Lot 217
CHARLES SPOONER (1862-1938)
ECCLESIASTICAL AND OTHER DESIGNS
Auction: Day One | Lots 1 to 229 | Wed 15th April 2026 from 10am
Description
CHURCH OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW, IPSWICH, pen and ink, watercolour and graphite, signed ‘Charles Spooner Architect’, with approval stamp of the Church Building Society, marginal losses, nicks and repairs, 57cm x 78.5cm; [TWO VIEWS OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW, IPSWICH], one in pen and ink, signed ‘Charles Spooner Architect’, 56.5cm x 74.5cm, one in graphite, 52.5cm x 68cm, signed C. Spooner Archt', spotted, both 68.5cm x 52.5cm, mounted on card; SKETCH DESIGN FOR A CATHEDRAL CHURCH, 4 designs, graphite, each signed lower right ‘Charles Spooner F.R.I.B.A.', one signature partly obscured by tape residue, 57cm x 78cm; [TWO DESIGNS FOR PREFABRICATED WOODEN CHURCHES FOR BELGIAN FIRST WORLD WAR REFUGEES], ink, one on glassine, one on paper, 78cm x 57cm; THREE SKETCHES FOR AN ALTAR CROSS TO BE MADE OF OAK WITH BRASS PLATES, on comprising 3 designs on one sheet, pencil, watercolour and white bodycolour, signed ‘Charles Spooner Architect’, 18.5cm x 39cm, spotted; DESIGN FOR A MEMORIAL TABLET FOR BURTON CHURCH, pencil, ink and watercolour, signed ‘Charles Spooner F.R.I.B.A.’, tissue-guard tipped to top edge (partly detached), approval ink-stamp of Chester consistory court (dated 1936), discolouration and dust-soiling, 28cm x 25cm; [DESIGN FOR A CRUCIFIX], pencil, watercolour and white bodycolour on glassine mounted on card, signed ‘C. Spooner Architect, Jan. 1919’), tissue-guard tipped along top edge, glassine browned, mount soiled, 41cm x 21cm; DESIGN FOR AN ENTRANCE GATEWAY TO A COLLEGIATE BUILDING, WITH ROOMS ATTACHED, graphite, 55.5cm x 76cm
Provenance
From the collection of Dr Alec Hamilton, author of Charles Spooner (1862-1938): Arts and Crafts Architect (Donington, 2012).
Footnote
The Church of Saint Bartholomew, Ipswich, was built between 1896 and 1908. ‘For the first time, Spooner had a commission that demanded a response not merely artistic or historical, but liturgical. The client was Anne Frances Spooner (1830-1907), second wife of Spooner’s uncle, the rector of Hadleigh. Mrs Spooner was born a Cobbold, of the wealthy Suffolk brewing family - a woman of some strength of character. She was “of convinced ‘High Church’ views … St Bartholomew's would be an Anglo-Catholic presence in a traditionally protestant and Nonconformist town”' (Hamilton, p. 46). The church still stands today and remains a centre of the Anglo-Catholic movement. Sold with the lot is an original platinum print photograph of the church's baptismal font (mounted on card).
Illustrated: Hamilton, Charles Spooner, pp. 19 ('Design for … a Collegiate Building'), 45 ('Church of Saint Bartholomew', plan), 54-5 ('Church of Saint Bartholomew', the two views), 146-7 (the two designs for prefabricated wooden churches for Belgian refugees);