STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET.- Sworders Design sale on May 18 included a Peter Collingwood wall hanging sold for £26,000 (including BP) - an auction record for a Collingwood wall hanging.

All proceeds of the sale will be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Underbid by the UK trade the buyer was a private buyer also based in the UK.

The trademark ‘microgauze’ hanging of woven linen and steel was recently given to a fund-raising event in Suffolk but was consigned to auction after specialist advice. Sworders has sold several similar pieces in recent years for significant sums.

Based in Colchester for much of his career, Collingwood (1922-2008) was at the forefront of weaving for 50 years. His wall hangings, many of them sold at the time through Liberty’s and Heals, use the traditional craft to create very modern visual abstraction. Today they are admired and collected worldwide.

Measuring 63cm wide by 150cm high, the hanging titled M.74 No.12, was bought directly from Collingwood in the early 1980’s by the vendor’s mother, Mary Poston. She was an enthusiastic weaver and had joined a craft cruise for which Collingwood provided lectures and tutoring. The vendor David Poston also knew Collingwood. As a designer and maker of jewellery, he had visited the weaver’s workshop in Nayland in his teens and continued to meet him occasionally through professional events as his career evolved. “After I ceased practising as a jewellery designer in order to work for development in rural Africa I encountered a number of interesting traditional textiles on my travels, particularly rope work and soft woven baskets. I gave him examples for his textile collection.”

David had responded to a call for donations from local artist Wil Harvey who was organising a fete in Wenhaston, near Southwold. Knowing that his mother had worked with and for refugees it seemed entirely appropriate to donate her Collingwood weaving to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. However, it soon became apparent that professional advice might be needed. “ My mother would be delighted with the end price,“ said David.