How to bring Grand Tour style to your home: buy from a collector at auction
02 October 2023 Want to be inspired by a Grand Tour style? Head to Notting Hill for a preview of an outstanding collection.
Collector and dealer Peter Hone's home in Notting Hill. Photo: Lay’s Auctioneers.
Collector and dealer Peter Hone is selling more than 335 lots from his home with the help of Cornish auction house Lay’s (following a previous sale at Christie’s in 2016).
Hone's collection – a treasure trove of classical friezes, Grand Tour discoveries, textiles and drawings – comes to auction in Cornwall but is on view in Hone’s Notting Hill home.
The logistics of the Lay’s sale are unorthodox: rather than remove any of the lots from his flat, viewings will take place in situ with the owner in residence to charm and entertain his visitors.
Collector and dealer Peter Hone in his Notting Hill home. Photo: Lay’s Auctioneers.
Hone is one of London’s great characters and well known for managing Lord Jacob Rothschild’s architectural antiques shop in Little Venice where he became a master-plaster-caster.
Viewings run from today until October 10 with 45-minute slots available via Lay’s website.
The Peter Hone: The London Collection Tranche II sale will take place in Lay’s Penzance saleroom on October 12.
Among the lots are:
A painted plaster sculpture of a bacchante dancing with cymbals by John Gibson (1790-1866), estimated at £2000-3000.
An alabaster Grand Tour replica of the Medici vase, estimated at £2500-3500.
A set of Georgian knives and forks with Worcester blue and white handles (12 of each) in a fish-skin covered cutlery box estimated at £3000-4000.
