Are They Old Masters?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 1

Are They Old Masters?

ART TREASURES AT DEVONPORT Being Examined in England FOR more than half a century, in a little gabled house tinder the shelter of North Head, Devonport, which looks across the cricket field where the family name of Dacre has become so famous, there lies hidden a store of wealth in the form of old paintings, ivory miniatures and other heirlooms, the value of which will not be known until the acid test of public competition at Christie’s has been applied. However, English experts and connoisseurs agree in describing it as a very valuable collection of old masters and Antiques.

This valuable collection of art treasures was sent back to England by Mr. Albert Dacre, the traffic manager of the Devonport Steam Ferry Company, in whose possession they have been since the death of his father, Mr. C. C. Dacre, senr. A brother, Mr. Ces Dacre, of cricket and Soccer fame, who is now at Home qualifying for Gloucester County, has consulted experts in Bristol* and London, who unhesitatingly declare the old paintings the work of master artists. The proof of this cannot be estimated until they have undergone restoration treatment, and an attempt has been made to trace their history before they started the long trek round the world and back. In the same old-fashioned home at Devonport there is the family tree of the Dacre family and fragmentary notes of its romantic history from the time of the Norman Conquest, when the first of the D’Acres set foot in England, and later with one family branch established in Northumberland, and another in the extreme south in Hampshire. A DISCOVERER OF AUCKLAND

It was from the Hampshire branch of the D’Acres that the progenitor of the Auckland Dacres sprang. Captain Dacre, R.N., was a son of Colonel Dacre, of the Hampshire Light Fencibles, a High Sherriff of the

county. At 12 years of age Captain Dacre entered the navy as a middy, having Captain Marryat, the novelist, as a shipmate. Following the downfall of Napoleon, Captain Dacre saw active service in the American War of 1812, assisting in the blockade of the American ports. The peaceful times following the war of ISIS did not suit his restless spirit and, after commanding a trader to the West Indies with some successful fights with pirates and buccaneers, Captain Dacre sailed for New Zealand in command of the Endeavour, with a commission from the Admiralty to secure kauri spars for the British Navy. It was on this quest he entered the Waitemata Harbour in 1824, and if not the first, was one of the first pakehas to set eyes on the site of Auckland, and was admittedly the first to cross the Kaipara Bar. EARLY SETTLERS Captain Dacre had with him as passengers two L.M.S. missionaries, Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet, who were landed at Whangaroa after Captain Dacre’s diplomacy and daring had pacified the sullen native chiefs. Captain Dacre then secured some fine kauri bush at Mercury Bay for his supply of spars, and started trad-

ing with Sydney. He also secured from the natives a grant of land on the North Shore, which extended on the coast from North Head to Whangaparaoa, and included Lake Takapuna and Tiri Island. All that remained of this area, when Auckland became the capital and land titles were confirmed, was a fair amount at Okura, which was later farmed by one of the captain’s sons. Captain Dacre subsequently made Sydney his headquarters, and established an extensive trade with London, the East and Auckland. He was one of the foundation directors of the Union Bank, and also a director of the Alliance Insurance Company. Two ventures for the shipment of New Zealand greenstone to China, where for jade carvings it was more valuable than its weight in gold, proved a costly speculation owing to w r ars in China. Five thousand acres in the neighbourhood of Melbourne were sacrificed later in the slump of 1842, and the adventurous wanderer settled in Auckland in 1844 in business partnership with the Macky Brothers, one of whom founded the firm of Macky, Logan’s. Captain Dacre died here at the ripe old age of 87. Two sons of Captain Dacre were the best known pioneers of sport in Auckland. “C.C.” who inherited the art treasures, was the founder of Soccer football here, and represented Auckland at Rugby, Soccer and cricket. The works of art which were bequeathed to the original Captain Dacre and shipped to Auckland more than half a century ago, consist of a number of oil paintings which are smoky, discoloured and cracked with age and travel through the tropics, and some exquisite miniatures, hand-painted on ivory and set in tarnished mountings of fine craftsmanship. But at the present time the identity of the lovely women and hard-looking men is wrapped in mystery; nor can any estimate be made of their intrinsic value until they have passed the lenses and critical judgment of expert authorities. With the history of each one confirmed that is now possible. The proud beauty illustrated here has been pronounced almost certainly a Romney masterpiece by two independent experts, one a valuer for Christie’s, London. There is another handsome woman portrayed by Sir Peter Lely, and a full head and bust of the Duke of Monmouth by Sir Geoffrey Kneller. Some family plate with the Dacre crest of centuries’ standing, and other objects of art, accompanied the paintings arjd miniatures, and these have also been judged of considerable value in themselves, but may prove of greater worth as evidence of the genuineness of the master works by giving collateral evidence of their family origin and authenticity. There is the keenest competition nowadays for possession of such masterpieces as these by Romney, Raeburn, Lely, Kneller and others whose work is thought to be included in the Dacre collection, while there are wealthy British collectors who are equally keen on securing possession. If offers at Christie’s do not reach expectation, the Dacre heirlooms may be sent to America for offer tl^ere.