From the Blog

News, stories and musings from the eclectic world of S&W.

Teme Valley & River Severn

Teme Valley & River Severn

We have enjoyed cataloguing this unsual group of gouaches recently
Leggi di più
Scottish Character

Scottish Character

Henry Wright Kerr RSA RSW (1857–1936) was a fine recorder of Scottish character and arguably Scotland's most famous painter of portraits and genre scenes in watercolour
Leggi di più
Crittall's Windows

Crittall's Windows

From our new collection of Etching Revival prints, this striking modernist landscape with an unusual story
Leggi di più
Where the crows gather

Where the crows gather

This miniature jewel of a painting by Sarah Louisa Kilpack (1839–1909) shows the rocky coast at La Corbière in southwest Jersey
Leggi di più
Glorious Interwar Design

Glorious Interwar Design

Glorious new 1930s pattern designs by the talented Jean Mary Ogilvie (1920–1997)
Leggi di più
A Dose of Zen

A Dose of Zen

Calming vibes from our new Japanese kenpon chakushoku (handpainted on silk), dating from towards the end of the Meiji period
Leggi di più
Royal Doulton: 'true sphere of woman is the family and household'

Royal Doulton: 'true sphere of woman is the family and household'

This week we have had the pleasure of discovering the work of the Lewis sisters, Isabel and Florence, who were leading artists for Royal Doulton in the 1880s
Leggi di più
A Very Victorian Spectacle

A Very Victorian Spectacle

This vivid little Neapolitan School gouache shows the 1839 eruption of Vesuvius from a slightly unsual viewpoint—part-way up the mountainside rather than the more typical (and more elegant) vantage point of across the waters of the Bay of Naples
Leggi di più
Edith Scannell (1852–1940): Painter of Children

Edith Scannell (1852–1940): Painter of Children

A charming Edwardian portrait of three-year-old Charles Jeffreys Allen (1905–1937) by artist Edith Scannell (1852–1940)
Leggi di più
A High Ranking Low Rank Badge

A High Ranking Low Rank Badge

Rather fallen in love with the exquisite embroidery on this Qing Dynasty rank badge
Leggi di più
Dahlias

Dahlias

These colourful Dahlias, celebrated and prized for their long blooming period—carrying on until the autumn frosts—bring welcome cheer this week, as the rain in the UK seems to know no end
Leggi di più
Foraging for Clues

Foraging for Clues

We have been down a vertitable rabbit hole this week—not in honour of a certain forthcoming bunny festival, but because we have entered the chaotic subterranean world of mycology
Leggi di più
Spring amongst the Magnolia Blossom

Spring amongst the Magnolia Blossom

For the blossoming of Spring this week, this exuberant gouache by sought-after illustrator Kay Nixon (1894–1988)
Leggi di più
The Power of a Framing Label

The Power of a Framing Label

Delving below the surface this week, we've had interesting conversations about when art belies biography, as was the case, by all accounts, for tenacious and eccentric Channel Islands artist Ethel Sophia Cheeswright (1874–1977)
Leggi di più
1830s Lisbon: A Tale of the Tagus

1830s Lisbon: A Tale of the Tagus

Fascinating cataloguing an intriguing group of early 19th-century views in Portugal this week, and thinking about the difficulty in verifying views in a time before photography and when the documentary evidence is scant
Leggi di più
Forgotten Woman of Wakefield

Forgotten Woman of Wakefield

New this week, we have a wonderful evocation of Victorian Wakefield by the celebrated watercolourist Louisa Fennell (1847–1930)
Leggi di più
Great Minds Think Alike

Great Minds Think Alike

Also from our Victorian architect, Philip J
Leggi di più
A Stunning Seafront Arts & Crafts House Design

A Stunning Seafront Arts & Crafts House Design

From our new collection of pictures by talented late-Victorian architect Philip J
Leggi di più
Katherine Alice Jowett's Shanghai

Katherine Alice Jowett's Shanghai

Fascinating to learn about Katharine Jowett (1883–1972), one of only a few Western female artists who chose to live and work in Japan, Korea and northern China in the years between the two world wars
Leggi di più
Picture of the Month: February 2024

Picture of the Month: February 2024

James Walker Tucker (1898–1972)
Leggi di più
Happy Valentine's

Happy Valentine's

From our beautiful Ethel M. Mallinson Collection...
Leggi di più
The Garbutt Hull Collection

The Garbutt Hull Collection

The artists in our new Garbutt Hull collection read like a who's who of early-19th-century Hull, only these pictures are by the women behind the men who were the city's shipbuilders & brokers, timber merchants & sawmill owners, wine merchants & brewers
Leggi di più
James Duffield Harding's Picturesque

