Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Signed copy. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Although many objects were bought privately (Roger had a very good reputation for paying a fair price) buying trips to the North of England to visit other dealers took place regularly often taking up to two weeks. There were good country house sales to attend. Roger had a fondness for going to Herefordshire and Wales rather than the east; preferring to set off somewhere with the sun behind him. A small red spiral notebook was kept on all buying trips with purchases recorded notes made to refer to at breaktast the next day and purchases to be considered. Whether a buying trip or a house sale all these expeditions for stock were amazing adventures. Particular interest was taken in house sale catalogues. If the kitchen retained its mangle and other Victorian equipment one could fairly assume that the house was probably untouched and therefore might contain some other interesting lots. I remember one sale being disapproved of because the library of the house had paperback books in it. ‘Not a real house as these cheap books should never be in a library I was told. It is no exaggeration to say that Roger Warner’s shop was a Who’s Who of mid-rwentieth century society. There were regular visits from Peter Wilson chairman of Sotheby’s; John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster; Bruce Chatwin; Christopher Gibbs; Blenheim Palace house parties and a host of famous people all of whom came to delve into drawers containing everything from a mummified Egyptian cat to Queen Victoria’s bloomers. Quite often on a Saturday the shop was littered with eighteenth-century clothes damask banqueting cloths and disintegrating silk patchwork quilts that took hours to fold away at the end of the day. At Roger Warner’s you were almost always guaranteed to find a treasure. To condense into few words five years of being employed by Roger Warner and over thirty years of friendship is very difficult. They were splendid and exciting days. I can still hear him almost clinching a sale saying in his sharply-clipped voice: “Costing you…” or ‘1 have never seen one before. His generosity in sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm will never be forgotten by all who knew him. (LL)