A PAIR OF FRENCH TOLE-PEINTE AND BRASS OIL LAMPS

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'I was not interested in selling antiques for their value; I liked them because of the visual impact they could have in a room...I wanted only what I had a feeling for...if something was ugly in the nineteenth century it will still be ugly in the twenty-first. There is no point selling things you don't like yourself!' Genevieve Weaver GUINEVERE - CELEBRATING FIFTY YEARS INCLUDING THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF GENEVIEVE WEAVER This special sale marks not only the first half-century of Guinevere Antiques but also celebrates the memory of its founder - Genevieve Weaver - whose personal collection is included in this auction. Guinevere is known for eye-catching windows on the Kings Road, Chelsea, and its eclectic collections of unusual, quirky antiques displayed in ever changing and imaginative combinations. Genevieve was known to the world as "Madame Guinevere" and was mother to my brother Marc and I. Marc and I have been running Guinevere for the past twenty-five years or so, and we grew up living and breathing antiques; not conventional antiques such as Victorian brown furniture and bone china tea sets but dramatic French Art Deco furniture, Aubusson tapestry carpets and collections of oriental blue and white porcelain, selected and arranged according to their colour, shape and size, reflected in grandiose Venetian mirrors. 'Home' was an extension of 'The Shop' where the coffee was never instant, the conversation never dull, and the scenery never predictable. Growing up in an antique dealer's household was far from boring and could be tempestuous: I remember one occasion when Dad, who was an accountant, came home from work to find his desk had been sold and promptly delivered, leaving his papers spread over the floor; another time, our family Sunday lunch was interrupted when the antler chandelier came crashing down on the table, as the ceiling hook had worked loose due to constantly changing chandeliers; and to cap it all, our Headmaster's somewhat bemused expression as Marc and I were dropped off at school in amongst the furniture on the back of the van. Genevieve knew instinctively that the antiques trade was essentially a fashion-based business - tastes change and progress. Her philosophy was one of mixing different styles and eras together - Ancient and Modern, East and West. Marc and I have taken her avant-garde ideas forward into today's sophisticated marketplace. She always taught us never to stand still; move forwards, be brave and trust our instincts. This ethos has attracted the attentions of one or two tastemakers over the years - Valentino, Nina Campbell, Anouska Hempel and Gerolamo Etro are amongst our most loyal clients and supporters - indeed, it is the symbiotic relationship that we enjoy with these arbiters of style that keeps Guinevere vibrant and relevant today. Friends and clients would often say to Genevieve "if you ever decide to sell that..., be sure to let me know" . Marc and I have thought long and hard about how to offer items from Genevieve's private collection for sale -and this seems the best way whilst sharing the "Guinevere Look" with a wider audience. It is 12 years since Genevieve passed away en route to a buying trip in China and we have kept her collection until now. Although almost everything she bought was with the shop window in mind, she found it difficult to part with certain items, hence her personal collection grew, she had a penchant for Pierrots of every shape and size, as well as overscale Chinese porcelain tea canisters, and strangely, Victorian meat drainers, which she used to hang on the walls at home. We know that Genevieve would be pleased to celebrate fifty years of business by having such a spectacular sale to mark the occasion and we think that she would want her collection to be a part of this celebration. KEVIN WEAVER THE ALLURE OF A WINDOW The Guinevere windows have always been irritatingly titillating for passing cars. So many times I had passed them and regretted not having stopped. Therefore, one day twenty years ago, I forced myself to stop, and made an effort to get out of my car to go and see what the shop was all about. What I discovered was an Aladdin's cave. Not one vase, but twenty of them; not one obelisk, but columns of them, and not a couple of decanters, but a whole room full of them, sparkling under punctuating spots. And there were pieces of furniture and objects which could only have been assembled by a couple of curators with laser eyes. I managed to find once a cabinet which was merely eight inches deep and which fitted into a very narrow corridor that would otherwise have been left forlorn. It was a priceless find. The whole of Guinevere is a collection of fantasies which reduce our own homes to dullness. And annoyingly, over the many years that I have gone there, there have always been new fantasies. That sustained replenishment is what marks out Guinevere and how its windows have become the fulcrum of all the arresting images along the length of King's Road. Guinevere enhances the world of interiors, and provides things which the cognoscenti want and things which the ignoramuses ought to want! SIR DAVID TANG

A PAIR OF FRENCH TOLE-PEINTE AND BRASS OIL LAMPS

CIRCA 1820, ADAPTED

Details

A PAIR OF FRENCH TOLE-PEINTE AND BRASS OIL LAMPS
CIRCA 1820, ADAPTED
Each with the makers plaque 'Place des Victoires No.1, GOTTEN, Inventeurs Brevete', adapted for electricity, with Guinevere 'Spanish-paper' lampshades
31 in. (79 cm.) high, including shades (2)

Special notice

This lot will be removed to an off-site warehouse at the close of business on the day of sale - 2 weeks free storage

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