TAS Kington Langley visit a Private Collection

Visit to a Private Collection

TASKL has been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit a local collection and hear the stories behind each well-loved object.

Loving art, heritage, architecture and being very curious, over 50 of us were welcomed for 5 charity tours of the collection.

Money raised from our donations will be split between Doorway, a charity working with the homeless, and Well Boring, a Chippenham based charity providing water wells in Africa.

We had two wonderful hours initially in the garden, looking at the architecture, hearing about the past archaeological digs in the gardens, which unearthed Roman remains and why the windows were bricked up – and it wasn’t in response to the window tax!

Coffee and pastries followed in the kitchen, where different objects were pointed out and discussed – ceramics, a black & white photograph of Picasso by Lee Miller, a gloriously decorated Renaissance brass charger used as a backsplash to the cooker, the intriguing provenance on the back of a painting and coffee served from a striking 1960s Portmeirion coffee service.

In the sitting room were paintings, antique guns, prehistoric artefacts, tables groaning with books and bronzes and then a hidden staircase protected by an incised Tudor witch’s mark.

The hall brought more beautiful things to our attention – more paintings, ceramics, and an interesting 19th century chair made entirely from gun parts.

The library was full of shelves, cabinets full of pre-historic artefacts, sculptures and a Japanese Samurai armour in an alcove. We were treated to stories about how they came to the collection, interesting facts and speculation, as we feasted our eyes on such an eclectic cornucopia of unusual items.

Finally, in the dining room we heard tales from the world of auctions and the thrill of making astute collecting choices over the years.

A lovely way to spend a couple of hours on a Friday morning with the firmly planted idea of heading to an auction room soon!