I’m sure many of us have wondered about the possibilities of physical immortality; living for generations and accumulating untold wealth and collections of antiques, art, possessions, simply through living through those eras. I know of several people who’ve sought longevity if not immortality through scientific intervention, yet tragically two of them died comparatively young. Yet in reality there’s a whole sub culture of those wanting a few extra years, another of those seeking full on live forever lives and others who seek some kind of occult transformation into an immortal deity.By reducing stress and devoting our lives to a calorie restricted diet, an intake of antioxidants and a fitness regime I’m sure many people sense they can hold back time. For a decade or two it seems some do. There are always exceptions but it’s doubtful anyone beyond those rare people who pop up on local news from time to time or in the media who live beyond a hundred years with full mental capacity and the physical fitness of someone in their forties.Films like The Ninth Gate, Highlander, She and Immortals entertain us for an hour or two as we suspend reality. Their protagonists either have or seek a form of immortality or find it through hocus pocus and old books.I had a great aunt and a couple of uncles live well into their into their nineties and a great uncle who lived to 99, with a reasonable degree of fitness. In fact with Great Uncle Percival, he told me of a man his grandfather knew who had also lived into his nineties. That took a story he had been told back to the 18th Century. There must be many of us with similar stories, encounters that take us back to a time, a place in history. Most of us love a bit of nostalgia. This for many is where their fascination with antiques connects them to an event or someone from history.Living in an historic location and owning a hospitality business inside a Neolithic stone circle it has attracted many “tuned in” individuals; more than a dozen Americans stayed over the years who claimed to be the reincarnation of Cleopatra. They had crossed the line between a love of an era and an interest in an historical character to a belief that they were actually that person. I can almost hear some of you saying “I am Spartacus!”. It’s not for me to deny someone their fantasy or to question their life focuses but confronted by another narcissist asking “Have you ever met a Goddess before” it always deflated their pomposity when I replied that three had stayed the week before. Like those who dress in 18th Century costumes or claim to be a time traveler or indeed an immortal, to most of us they are harmless eccentrics, characters.I’ve met others who believe that certain antiques have magical powers. The most sinister enquiry came from a rather scary far right cult looking for SS relics buried in the ice flow of a glacier that had supposedly been found a few years ago and sold on the black market.It stemmed from selling some nineteenth century prints of Neolithic standing stones in Germany which opened a can of worms. Utter madness. Things don’t have magical powers in my world but clearly they do to others and religious relics are still big business.I’ve visited Vienna a couple of times to visit the Imperial Treasury where during my first visit I met Kurt Waldheim in the most unnerving of circumstances. Here, on display is the supposed Holy Lance, Die Heilige Lanze or Spear of Destiny. It has been held by some of the most intriguing and frightening people in history and is alleged to be the spear of Longinus once thrust into the side of Jesus on the cross. Some saw it as an act of humanity, of kindness to end his suffering, others that those crucified should die before the following holy day; whatever really happened, the Lance was considered a Relic, and of course, humanity being what it is, there are several lances around purporting to be the Holy Lance. In actuality the one in Vienna has a nail wired into it that some believe to be from the cross and scientific analysis has indeed shown it to date to the time of the crucifixion. Whatever the truth, this talisman of power has certainly lived through centuries and was once carried by Charlemagne and indeed dropped by him at the time of his death. Suddenly a lad from Stanmore was standing there with the former Austrian President whose Nazi past had come back to haunt him. He was very polite and friendly yet I felt consumed by a sense of unease, much as I’d felt in the crypt of the Cathedral of Sts Cyril and Methodist in Prague where Kubis, Gabcik and Valcik met their death, having assassinated the Nazi Gaultier of Prague, Hydrich.
Conspiracy theories believe the Holy Lance is a fake and that the real spear was hidden away during WW2. Whatever the truth of that, there is evidence that Napolean wanted it and that Hitler visited the Lance following the annexation of Austria in 1938 and his return to Vienna. You are right to point out that whatever reality, energy or magical power a tangible object holds in the mind of someone, such objects have offered me a glimpse into a dark and sinister world I find abhorrent and it’s sad too that physical objects can become a rallying point for evil. I’m no Indiana Jones, more Jack Jones from Dad’s Army some might say, but when Indiana says “it belongs in a museum” he’s not always right.I once had a certificated 18th Century Buddha in stock and it eventually sold to a Continental lady, yet I’ve come to feel such objects should remain in their country of origin in a temple if still revered by people today yet another side of me appreciates them as the art form they are. The Buddha had come from a communist state where religion was certainly frowned upon and in some cases oppressed. I purchased the Buddha from a dealer in the U.K. I’d felt drawn to its history and condition and I suppose I wanted to own it for a while too. It had a beauty that centuries had create.
