Talk:James Agg-Gardner

Wine auctions

Not worthy of comment in the main article, but perhaps of interest to passing researchers, is the frequency with which “Agg-Gardner” is mentioned in Christie’s wine catalogues. He is not the subject of my research, so I haven’t been trying to note all the occasions when he bid, sometimes successfully, for Port. E.g., merely because it is the image at which I am now looking, the auction on 26 March 1912, lots 123 and 124 (“Port, 1870 (bought from Osborne) Re-corked by Wells, Bedford”), sold at 88/- per dozen, Agg-Gardner being the under-bidder at 86/-. (My pictures #21325/35-6.) A keen biographer of A-G could spend many days in Christie’s archive noting the two(ish) decades of his bidding. JDAWiseman (talk) 21:07, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

I’ll add 9 March 1925. But there are many. JDAWiseman (talk) 23:36, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Only because I am looking at it, adding 11 December 1903 — “Agg Gardner” buying lot 173 = 3¾ dozen of Smith Woodhouse 1860. JDAWiseman (talk) 00:32, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Only because I am looking at it, adding 4 April 1928 — “Agg Gardner” buying lot 219, being 2¼ dozen “of Offley’s 1884” at 165/- per dozen. (My pictures 21789-90.) JDAWiseman (talk) 21:19, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Only because I am looking at it, adding 12 June 1903, “Agg” buying lots 52 54 56, totalling nine “Dozens of Port, Offley’s Boa Vista, 1890” at 50/- per dozen. That’s £22½. (My pictures 20676-9.) JDAWiseman (talk) 23:47, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

The Soliloquy of a Bibulous Bibliophile, Wine & Food, No. 132, Winter 1966, by André L. Simon

Wine & Food (the journal of the International Wine and Food Society), No. 132, Winter 1966, in an article titled The Soliloquy of a Bibulous Bibliophile, by André L. Simon:

Is there anybody anywhere today, I sometimes wonder, who had the opportunities which were mine, during three score and ten years of my adult life, to enjoy wonderful wines, the like of which the post-wars generations will never know, and the privilege to enjoy them with such wonderful friends? I doubt it. One of my oldest friends–he was born in 1847–was Sir James Agg-Gardner, a little man and a great lover of wine: he was M.P. for Cheltenham, and Chairman of the Kitchen Committee of the House of Commons; he was one of a few friends who lunched with me at my old Mark Lane headquarters, in 1918, to celebrate my return to civilian life. There were still, on that day, four magnums of Cockburn 1847 in the cellar; we had one of them and it really was magnificent! We were on the eve of a General Election and we all drank good luck to Sir James in the wine of his own vintage. I promised him, somewhat rashly, another magnum of 1847 Cockburn, should he be re-elected. He was re-elected, of course, not only that year, but twice again during the next twelve months: it took three elections in two years to get a working majority, and this was why and how my last three magnums of Cockburn 1847 went in two years! No regrets: they were at their best and could not possibly have been any better had they been kept any longer.

The article says that A-G was born 25 November 1846: either JTA-G or ALS was overlooking this detail.

(My picture 132_20.) JDAWiseman (talk) 14:15, 9 March 2016 (UTC)