Rare Memento Mori set for lively bidding

A fascinating and enigmatic Memento Mori or ‘reminder of death’ is coming under the hammer in Tennants Auctioneers’ Fashion, Costume and Textiles Sale on May 23 in North Yorkshire, offered with an estimate of £300-500.

Unusually, it has been worked in needlepoint, a medium that is normally seen used for light, decorative scenes rich with flowers and animals. While rather faded, the 18th-century needlework has a skull, a vase with a wilted flower, and a recently blown out candle trailing a wisp of smoke. Below, written in Latin, is the phrase: My days have faded away like smoke, which is taken from Psalm 102 verse 3. It is a lament attributed to David that deals with sorrow, humility and faith, and is often read during lent and at funerals. Memento Mori have their roots in classical philosophy, and begin to crop up in the arts from the medieval period onwards.  

 Elsewhere in the sale, a perennial auction favourite, items of classic Louis Vuitton luggage, is offered as three graduated Louis Vuitton monogram leather hard suitcases dating from the late 20th century. The largest suitcase is offered with an estimate of £800-1,200, and the smaller examples are £700-1,000 each. From a century earlier is a late 19th-century late 19th-century Louis Vuitton large case, which comes with provenance from the Earls of Lonsdale, estimated at £1,000-1,500. The case is embellished with the red, white and yellow stripped livery and cypher for the Earl of Lonsdale, and has a fitted leather interior with bespoke accessories such as a manicure set, tot cups and a card case.

Also with provenance from the Earls of Lonsdale are a large tan leather dressing case by Joseph Last of London, estimated at £300-500; a tan leather Gladstone bag by JT Needs of New Bond Street, estimate of £200-300, and from another vendor a first footman livery uniform to the 5th Earl of Lonsdale, the so-called ‘Yellow Earl’, complete with distinctive yellow velvet breeches, estimated at £300-500.  

An interesting selection of antique furnishing textiles include two 19th-century French painted printed cotton quilted panels depicting exotic flowers, estimated at £200-300; a pair of late 19th-century Arts and Crafts style ‘heraldic’ stencilled wall hangings depicting St George and sold with provenance from the Hugenot Bosanquet family, estimated at £500-600, and an unusual 19th-century decorative cream silk bed cover/panel, carrying an estimate of £300-500.

 A large offering of vintage costume includes a good private collection of vibrant and stylish 1960s and 1970s ladies wear from England and America, a selection of 1970s to 1990s Biba pieces, and an Ossie Clark purple and bronze dress, estimated at £200-300. From further afield are an early 19th-century Persian robe has an estimate of £600-800, and a good number of 19th-century Chinese robes including a purple silk example to be sold with an estimate of £800-1,200. The sale will also feature a large collection of over 60 lots of antique, French, Central Asian, African and English textiles and costume, such as an early 20th-century Indian silk embroidered panel, estimated at £200-300.