A mahogany chest of seemingly royal lineage has found its way to Biddle & Webb Auctioneers, Birmingham. Relatively unassuming at first glance, the box appears to be a typical example of a Georgian brass bound campaign chest. However, upon further inspection a fascinating history is revealed. Engraved into the corner plaques are four time-worn inscriptions:…
Category: history
The Beauty & The Bear
The Cartier brand is synonymous with luxury and expense, but alongside their classic, timeless and sophisticated designs, they have also made their fair share of novelty jewellery. Biddle & Webb are delighted to be offering a 1960s example of this whimsical side to Cartier. Not only are we auctioning a piece from a top quality…
Probate Training
Throughout my training in probate valuations I have gained a breadth of experience working in a professional environment, I have been surprised by the sheer variety of contents belonging to estates from war medals and Royal Mint Jubilee coins to tractors and rotavators. I started my training through shadowing Jeremy and Ellie, both enhancing and…
TO THE FUTURE!
James Quarterman I’m in my third and final year of undergraduate study, where I have specialised in the history of artworks produced in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Italy and Northern Europe, and nineteenth-century European capitals (with a bit of twentieth/twenty-first century British and American modern art on the side). These periods of art history have always…
The REP’s Grand Costume Sale
Birmingham Repertory Theatre is one of the most important and influential theatres in the history of the English stage. In 2017, The REP embarked on an ambitious fundraising campaign called REP First, which aims to raise £1million. Funds raised will go towards staging new productions, offering more training opportunities and welcoming more participants and audiences…
Christmas Picks
Stuck for gift ideas, or feel like treating yourself? Biddle & Webb’s 9th December Interiors auction has a fantastic array of jewellery, fine art, antiques and collectibles that would make the perfect gift to yourself or a loved one this festive season. Here are our top ten prezzie ideas: Lot: 1 How about this elegant…
My Childhood Memories
I was born in 1962 four years after Biddle and Webb was started by my Dad Ernie Biddle and his business partner the mysterious Mr Webb. Mum used to say I was their lucky charm. Up until 1962 life was tough but following the thaw of that biblical winter the business started to leap forward….
A History of Harborne
Biddle & Webb Auctioneers are proud of our Brummie heritage; based in the heart of the city for the past 60 years, we are keen advocates of the area – as well as the accent. We regularly enjoy hosting a number of free valuation events across the West Midlands – meeting local people, valuing local…
Do we need The History of Art?
As a History of Art graduate I have always had an interest in art’s relationship with social history. It is easy to mistake the History of Art as a discipline which favours the academic study of painting above and beyond other modes of artistic output, but this is simply not the case. The knick-knacks in…