Christie's Auction Preview

The Wharton Club of London sponsored an evening viewing of a collection of art that is soon be auctioned off by Christie's, the world-famous auction house.  The collection included numerous Degas sculptures, and paintings by Picasso, Monet, and Renoir.  Most intriguing to me was the large collection of Picasso pottery -- I never knew he did pottery.  The Renoir painting in the auction is expected to sell for $18 - $25 million, and it is spectacular.

Two impressions (pun intended) that I came away with:

1. Most of these works are coming from private collections, and will probably be sold to private collections, so this preview may have been the only opportunity in decades to see them displayed to the public.  The curator referred to the Renoir as 'the kind of painting that changes hands once every 50 years.'

2. I asked the curator about how many works of major artists are in private collections, vs. how many are in museums.  By her estimate, only 30% of Renoir's known works are in museums, and 70% are in private hands.

Ally Pally

Alexandra Palace is a...well, it's hard to explain exactly what it is...in North London.  It was built in 1873 and promptly burned to the ground less than three weeks after it opened.  It has been a concert hall featuring The Grateful Dead, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and the Kinks.  It currently houses an ice skating rink, a restaurant, and remains a concert hall.  For the 2012 Olympics, it will house the Dutch Olympic team, presumably on the ice rink.  Ally Pally is surrounded by a large park that includes a boating lake.

 A shining city on a hill..

 Iconic BBC broadcasting aerial.  Still in use (has been featured in Dr. Who).  The tower was used in WWII to broadcast jamming signals to the German bombers.  It it said that these jamming signals caused 75% of German raids to be unsuccessful.

 Pretty good view of central London

 Ummm...ok

 "Ven papa was captured by de British, dey kept him prisoner at a real palace!"

 Rose window was blown out by a German bomb during WWII.

 South entrance

 South entrance

 Collonnade

 So let's go inside to the Palm Court.

 Not quite the Palm Court of the Ritz, but has it's own charm.

 A Palm Court requires palms.  So here they are.

 2) These columns are:
a) Doric
b) Ionic
c) Fine Corinthian Leather

 Naturally there must be a sphinx

 Emergency backup sphinx

 That's really an impressive barrel vault

 It's nickname is the People's Palace, which was to be the original name.  It eventually took it's name from Princess Alexandra (the Denmark one), who was married to King Edward VII and was the mother of George V.

Nessie boats on the lake.

Chelsea Flower Show 2012

People come from all over the world to see the Chelsea Flower Show.  I bought the tickets four months in advance.  Weather was as good as it gets in London.

I lasted two hours.  Just not my bag of potting soil.

 I got to the show at 8am on the final day.  Walked right in (Brits are not morning people).  By the time I left at 10, there was a 30-minute line just to get in the front gate.

 Prize-winning Show Garden.  Show Gardens are where professionals set up landscapes with a theme.  They can spend over $400,000 on a display that is up for one week.

 Another show garden.  This one came in second.

 Psychedelic sea creatures

I would have voted for this one

 John Deere booth at the flower show

 People in London don't have lawns

Deere - the Royal lawnmower

What every Londoner needs

 Show garden on a QR Code theme

 Inevitable and unavoidable

I really like this garden of fountains

 This show garden is something like five stories tall.  There's a lift to the top, and a fun slide to get down.

 Royal corgi

those are lions and unicorns, symbols of the royal family

 More corgis

 Lion with a yellow mane

Another show garden

Show garden

Battersea power station












By 10am the crowds were getting too thick for me to bother.  A quick pass through the judging tent, and then on my way.

Diamond Jubilee Boat Parade

My friend Noreen had a spare ticket for a seat aboard a tourist boat, Millennium Dawn, and offered it to me. For an undisclosed sum, we got a bagel and chips and water.  From a dock at the Tower Bridge, we cruised up the Thames to our final vantage point at the bottom of the London Eye.  Then the parade began.

In fine English tradition, these people have been queueing for 60 years.

Tall ships

Tugboat

 More tall ships

 Speaks for itself

 Well-wishers

 More well-wishers

Not sure about this one...

Crowds along the embankment

Party boats

Not a party boat

   This is our boat

Eight new bells from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry

 Each bell is named after a member of the royal family

Leading the rowboats

Long oars

Rowboats

The river is thick with rowboats

Rowboats

Traffic jam

Look close for Three Men in a Boat

Welsh flowers

Boats from around the Commonwealth

 Welsh sheep

Here come the dragon boats

 

 Dragon boats

 Natives from the Commonwealth

New Zealand represents

Viking invasion resumes

 That's style

 Orchestra

A boat from each nation in the Commonwealth

Royal trumpeters up front

The Royal Barge in your front page shot

 Kate, William, Elizabeth, Camilla, Philip

Charles joins in up front

Kate is winking at me

See ya later!

At the front are Prince Andrew and, I think, Princess Beatrice.

London leaders

Her Majesty's Brass Band

The Dunkirk Little Boats were used in the evacuation of Dunkirk in WWII.  They are all allowed to fly the cross of St George on their prow.

 Pipers

Someone needs a two

Our favorite boat

 World's largest photo of the Royal Family.

PwC office from the river

Going under an open Tower Bridge

 Sail Alley, beyond Tower Bridge

 Sail Alley

Sail Alley

All the tour boats joined the end of the parade

Amazing we avoided a (serious) collision

Fireboat

Best wishes from the Corgis.