#Antique #curtains #draw #bidders #Antique #Collecting
A rare pair of antique 18th/19th-century curtains drew in the bidders and sold for an impressive hammer of £13,000 in a North Yorkshire salesroom.
The Palampore decorative curtains were formerly in the family collection of the Late Robert Bogdan of Barra Castle, Aberdeen, and were one of many examples of textiles from the estate sold in Tennants Auctioneers’ recent Fashion, Costume and Textiles Sale.
Palampore textiles were handmade in India, often on the Coromandel Coast, predominantly for the export market and they commonly featured complex patterns rich with plants, flowers and animals. Made with fragile, lightweight fabric, very few examples from the period survive today, leading to the fierce bidding battle for the present pair.
Robert Bogdan (1950-2023), who in 2019 became the chairman of the Scottish Castles Association, loved nothing better in his retirement from teaching at Charterhouse than to scramble over the wilder parts of Scotland looking for castle ruins and Scottish tower houses. Through his mother, he was descended from the Aberdeenshire Lairds of Drum, Kemnay, Straloch and Barra, and for nearly four decades the Bogdan family lived in Barra Castle in Aberdeenshire. The collection consisted of textiles accumulated by his Scottish and Russian ancestors.
Further notable lots from his collection included a large 18th-century Kashmir cream wool shawl, woven with a red and pink paisley pattern, which sold for £4,200, a pair of William Morris ‘tulip and rose’ pattern curtains, hammering at £1,500; an 18th-century floral embroidered bed cover, which sold at £950; and a group of early 20th-century Indian and Ottoman textiles, which fetched £1,000.
Elsewhere in the sale, an early 20th-century Chinese red silk robe sold for £4,800, two late 19th-century bathing costumes sold for £750, and a Brussels lace wedding veil fetched £750.
Also on offer in the sale were items from the collection of Peta Smyth, a leading London dealer in antique textiles who has closed the doors of her famed Pimlico shop after 45 years in the business, having counted amongst her illustrious clientele the most sought-after interior designers and top collectors. Notable results were achieved for the likes of a collection of late 18th/early 19th-century crewelwork and embroidery remnants, which sold at £750.
