Who am I?
Friday, 4th July 2008
This is an extract from an Apollo interview with a well-known collector and art-world figure. A copy of our 2007 Book of the Year, James Stourton's Great Collectors of Our Time (Scala) will be won by the first reader to identify the interviewee. For your chance to win, email your answer to offers@apollomag.com using 'Collectors' as the subject of your email. (A clue is at the bottom of the extract).
I was born in the Home Counties, in Kent. As I grew up I was strongly influenced by a father who was a literary man but who imbued me with an enthusiasm for the natural world. I collected butterflies, which I still have, and moths – I had a mercury vapour moth trap. I used to do duck counts on Sherborne Castle lake in Dorset. I was interested in wild flowers and particularly British and wild orchids. I was fascinated by fossils; I have quite a large collection of fossils which I should be delighted to show you, if you are interested. As a boy I drew indefatigably, and painted and won all my art prizes at school, both at prep school and public school. The last prize I won at Sherbourne was Francis Haskell's Patrons and Painters. When I was still a boy I wrote to (Sir) John Hale, who was then a don at Oxford, complaining about the errors in one of his books, and I had an interesting correspondence with him. I then collected ceramics from the age of 14 or 15 – broken or little pieces – and I started collecting New Hall because it was meant to be such an easy recognizable factory. In fact I didn't recognize it properly and I had about five different factories in my collection. I then discovered that to buy a perfect cup and saucer of a decent English factory was quite expensive so I started to collect soft-paste French porcelain - Mennecy, Saint Cloud, Chantilly. I discovered that I could actually find Old Master drawings for a very few pounds, so I started collecting them instead. At the age of about 17 Jim Byam Shaw from Colnaghi's came down to see us and value my father's pictures and he also valued my collection of drawings. As they were estimated at much more than I had paid for them, my father gave me £100 to encourage me and spend exclusively on drawings, and that was a splendid catalyst.
Clue: The interviewee was appointed Director of the National Galleries of Scotland in 1984.
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