Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Wolfe Stuff

Quebec House, Westerham. 
Source: Wikipedia. 
Some interesting material connected to James Wolfe and his family will be going on display next month at his childhood home in Westerham, England.  Objects on loan to the posthumously-named Quebec House from the related Warde family include the only portrait of him believed to have been painted in his lifetime, and a hand-written book of recipes by his mom Henrietta Wolfe.  It also included "his sword", which as of last year was being offered around by the Wardes to a select number of private buyers via one of big auction houses.  Notwithstanding the strength of the family's links to the general, this particular sword's provenance proves rather dubious.  I take this announcement that the piece will go on display until late 2015 as an indication that potential buyers didn't bite (and a complementary, even more cynical guess would be that the family is hoping to buff up its credentials before offfering it up once again).

P.-F.-X.

1 comment:

  1. This makes me recall the auction of another artifact - one version (of suspicious worth) of Schindler's list was recently put on sale (on ebay, of all places), for three million USD.

    It also didn't sell.

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