Press releases| Olympia Auctions

DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS FROM THE IOLO WILLIAMS COLLECTION | AUCTION 2nd OCTOBER 2024

A sale of British 18th and early 19th century drawings and watercolours once belonging to Iolo Williams (1890-1962), connoisseur and author of the definitive collector’s guide Early English Watercolours, will take place at Olympia Auctions London on Wednesday 2nd October, 2024. The 350 works with estimates ranging from £150 - £1,500 were inherited by Williams’ grandson and have been kept safely – in storage boxes under a bed – for nearly half a century. This will be their first appearance on the market for more than 60 years and in some cases much longer.

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LOOKING BACK AT JOHN OSBORNE:

PICTURES AND POSSESSIONS FROM HIS ESTATE, THE HURST, SHROPSHIRE

ONLINE AUCTION 10th - 20th October 2024

John Osborne (1929-1994) was the original “angry young man” whose play Look Back in Anger disrupted the complacency of 1950s England, gave voice to a new generation, and made British theatre important again. Now, as a new production of that first “kitchen sink drama” is due to open at The Almeida Theatre and Oasis is set to reprise the songs of their angry youth, a collection of John Osborne’s most personal possessions from the house in which he spent his final years is coming to auction.

The Olympia Auctions sale of pictures and possessions from The Hurst will be held online from 10th – 20th October, with all items on view to the public from 13th – 18th October. Estimates range from £50 - £5,000.

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THREE BRITISH SISTERS AND THEIR IMPERIAL RUSSIAN TREASURES

European Works of Art, Objects and Silver | Jewellery and Watches

BOTH AUCTIONS on 21st October. 11am and 3pm respectively

London, UK: Treasures of Imperial Russia belonging to three British sisters who grew up around the Romanov court, fled to Britain at the Revolution, and settled down to run a boarding house near Blackpool, are coming up for sale at Olympia Auctions on 21^st November, 2024.

May, Ida and Daisy Dickinson were three of six children born into an English family living in St Petersburg. Their father, whose family had been connected with Russia for three generations, ran the Phoenix Ironworks in the Viborg quarter. Until 1905 they lived at some ease but the unrest and economic crisis of the early 1900s resulted in the complete failure of his investments and the family was forced to depart for their mother's home in Lancashire.

Pining for the country they considered home, the sisters had all returned to Russia by 1911, their aunt finding them work as governesses. When forced to flee again to avoid the turbulence of the Revolution, they packed trunks and returned to Britain for good. Two of the sisters spent the rest of their lives running a boarding house, which they adorned with Russian ornaments, in the family holiday town of Cleveleys near Blackpool.

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‘UNDOUBTABLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIGURES OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF DECORATION’ Studio Magazine

Celebratory exhibition & book launch of the work of pioneering designer Betty Joel

LONDON. March 2025. Olympia Auctions is honoured to present a celebratory exhibition of works by the pioneering furniture and textile designer, Mary Stewart Lockhart, known as Betty Joel (1894-1985), a pioneer in the field of design in the 1920s and 1930s. Described by Studio Magazine in 1932, as ‘Undoubtably one of the most important figures of the British school of decoration’, the exhibition will showcase some of her extraordinary works, alongside images of design schemes and life inside her business empire, which ranged from furniture design, to textiles.

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