Obituaries

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including details of the funeral for dealer John Read Smith.

Those antique dealers present at the funeral of retired antiques dealer Lily Mitchell this autumn can vouch that her funeral was like no other.

Jackie Mann died on September 5. She was born in Maghull, Liverpool.

Andrew Edmunds was easy to like but a bit difficult to really know. Despite the fact that we were friends for almost 50 years, he kept his life effortlessly compartmentalised.

We regret to announce the death of Bill Thomson, the well-known dealer in British watercolours, on June 6 aged 90.

Miles Ferneyhough, who lost his courageous battle against cancer on August 21, was a third generation dealer, known and widely respected throughout the antiques community.

Gerald Kenyon died on August 20. He was born in Chester where his ancestors had been dealers for many generations: he was an eighth-generation dealer.

It is with deepest regret and sadness that I learned of the death of my good friend and former colleague Connie Middleton who passed away on August 3 at the age of 93 after a short illness.

With the recent passing of Keith Hockin, the antiques trade has lost one of that remaining generation who were at the vanguard of the early oak furniture revival from the 1960s onwards.

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of John Myles, who died peacefully on July 30, aged 81.

Drummond Shaw, a former commodity broker in the City, became interested in salvage in the 1980s while restoring Flexford House, his 1840s family home on Surrey’s Hog’s Back, when he needed to buy the right type of kit.

From clothing career to clock dealer brilliance, Jonathan Carter specialised in the golden age of English clockmaking and set up the leading firm Carter-Marsh

Brian Saunders of Saunders Fine Art, Solihull, has passed away after a long battle with cancer.

An early career in London led Chris Ewbank, who died on June 25 aged 78, to the auction business at the Cubitt & West salerooms in Guildford – a few miles west of his childhood home in Mayfield, Sussex, where his father was an estate agent-cum-auctioneer.

Sadly, I have to report the death of the former Chelsea antique dealer Christine Schell on Monday, June 12, 2023.

Chris, who was universally described as a gentleman by all who knew him, started his lifelong career (he missed national service by one day) aged 17 at Morphets Auctioneers in Harrogate.

A memorial service will be held to remember the late antiques dealer Brian Watson on Thursday June 15, at 3.30pm, at St Faiths Crematorium, Manor Road, Horsham St Faith, NR10 3LF, just outside Norwich.

My older brother Michael Shephard sadly passed away on Friday, May 26, 2023, aged 81.

It would be hard to overstate Peter Brooke’s contribution to the British art market.