Robert Kime Sale Smashes Expectations, Raising 9.6 Million Pounds
HOME, SWEET HOME: The antique textiles, furniture, paintings and objects which for decades adorned interior designer Robert Kime’s homes in London and Provençe raised 9.6 million pounds at auction last week, according to Dreweatts auctioneers.
The pre-sale estimate for “Robert Kime: The Personal Collection,” was 1.2 million pounds. More than 900 lots went under the hammer during the three-day auction from Oct. 4 to 6.
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Kime had amassed his eclectic collection over 30 years during his travels through the U.K., Europe, and the Middle East. The pieces on sale ranged from an ancient Athenian kylix to a silk embellished glove that had belonged to King Charles I and a large, rare bezoar stone dating from the 16th or 17th century.
Bezoar stones, found in the stomachs of some animals, were once believed powerful enough to counteract poison and were highly prized by royal courts and the nobility.
Dreweatts said that bidding was “extremely competitive” with thousands of bidders from Europe, Asia and the U.S. competing for the lots in the auction room, by phone and online.
The top lot was the Elizabethan-era “Portrait of a Man With Pickaxe and a Spade in a Landscape,” which Dreweatts described as a “firm favorite” of Kime’s. The English School 16th century oil painting was sold to a U.S. buyer on the telephone for 500,200 pounds against an estimate of up to 15,000 pounds.
A watercolor and pencil landscape by the artist Eric Ravilious titled “New Year Snow” was another top lot. Signed by the artist and carrying an estimate between 100,000 pounds and 150,000 pounds, it went to a private buyer on the telephone for 350,200 pounds.
Kime, who died last summer aged 76, was famous for being King Charles’ favorite decorator, the man who designed the interiors of Charles’ Highgrove country estate in Gloucestershire, England, and Clarence House in London’s St. James’s, where Charles and Camilla have lived for the past 20 years.
Kime honed his aesthetic over a lifetime, exploring the world with the eyes of an historian, archaeologist, artist and poet. He began collecting objects at the age of five, and was dealing in antiques from his rooms when he was an undergraduate studying medieval history at Oxford.
He would go on to design his own textiles based on meticulous historical research, open a shop on Ebury Street in London, and write numerous books detailing his passions and projects for clients.
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