We were recently contacted by a collector/antiques dealer who purchased 11 Curlew Related photographs at a market in South London, he contacted the club to see if the club would be interested in them.
It soon transpired that the photographs were part of the missing horde
On discovering that the photographs had been initially stolen, James Bissell-Thomas kindly decided to return them to the club.
James explained why: “Several years ago I employed someone in my Globe making workshops in Ryde, he was first caught making globes using my materials and selling them at boot fairs where one was purchased by a Ryde Antiques dealer who asked me to supply more. On this discovery the worker who had moved from london with his family promised to turn over a new leaf… but despite been offered a partnership on a globe project, he resumed stealing from me – Running a fine art print business using my printer and inks, for 2 years, when I was on the mainland and then later again stealing globe components to help set up his own globemaking business in Cowes. It is horrible to be a victim of someone’s rotten and selfish dishonest behaviour and I did not wish to profit from the Curlew photographs once I realised they were once stolen, I am delighted that the Club’s will be able to re-hang them again on their walls again.”
This is great for the club, and means that the money raised can go towards finding more of our old archive but also will allow us to add to our current, with all qualified HRR and WHR crew photos to be bought.