A chance to meet Ian Turner

Ian Turner has agreed to join a meeting of collectors prior to the sale at Christies, he will be giving additional background on the lots in the auction and answer your questions. For full details please go to the Ysart Glass Forum and let us know if you are going to come by replying to the announcement there. You do not need to register to reply to messages.

The Turner Collection

Perhaps the most astonishing news this site has yet carried: Ian Turner has decided to sell his entire collection of Ysart glass!

To be offered in this ‘single collection’ auction, by Christie’s, London, on 24th September, 2003 are approximately 300 items, including unique Monart pieces obtained from Paul Ysart’s personal collection. Sale of this collection by the most esteemed authority on the subject of Ysart and Monart glass is likely to be the event of the century for collectors!

Ian was inspired to start collecting Monart by Cyril Manley, and he obtained many important items from the Manley collection. His contribution to the world of glass collecting, as lead author of the book “Ysart Glass” which I published in 1990, as lecturer and advisor, and as the builder of such an extensive collection of Monart is beyond measure. As well, Ian has been most helpful behind the scenes with the creation of this website. Publicity and catalogues will be available later in the year.

Regarding the auction preparations, let me continue in Ian’s own words:

I shall be helping to compile the catalogue so that I can attach a provenance to all the important pieces. Every piece of mine that was in the “British Glass Between The Wars” exhibition at Broadfield House in 1987, the pieces in the “Art Of Glass” exhibition at Sunderland Art Gallery in 1996, all the pieces from Cyril Manley’s collection that I bought privately in 1985, and all the pieces that I bought from the two Parkington Sales (over 50 pieces!) will be sold, nearly 300 pieces in all, including all my lamps.

I shall identify all the pieces illustrated in Manley’s “Decorative Victorian Glass”, in “Ysart Glass” and in published articles in “Antique Collecting’ and the ‘Glass Collectors’ Digest’ of America. All the pieces that I acquired privately from Paul, including the ‘Monart Vase’ paperweight with his personal labels, will also be sold and separately identified.