Bonhams Magazine
Editor's Letter
There may be some readers of Bonhams Magazine standing in the hallway wondering when the next edition will drop through the letterbox. Please find a comfortable chair and wait no more: Bonhams Magazine has gone exclusively digital.
I was brought up on magazines - I was still reading Mark Boxer's Sunday Times Colour Supplement, with its buccaneering use of full-bleed photography, a decade after Boxer had moved on. In my past life, I was Deputy Editor of both Tatler and Harpers, magazines that still give me a shiver of excitement when I open the envelope, whatever their current incarnations.
So here we are after 20 years and 79 issues moving from 130gm paper to a screen. What's the upside? Well, you can read it anywhere, and it won't be sent to the wrong address. Read more →
Contents
End of an era
In Chinese culture, 60-year cycles mark the passing of time. Now Jules Speelman, the Chinese art dealer extraordinaire, is closing his own cycle by selling his collection. He tells Emma Crichton Miller how it began with Matchbox toys and ended with a devotion to Buddhist art
Brave new world
John Piper was in the vanguard of the modern British art scene when he created a career-defining work. Frances Spalding recounts the story of a painting that shaped a friendship
He just can't help it
Richard Baron Cohen confesses to buying a piece of porcelain every other day for 20 years. Lucinda Bredin talks to him about his passion for perfection – and ways to fill the void
Wonderful every night
It's a song that means a lot to many, Sasha Thomas explores Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' and Tony Bacon takes a look at the Martin that made it
Back to black
Twenty five years after her death, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy is still revered as the patron saint of understated fashion, says Bethan Holt. Let's start with Exhibit A: her Yamamoto dress
To the Max
Maxi Jazz was the charismatic lead sing of Faithless, Nick Reilly explores how he gave a generation of ravers Insomnia
Trick and treat
Hoogstraten was a master of illusion, and his ‘little deceivers’ took Europe by storm. Susan Moore charts the life of the magician in oils
Inside Bonhams: Popular appeal
Sasha Thomas talks to Head of Popular Culture, Claire Tole-Moir, about what makes her sales pop
My favourite room: Down to earth
Acclaimed designer, Nicholas Knightly has created the perfect handbag – Bayswater for Mulberry. And his favourite room, the potting shed at Osborne House, also has a timeless quality
Contributors
Nick Reilly
Nick Reilly is the Content Editor of Rolling Stone UK, heading up the title’s digital output and writing features and reviews for the print magazine too. He has interviewed the likes of Dave Grohl and Ozzy Osbourne for major cover interviews. You’ll most likely find him at a gig, pint in hand. Nick explores how legendary lead singer of Faithless Maxi Jazz transformed a generation of ravers.
Frances Spalding
Frances Spalding is an art historian, writer and former editor of The Burlington Magazine. She has a specialist interest in twentieth-century British art and first established her reputation with Roger Fry: Art and Life. She went on to write lives of the artists Vanessa Bell, John Minton, Duncan Grant, Gwen Raverat and John and Myfanwy Piper, as well as a biography of the poet Stevie Smith. Frances takes on another member, leading the vanguard of the modern British art scene: John Piper.
Bethan Holt
Bethan Holt is the Fashion Director of The Telegraph newspaper. She has written two books: The Queen: 70 years of Majestic Style and The Duchess of Cambridge: A Decade of Modern Royal Style.
She makes regular appearances on the BBC, Sky News and NBC commenting on fashion. She has been shortlisted for Fashion Journalist of the Year at the Press Awards. In this issue, Bethan writes about American royalty and the legacy of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy.
Emma Crichton Miller
Emma Crichton Miller is an arts journalist, editor and writer. Apollo magazine. Emma sits down with Jules Speelman, whose collection is being offered in Paris this June, to talk about his instinct for Asian art and how it all started.She's a regular contributor to the Financial Times and a columnist for
Adrian Dannatt
Adrian is an actor, artist, writer, editor and curator, with books and exhibitions on Alexander Iolas, Les Lalanne and Impasse Ronsin. Adrian's own work has been shown at Deitch Projects and Shanaynay, and exhibited his art collection in New York, London and Paris ahead of the publication of Doomed and Famous, his book of obituaries. In this issue, he writes about Rembrandt Bugatti, equally doomed and famous himself.
Susan Moore
Art historian, biographer and art market columnist, Susan Moore writes regularly for the Financial Times and Apollo. Following a biography of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, her current project is a life of the overlooked American artist Anne Estelle Rice. She founded the not-for-profit Slow Art Workshop in 2017. Susan charts the life of the 17th-century magician in oils, Samuel van Hoogstraten.
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