The eye of the connoisseur

The late Philip Astley-Jones collected 'the quirky and the humble, as well as the grand', and the sale of some of his paintings, small bronzes and furniture didn't disappoint

- Huon Mallalieu

THE two Philips, Hewat-Jaboor and Astley-Jones, were business partners for two decades from 1979 when they left Sotheby's, running highly respected furniture restorer Hatfields. The business originated in 1834 and clients have included the Royal Collection, the Louvre in France, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the Frick in New York, US, the Wallace in London W1 and the collecting Gettys. Naturally, the Philips were themselves collectors and, as importantly, connoisseurs. Hewat-Jaboor died in 2022 (I mentioned his sale in COUNTRY LIRE, February 21, 2024) and Astley-Jones in 2021; a selection from the contents of his home on the Northamptonshire-Oxfordshire border was offered at Dreweatts on April 9.

In one of two catalogue essays, his life partner of four decades, the private jeweller Johnnie Lloyd Morgan, wrote that: 'If anyone can have half the fun that he had in collecting and half the fun that I had in watching a life-enhancing genius at work, then both of us will be enormously pleased.' He collected 'the quirky and the humble as well as the grand' and, literally on his deathbed, noticed an item in a catalogue that he had to have. The second essay was by Wolf Burchard, formerly a curator at the National Trust and Royal Collection and currently of the Metropolitan Museum, New York. In a similar vein, he recalled 'a pal and a mentor', whose 'generous character combined extraordinary energy and irreverence with kindness and a solid devotion to the enjoyment of life'.