SALE RESULTS
Olympia Timed: From the Studio: Works from the Estate of Bernard Myers
Ends: 16th Mar, 2025 14:00
Auction Location: London, UK
Work and travel in the Middle East and India introduced me to a world of colour. Under the influence of Islamic tiles and textiles, and Indian and Tibetan painting I set out to teach myself colour. My work at this time was mainly abstract and loosely based on astronomical and optical diagrams. Gradually I turned to realism via still life, working very precisely... (Bernard Myers)
Introduction
The following 96 lots are the largest selection of works by Bernard Myers to be offered in single sale. Consigned for sale directly from his estate, the works offered cover all the different media Myers explored and represent virtually every phase of his life, from his student years through to his retirement to St Peter’s Wharf on Chiswick Mall. As a student after the War Myers attended St Martin’s School of Art, Camberwell and the Royal College of Art. Fellow students at the RCA included John Bratby and Jack Smith, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. After graduating ARCA in 1954, Myers taught, variously at Camberwell, Hammersmith and Ealing art schools, and was senior lecturer in drawing at the Architectural Association School. Thereafter he was asked back to the RCA to teach, where he spent the following two decades, punctuated in 1968 and 1971 by stints as Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of technology, New Delhi. His final teaching post was as Chair of Design Technology at Brunel University (1979-85).
Students at the RCA treasured Myers’ good advice. James Dyson remembered him as ‘cheerful, irrepressible [and] rather dapper… with a tweed suit and bowtie…’ But as well as being upbeat Myers was also appreciated for his considerable range of mind and intellect. On being made a Fellow, in his welcome speech the Dean noted that Myers ‘…must without doubt be the most versatile graduate ever to emerge from the Painting School. Since joining the College in 1961 he has been, by virtue of an encyclopaedic knowledge which comfortably bestrides the boundaries between the humane and the technological, and of his superlative gifts as a teacher, in demand by virtually every School and Department within the College…’
The plus side for Myers was that teaching left him free to practise his own art exactly as he wished. As he noted: ‘Some artists find that teaching interferes with their work. I find it clarifies my work.’ Indeed, he had an unstoppable compulsion to paint, incessantly exploring a wide range of subject matter, in particular the landscapes he encountered on his varied travels, the still-lifes he explored in his studio, the nudes he painted in weekly life-classes, and his not infrequent forays into abstraction, precipitated in part by his fascination with space.
He married Pamela Fildes, grand-daughter of the painter Sir Luke Fildes in the early 1950s; they lived first in Windsor and then in Kensington before moving in 1974 into one of the studios overlooking the Thames at St Peter’s Wharf, purpose built by Julian Trevelyan, next to Hammersmith Terrace. He had several one-man shows in the West End, the first at the New Art Centre in 1969; his last with Austin Desmond Fine Art in 1991. He wrote two books on Goya, others on the history of sculpture and How to Look at Art, and co-edited The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Art (1979). He also penned articles for The Artist (May 1988) on his highly original approach to pastel, and Artists and Illustrators (1995) on his Venice views.
Contact the Pictures Department for further information | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | + 44 (0) 20 7806 5541
PLEASE NOTE:
The lots close 30 seconds apart from each other, but if there is another bid in the final 5 minutes of a particular lot closing, the time of this lot will be extended.
The office is closed over the weekend, but the pictures@olympiaauctions.com email is being monitored. Please contact us here if you have any queries.
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 9th March:12pm to 4pm
Monday 10th March: 10am to 8pm
Tuesday 11th March: 10am to 5pm
AUCTION:
Starts: 7th March, 2025 9:30
Ends: 16th March, 2025 14:00
Olympia Timed: Paintings, Works on Paper & Sculpture
Ends: 16th Mar, 2025 15:00
Auction Location: London, UK
A biannual online auction of paintings, works on paper and sculpture from a wide range of categories and works spanning hundreds of years. An auction to appeal to all tastes comprising a vast array of subject matter with very attractive 'middle-market' estimates.
