Memento of the king who gave up his crown

THE story of Edward VIII reads like an episode from a royal soap opera. During his 325-day reign, from January to December 1936, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American divorcee Wallis Simpson and abdicating in favour of his brother, George VI.

He was stationed with the British Military Mission to France at the start of the second world war, but moved to The Bahamas as governor after accusations by politicians that he harboured pro-Nazi sympathies.

As Duke of Windsor he wrote his own version of events, A King’s Story, and a very rare example goes under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent’s selected picture sale on Friday, October 23.

The book was published in a limited print run of 250, and of those 20 copies bore a unique letter, between A and T. The Cirencester auction house will be selling copy F, which is inscribed and signed ‘To George and Florence Allen, With Best Wishes, Edward, Nov 1951’.

George Allen was the solicitor who arranged Wallace Simpson’s divorce, and the lot comes with a Christmas card signed ‘Edward’ and ‘Wallis Windsor’ from the Chateau de la Croe, their home on the French Riviera.

The lot also includes facsimile copies of photographs of Mr and Mrs Allen with the Duke and Duchess, and is being sold on behalf of the Allen family, with an estimate of £2,000 to £3,000.

Of far less monetary value, but no less interesting, is a travel journal by an author we know only as C W Budden. Exactly 100 years ago Budden and his wife spent their summer holiday traveling around Argyll in a horse-drawn caravan.

Budden’s handwritten record – With a Caravan in the Highlands – features lovely scenic watercolours, black and white photographs – some of which have been over-painted – maps, and schematics of the caravan.

“It’s an amazing record of a holiday and life in Scotland in 1909, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” enthused auctioneer Philip Allwood. “With the schematics, maps and attention to detail it’s ripe for some TV production company to buy the book, build the caravan and retrace his steps.” It carries an estimate of £500 to £800.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a picture sale without pictures, and among the best is an almost life-sized portrait of a Breton fishwife carrying a basket of sardines, in the Newlyn School style, by Middleton Jameson, RA.

Dated 1902, the oil on canvas measures 4ft by 3ft and graces the cover of the sale catalogue. Auctioneers expect it to achieve between £3,000 and £5,000.

On a sea-faring theme, a naïve study of St Augustine’s Parade in Bristol by Edwin J Pegrum, features boats and a paddle steamer at the quayside and commands an estimate of £1,000 to £1,500, whilst the watercolour Low Tide at Dell Quay, March 11 1946, by Sir William Russell Flint is typical of the artist with, in the words of the auctioneer, “a wonderful sense of free draftsmanship.” It is expected to achieve between £2,000 and £3,000.

The sale encapsulates nearly 500 years of art history. Among the oldest pictures in the sale is The Hustings, an oil on panel from the 17th century Flemish School in the manner of David Teniers, which features a figure standing on a bench reading to an assembled crowd. It is expected to achieve between £500 and £800.

And among the most modern is a working for Marriage of Heaven and Hell, by the abstract expressionist Gerald Wilde, who spent his final years in the Cotswold village of Sherborne, not far from the auction house.

The silkscreen print, measuring 80cms by 105cms, is signed and dated 1975, and was given to the present owners by the artist. It carries an estimate of £300 to £500.

The sale starts at 10am. A full catalogue is available online at www.mooreallen.co.uk/furniturefinearts

With a Caravan in the Highlands	A Breton fishwife carrying a basket of sardines, by Middleton Jameson	The Hustings, in the manner of David Teniers
A King’s Story, by the Duke of Windsor, and a Christmas card signed 'Edward' and "Wallis Windsor'		Caravan map
Caravan sketch and photo
Low Tide at Dell Quay, March 11 1946,                 by Sir William Russell Flint		St Augustine’s Parade in Bristol by Edwin J Pegrum
A working for Marriage of Heaven and Hell, by Gerald Wilde.