What is it with me and disposable take-away coffee cups with
plastic lids? Recently and for the first time in my life, I tried to drink out
of one with the lid on and I dripped coffee on my T-shirt. Is there a problem with
my basic hand to mouth motor skills or my hand-eye co-ordination? I put it down
to carelessness. I vowed that I would be more careful next time and see to it that
the lid was firmly in place.
The next time was soon upon me. Avidly following the action on
the screen from my seat at Saturday’s Pershore auction, I suddenly realised
that, simultaneously, I was systematically pouring coffee all down my front. It
had been a clean T-shirt; I’d only had it on for about 4 hours. Is it just me,
or are those lids not fit for purpose? If you are not supposed to drink from
them why have they got a protruding, lip-sized opening that is clearly there to
encourage you to drink the thing with the lid on? Coffee stains, so I was
destined to look like a coffee-incontinent wally for the rest of the day. It
was a warm and humid day and the only alternative to stripping off was to
retrieve my jumper from the car to cover up my incompetence and sit there
over-heating for the rest of the proceedings.
GWRA continues to come up with some fine railway art and
that’s in addition to the wide array of posters, which were now being catalogued
in their own discrete section, as were advertising enamels and the road and
motoring signs. Cuneo, Root, Breckon, Welch, Price and Nixon were all
represented, with a Barry Price special again breaking though the 1K mark. The
one that caught my eye this time, however, was by Murray Secretan. I’d heard
the name and associated him with poster art work, most notably the GWR
quad-royal 100 Years of Progress 1835-1935, showing a King between Dawlish and
Teignmouth, but I knew little else about him. Beverley Cole and Richard Durack
wrote a short section about him in their book, Railway Posters 1923-1947. He
worked for the LMS Advertising Department, as well as for the Locomotive
Publishing Company and the GWR.
Lot 118 at Pershore on Saturday was an original water colour
painting on board of Royal Scot Class No. 6161 King’s Own [http://www.gwra.co.uk/2017julcat.php].
Though I never saw any of the Royal Sots in an un-rebuilt condition, I found
the attention to detail in this representation immaculate. Like Vic Welch,
Secretan was painting as flattering a portrait of the locomotive as he could.
Background and setting were of no consequence, the traditional three-quarter
front view was standard, not a hint of steam, smoke or any movement or activity,
no weather issues, no personnel evident to take the eye away from the
locomotive at centre stage. Much of Welch’s works, in particular, it seems to
me, are like over-bright, coloured-in, engineering drawings. They endeavour to
show off the engine at its best, rather than reflect any element of a working
setting. Lot 118 quickly shot away from my personal hobby fund allowance for
the day and sold for 800 GBP plus buyer’s premium, etc.
Making sure that my T-shirt problem had not seeped through
to my jumper and covering my chest with my catalogue, just in case, I happened
upon the successful bidder on his way to the door and congratulated him on his
purchase. He was gracious in return, and we agreed on the importance of valuing
the contribution made to recording the age of the steam railway for future
generations by those who were there at the time and who possessed the necessary
artistic ability, including extraordinary dexterity and precision, as well as a
draughtsmen’s eye for detail and perspective, in order to show-case, as in this
example by Secretan, the magnificence of a brand-new locomotive for the LMS, that
was built in Derby in 1930. I took off
my jumper and opened the car window for the journey home, thinking about
another one that had got away. At least, there were now no further witnesses to
my sloppy coffee drinking habit. No more leaky plastic lids for me and, as they
say, it will all come out in the wash.
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