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Thursday 26 April 2012

Fitzwilliam Museum Heist & Tennants Auction

Totally unrelated I hasten to say! The bad news is that thieves broke into the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and made off with items valued at a staggering £18 million. The good news is that no samplers were on the hit list. But it does raise the question again about how safe items are in museums. Tennants of Leyburn have textiles for auction this weekend. There are not so many samplers, but two are interesting.
This first is a long Spanish sampler - Lot 1239 with an estimate of £120-£180. The name is largely missing, but one might guess that it is Anamarya. It is dated 1841.
The second is English, probably from the borders, worked by Elizabeth Lily in her tenth year and dated 1725. Unfortunately there are a number of candidate Elizabeth Lillys around the country.
It is lot 1243 and has an estimate of £250-£350. To see more auction items, just click here.

3 comments:

  1. El texto de la pieza de origen español parece que dice: "Lo hizo Ana María ..... y criado Hija de Don Esteban Espejo y de Doña Francisca Dolores. Criada y dirigida por Doña Ana María de Lara en la villa del Río en el año 1841".

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  2. there was also a targeted robbery at the oriental museum in durham a few weeks back (the items were recovered, but the thieves actually smashed a hole through the museum wall to get in) from whaat I can gather they were quite similar artefacts. I wouldn't be surprised if the two were connected, its probably a chinese based crime ring, I gather theres a big demand now for thier own art

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  3. Thank you very much for clarifying the Spanish text - and for your updates on the museum robbery - but goodness, a hole in a museum wall!

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