Margaret Thatcher's passion for fashion on show ahead of United Kingdom sale
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Wednesday, December 25, 2024


Margaret Thatcher's passion for fashion on show ahead of United Kingdom sale
A woman poses for a photograph with a navy blue leather handbag, by Launer London, circa 1980's, used by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and expected to realise 2,000 - 3,000 GBP (2,700-4,100 euros) at auction, during a photocall at Christie's auction house in central London on December 11, 2015, to promote their forthcoming auction "Mrs Thatcher: Property from the Collection of the Right Honourable The Baroness Margaret Thatcher of Kesteven," which is set to take place on December 15. AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL.

By: Edouard Guihaire



LONDON (AFP).- The British public were invited Friday to share Margaret Thatcher's "secret passion" for fashion ahead of a sale of clothes worn by the former premier known as the 'Iron Lady'.

London's Christie's auction house will put the clothes under the hammer on Tuesday.

It is also selling 200 personal items belonging to Britain's only female premier, in an online auction that runs until Wednesday.

The lots, owned by Thatcher's family, could fetch a combined total of around £500,000 ($760,000, 700,000 euros), Orlando Rock, president of Christie's UK, told AFP.

The auction house is used to dealing with works of art that regularly sell for more than ten times that amount.

"It is quite unusual for us that the vast majority of lots are affordable to a very, very large number of people," said Rock.

Some of the most famous items, including the dresses she wore when first meeting Nelson Mandela and when dancing with Ronald Reagan, went on public display at Christie's on Friday.

The auctioneer said the collection would give "unique insights into the 'Iron Lady'."

Fashion diplomacy
"She had a secret passion for clothes," curator Meredith Etherington-Smith said of Thatcher, a dressmaker's daughter born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, central England, in 1925.

"From a very young age, she and her sister used to make clothes," she added.

"When she became the first woman prime minister she used clothes as a way of emphasising her power.

"Every time there was a photo opportunity, she was beautifully dressed, immaculately coiffured, with a nice handbag, and she looked what she was: a powerful person."

Historic lots include the blue suit she wore in a 1990 parliament debate on the expansion of the European Monetary Union, in which she uttered the now immortal line: "No. No. No."

Thatcher went to great lengths to ensure she wore colours appropriate to any country she was visiting -- green, a symbol of hope, in Poland, and blue and cream in Israel to mirror the country's flag.

"It was all very carefully thought-out," said Etherington-Smith.

"At her party conferences, she always wore a very sharp blue suit," the colour of her Conservative Party.

"She never wore red in the UK because that's the colour of socialism but she did wear it in America because that's the colour of Ronald Reagan's Republican party," the curator said.

Feared handbags
Her "special relationship" with US president and fellow free-market reformer Reagan is a focal point of the collection.

Items include a statue of a bald eagle, the symbol of the United States that Reagan gave her as a gift, which is expected to sell for between £5,000 and £8,000.

One of the most emblematic pieces is the iconic red leather briefcase that contained the prime minister's confidential documents, which is expected to fetch between £3,000 and £5,000.

Other items include signed copies of some of her most famous speeches, her wedding dress, her handbags -- which used to strike fear into colleagues during cabinet meetings -- and jewellery.

The items, proceeds of which will go to her children and grandchildren, were initially offered to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, but they decided against showing them.

Thatcher was in power from 1979 to 1990. Her privatisations and deregulation helped turn around Britain's ailing economy.

But she remains a divisive figure, particularly in Britain's hard-hit working-class heartlands.

She died on April 8, 2013, and received a ceremonial funeral attended by Queen Elizabeth II.



© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse










Today's News

December 14, 2015

The Freak: New book reveals details of a Charlie Chaplin masterpiece that never was

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei believes activism helping change China

Three parts of recently conserved masterpiece reunited after untold centuries for special exhibition

Margaret Thatcher's passion for fashion on show ahead of United Kingdom sale

Eleven bronzes by Aristide Maillol from the Collection of Pierre Jourdan-Barry bring €1.4m at Sotheby's Paris

Exhibition featuring recent work by Ilya & Emilia Kabakov opens at Pace Gallery

Turner Prize 2015 winners Assemble with Will Shannon on view at Norwich Castle

Columbus Museum of Art showcases ancient treasures from the collection of Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts new hires: Head of American Art and HR Director

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga features the work of artist José María Yturralde

"Marsha Kazarinov-Owett: Blowing in the Wind" opens at Alfstad& Contemporary

Galeria Nara Roesler presents, for the first time in Sao Paulo, the spiritual poetics of the artist Not Vital

Solo exhibition at Yancey Richardson Gallery by Dutch artist Hellen van Meene opens in New York

Michael Eden's "History Re-printed": A new commission for the Holburne Museum

One of the great Ferrari masterpieces leads Bonhams Grand Palais Sale

The Southwest paintings of Walter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings debut at the Denver Art Museum

An important collection of writing instruments & watches to be sold at Veritas

Solo exhibition of works by new media pioneer George Legrady opens at Edward Cella Art & Architecture

Follow: New exhibition opens at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology)

Recipients of working grant exhibit at MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt

"The Indian Sari: Next to the Skin, Close to the Heart" on view at Indiana University Art Museum

Exhibition at Maxxi presents the transformations, conflicts, innovations and hopes of Istanbul

Ink masters Wu Guanzhong and Chua Ek Kay take centre stage at National Gallery Singapore

Exhibition at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery features over a dozen recent pastel paintings by G. Daniel Massad




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
(52 8110667640)

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful