A CONTINENTAL BOXWOOD LEVER ACTION NUTCRACKER

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Syd Levethan: THE LONGRIDGE COLLECTION English Delft, Slipware, Needlework, Works of Art and Furniture 'ONLY THE BEST' served as a mantra for more than thirty years during which time Syd Levethan assembled his impressive collection, known today as The Longridge Collection. Fascinated by history, insatiably curious, he collected English delft and slipware from the Stuart and Georgian periods complimented by contemporary needlework and embroidery Medieval and later bronzes and metalwork, nut crackers, flatware, memento mori, intricately carved boxes and curios. The acquisition of all helped slake a thirst for knowledge and a need to own 'only the best'. Each object was chosen because it spoke of the social and political climate in which it was made, commemorated the reigning monarch of the day, or simply because it demonstrated the skill and craftsmanship of its creator. He sought out dated examples, or objects displaying the name or initials of the original owner or maker - something tangible to link it to history, to make it that much more alive. The resulting collection is among the finest of its type in private hands, its growth brought to an end with the unexpected death of the collector in October 2008. Availability is key when forming collections on this scale. Taking advantage of a buying landscape that featured an amazing succession of single-owner auctions - names such as Thomas Burn of Rous Lench Court, Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Billington, John Philip Kassebaum, Jean & Kenneth Chorley and Harriet Carlton Goldweitz for pottery; the Richmond and Dent-Brocklehurst Collections for embroideries; and the Blumka, Owen Evan Thomas and the Rothschild Family Collections for the works of art - Syd Levethan bid against the top collectors, institutions and dealers in the world, securing the best objects in each auction for his collection. Although he took advice from top dealers in each of his many fields of interest - Jonathan Horne for English ceramics, Titi Halle for needlework, Sam Fogg for Continental ceramics, sculpture and works of art, Tony Foster for treen to name but a few - the final decision of which piece to buy and how much to spend was Syd's alone. Given Syd Levethan's interest in the synergy of objects with contemporary politics and social history, it should come as no surprise that English pottery accounts for over half the entire Longridge Collection. This everyday material was used to make useful and presentation wares, as well as commemorative and purely decorative wares. These are the only pieces in the Collection that have been published as a group. Leslie B. Grigsby, currently curator of ceramics and glass at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, worked with the collector for several years on a two-volume catalogue of the ceramics, published ten years ago with contributions by Michael Archer, Margaret Macfarlane and Jonathan Horne. That four world renowned scholars in the field of British pottery would work on the publication of an anonymous private collection - the name Longridge comes from the name of the road on which the collection was housed at the time of publication - speaks volumes about the caliber of the ceramics in it and of their regard for the collector himself. The selection chosen for the June sale reflects the make-up of the entirety and includes chargers, punchbowls, candlesticks, tankards, posset-pots, tygs, jugs, wine bottles, drug jars and table wares, all made in the 1600s and 1700s. The largest section of the Longridge Collection is devoted to tin-glazed earthenware or delftware. The London delft dish illustrated on the cover of the present sale catalogue shows Saint George killing the Dragon and is taken from Lucas Vosterman the Elder's print after the Raphael painting in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke. This rare shape, made for John Ayers and dated 1637, was probably made at Montagu Close, Southwark. Inscribed with the initials of the decorators to the underside, it is one of the earliest dated dishes outside a museum collection. Other such documents include an apothecary tile dated 1664. A rare heart-shaped example painted with the royal arms used by the House of Stuart beneath the initials CR for Charles (II) Rex, it is also inscribed with the initials NB, possibly those of Nathaniel Bateman, recorded as admitted to the Society of Apothecaries in April 1653 or of Nicholas Bannister, also a member of the Society admitted in April 1657. Only three dated heart-shape pill slabs are known. Two can be found in the collection of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. The Longridge example is the only one in private hands; of rare form, armorial, dated and traceable to a particular owner - a palpable piece of English history. Slipware comprises approximately one quarter of the Longridge Collection and includes signed and dated examples from families of Staffordshire potters who endured for many generations, such as Ralph Toft, John Simpson and Thomas Sanford, as well as vessels from pot and brickworks at Wrotham, in North Devon and South Wales - typical for pieces in this Collection but rarely available in the marketplace. One such example is a dish by Samuel Malkin decorated with Saint George and the Dragon and appears on the font cover of the 11th June sale catalogue. The treen within the Longridge Collection is undoubtedly the most important group ever to come to the auction market. Here too, each piece was chosen for its rarity, uniqueness and exceptional quality, many pieces dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Survival of any object manufactured over 300 to 400 years ago is now a rarity. That useful objects made from wood, a material more susceptible to the perils of rot and the infestations of insects and fungal diseases, have survived at all is remarkable. That so many rarities in such fine condition have made their way into the Longridge Collection is truly amazing and a testament to the tenacity of the collector. Among collectors of early treen, some of the most coveted objects are drinking vessels. Communal drinking, or wassailing as it was known, was as an important ritual, passed down through generations, with the roots of the tradition in ancient pagan customs such as the harvest festival. The Longridge Collection contains not one but two very special examples of exceptional rarity: a beautiful Charles II armorial pear wood standing cup and cover, the lid surmounted by a spice container, and a Norwegian burr birch peg tankard from the workshops of Samuel Halvorsen Fanden, dated 1693. The pearwood cup and cover, decorated overall with pyrographic incised ornament portraying a unicorn, a lion and a bird, each within an arched panel, is dated 1680 and inscribed also with the owner's initials - C.H.A. It is one of a series of approximately twenty known, each dated between 1603 and 1687. Peg tankards were named as such because of the series of pegs on the inside of the vessels delineating the volume of liquid to be imbibed by each drinker in turn. The example by Fanden is elaborately carved overall in high relief with scenes of Diana and Endymion, Apollo flaying Marsyas, and the figure of Fortune. The tankard was later lined and mounted in silver around 1831, with a roundel applied to the inner cover engraved with the Arms of the Bulkeley-Owen family. At this same time a stand was made for the tankard, hewn from the historic haunted oak tree Ceubren yr Ellyll. According to legend, in the early 15th Century, Howell Sele (a strong supporter of Henry V) was a bitter enemy of his cousin, Owen Glendower. While out hunting at Nannau, Owen Glendower killed his cousin after he had been attacked by him and placed his body in an oak tree. An oak linked to this legend blew down at Nannau in 1813. A variety of objects were subsequently manufactured from the fallen tree, many of which can now be found in the National Museum of Wales. The silver rim of the stand details the lineage of the Bulkeley-Owen family. The family resided at Tedsmore Hall in Qswestry, Shropshire which at that time formed part of Wales, and where the family held great wealth and influence. The needlework in the Longridge Collection is one of the most impressive groups to be found in private hands. The Collection celebrates the very best English embroidery of the 17th century. Many of the pieces offered here were worked in the home by young ladies, who were expected to acquire a high level of accomplishment at very early age. Girls as young as ten years old began with samplers and pincushions and worked their way up towards their embroidered casket. This collection includes both domestic and professional work, ranging from sampler to casket - and from charmingly naive to extremely sophisticated. Belonging very clearly to the professional category is the magnificent Charles I embroidered mirror surround, the cover lot from the ground-breaking Richmond Collection sale held in at Christie's South Kensington in 1987. It is worked with a portrait of a King and Queen, possibly an idealized Henrietta Maria and Charles I, alongside emblems of harmony, and was probably conceived as a celebration of the institution of marriage. The mirror is initialed MP, possibly for Margaret Penn, the sister of the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. The undisputed star of the needlework collection is a magnificent embroidered casket dating from the first half of the 17th century, embroidered with The Story of Joseph. It can be compared with a second casket embroidered with the same biblical theme in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Sharing some identical panels which must have been ordered from a professional 'drawer', both sets of embroideries were then professionally mounted as caskets. A further intriguing aspect of this casket is that it was found to contain a silk embroidered purse with the embroideress's name, Jean Morris, and the date 1600, along with a matching embroidered pen case, a book mark and two silk-bound quill pens. These undoubtedly were all the work of the same needlewoman, the unknown Jean Morris. We do not know if she also embroidered the casket in which her prized needlework was found. If she did, she would join a select group of known embroiderers, such as Martha Edlin, whose work is held by the Victoria & Albert Museum and the early casket by Hannah Smith, 1654-5, in the Whitworth Art Galleries in Manchester. Syd Levethan enjoyed life fully. He was never happier than when struggling home from a long business trip to Italy capped off by a quick stop in England to successfully hunt for treasures - those objects secure in shopping bags in his arms as he boarded the Concorde for home. He took great pleasure in adding the perfect object to his growing collections. But he took equal pleasure in the search itself - and in the fight necessary to acquire it. He sought out 'only the best' and bought it with bravado, the courage of his convictions, good advice, and the luxury of being able to pay over the odds when competition deemed it necessary. Discussions with Christie's to put the collection on the market started many months before Syd Levethan's untimely death. A sale is what he wanted - for the dispersal of The Longridge Collection to join the pantheon of the great auctions at which he had acquired so many of its pieces - allowing a new generation to have the opportunity to buy 'Only the Best'. Jody Wilkie. International Specialist. European Ceramics and Glass.

A CONTINENTAL BOXWOOD LEVER ACTION NUTCRACKER

DATED 1583

Details

A CONTINENTAL BOXWOOD LEVER ACTION NUTCRACKER
DATED 1583
Carved with the head of a bearded man above a rampant lion, a monogram to one side and date to the other, the top carved with an armorial
4½ in. (11.2 cm.) high (2)

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