1895: The Celebrated Case of the Cheyne Walk Coterie and the Drawings That Went to the Wrong Auction
Chelsea and Bond Street
A collection of drawings—private, intimate, executed with considerable technical skill and absolutely no sense of the consequences of their existence—was consigned by error to a Bond Street auction house in 1895 among the effects of the late Mr. F——, whose executor had, by his own subsequent account, not examined the portfolio’s contents before dispatching it. The auction house catalogued the collection under “Studies, figure, various,” which is the sort of description that attracts exactly the type of buyer least desirable in the circumstances. The sale was halted forty minutes before it was due to begin by the arrival of two gentlemen who represented, respectively, a family whose son appeared in the drawings and a gentleman of substantial means who appeared in rather more of them. The portfolio was purchased privately, at a price that the auction house considered more than satisfactory and that both purchasers considered rather less than they had feared. The drawings were destroyed—all of them, both parties confirmed, though they confirmed this to each other and no one subsequently checked.
The executor maintains he knew nothing. Those who know the executor maintain he knew perfectly well, and priced accordingly.
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