James Duffield Harding's Picturesque

A lovely watercolour by James Duffield Harding OWS (1798–1863) exemplifying contemporary taste for the picturesque
Leggi di più
A Gorgeous Set Design

A Gorgeous Set Design

New this week, this gorgeous set design featuring elements of decorative Art Nouveau, Art Deco and mystical Symbolism
Leggi di più
George John Cayley's Algiers

George John Cayley's Algiers

We have added interesting new pictures to our 19th-century Algiers collection by English eccentric and 'wayward philosopher' George John Cayley (1826–1878)
Leggi di più
A Piece of Natural History

A Piece of Natural History

Our new collection of 1830s watercolours—depicting flowers, leaves, butterflies and other insects—were exquisitely painted by Louisa Hare (1776–1853), who was married to Captain James Hare (1772–1826) of Whittern estate at Lyonshall in Herefordshire
Leggi di più
A Quirky Collage

A Quirky Collage

This early-Victorian drawing made us look twice this week—a quirky collaged image that combines hand-coloured engravings with layered paper and original watercolour
Leggi di più
Romanian Fairy Tales

Romanian Fairy Tales

Late Romantic narrative illustrative art was highly popular in the second half of the 19th century, particularly amongst women artists, but its study has been neglected
Leggi di più
Henry William Burgess' Wimpole St Interior

Henry William Burgess' Wimpole St Interior

We love (and covet) this elegant Wimpole Street interior by Henry William Burgess
Leggi di più
Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Fin-de-siècle cartoons from Eduard T
Leggi di più
Picture of the Month: December 2023

Picture of the Month: December 2023

Our Picture of the Month for December is a triumph in aesthetic elegance by the distinguished ceramics designer and potter Gordon Mitchell Forsyth RI ARCA (1879–1952)
Leggi di più
A Victorian Christmas

A Victorian Christmas

With Christmas as we know it being largely a Victorian invention, the Victorian home—and even more so, the Victorian rectory—seems uniquely suited to this time of year
Leggi di più
Père Noël

Père Noël

Some of you may recognise the cherubic red-head in this vision of Yuletide bliss as the spirited putto from Gaston Cervelli's satirical cartoons, Fighting and Bawling Babies (swipe left!)
Leggi di più
Madeline Rachel Wells (1879-1959)

Madeline Rachel Wells (1879-1959)

Championing another female, today we have this captivating large watercolour by Madeline Rachel Wells RBA (1879–1959)
Leggi di più
Waller-Bridge Family Collection

Waller-Bridge Family Collection

We have enjoyed listing some charming pictures this week spanning four female generations of the Waller-Bridge family—of inimitable Fleabag writer and actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge fame
Leggi di più
Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside

Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside

We're loving our new collection of Edwardian cartoons capturing a slice of life on the North Wales coast around Anglesey, Llandudno and Rhyl in 1912–13
Leggi di più
Laure Junot, Who Shaped the Napoleonic Era

Laure Junot, Who Shaped the Napoleonic Era

New this week, we have a beautiful charcoal drawing with an intriguing identity that takes us to the very heart of Napoleonic France
Leggi di più
A Picturesque View

A Picturesque View

Our new collection of picturesque views in the Peak District and North Wales 1832
Leggi di più
La Cisternazza

La Cisternazza

This interesting view at Etna around 1837, by landscape painter James Bridges (1799–1865), shows the crater 'La Cisternazza', which formed dramatically when the top part of Etna collapsed during the 1797 eruption
Leggi di più
Vienna Secession Ex Libris

Vienna Secession Ex Libris

We have enjoyed this week listing a fabulously stylish collection of ex libris relating to the Vienna Secession movement, featuring designs by some of the leading graphic artists of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century
Leggi di più
The Thames on Celluloid

The Thames on Celluloid

Maria Hampshire Eaton (1862–1944) was a woman seemingly ahead of her time: awarded a medal by the South Kensington Schools, relocating to Canada for a period in the 1880s and by 1901 describing herself as an 'artist photographer [on her] own acc[ount]'
Leggi di più
Philatelic History

Philatelic History

Newly listed, these entertaining hand-illustrated envelopes of philatelic interest
Leggi di più
Picture of the Month: October 2023

Picture of the Month: October 2023

S&W Picture of the Month is by one of the most significant artists to have hailed from the Channel Islands
Leggi di più
British India

British India

I'd love to know more about the hand behind our new collection of caricatures of the British Raj
Leggi di più
Souvenir of Naples

Souvenir of Naples

From our new collection of works, 'Souvenir of Naples', are these jewel-like renderings of the frescoes at Pompeii by a local early 19th-century artist
Leggi di più