From the Blog
News, stories and musings from the eclectic world of S&W.
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Posted on 02 July 2023
We have been vicariously off on our summer hols this week with our new collection of Edwardian travel sketches by Alice Horton
Posted on 27 June 2023
A wonderful rustic subject by the Scottish artist Hector Chalmers (1849–1943)
Posted on 25 June 2023
New this week, a collection of playful English illustrations spanning the period 1906 to 1936
Posted on 20 June 2023
Gorgeous new florals from the circle of James Holland OWS (1799–1870)
Posted on 13 June 2023
This lovely 1930s oil painting shows a leafy view in 'Church Street' in Enfield, north London
Posted on 11 June 2023
This fine pair of drawings after the 18th-century Italian painter and engraver Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA (1727–1785) depict Hebe, the ancient Greek goddess of youth, and a Bacchante, a priestess or female followers of the god Bacchus
Posted on 01 June 2023
This light-filled back street view in Port Isaac, on Cornwall's north coast, shows the celebrated St Ives painter John Anthony Park RBA ROI (1880–1962) working in a post-impressionistic style
Posted on 30 May 2023
Feeling uplifted today by our new collection of brilliantly vibrant 1950s gouaches from the world travels of Ivy T. Attwell
Posted on 28 May 2023
It's always interesting to see a really different view of a place—here looking towards the Isle of Wight from Southsea, Portsmouth
Posted on 23 May 2023
There is mystery and mystique around the relocation of British artist Frank Hind to Granada, Spain in 1905 and his change of name to Francis Wallis-Markland—a curious story that adds to the other-worldly quality of his Symbolist inspired pastel renderings of Granada's gardens
Posted on 21 May 2023
A gorgeous 19th-century kingfisher study, reminiscent of the bird studies in John Ruskin's teaching collection
Posted on 16 May 2023
From our recent early 19th-century natural history collection associated with the Glegg family of Withington Hall, Cheshire
Posted on 14 May 2023
A view from our window at Llandudno' by Elizabeth Wedderburn, from our new collection by the Wedderburn sisters, dating from the 1870s
Posted on 09 May 2023
This striking collection of hand-drawn early 19th-century topographical observations has had me delving into the history of cartography
Posted on 07 May 2023
Two rare works depicting Pembrokeshire landmarks by antiquarian Charles Norris (1779–1858), whose work is of importance in recording buildings that have subsequently been lost
Posted on 02 May 2023
A selection from our delightful new collection of Japanese paintings on silk (or kenpon chakushoku), dating from towards the end of the Meiji period
Posted on 30 April 2023
This elegant portrait sketch of a boy in profile by George Dance the Younger RA (1741–1825) is possibly the artist's youngest son, Charles Webb (1785–1844), aged thirteen
Posted on 02 April 2023
Newly listed (and quickly sold), this wonderful Kosa school illustration, featuring the remarkable Japanese pigment 'gofun' or shell white: a form of calcite, calcium carbonate, made of crushed seashells, usually oyster shells
Posted on 29 March 2023
Vibrant yet ethereal pictures that tell of the 'golden' age of British sea trade; a time when Britain was China's leading trading partner and had ambitions to push westwards from Shanghai up the Yangtze River
Posted on 28 March 2023
Researching our John Thomas Serres sketch I got diverted by the story of his wife, Olivia Serres (1772–1834): also an artist but most famous—or infamous—for being 'an imposter'
Posted on 21 March 2023
More miniature work in breathtaking detail, this time Indo-Persian in style
Posted on 19 March 2023
A beautiful—at once austere yet intimate—interior glimpse at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the main summer residence at the time of Franz Joseph I, head of the Austrian Empire
Posted on 18 March 2023
Pleasing pair by Henry Earp Senior (1831–1914), head of a famous family of Brighton artists
Posted on 17 March 2023
Enjoyed discovering the riotous world of Richard Doyle's horses this week, galloping through his fantastical fantastical visions of fairydom, nostrils flared and hooves aloft
Posted on 15 March 2023
John White Abbott (1763–1851) tirelessly transcribed the landscapes of South Devon local to his home at Fordlands near Exeter—even, in this vital sepia work, at the grand old age of 80
Posted on 14 March 2023
Rare depictions of 19th-century Palestine by Anna Julia Grant-Duff (1839–1915), who in the 1880s spent a winter at Haifa in a house owned by the British author and traveller Laurence Oliphant (1829–1888)
Posted on 13 March 2023
This little piece of postal service history is an original 1930s Greetings Telegram design by graphic artist Warwick William Lendon SGA
Posted on 12 March 2023
This lovely Continental landscape by Theodore Henry Adolphus Fielding (1781–1851), which is a small triumph in composition and colouring
Posted on 11 March 2023
We encounter and deal in the materiality of paper every day, so it is envigorating to once in a while handle non-paper
Posted on 10 March 2023
Our new collection of drawings by Exeter artist John White Abbott (1763–1851) is a tour de force from this gentleman amateur, who never sold a painting but whose oils were praised more highly those of his friend and teacher Francis Towne
Posted on 07 March 2023
From our new collection of Victorian capriccio subjects, an exquisitely painted cat with a bubble pipe
Posted on 06 March 2023
This captivating trio of Japanese paintings dates from the early decades of the 20th century
Posted on 04 March 2023
This beautiful impasto oil painting dates from 1930s India and is associated with the Ishwar Dass School of Arts, Lucknow
Posted on 03 March 2023
Claude Hayes RI ROI (1852–1922) captures the expansive horizontal striation of the fen landscape in this quietly expressive, wide-format watercolour
Posted on 25 February 2023
We've made new additions this week to our stunning collection of 1930s hand-painted Art Deco pattern designs
Posted on 24 February 2023
Newly listed is this small collection of early 20th-century kachō-e watercolours in the manner of Ohara Koson (1877–1945)
