How did The Egham Museum acquire their collection? The Trust’s Chairman, Vivian Bairstow, recalls the story…
At a Trustees’ meeting of The Egham Museum Trust (TEMT) on 18th August, 1983, the acquisition of 36 Hassell watercolours by TEMT was discussed.
They had been painted by father and son, John (1767-1825) and Edward Hassell (1811-1852), with the father’s being dated 1821, 1822 and 1824 (plus one undated), and the son’s 1828 and 1830, giving an incomparable record of local significant buildings. 23 depict buildings in Egham, 11 in Englefield Green and 2 of Frimley. The collection, offered for sale as below, also included a further painting by an unknown artist.
Mavis Collier, a TEMT Trustee and Egham-by-Runnymede Historical Society (EbRHS) Newsletter Editor, had been alerted by local resident, Lady Harmsworth to the sale by Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co. of the single auction lot 35 on 7th July, 1983 with a pre-sale estimate of £800-£1,200 (plus buyer’s premium and VAT thereon) and happily, following my application, we were able to benefit from grants of 50% from the Purchase Grant Fund administered by the Victoria & Albert Museum and 25% from the National Art-Collections Fund (later The Art Fund) (NACF), obviously meaning that we had to find 25%, which TEMT did not have!
Fellow Trustee, Ron Davis and I attended the auction in London and as a result of taking advice from another auctioneer, we sat two-thirds of the way back next to a central aisle with a direct line of vision to the auctioneer.
Interestingly, we had also been told that, besides not showing any keenness lest others might consider the paintings to be more valuable, we should join the auction only three-quarters of the way through so that those wanting them on the cheap would have fallen by the wayside. Just think of how difficult it would be to know when you are three-quarters of the way through the bidding?
After 20 seconds, they were knocked down to us at £1,700 plus buyer’s premium (at only 10% in those pre-auctioneers’ avarice days) and VAT, producing a total payable of £1,892.50.
Over the weekend of 22nd to 24th July, I produced all the appeal letters to raise ‘our quarter’ as well as publicise the appeal in 4 local newspapers and in the EbRHS Newsletter. Happily, the appeal produced a combined total of £2,792, which meant that we had yet again been supported by the local community in a successful public appeal, by over £1,300.
Incidentally, I had negotiated a loan from our bank for the full purchase price so fortuitously we were able to repay this!
A celebratory reception was held in the Literary Institute on 21st October to which all donors were invited and which c.300 attended, to include a representative of NACF and Dr. Moss as below, both of whom made presentations. On 5th November, we put all the Hassells on display in a special viewing at the Museum.
The surplus funds we were given were spent on appeal and reception expenses, producing two postcard runs, and mounting in acid-free board and framing, after quality photographs were taken.
Our acquisition attracted a lot of attention outside Egham and in 1984, our Hassells were included in a definitive work on all Surrey Hassells by James Batley and Dr. Gerard Moss (see Surrey Archaeological Collections Vol.75) wherein 7 Egham, 4 Englefield Green and 18 Thorpe paintings by the same hands were also included, all out of a total of 2,164 Surrey Hassells then known. Incidentally, Virginia Water was regarded by the Hassells as being part of Egham and indeed some of ours include that location.
In 1986, Dr. Moss let me know that he had found a previously unknown collection of 13 Egham and 8 Thorpe Hassells. One wonders how many more have been later discovered.
The paintings are a wonderful record of local architecture which was obviously the prime objective of the Hassells to portray, as all scenes are devoid of any animation. They remain a vital part of the TEMT collection saved for future generations.
More information on the acquisition can be found in Egham-by-Runnymede Historical Society’s Newsletter 181 dated November 1983.