Lot 214
CHARLES SPOONER (1862-1938)
ASSORTED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS INCLUDING EARLY WORKS
Auction: Day One | Lots 1 to 229 | Wed 15th April 2026 from 10am
Description
[4 DESIGNS SUBMITTED TO THE BUILDING NEWS DESIGNING CLUB UNDER HIS PSEUDONYM ‘GHOST’, CIRCA 1888:] DESIGN FOR A PARISH HALL & MARKET, DESIGN FOR A GIRLS' SCHOOL FOR A COUNTRY TOWN, DESIGN FOR A GARDNER'S [SIC] COTTAGE TO BE USED AS A LODGE', DESIGN FOR A DAIRY FARM, pen and ink, each signed Charles S. Spooner with his address (2 Girdlers Road, Brook Green) on verso, 56cm x 37.5cm or reverse, 3 with possible editorial annotations in pencil dated 88, each (apart from DAIRY FARM) annotated ‘Placed First’ at head; NURSES HOME, MILDMAY PARK, watercolour and graphite on glassine, very browned, small tear to foot, 42.5cm x 25cm; DESIGN FOR A BRIDGE OVER A WATERWAY, 3 designs, mixed media, pin-holes to corners, each with pencilled signature (or attribution) ‘C Spooner’ on versos, annotated ‘£25 premium’ or similar upper right, 54cm x 73.5cm; WHITBY ABBEY ELEVATION OF EAST END, ink, signed on verso ‘Charles S. Spooner', 55 x 36cm.
With: 3 further designs, unsigned but possibly by Charles Spooner: PROPOSED LIBRARY AND ART GALLERY, MANCHESTER, graphite and watercolour, 56.5cm x 78.5cm old folds, small marginal tears AGECROFT CEMETERY, DESIGN FOR OFFICES & LODGE, ENTRANCE GATES & BOUNDARY WALL, pen and ink, watercolour and graphite, 53.5cm x 75cm, discoloured, rumpled and with shallow tear along top edge; DESIGN FOR A SMALL HOUSE AT MOOR PARK, pen and ink and grisaille watercolour, on paper folded over board (not laid down), 51.5cm x 74.5cm. And: 2 designs signed by one R. H. Leach, BAY WINDOW FROM A HOUSE AT WAREHAM IN DORSET, and PORCH FROM A HOUSE AT WAREHAM IN DORSET, both pen and ink, 74 x 55cm; and a plan by A. J. Penty for a large cottage ('Longridge') at Ditchling (apparently a photolithographic facsimile)
Provenance
From the collection of Dr Alec Hamilton, author of Charles Spooner (1862-1938): Arts and Crafts Architect (Donington, 2012).
Footnote
These four designs submitted by Spooner to the Building News Designing Club in 1888 under his non-de-plume ‘Ghost’, while still a student at the Royal Academy Schools, are a snapshot of his precocious talent, three of them being marked ‘first prize’. ‘That year [Spooner] dominated the [Build News] competitions. Between January and July there were eight: Spooner entered six of them, and was placed first every time. At the end of the year he was awarded the first prize: 10 guineas … The Girls' School plan suggests a gently revolutionary spirit, preferring asymmetry to regularity … The Gardener's Cottage shows some of the vernacular feel and simplicity of plan Sooner was later to employ' (Hamilton, p. 22). The nurses' home at Mildmay Park was built, but is ‘long since demolished’ (ibid., p. 243).
Illustrated: Hamilton, Charles Spooner, pp. 17 ('Whitby Abbey'), 20 ('Design for a Girls School' and ‘Design for a Gardner’s Cottage'), 243 ('Agecroft CemetEry'), 244 ('Nurses' Home, Mildmay Park').