LASSCO Three Pigeons

Many years ago, whilst salvaging 100s of the theatre seats from The Royal Opera House (and the panelling) we also saved the swathes of the carpet from the skip. It was a bespoke design with musical clefs and staves. We cut it into rectangles and whipped the edges.

The Oscars red carpet was in a skip. Then a woman took it home for her flat. What else could be repurposed? A dumpster-diving TikToker struck gold the morning after the Academy Awards. But why are they binning carpets after one brief use? And where can we find the uneaten chocolate Oscars?

Architectural Salvage: We sold the original Westminster Bridge last year. We can now reveal where it can be found…

A Bridge across the Atlantic - LASSCO - England's prime resource for Architectural Antiques, Salvage Curiosities On the morning of 9th October 1971 the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Gilbert Inglefield, together with a party of dignitaries, sat in the front row of chairs laid out in a marquee on London Bridge listening to speeches. They were dressed in all their finery: frock coats with the chains of office about t...

Unwanted Lenins and Stalins used to come on the market: now Michael Jacksons are out there too. (The bronze MJ that Mohammed Al Fayad had made for Fulham Football Club ended up in the football museum in Manchester- but I doubt it is still on display).
Giant Michael Jackson statues popped up 30 years ago. Where have they gone?

Where are Michael Jackson's giant HIStory statues 30 years later? The King Of Pop had 10 statues made in his image in 1995, but where can they be seen three decade later?

Superb Sleuthery from the Oxford Sausage: hunting down various generations of the Sheldonian heads 🐜

We're going on a head hunt | The Oxford Sausage They are hidden all over Oxford and beyond. Outside, amongst the trees of parks and gardens, positioned in courtyards and parking lots. Huge ancient, crowned heads, features blackened with time, hair interlaced with lichen, lips softened by moss, some so weathered it is hard to see there ever was a....

We’re very lucky to have a plaster casting of the Hew Draper graffito- a relief carved panel in the wall of the Salt Tower at The Tower of London. It is part of a recent study detailed in today’s paper.
A mould was made from the carving and a bronze cast was created some years ago. We bought the bronze from the daughter of a Beefeater (it had been his retirement present) and made our own mould from it. Search “Draper” on our website - one of many plaster casts we produce in our own workshops.

16th-century graffiti of Tower of London prisoners decoded for first time Once listed as ‘illegible’, the words of inmates held in bleak fortress are revealed by latest technology

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/feb/23/stadtgeschichtliches-museum-spandau-berlin-exhibition-statues

A***n homoeroticism and Lenin’s head: the museum showcasing Berlin’s unwanted statues At the ancient citadel of Spandau, German history is redefined with rejected sculptures of figures ranging from Kant to Hi**er

Are you an Opercularist ?
Whilst Opercula may seem to be the most utilitarian of objects, and anachronistic at that, they have developed an enthusiastic following. Past Opercularists include Sir John Betjeman (who coined the phrase) and many others. Exhibitions of “Coal-hole covers”, a more descriptive term, have appeared in Mayfair art galleries; enthusiasts can be seen taking rubbings on the street.

As a collection they offer a fantastic opportunity to present them as a grid – whether setting them into a pavement  (perhaps an interior lobby or bar or boot-room), or perhaps a back-bar, bar-front or even bar top - Restaurant designers grab them quick!
The coal-hole cover was a functional part of Georgian and Victorian terraces. It rather neatly, enabled the coal-man to send coal through the operculum into a chute to the coal bunker in the basement level – the coal cellar either backing onto or underneath the pavement or entrance path – without traipsing coal dust through the house. The inventive geometric designs were amazing in their complexity – the different designs presumably helped the coal-man differentiate between clients as he went on his round.
Some bear the founders’ name, but not all. Some are “Hayward Bros”, others “Brooks Phillips” or “Matt’s of Paddington” - some are still sharp, others have worn quite smooth from the tramp of feet.

Of all the curiosities we’ve encountered in all these years, of all the extraordinary lumps we’ve heaved across the threshold here at LASSCO - this is one of the very best….

The Temple of Friendship Coade Stone Urns - LASSCO - England's prime resource for Architectural Antiques, Salvage Curiosities

Robert Adam re-designed Bowood House in Wiltshire for Lord Shelburne (later Lord Lansdown) from 1761 to 71. These pilasters were salvaged from the tragic demolitions there in 1956. Whilst they are doubtless to the designs of Adam, we think these columns may have been installed during one of the series of later re-modellings, quite possibly those by Sir Charles Barry in Victorian times. Barry is credited with making what had become a somewhat disjointed interior into a more cohesive whole.
Famously Adam’s Dining Room from the demolished Bowood “Big House” was bought by Lloyd’s of London to form their board room at their “1928 Building”. Somewhat incongruously, by 1986, it was re-inserted on the 11th floor of Richard Roger’s replacement Lloyd’s Building there at 1 Lime Street. These pilasters 3.24m high and still with the shadow of the Bowood chair-rail and skirting in the sides, are associated to, but separated from, that room.
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The delicate foliate ornament snaking down the front has been beautifully restored for us by of Welshpool all sensitively and painstakingly done by hand.

To any Architectural Salvage Dealer, “Del-Boy” from Only Fools & Horses is, of course, regarded as a Patron Saint and a Hero. So to have had a visit from Sir David Jason together with Jay Blades of Repair Shop fame for a photo-shoot to promote their upcoming new BBC series was both a pleasure and an honour!

Their visit here was photographed, they were interviewed, and the result was the Cover Story on this weekend’s “The Telegraph Magazine”. Luvly Jubbly.

Del-Boy comes to LASSCO - LASSCO - England's prime resource for Architectural Antiques, Salvage Curiosities Sir David Jason and Jay Blades pay a visit to LASSCO Three Pigeons