Homes & Antiques July 2022

Summer is here, and the houses in our July issue are filled with glorious colour: from painted furniture and pretty ceramics, to fabulous wallpapers and textiles, there is much to inspire. On page 92, Jenny Oldaker assesses the market in ornithological prints, an ever-popular area of collecting that sees the worlds of art and science combine to sublime effect. At the other end of the collecting spectrum, Emma Longstaff takes a closer look at buttons and discovers a fascinating area of social history (p97). And talking of collecting, what do you do with things that carry huge sentimental significance but are no longer of use to you? Perhaps the style is wrong or they are beyond repair. Rhiannon Batten talks to six artists whose works engage with this delicate problem…

Summer is here, and the houses in our July issue are filled with glorious colour: from painted furniture and pretty ceramics, to fabulous wallpapers and textiles, there is much to inspire. On page 92, Jenny Oldaker assesses the market in ornithological prints, an ever-popular area of collecting that sees the worlds of art and science combine to sublime effect. At the other end of the collecting spectrum, Emma Longstaff takes a closer look at buttons and discovers a fascinating area of social history (p97). And talking of collecting, what do you do with things that carry huge sentimental significance but are no longer of use to you? Perhaps the style is wrong or they are beyond repair. Rhiannon Batten talks to six artists whose works engage with this delicate problem…

THE ANTIQUE Hat Boxes In days gone by, hats were considered an essential part of both male and female garb. It follows that boxes for keeping them in good shape and safe from moths were part of the paraphernalia of a well-equipped wardrobe, and they came in the form of leather cases, vellum cases, bentwood boxes and workaday metal boxes. These days, the box you’ll see most at auction is the late 19th or early 20th-century, tan leather ‘bucket’ hat box, which often held a top hat (sometimes, there’s still a top hat inside), or very deep ones held several hats at once. These can be found at provincial sales from £50 upwards, rising into the high hundreds of pounds for top-quality examples; monograms add to the cachet and might even match…

In June 2003, a masked gang stole over 100 gold boxes and high-value items from Waddesdon Manor, including this French bonbonnière featuring a miniature of a woman with a basket of roses on its lid. ‘The 2003 theft was deeply traumatic for everyone at Waddesdon – I remember it vividly,’ says Pippa Shirley, Director of Collections, Historic Properties and Landscapes at Waddesdon. Nineteen years later, most of the stolen items – mainly 18th-century French and English pieces – remain missing. However, this particular gold box recently came up for sale at a UK auction house and was subsequently brought to the attention of the Art Loss Register (ALR). After confirming its identity, the box was returned to its rightful place at a particularly fitting moment; this year Waddesdon celebrates Alice de…

THE ANTIQUE Hat Boxes In days gone by, hats were considered an essential part of both male and female garb. It follows that boxes for keeping them in good shape and safe from moths were part of the paraphernalia of a well-equipped wardrobe, and they came in the form of leather cases, vellum cases, bentwood boxes and workaday metal boxes. These days, the box you’ll see most at auction is the late 19th or early 20th-century, tan leather ‘bucket’ hat box, which often held a top hat (sometimes, there’s still a top hat inside), or very deep ones held several hats at once. These can be found at provincial sales from £50 upwards, rising into the high hundreds of pounds for top-quality examples; monograms add to the cachet and might…

In June 2003, a masked gang stole over 100 gold boxes and high-value items from Waddesdon Manor, including this French bonbonnière featuring a miniature of a woman with a basket of roses on its lid. ‘The 2003 theft was deeply traumatic for everyone at Waddesdon – I remember it vividly,’ says Pippa Shirley, Director of Collections, Historic Properties and Landscapes at Waddesdon. Nineteen years later, most of the stolen items – mainly 18th-century French and English pieces – remain missing. However, this particular gold box recently came up for sale at a UK auction house and was subsequently brought to the attention of the Art Loss Register (ALR). After confirming its identity, the box was returned to its rightful place at a particularly fitting moment; this year Waddesdon celebrates Alice…