Vogue, Marit Allen
With the recent highly publicised auction of the Yves Saint Laurent Collection making front page headlines, here at Rosebery's we held an auction which included selected items belonging to ex Vogue Fashion Editor Marit Allen, Vogue 1964 - 1973.
From working as fashion assistant on Queen Magazine in 1961 and then moving to Vogue in 1964 Marit Allen was lured to Vogue, where a young Daivd Bailey and Jean Shrimpton were forging their partnership and a new magazine was emerging. Marit developed the 'Young Ideas' pages championing young fashion designers and formed lasting relationships with a host of talented designers, such as Marion Foale, Zandra Rhodes, Barbara Hulanicki and Bill Gibb and amoung them Sally Tuffin, who she worked with in later life to design patterns for ceramics.
Examples of these works can be were seen in this auction, with Lot 78, Ladies of Fashion Figures, where Allen helped in the designing of the dresses.
Lot 78: Two Dennis China Works Figurines, designed by Robert Mitchell, circa 1985.
Sold for £250.
Later on in Marit's carrer, in 1973 when the director Nicolas Roeg asked her to design the costumes for Julie Christie in the film 'Don't Look Now', Marit Allen soon established herself as a prolific costume designer for the film industry working on about 40 films, and was nominated for a Bafta and two Emmy Awards.
She worked designing costumes for films, such as 'Stalin' (1992), 'The Secret Garden' (1993), 'Dead Man' (1995), Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999) and 'La Vie en Rose' (2007) and the Oscar winning 'Brokeback Mountain' (2005).
Other notable items from the Marit Allen collection include Lot 1363, an American Tiffany & Co style gilt bronze six light lily table lamp, bought in New York in the 1970's; Lot 80, a pair of Lalique plates; Lot 1771, an Arts & Crafts Liberty's style, oak sideboard and a quantity of Moorcroft and Dennis China pottery designed by Sally Tuffin.
Also included in this auction from other private consignor's were Lot 30, a Pablo Picasso plate; Lot 1349, a set of three polished steel fire irons, deisgned by Charles Voysey, with direct provenance from his work at the White Cottage, Lyford Road, Wandsworth, London.
Lot 1349: A set of three Charles Francis Annesley Voysey steel fire irons.
Sold for £3,400.
Also include were Lot 569, a Cartier brooch and Lot 320, a rare set of silver postal scales.
Lot 320: A late Victorian silver postal scales by Samuel Mordan & Co, circa 1897.
Sold for £1,600.
One of the losts in this auction that tells a happy story was Lot 8, an impressive 1920's Art Deco Poole Pottery vase, which was discovered by it's vendor in his garden, and was about to be put on the dump, but the vendor is very pleased he brought it to our valuations expert, to be told it would be offered in an auction.
Lot 8: A Carter Stabler Adams Art Deco Poole Pottery Vase, circa 1920's, painted by Anne Hatchard.
Sold for £220.
