YORKSHIRE BASED`SNAFFLES’ COLLECTION FOR SALE AT BONHANS IN KNOWLE
YORKSHIRE-BASED`SNAFFLES’ PAINTING COLLECTION BUILT BY LT COL WILLIAM ‘BILL” WEIGHTMAN FOR SALE AT BONHAMS
A wonderful collection of 47 Snaffles images gathered over many years by a Yorkshire personality, Lt Col Bill Weightman, will be sold at Bonhams Knowle on May 24th.
“Images of horse racing, country life and military life are all well represented in this once in a lifetime collection,” says Mark Jones, Bonhams Regional Director in Knowle. “Given how much Snaffles is loved I am sure there will be great interest. It is rare for this number of Snaffles pictures to come to the market at any one time.”
Lieutenant Colonel William Albert ‘Bill’ Weightman, who lived in Richmond, North Yorkshire, was born at Middle Herrington Farm, near Sunderland, on October 1st, 1925. He died aged 83 on January 29th 2009 following a battle with cancer.
Bill attended Durham School and despite winning a place at Trinity College, Cambridge, he joined the Army, against his father’s wishes, at the age of 18 during the height of the Second World War.
He served in the Durham Light Infantry in Malaya, Sumatra and Burma.
After the war, Bill served with the Parachute regiment and the RAF regiment, with whom he saw action in Suez, Jordan, Cyprus and Aden, where he was mentioned in dispatches.He also helped to train the Sultan of Oman’s army before taking charge of the Yorkshire Army Cadet Force.Heworked with the Burma Campaign Fellowship, which helped to reconcile veterans and their families on both sides of the conflict.
His interest in ‘Snaffles’ began in 1950 when he and his wife, Valerie, received ‘Once Upon A Time’ as a wedding present. The evocative sporting images depicted in the picture alongside that of two army colleagues exchanging stories appealed to Bill and led to a lifetime interest in ‘Snaffles’. Eventually he built up a very extensive collection of military, sporting and horse racing works.
The family hope that whoever buys the pictures from Bill's collection get as much pleasure from them as he did.
Some of the highlights in the Collection are:
Lot 202, Charlie Johnson Payne, 'Snaffles' (British, 1884-1967)
'Ooty' (The Ootacamund Hunt) Circa 1936, signed and titled in watercolour, inscribed 'We'll all go riding on a Rainbow' in pencil to the lower edge. Estimate £2,000-3,000
Lot 216, The Wheat Is My Care - The Rest Is The Will Of God
Circa 1940, signed, and titled on later mount
Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour. Estimate £4,000 to £6,000.
Lot 239, Charlie Johnson Payne, 'Snaffles' (British, 1884-1967)
'Major Junks.' (rare) Circa 1914. Estimate £700 to £1,000.
Major Arthur Hughes-Onslow, 10th Hussars, from the series of military amateur riders
Lot 203, Study of Major W.E. Ted Lyons (19th Hussars) mounted
Circa 1912, signed and inscribed 'Don't be too fussy about the detail Ted, This is a long stretch of Memory' in pencil. Estimate. £600-800
A version of this image was used as a Christmas card, and for the prints of circa 1940 'Enjoying Yerselves aren't yer' and circa 1942 'Forrard On Me/Em Lads And Hit 'Em 'Ard'
