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Only 1 percent of the Canterbury Museum’s collection is on display at a time. As part of a special series, reporter LEE KENNY and visual journalist JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON went behind the scenes to uncover the hidden treasures found in their vast archives.
Museum staff could see that items were missing; Little did they know that there was a secret room containing a collection of $ 2 million Russian glassware.
They traveled to Auckland to pack items that were once owned by the Cantabrian Anthony Clayton, which he accumulated during a lifetime of adventures abroad.
He bequeathed the artifacts to the Canterbury Museum, but when a team went to his apartment after his death in 1998, they soon realized that not everything was there.
It was only when they thought about the configuration of the rooms that they suspected there might be an undiscovered area, says Phil Skewes, associate curator of the collections inventory at the Canterbury Museum.
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“They came back the next day and found a closet that had a fake back,” he says.
“It led to a small room, with floor-to-ceiling shelves, full of items.”
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / Stuff
Phil Skewes, associate curator of the Canterbury Museum’s inventory of collections, says Anthony Clayton’s items are unique.
Clayton was born in Christchurch in 1921 and attended Christ’s College.
He visited the Canterbury Museum as a child, and the exhibits sparked a lifelong interest in exotic items. As an adult, he traveled the world and bought ornaments and antiques.
Among the objects he obtained was a 121-piece glassware collection, made in Saint Petersburg in 1861.
The ensemble was designed by the prominent architect Ippolit Monighetti, who worked for the Romanov family that ruled Russia between 1613 and 1917.
It was manufactured at the Imperial Glass Factory and although it is not known for whom it was made, many of the items are marked with the Cyrillic letters M and V.
It consists of flutes, goblets, pitchers, and carafes, but Skewes says his favorite item on the set is an ornate punch bowl.
“Everything else is curved and a little more shaped, while I like the nice clean lines with the jagged edge around the top,” he says.
“I think seeing a banquet hall with a long table full of items like this, all lit by candles, would have looked great.”
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / Stuff
The punch bowl is one of the 121 pieces that make up the Russian glassware collection.
An almost identical collection, with the same monogram, sold at auction in 2014 for $ 900,000. Based on that, the Canterbury Museum ensemble is believed to be worth more than $ 2 million.
“It had a lot of the same components but fewer parts,” says Skewes.
“They are highly sought after items from that era.”
Since then, Skewes has contacted the St. Petersburg Heritage Museum to try to find out more about the collection.
Glassware appeared in France after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
When the Romanov dynasty fell, members of the nobility left their homeland to take refuge in Europe and it was thought that a family took the glassware when they moved to Paris.
“They brought most of their wealth with them, but life in Paris wasn’t that easy, so they slowly sold items to make ends meet,” says Skewes.
The collection belonged decades later to Armenian millionaire Johannes Carapiet “JC” Galstaun, who made his fortune in real estate.
He lived in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and owned more than 300 buildings in the city, including the Nizam Palace, which was then known as Galstaun Park.
It was there that he met Anthony Clayton, who was sent around the world as a senior appraiser for New Zealand Insurance.
Canterbury Museum 2001.1.2349
Anthony Clayton accumulated a large collection of antiques and rarities during a lifetime of travel.
Galstaun sold the glassware collection to Clayton and it was later discovered among the items in the secret room of his Auckland flat.
“We have several different collections that were objects that people have collected; they generally have a fairly limited range, like coins or postcards, ”says Skewes.
“[Clayton] It had a bit of everything: historical objects, Middle Eastern rugs, Chinese and Indian objects. A wide variety of things. “
Clayton was also an avid photographer and left the museum with more than 2,000 slides documenting his adventures.
“He was stationed in various places in the world, Europe, the Middle East, he spent a lot of time in Asia and South America,” says Skewes.
“He would have been a great guy to sit down and chat.”
The items listed in this article are not currently on public display.
