- Guy Tobin
- Apr 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 4
In Provenance We Trust: Guy Tobin Remembers Philip Astley-Jones and His Sale at Dreweatts
by Guy Tobin
2nd April 2025
This week, we’re delighted to be joined by the renowned antiques expert and aesthetic savant, Guy Tobin. He introduces us to the Dreweatts sale of his late friend, the distinguished dealer Philip Astley-Jones, and generously shares a few of his favourite pieces going under the hammer.
Philip Astley-Jones adored my wife, so much so that he agreed to the covert role of carrying out due-diligence on her future husband. Back in 2005, he came to Hodsoll’s palatial showrooms on the Pimlico Road to find out who this suitor was. On ringing the doorbell and being buzzed in, he was greeted by a small brown mongrel. No ‘suitor’ appeared……
This is not how I recall our first meeting but then I am not a storyteller of the Astley-Jones calibre. He loved to embellish, to add a flourish and always with the widest smile. An infectious enthusiasm for people and, as we can see in the Dreweatts catalogue, for objects. Anything with a story attached, a provenance to burnish or just the best example in a shattered state. Philip’s knowledge was wide, with a special depth dedicated to the decorative arts.
On coming to dinner he might leave with something that had caught his eye (lot 134). It would always be later than planned but that was the bonus; even though we had small children and the mornings were early. He will have split the beans on some recent ‘sleeper’ – who the buyer was, why it had been missed and what it was worth.
Or we might go to stay at Aston, where the nights were inevitably later, having been treated to his kitchen wizardry. It was always fun, rarely serious and gaining knowledge was inevitable. He is much missed.
The Old Rectory at Aston-le-Walls was one of those rare interiors that antique dealers pull together. No formula, a haphazardness where the latest object, the latest ‘find’ temporarily becomes the hero piece in a room before being usurped by the next favourite or being moved because it ‘talks’ better to a rediscovered past hero. There was a constant flux. Johnnie talks beautifully about living with this character in the catalogue ‘exhausting, but…exciting.’
There’s so much in the sale I’d love to call my own—pieces I’ve come to know more intimately as Johnnie and I have worked closely with Dreweatts to plan and shape the auction.
This is a prime example of the brilliant but ‘shattered.’ An Ottoman dish of the mid-16th century with a central cypress tree and surrounded by sprays of carnations.
Of wonderful, figured walnut, with a rich colour to the surface, this is an unusual piece of Gothicised Cotswold School furniture. It came from Wardington Manor, once home to a very important library that was nearly lost to a fire in 2004.
It was almost the first thing I checked to see if Philip had decided to sell whenever I went to the Old Rectory. I remember missing this at the Battersea Decorative Fair on Patrick Macintosh’s stand.
This has such glamour tempered by humour. It looks alive. Like it scuttles about in the night.
Such an important piece of Renaissance ‘statement’ – Federico da Montefeltro would be delighted his ‘tag’ was still recognised 550 years later. This really ought to go to a museum.
Great scale, intelligent and capable use of the veining of the material. As a Derbyshire resident, I also cannot help but spotlight this beautiful material.
These could probably do with specific photos of the busts themselves to show just how realistic Percy was able to sculpt his subjects; both unknown. The V&A have a very good collection of Percy models. It ought to be noted that the early 18th century tortoiseshell box housing them is also fantastic in its own right!
A very fine reproduction by Philip Boorman of the George II breakfront bookcases at Hagley Hall. It has aged & mellowed to a soft dusty white. Big scale, beautifully made and a couple of hundred thousand pounds less than an original!
Don’t bid on these as I want them.
The highlight of the auction’s paintings. An oil on canvas, painted in Calcutta, circa 1780. This double portrait was commissioned to celebrate the wedding of Champion to Ann Forbes. The sitters sumptuously dressed - each with striking blue eyes - are seated in a columned Indian portico with a voluminous fabric shade; a caparisoned elephant with Mahout in the background.
Astley-Jones took all of the required measurements to make these chairs by marking out the heights against his suit whilst the originals were on view at Christies…..dedication to the cause.
The original of this bed is now in the British Galleries at the V&A Museum; it was commissioned by the actor David Garrick from Thomas Chippendale in the early 1770’s. Lots 245 & 247 accompany the bed – a pair of clothes rails, a floor lamp and a single bed.
Thanks for sharing, I really admire Astley-Jones' dedication! Measuring a chair with a vest is truly “pro mode”—as delicate and precise as measuring every pixel in Geometry Dash!