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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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On the Origin of Species selling out on the first day has always stuck in my craw--and not for any personal feelings of jealousy. It just doesn't happen unless it is the Denning Report on the Profumo Affair and the publisher is HMSO.
There is some important careful ignoral going on here. The fact of it is mentioned every day and twice on Sundays. The why of it has never, to my knowledge, been addressed. If I was asked to list possible answers, I wouldn't be able to produce a single one. Not, at any rate, one that would survive scrutiny.
I can however readily accept the rest of the story, both from personal experience and the experience of others in the same boat. Or boats in this case.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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PS This may not be relevant (or it may be) but On the Origin of Species holds another world record. The title of no other book of epochal significance has ever got mangled in so many ways, starting with always dropping the 'On'
The Origin of Species
Origin of the Species
The Origin of the Species
Origins of the Species
The Origins of the Species
Origin of Species
and so on in all fifty-seven varieties
Well done, Charles. You stumbled on the right publishing trick even if you did get the theory part wrong. Or partly wrong. We're still arguing about it.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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When the artist denies he is responsible for a painting this can be considered a red flag.
| Freud had repeatedly denied the work was his before he died in 2011. In 1985, Christie’s identified it as a painting by the artist, but reversed its decision when Freud said he had not painted it. |
It means it is worthless rather than
| Freud works can fetch much larger sums: in 2015, his Benefits Supervisor Resting sold for $56m (£42m), and his auction record is $86m. |
But consideration has to be given to the relationship between the alleged painter and the owner
| The denial appeared to stem from Freud’s personal feud with the original owners of the work, Denis Wirth-Miller and Richard Chopping, with whom he attended the Suffolk school as a teenager. |
Whereas in fact...
| Man in a Black Scarf was created in 1939 by the British artist when he was still a student at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Hadleigh, Suffolk. The sitter is thought to be John Jameson, a friend of Freud’s and scion of the whiskey family. |
The lesson in all this? Budding artists should do portraits of rich classmates.
Full story here https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jun/01/early-portrait-denied-lucian-freud-man-in-black-scarf-authentication?shem=dsdf,sharefoc,agadiscoversdl,,sh/x/discover/m1/4
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