Whilst researching a film project about the notorious Hell Fire Club, known during its existence as the Knights of St Francis, I purchased a letter signed by Sir Francis Dashwood, tracked down an amazing cache of his letters to the Bodleian Library, in Oxford, visited the so called Benjamin Franklin House in London as human remains were found there during building works. They had been sourced from grave robbers to use in medical and anatomical learning around the time that Franklin lived there but most likely related to an anatomy school run there by William Hewson.
For a few years I rented a folly on the West Wycombe estate. I also visited the home of actress Haya Harareet, who starred along side Charlton Heston in the film epic Ben Hur. Her home had once belonged to the artist Giuseppe Borgnis who painted the frescoes in West Wycombe House. Haya’s garden contained a labyrinth of tunnels possibly dug out from pre-existing ancient flint mines which connected to the cellar of another nearby house. My research unearthed the possibility that Bonnie Prince Charlie had visited there during one of his two well documented yet “secret” visits to London in the years after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden. He’d stayed at Essex House near Fleet Street which in itself is quite audacious but he never visited Scotland again. I discussed it all over an enjoyable pint or two with Professor Ronald Hutton of Bristol University at the Highbury Vaults pub and later visited West Wycombe Park to film with Sir Edward Dashwood the current resident of this amazing Country estate. I visited the caves at West Wycombe too and later, Medmenham Abbey and whilst thoroughly intrigued by this extraordinary story to the point of co-writing a television series and producing a short film about it, Clubs & Styx, which gathered a fair cluster of international film awards, the story on the one hand fascinated me but it wasn’t an obsession. Who in their right mind would want to live in the 18th Century?In the antique trade, every now and again, an item comes up that may have belonged to some infamous so and so, has a curse or purports to be a holy relic. Indeed, a Catholic priest once joked to me that if all the holy relics were real, there would have been at least 300 disciples at the last supper given the number of bones sold as relics.A relic of St Christopher is currently for sale on-line for £3450 and for £4000 you can buy an 1881 nail made with metal shavings from the crucifixion nails. Personally I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole, how do you authenticate something like that? In an episode of Lovejoy, Swings & Roundabouts, someone tries to sell an American “Nails from the coffin that closed the lid on Charles the first”. Although he doesn’t buy them, the scam obviously gets a few quid here and there.Millions of devotees of various religions have a house shrine and in Hinduism there are avatars of Vishnu and devotees of Lord Rama all of whom are immortal. Again, I feel uncomfortable selling such things. They surely belong in the homes of those whose belief invests in them their true purpose.The work of that old devil Alister Crowley “View of the Tyrrhenian Sea, probably from the hill behind the abbey of Thelema, Cefalù, Sicily, charcoal,1921]” sold a few years ago in excess of its guide price £10k – £15k.Anything Religious, or by polarity, associated with the occult brings in money. In fairness the same can be said of celebrity association or celebrity owned pieces. Yet it’s the things associated with immortality; a Qianlong porcelain figure of an immortal or an Egyptian Ank that attract buyers most strongly. Something exotic, otherworldly that brings a sense of something supernatural.Oh well, I’m an old cynic, but if the idea that owning something physical will make you live longer or invest magical powers in you or bring you closer to your God, then follow your heart, but be careful with your money! There are those out there who just want your cash!
Andrew Blackall is an English antique dealer with more than 30 years of experience selling period furniture and quirky collector’s items to clients across the globe. He has written and produced award-winning film and television productions. He was born in St John’s Wood, London and he grew up in and around London. He currently lives in Avebury, Wiltshire. His love of antiques stems from an early fascination with history and from visiting country homes throughout old England and the British Isles. Many of Andrew’s clients are well known on both sides of the pond, patronising his ability to source antiquities with provenance and appeal. His stock has appeared in a number of films and TV shows. Andrew has two styles of business: one selling high-end decorative antiques at The Blanchard Collective, the other selling affordable collectables at The Malthouse Collective.