Apollo Art Auctions is an auction house and gallery based in central London that has established itself as a leader in the field of antiquities and pre-16th century art. Boasting a database of some 20,000 clients across more than 70 countries, Apollo Art Auctions implements stringent vetting processes conducted by a panel of experts and consultants, with each lot professionally photographed and catalogued.
Apollo Art Auctions recently announced that it had been entrusted with part of one of the finest and most comprehensive assemblages of antiquities in the world. A portion of the Prince Collection comprising some stunning items will be presented to the public at Apollo Art Auctions’ upcoming January Auction.
Internationally renowned, the Prince Collection encompasses works of art that range in culture and date, covering almost the entire scope of antiquity and featuring works from the Neolithic, Hittite, Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Near Eastern worlds.
Many items from the Prince Collection have passed through the hands of some of the most well-known antiquities collectors of the 18th and 19th centuries. The auction will include a selection of Egyptian faience and engraved fragments that carry a particularly illustrious provenance, having once formed part of the collection of Revd William MacGregor, who served as Vicar of Tamworth from 1878 to 1887.
While most vicars passed their days taking tea with the gentry and middle classes, Revd William MacGregor spent much of his time visiting the squalid cottages of the poor and the sick. Revd MacGregor helped to establish a hospital for the poor, reportedly donating more than £1,000 of his personal funds to the cause: a considerable sum in those days. He is also credited with setting up a Provident Society, ensuring that medical care would be available to all by educating people in first aid and basic home nursing so that they could take care of themselves.
Having visited the country in the early 1880s and fallen in love with its culture and art, Revd Macgregor was also a famous Egyptophile. An early participant in the Egyptomania that accelerated discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, Revd MacGregor loaned his collection to the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London in 1895. This marked the first time that Egyptian antiquities had been displayed as works of art in a temporary exhibition in England, demonstrating their incredible beauty and desirability.
Apollo Art Auctions’ ‘Fine Ancient Art and Antiquities’ auction will commence at 12 pm GMT on 28th January 2024. Items from the Prince Collection will be included in the sale, with availability to bid online and in person.
