The sale by Dreweatts of Robert Kime's personal collection, drawn from his flat on Warwick Square and his French country house, La Gonette, is ending, and the decorating world is agog at the success it has achieved. The contents of Warwick Square, which occupied the first day of the sale, have almost all sold for wildly over their estimates, from the 16th/17th century bezoar with which we opened our 2018 story on the flat (est. £6,000-£10,000; sold for £32,000) to the early 17th-century painting of a man with a pickaxe (hiding behind the screen at the right of the image above), which was estimated at £10-15,000 and sold for an astonishing £400,000. As the sale finished its second day, the contents of La Gonette achieved similar triumphs: a squashy Howard & Sons sofa upholstered in cream damask went for £24,000 (est. £2,000-£4,000), and a 17th-century Flemish carved bench sold for £22,000 (est. £1,500-£2,500).
“It's extraordinary how the market picks up on authenticity,” says Will Fisher of Jamb, one of Robert Kime's fellow collectors and dealers on the Pimlico Road. “ Robert had an innate ability to form interiors with soul,” adds Joe Robinson, the Head of Sale at Dreweatts, “none more so than Warwick Square, which exudes a self-confidence and sense of place which has surely compelled so many bidders to try to capture something of his magic and seize this moment in history." “It’s had an air of celebrity about it; of people wanting their piece of Robert’s story," adds dealer and decorator Max Rollitt. “This was a man who had seen so many treasures, and had spent a lifetime collecting, sorting and arranging. The sale represented a lifetime’s work.” The success of the sale is in many ways reassuring to those who live and work in the same milieu as Robert, as Will remarks: “In a world where decorative arts are in danger of being shunned, it's good to know that people can still see the depth of the pool. It's hugely validating and uplifting for our industry.”
Will notes how the sale of a distinguished collection in one go tends to ignite passions more than the individual items themselves. “Everyone knows that Robert had a genius for putting things together, and this sale is a representation of that genius. Perhaps if you had put a single one of these paintings in a different sale, it would have been different, but one thing feeds off another in this context. The mystery of it all enters the ether.” He points to Christopher Gibbs' sale of the contents of his Oxfordshire manor house in 2000 at Christie's as a similar moment for collectors.
Pictures have been many of the stars of the show, with an Eric Ravilious watercolour (est. £100,000 - 150,000) achieving £280,000 and a 19th-century American oil painting of the Pyramid of Cheops (est. £4,000-£6,000) going for £70,000. The rugs which Robert famously put at the heart of his decorative schemes were also hugely successful, notably a 19th-century Persian Ziegler rug (est. £8,000-£12,000), which sold for £75,000. Other remarkable lots included a painted table by Duncan Grant, (est. £10,000 - 15,000, sold for £65,000) and a George I oak bookcase with handwritten labels still intact on the shelves (est £10,000 - 15,000, sold for £82,000).
“I had my eye on the George I oak bookcase that was originally in Houghton Hall,” says Max. “Robert had kept this bookcase in the same dry, untouched condition he’d bought it in, so there was still something of Houghton, as well as of Robert, in its story. It went for four times what I was prepared to pay for it – and I was bidding as a collector, not as a dealer/decorator. It would’ve been for keeps!” Many of Robert's fellow dealers and decorators were surely in a similar position. “I haven’t heard of any fellow decorators winning anything they were bidding on speculatively,” Max adds. “It was a collector’s sale, certainly. A sale for the fabulously wealthy.”
Among Robert's many distinguished projects was his work for the then-Prince Charles, for whom he redecorated Clarence House in 2003, as well as working on his country house in Highgrove. The connection with the royal family seems to have remained strong, as the current Prince and Princess of Wales are reported to have attended a private preview of the sale last week at Dreweatts headquarters near Newbury in Berkshire, not a million miles away from their home, Adelaide Cottage in Windsor.
Will points to the impressive achievement of the relatively small auction house Dreweatts in creating the level of global interest in the sale that has allowed it to perform so incredibly well. “It's amazing that a smaller saleroom can create this kind of international magic. There's the stardust of the man himself, of course, but you still need to shine a spotlight on it. These sorts of bids have to be drummed up on a global scale, not a local one, and the effort that everyone at Dreweatts has put in is reflected in the success. It feels like quite a definitive moment for them." “Dreweatts really stepped up to the mark with this sale,” emphasises Max. “Phenomenal press, a tome of a catalogue, the complete redecoration of their showrooms, and a series of really lovely events. It was a really bold move, but one that – from the outside at least – has proven hugely worthwhile.”
“People can read Robert's passion and his relationship with these objects, and they're moved by it," concludes Will. "It's to do with the man as much as with the objects themselves. These are iconic things that were part of his life, and they've been hidden from the market, some for 50 years or so. There's a pent-up energy in the buyers, it's like letting an excited horse out of the stable.”
See the sale as it continues through October 6 at dreweatts.com
