A series of charming watercolours depicting life on a prosperous Essex farmstead in the Victorian era come for sale at Sworders this month.
9 March 2022
The album of evocative images showing scenes from Rollestone Farm was created by the amateur artist and poet Mary Ann Alexander (1815-1913), the daughter of an Ipswich banker. She titled it simply 'My Homes and Friends'.
Mary Ann Alexander was born in 1815 at Goldrood House, Belstead into a prominent Quaker family. Her father was Samuel Alexander, a partner in the banking business Alexander & Co., of Ipswich.
Goldrood House (now part of St Joseph’s College) remained the family home in the mid 19th century and Mary had recorded her life there in similar ways, painting a volume of drawings and poems now known as The Goldrood Book.
Sworders’ album 'My Homes and Friends' similarly depicts the daily goings-on at the Rollestone Farm where the Alexanders moved in the 1850s. The 21 watercolour views, painted in Mary’s naïve but observant style, include the farmhouse, the garden with gardener and children, a farm wagon unloading in a barn; room interiors complete with the latest in fashionable furniture and china; bee skeps in a summer garden and cheesemaking in a dairy with its racks of blue and white pottery. They are accompanied by a 22-page handwritten account by Mary, including stanzas of poetry, that is dated September 1864'.
This fine example of East Anglian social history will be offered for sale in the Fine Interiors auction on March 22-23 with a guide of £800-1200.
A major highlight of our forthcoming 'DREAMS | A Unique Private Collection' sale on 9 July is a remarkable archive of letters and manuscripts by John Ruskin (1819–1900), the celebrated Victorian polymath. This unparalleled group – numbering in the hundreds – is believed to be the largest collection of Ruskin correspondence in private hands and spans a vast range of topics from art and architecture to politics, religion, and personal reflection.
2 July 2025
'The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz' - also known as 'The Bagh-i-Muattar' - quickly caught the attention of our book specialists, when a copy bound in full vellum was brought in by a local client to our weekly valuation day.
2 July 2025
We are thrilled to launch The Glass Sale - a brand-new addition to our auction calendar! The inaugural sale will take place on Tuesday 28 October and will become a biannual fixture in our calendar going forward.
20 June 2025