Alastair Catalogue Intro

Meeting Robert was for me always an adventure. First in the Lake District, which was his wife Helen’s home country: there I came to know, over a long Easter weekend, the essence of Robert. I saw his acute observation of nature, the perfect arrangement of flowers and his profound affection for inanimate objects which brought them alive to those with him. This Cherobino-like figure turned out, over the next thirty years, to be in possession of gifts different from any other person.

Robert was incapable of explaining his work. This work was, as with every great artist, a reflection of himself. The many interviews he gave, contained no clue of his method, since there was no method. He wrote no instructions, and could not read his own writing. His teaching was to encourage disciples to follow his lead. Much of his character could be gleaned when he told me, not how to do it but, where his gift came from: he boasted of nothing but his mother’s eye and the influence of her mother’s furniture.

Men and Women of discernment trusted him in the exercise of his genius. In his dealings with clients, he had no ulterior motive, only to provide for them what they had not known they wanted. It was the same with his and Helen’s hospitality: we received gratefully what entirely suited.

If I endeavour now to remember him clearly, I think of his rooms in Docker Nook, Museum Street, the Old Village Hall and our many travels together. He loved to share his enthusiasm, his favourite spots, waterfalls, views, mounds of stone, stone circles, protestant Graveyards in Ireland. Discovering new things together, however, was for him particularly enchanting – on St Stephen’s Day, in Seville we discovered a house that had been a Jewish Synagogue, a Moorish household and a Church: he loved that co-existence. 

At the continental fairs, with Min Hogg and I helplessly blundering alongside to assist, he was all speed and sureness in acquisition; and it is this wonderfully exceptional and memorable collection over decades that is in this Sale."

Auction Details

Auction details TBC