11/10/2013 3:05 pm  #1


Bing's Butler's booty bags bids

I can only apologise for the sub - editor type alliteration

Kenilworth is a small town in the county of Warwickshire, more or less in the centre of England.  The population is about 25,000. It has three supermarkets (and an uncountable number of pubs, restaurants. coffee shops and fast food outlets!)

It is an ancient town, dating back to at least the Domesday book of 1086, which records it as "Chinewrde" meaning "farm of a woman named Cynehild".  A number of historic events occurred in and around the town, and Shakespeare's Stratford-on-Avon is not far to the south. It's main claim to any sort of current fame is the very large ruined castle

  

 - which attracts tourists and where, in 1575. Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester entertained Queen Elizabeth the first with pageants and banquets that cost some £1,000 per day, a colossal amount at that time, presenting diversions and pageants surpassing anything ever before seen in England. 

The Wiki entry here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenilworth

It also happens to be my adopted home town.

Why am I telling you this on a board devoted to Bing Crosby? 

Well, recently, the auctioneers, Hansons, conducted a sale of valuable jewellery and works of art formerly owned by Bing's butler, Alan Fisher - the "flyer" here

http://www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk/pages/news-details.php?id=198

The catalogue can be viewed here - and note particularly the reference to the Crosby family, (part of which is hardly flattering I'm afraid) - 

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A2fqcn/HansonsAutumnFineArt/resources/6.htm

An item specifically associated with Bing which might have come from this treasure trove has recently appeared on ebay - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Waterford-Crystal-Pillar-Candlesticks-Bing-Crosby-Alan-Fisher-his-butler-/181231415049   though I cannot identify it in the catalogue. 

But I still have not made the link with Kenilworth. 

Well, it seems, according to local reports, that the Alan Fisher collection was discovered by the auctioneers, Hansons, when they held an "open day" in a local church, of all places.

The report (which does not seem to be on line), says

"An 'unprecedented stash' of royal jewels and a Dali sketch sold for thousands after being unearthed in Kenilworth.
The rare and precious items formed part of a collection of over 100 treasures once owned by flamboyant butler to the royals, Alan Fisher. 
Fisher worked for the intenational social elite of the 1960s and parts of his collection  - discovered at a Hansons Auctioneers valuation day at St Frances of Assisi church in the summer - drew world wide interest before fetching £75,000 under the hammer." - Kenilworth Weekly News, Friday October 11th 2013


The report goes on to list some examples acquired mainly from the Duchess of Windsor, but there is no clue as to the identity of the owner who was selling, and who. for all I know, could be a neighbour or join with me in one or other local activity.    

 

 

22/10/2013 2:51 pm  #2


Re: Bing's Butler's booty bags bids

Incidentally, there is a Kenilworth, Illinois, about 15 miles north of Chicago, considered a rather ritzy locale at least by far southsiders who aren't ritzy. It's quite near Winnetka, immortalized in Bob Crosby's band's hit "Big Noise from Winnetka."

 

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