40s and 50s Memories
National Provincial Bank, lean over the huge
oak counter to see if my father could take me
home. Our film-making friend said " Do you
know that that counter is now the main bar in the
Ship Inn (or was it the Bridge Inn?) at Topsham
now!" Now, at the time of writing our total score
of grandchildren amounts to 14. I am close to
retiring now from professional life, but not from
art. I now demonstrate water-colour painting.
The Army still features, but now only in the form
of my collection of 2,000 Britain's Lead Soldiers!
D. ROYLE
Carpenter 1955
David Royle was originally in King Alfred House
and when Carpenter House was formed he was
one of the founding members. He was House
Captain and School Prefect. Always a staunch
supporter of King's after he left, he later became
Chairman of the OA Club.
Although in my case Kingcup and Mansell
Jaquet tried valiantly to instill some formal
education into my consciousness at King's,
with pretty moderate success it has to be said,
it was Mr Lyons-Wilson's Saturday morning 'art'
lectures which left a lasting impression with
me. I dare say many OAs will emphasise with
this, although these Saturday morning sessions
were almost certainly arranged by the Powers
That Be as a 'broadening-of-the-mind' interlude,
or perhaps just to keep us off the streets, but
hardly as a career forming option!
However, Tiger-Willie's introduction to the world
of art generally, and of paintings in particular,
did eventually lead me into the fine art world
and in due course I qualified and practised
for nearly forty years as a fine art auctioneer,
starting as a porter at Sotheby's, later a director
of Phillips and then with my own specialist firm.
Just as for doctors and vets, stories of the life
experiences of auctioneers are legion. In all
walks of life one has to be prepared to start at
the bottom and I remember reporting for duty at
Sotheby's for my first day as a 'student porter.'
Dressed reasonably smartly, as I thought, in
sports jacket and slacks and ready to hump
furniture, I was sent straight home to change into a suit . Those were the days! There are
many embarrassing moments to recall. Fairly
early on in my auctioneering I was conducting
a silver auction at Phillips. I should explain that
in spite of the Bond Street location and aura,
the dealers and buyers at silver sales were
invariably of the more earthy type but very
knowledgeable and experienced. Because of
other work I had been unable to prepare myself
by checking the lots ahead of the sale, but this
presented no problem, as there was an extensive
coded system written into the auctioneer's own
catalogue by the department's specialists which
gave me all the information I needed to know
about the lots. I was running happily through
the sale . . . "Lot 28 - A George II silver cream
jug by . . ." Then "Lot 29 - A Victorian silver
(etc) . . ." and then suavely on to the next lot . . .
"Lot 30 - A George III silver vir . . . vir . . . virginal
catheter" I could hardly get my mouth round
the words. As an innocent from King's(!) I had
a strictly limited understanding of the first word
and no idea what horrors lay behind the second.
Blushing fully to the roots of my hair I was then
regaled from the back of the hall by a cockney
voice shouting "Go on Guv, say it again!" The
best I could manage was to offer "as it says in
the book" which got me a round of applause
from the crowd. Then there is the old chestnut
of an event which I actually saw happen to a
colleague. He was grappling with the mysteries
of microphone usage, an early introduction at
the time. He had just had a rather inconclusive
and unsatisfactory conversation from the
rostrum with a difficult lady over a particular lot,
when he turned aside to comment to his clerk
"It's that stupid cow again - she drives xxxxx
me mad." Unfortunately, he failed to switch
his microphone off. There followed a pregnant
pause, then the stentorian cry was heard from
the body of the hall "I HEARD THAT!" Not
good for customer relations. Auctioneers are
actors to the extent that they have to put on a
presentation. I was taking a sale of top quality
jewellery in America. I mention the location
because apart from the main auction centres,
(ie. New York etc) auctions in the States, until
the last twenty years or so, tended to attract
audiences of which a substantial section was
often there 'for the show' and not as wouldbe buyers.
This sale was in Minneapolis. A
75