I had a trip out to see Mary yesterday. She was interested to hear I went to the Tennants auction of Hannah Hauxwell quilts. As I had noted down many of the hammer prices of the lots, she noted them on her copy of the catalogue.
One of the roles she carries out as a textile historian is valuing the content of archives. She has recently valued a contemporary commercial textile archive (thousands of items), some of which were much damaged. Mary was pleased to see that some of the textile lots at the Tennants auction, similar to what she had valued, were spot-on for price. I said if she wanted me to attend auctions in future to quietly note prices paid, I was happy to do so. When I went to Leyburn to watch the auction, I did not really know why I was noting prices down, but it was part of enjoying the experience. Now I know the application of the knowledge gained.
Also talking to Mary gave some insight into issues of academic interest. She noted which lots had Turkey Red in the quilts and said there were two main centres of Turkey Red production (in the borders?) and this would be impacting the price (only one left?). Hermes silk scarves hold their price well, and sold for more than top quality fur coats. Shows what ethical fashion can achieve! Sampler prices were variable, and there are key points about colour, fading and damage, which would have given insight into prices, had I noted them! There were two stumpwork pictures from the estate of Professor Metcalf - Mary queried where he came from - and it turned out he was a professor of fine art (at Leeds uni?? - not sure) who she knew had died recently - and she had seen these images in his home. She was pleased they sold for twice the lot estimate.
She noted the strippy quilts with a particular lavender shade of dye sold for high prices. Something to do with this being a dye that held its colour well, and was used for staff/servant uniforms.
Mary also spoke about her mother, on an occasion in much later life, coming across a piece of fabric of a particular blue. Her mother, who had had a colonial upbringing in South Africa, was rubbing it in her fingers, and making a keening sound. Mary had seen Mary Sibande's African work, and realised her mother was regressing to the time of her toddlerhood, when she had been brought up by an ayah.
Mary also spoke about Marianne Straubb, who was the subject of Mary's first exhibition with the V&A. Straubb was cautious about giving consent to the exhibition - it was not sufficient that Straubb would be the subject of an exhibition at the V&A. Straubb needed to be confident that she, her work and technique would be represented well, rather than just her ego. When Mary asked about why Straubb did not weave her name, as designer, into the selvedge, she said the role of the designer was to keep weavers in work. It was about more than her. It was the skill of the weaver that she was promoting. Straubb's designs really understood the handling of woven fabric, which is why they were used to upholster curved furniture - the bias in the weave pattern was optimal for this furniture. It is this sort of social history that interests me.
She noted the Hauxwell quilts that really exceeded lot estimates were the ones with dates - so why did the auctioneer not hike the estimates? She said the images of the knitting sticks were insightful because they were so very unusual. The rarity of them accounted for the phenomenal prices. She also explained the lower prices at the start - when dealers were saving their funds for later lots - a budget for total spend leads to caution at the beginning.
So many stories around textiles. Fascinating afternoon.
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