Peter Grant's Antiques To Be Auctioned

[SuperDave]

This is from the Eastbourne Herald from a couple a days ago regarding the auction of some of Peter Grant's antiques that will be auctioned.

Led Zeppelin Manager's Antiques Under The Hammer

Date: 09 October 2008

A COLLECTION of antiques amassed by Peter Grant, the manager of the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin at his home near Eastbourne, will be auctioned on Wednesday October 22.

Dreweatts Auctioneers will be selling an impressive collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco items, bought by Grant in the 70s and 80s.

Peter, who died in 1995, was a well-known figure in Eastbourne and was often spotted driving around town in his distinctive car with the number plate LZ1.

Seventeen items belonging to him will feature in the firm's sale of 20th Century Pictures & Design, which will be held at Dreweatts Donnington Priory salerooms.

Peter, who died in 1995, shared his passion for 20th Century design with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, and the two of them would spend hours in antique markets and shops between gigs when the band was touring the world.

The two men had been friends ever since Peter took on management of Jimmy's upcoming band The Yardbirds, subsequently to evolve into the godfather of all supergroups, Led Zeppelin.

Among the furniture items included in the auction is a Louis Majorelle Art Nouveau walnut desk and matching chair, one of five pieces of Majorelle and Galle furniture in the Peter Grant collection, offered for sale with an estimate of £5,000-7,000.

An iconic symbol of the Decorative Arts movement is the Tiffany lamp, and Peter Grant's collection boasts a particularly fine example in the shape of a Tiffany Studios Favrile glass and bronze Geometric' floor lamp, dating from around 1910 and measuring 63.5cm in height. Carrying a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-12,000, this object in particular is expected to arouse significant interest among collectors.

At the more portable end of the spectrum is an 1897 colour lithographic poster, Monaco Monte-Carlo by Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), one of five Mucha lithographs in the collection, which is expected to fetch £1,000-1,500 on the day.

"This collection is unusual in that it combines items of exceptional quality with a 'celebrity provenance' likely to provoke interest from ephemera collectors," said Dreweatts specialist Dan Bray.

"Normally, items consigned for sale which have a famous owner are perhaps overly reliant on that fact, but in this case, the quality of the collection speaks for itself before one takes the Led Zeppelin connection into account."

Edited October 11, 2008 by SuperDave

[JPP65]

I would love to go to this auction!!!

[SteveAJones]

I suppose such an auction was inevitable. Even so, it saddens me to think this magnificent collection Peter personally assembled throughout his many travels is being broken up. I do hope the estate or auctioneer is carefully documenting each item (photograph, etc) for the sake of posterity.

Edit: Indeed they have. See the online catalog for this Oct 22nd auction:

http://www.dnfa.com/auctions.asp?view=curcat

Edited October 11, 2008 by SteveAJones

[SuperDave]

I suppose such an auction was inevitable. Even so, it saddens me to think this magnificent collection Peter personally assembled throughout his many travels is being broken up. I do hope the estate or auctioneer is carefully documenting each item (photograph, etc) for the sake of posterity.

Edit: Indeed they have. See the online catalog for this Oct 22nd auction:

http://www.dnfa.com/auctions.asp?view=curcat

Steve,

Thanks for the detailed info on the auction items. Some great stuff here. A lot of it very unique. When you have an influx of cash, such as Peter Grant did, it makes things like this quite feasible for the individual and build a collection of valuable antiques such as these. Good work.

[SteveAJones]

Peter proudly displayed most of his antiques within Horselunges Manor, his exquisite estate featured in the film The Song Remains The Same. Yet he also had a very lavish abode in Kensington Mews.

Paul Reeves, a very close friend of Jimmy's who had designed some of Jimmy's stage clothes whilst with The Yardbirds in the late 60s (example in Zeppelin Mysteries thread) was commissioned by Peter in 1973 on a "money no object" basis to refurbish his new

home in Kensington from top to bottom.

The job took nearly two years, at a time when 6ft 5in Grant was travelling the world with the biggest-selling rock group of all time."I told him I'd only do it if he didn't come near," Reeves said. "I involved friends from the Royal College and we did everything from cutlery to textiles."

Prominent among Reeves' collaborators was architect and artist Jon Wealleans; when the job was finished the pair were featured in The Observer and Ideal Home magazines. The 1976 Ideal Home feature is provided below.

Both Wealleans and Reeves recall the trepidation they felt when Grant - whose fearsome reputation was backed up by his hulking frame (he was 23 stone by the time he was 23 and had been a wrestler and bouncer in his time) - finally viewed the job.

I opened the door and it may be a cliché, but he literally blotted out the sun," laughs Wealleans. Reeves, meanwhile, had prudently put some champagne on ice. "He spent around five minutes looking around, not saying a word," says Reeves."Then he pronounced. 'I gotta say Paul…it's fucking amazing!' We got the champagne out and a couple of grams of coke and everything was alright!"

Peter Grant's Kensington Mews Estate

Edited October 12, 2008 by SteveAJones

[SuperDave]

Peter's residence looks like some kind of place. Pretty amazing. Great research as always Steve.

[guitarmy]

maybe Jimmy will buy them

[FireOpal]

Thank you, Steve. That house was quite astonishing.

[SteveAJones]

Well, I'm pleased to report I recently acquired at auction a book published in 1925 by the Sussex Archeological Society. It contains a very detailed history of Horselunges Manor, to include origins of the name, a chart showing property ownership through circa 1600, and floor plans.

I wish Peter Grant were still here, as he might have found it's contents interesting. If the

information pertaining to Horselunges Manor is of interest to members of the forum please PM me and I shall arrange for scans to be provided.

[lildamico]

He was a great manager who took care of his band!!!

[ZoSo lover]

He was a great manager who took care of his band!!!

no one call me a dumb shit did peter grant die?

[BUCK'EYE' DOC]

no one call me a dumb shit did peter grant die?

Hey Zoso lover,

I hope that you are joking that you didn't know that Peter Grant is deceased?

He died on November 21, 1995, God rest his soul.

He suffered a fatal heart attack while driving with his son Warren.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Grant_(music_manager)

Edited February 19, 2009 by BUCK'EYE' DOC

[SteveAJones]

WORLD & NATIONAL OBITUARIES

---

LILLIAN NASSAU | Dealer in art nouveau antiques, 95

---

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

13-Oct-1995 Friday

Lillian Nassau, the doyenne of New York antiques dealers and one of the
first in America to see a market in art nouveau and art deco, died early
Monday at her home in New York. She was 95.

Mrs. Nassau held forth in a forest of Tiffany lamps in her two shops, first
on Third Avenue and 56th Street and, from 1968 until her retirement in
1982, on East 57th Street. For more than 35 years, her galleries were
gathering places for collectors and museum curators from around the world.

She was also among the first to stock the works of the giants of early
20th-century European design: Rene Lalique's jewelry and glassware, Georg
Jensen's silver, Emile Galle's vases and lamps and the furniture of Josef
Hoffmann, Louis Majorelle and Carlo Bugatti.

In the 1970s, Mrs. Nassau's clients included Catherine Deneuve, Marcello
Mastroianni, Barbra Streisand, Andy Warhol, Warner Leroy, all the Beatles
and members of Led Zeppelin and Blood Sweat and Tears.

Edgar J. Kaufmann Jr., the architectural historian, started collecting
Tiffany flower-form vases there in the 1950s. And David Geffen bought most
of his Tiffany lamps there in the 1970s, selling them in 1984 at
Christie's in New York for two to five times what he had paid.

*****

A Tiffany lamp on display inside Peter Grant's home, Horselunges Manor, circa 1977.