Read this! Wow what an amazing man he was!!!
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Ralph Richardson
BigBadEd — 12 years ago(November 17, 2013 01:40 AM)
Proof, if needed, the old man and his wife were bloody nice folk!
SIR RALPHS COLLECTION SELLS FOR 700,000 - DAILY TELEGRAPH .. 28 April 2001
SIR RALPH RICHARDSON'S collection of art, antiques and memorabilia was auctioned at Sotheby's in London yesterday, raising 728,280 for fellow thespians whose b68careers have fared less well and have fallen on hard times.
The Ralph and Meriel Richardson Foundation was set up by Sir Ralph's widow, Lady Richardson, shortly before her death aged 86 last year. She decided to found the charity following the sudden death of the couple's only son Charles in 1998.
Brian Eagles, the couple's solicitor, said: "It was Lady Richardson's wish that the collection so carefully put together by her husband and herself during their lifetimes should be sold to benefit those actors who had found themselves in less fortunate circumstances."
Even at the height of his fame as one of Britain's greatest 20th century actors, Sir Ralph Richardson never forgot what it was like to be short of money.
When he was just four years old his mother left his father and took the young Ralph to live in a makeshift home made from two old railway carriages on an allowance of 2.50 a week from her husband. Later Sir Ralph was paid a pittance as a struggling member of a provincial theatre company before making his name as an actor who could portray the ordinary man with rare brilliance.
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Yesterday's auction was full of mementos of Sir Ralph's theatrical career and the couple's long and happy marriage as well as the art and antiques that he collected voraciously.
In a packed saleroom - which included actors such as Sir Donald Sinden, dealers, collectors and theatre enthusiasts - prices frequently soared above their pre-sale estimates. A collection of pipes and smoker's equipment which had belonged to Sir Ralph, expected to fetch 250-300, sold for 2,880 while a 19th century cast-iron doorstop from his home, estimated at 100-150, went for 936.
A gold fob seal that belonged to several famous theatrical figures before being given to Sir Ralph by his fellow actor Sir John Gielgud sold for 9,000, three times its pre-sale upper estimate. The highest price in the sale was 63,750 for a 2,300-year-old Egyptian carving of the head of a god while a still life painting, Orchid and Goblet, by the British artist Ben Nicholson fetched 44,200.
Sir Ralph, who as a young man enrolled as a student at Brighton College of Art only to discover that he had a limited talent for painting, built up a collection of British art including works by Sir William Nicholson, Walter Sickert and Augustus John.
He was a familiar sight around the salerooms and antique shops of London, usually formally dressed in a jacket and tie and Homburg, as he bought paintings, furniture, silver, porcelain and antiquities. Sometimes Sir Ralph would treat himself to a work of art as a memento of one of his stage performances, often inscribing his purchases with the price and the date on which he bought them.
Yesterday's sale included a Roman funerary tablet from the 1st or 2nd century AD on which he had written: "Bought for an in5b4terior of Home Nov 70 Ralph Richardson". This was a reference to the play Home in which he starred opposite Sir John Gielgud and it fetched 1,560. Harry Dalmeny, the Sotheby's specialist in charge of the sale, said: "The saleroom was packed throughout the day. The strength of the bidding was a tribute to Sir Ralph's style and taste."
The prices paid also owed much to the affection in which Sir Ralph, who died in 1983 aged 80, was held. Although he was no great artist, his self portrait sold for more than 10 times its estimate at 3,600.