chinese Art – Research into Provenance).
You can read the full essay HERE
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November 30, 2013
There has been a groundswell of support from the trade itself following the article about the project in the Antiques Trade Gazettte – with more support coming in daily – thanks indeed, so far, to Guy Apter, John Bly, Robin Butler, Geoffrey Godden, Edgar Harden, Dominic Jellinek, Christopher Payne, Andrew Whittaker, and Mark Dodgson at BADA
Thank You!
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November 24, 2013
We had a really productive project team meeting at the Royal Festival Hall in London yesterday. Very productive (and mind-bending) discussion about data-sets and ‘authority terms’ re the forthcoming interactive website for the project. Sparky also amused us all with his ‘Lovejoy’ question….
Here’s the project team – left-to-right: Lizzy Jamieson (Research Fellow, University of Leeds); Mark Wales (smallhadroncollider.com) the software programmer for the interactive website, and Lovejoy fan; Me (Mark Westgarth, Principal Investigator, University of Leeds); Tim Banks (University of Leeds, PVAC Faculty IT Manager); Eleanor Quince (Co-Investigator, University of Southampton).
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