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Lot 471 MERRIE ENGLAND; A FRIENDSHIP WITH CHARLES WADE
'Charles Wade was not an intellectual or even very bookish, his dictum was 'Think a lot, say a little and write less' but he did entertain generously at Snowshill. There were sombre rooms bright with oriental lacquer or glaring Italian cabinets, deceptively small rooms heaped with musical instruments, keys, telescopes, Tibetan scrolls and scientific instruments. The barn-like garret at the top of the house called 'A Thousand Wheels' was crowded with every type of wooden-wheeled vehicle, hobby horses, velocipedes, childs' go-carts and the models of farm wagons and stage coaches, many made by Wade himself. Snowshill had a strange effect on my grandfather. Whether it was the stone-built manor or the suden injection of Cotswold air, his vivacity and outrageousness seemed to quadruple the moment the car nosed its way into Wade's courtyard. Ebullient and effervescent at Ampthill, he became overpoweringly so at Snowshill, continually talking, examining Wade's latest acquisition and hardly able to contain his delight. He would usually arrive with a jar of expensive Grecian honey for Wade, because he knew Wade liked it. Wade always complained that he never saw the honey at all because my grandfather himself consumed it so quickly, what was left that is, from the frequent spillages on Wade's oaken table top.'
S. Houfe, The Professor
'Charles Wade was not an intellectual or even very bookish, his dictum was 'Think a lot, say a little and write less' but he did entertain generously at Snowshill. There were sombre rooms bright with oriental lacquer or glaring Italian cabinets, deceptively small rooms heaped with musical instruments, keys, telescopes, Tibetan scrolls and scientific instruments. The barn-like garret at the top of the house called 'A Thousand Wheels' was crowded with every type of wooden-wheeled vehicle, hobby horses, velocipedes, childs' go-carts and the models of farm wagons and stage coaches, many made by Wade himself. Snowshill had a strange effect on my grandfather. Whether it was the stone-built manor or the suden injection of Cotswold air, his vivacity and outrageousness seemed to quadruple the moment the car nosed its way into Wade's courtyard. Ebullient and effervescent at Ampthill, he became overpoweringly so at Snowshill, continually talking, examining Wade's latest acquisition and hardly able to contain his delight. He would usually arrive with a jar of expensive Grecian honey for Wade, because he knew Wade liked it. Wade always complained that he never saw the honey at all because my grandfather himself consumed it so quickly, what was left that is, from the frequent spillages on Wade's oaken table top.'
S. Houfe, The Professor
Professor Sir Albert E. Richardson, P.R.A. (London 1880-1964 Bedfordshire)
A sketch of Charles Wade in an interior
Closed19 September 2013
Price Realised
GBP 562