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 9th March:12pm to 4pm
Monday 10th March: 10am to 8pm
Tuesday 11th March: 10am to 5pm
AUCTION:
Starts: 7th March, 2025 9:30
Ends: 16th March, 2025 15:00
Contact the Pictures Department for further information | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | +44 (0)20 7806 5541
PLEASE NOTE:
The lots close 30 seconds apart from each other, but if there is another bid in the final 10 minutes of a particular lot closing, the time of this lot will be extended.
The office is closed over the weekend, but the pictures@olympiaauctions.com email is being monitored. Please contact us here if you have any queries.
From the Studio: Works from Eleven Artists' Estates
Catalogue: Download Catalogue
Auction Location: London, UK
This one-of-a-kind auction focuses on the redisovery of 20th century artists, many of whom exhibited in leading West End galleries in their day, their works featuring in museums and art galleries around the world. All now deceased, with many having suffered undeserved obscurity since, their inclusion in From the Studio: Works from Artists' Estates puts the spotlight firmly back on them, to reveal a range of extraordinarily talented men and women.
Most of the artists were admired, promoted and written about by eminent 20th century art critics. Several were Jewish emigres, forced from their homelands to find their way anew in Britain and elsewhere. Many were close friends with other leading contemporary artists, sharing studios and ideas; some taught, several at the Royal College of Art. Throughout, their efforts both individually and together chart the myriad movements and counter movements that define the dynamic 20th century modernist landscape, ranging from Impressionism to Abstraction.
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 9th March:12pm to 4pm
Monday 10th March: 10am to 8pm
Tuesday 11th March: 10am to 5pm
AUCTION:
Wednesday 12th March 2025, 12pm, precisely
Contact the Pictures Department for further information | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | + 44 (0) 20 7806 5541
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Olympia Timed: Private Collection of Vesta Cases and other Silver Smallwork
Ends: 2nd Mar, 2025 14:00
Auction Location: London, UK
This single owner online sale of silver collectables is not to be missed, due to the enticing variety of mainly 19th century British silver small work on offer, reflecting the passion, knowledge and dedication of the collector. Vesta cases make up the majority of the sale; other silver items include pepperettes, grape scissors, George IV silver ‘eye preservers’, caddy spoons, seals, spectacle cases and more. Estimates start at £40.
Vesta cases
In 1832 William Newton named his newly patented matches after Vesta, the Roman goddess of fire and the hearth. Small containers to house these friction matches were introduced shortly afterwards (in the early 1830s), to prevent accidental combustion.
As their production became more sophisticated, they reflected the status and taste of their owner. Part of the essential 'dress code' of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, they were made in a range of materials from the purely functional to the deluxe. The wealthy would carry a box fashioned in silver, enamel or gold.
The vesta box were at their most popular during the decades either side of 1900. Almost every Edwardian carried matches, to light a 'smoke' as well as stoves and lamps. In America, Europe and Japan they were produced extensively from the 1880s (when the fashion for cigarette smoking began) to the 1920s when petrol lighter and tearable 'matchbooks' took their place.
Adapted from the Georgian snuffbox, the typical vesta case was a shaped rectangle with a flip-top lid, a serrated edge or a ribbed 'strike' on its base, and a link to attach a watch chain. The vast majority of these are plain or simply engraved/chased with initials or motifs. These become more desirable when set with semi-precious or precious stones or decorated with enamel sporting scenes, advertising logos, club crests etc.
There are also 'combination' vestas that incorporate additional features (such as cigar cutters, a small knife blade or apertures for sovereigns or stamps) and the larger standing or 'table' vestas made for use at home by the hearth or in the smoking room.
Highlights in the sale include a Victorian silver combined cigarette, slow match and vesta case by HW & L Dee for retail by T Jones, London 1877, estimate: £150-£250. A Victorian silver and signal flag enamelled vesta case, Johnson, Sons & Edmonds, London 1888 is estimated at £300 - £400, and an attractive early Victorian silver vesta case by John Harris, 1853 is estimated at £120 - £180.
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Olympia Timed: Jewellery & Watches
Ends: 2nd Mar, 2025 16:00
Auction location: London, UK
The auction ‘Olympia Timed: Jewellery & Watches’ is one of our biannual online sales offering a range of ladies’ and gentlemen’s watches and antique and modern gemstone and gold jewellery.
