This Must Be the Place (12 page)

LOT 1

LOT 2

VINTAGE SCARF

Silk, dark red border with interlocking abstract design. Shows some wear; fading to one corner. The scarf dates from the early 1950s and is believed to have once belonged to Ms Wells’s paternal grandmother. Included in the lot is a photograph of Ms Wells with her hair tied up in the scarf, taken in late 1989 or early 1990 at a party on a rooftop in London.

LOT 2

LOT 3

BOOK CONTAINING DRAFT OF A LETTER FROM WELLS TO LINDSTROM

Some signs of wear and damage, as if it has been crumpled up, then flattened out. The text reads:

[
STARTS
] – easy for you to say I can get another job. I love this job but they won’t give me the time off. Sometimes I think I should just seize the carp and other times I think I must be mad for even entertaining the idea of chucking everything in here and going to Sweden for six months to act in a film but what I don’t know is— [
ENDS
]

The book is a copy of
The New Poetry,
selected and introduced by A. Alvarez (Penguin Books, London, 1962). Some discoloration to pages; notations in Ms Wells’s writing.

[not pictured]

LOT 3

LOT 4

TILL RECEIPTS

Various, all dated 1990, some with notations by Ms Wells. Includes drinks at a bar in Soho, dinner at a restaurant in Shoreditch, a pair of orange and blue trainers from a shop in Covent Garden, several London Underground tickets, several supermarket receipts, most timed in late evening, a bookshop receipt for
The Rough Guide to Sweden,
ed. 1990.

[not pictured]

LOT 5

SNOWGLOBE OF WESTMINSTER BRIDGE AND BIG BEN

Written on the surface in indelible black ink is:

In the event of homesickness, break glass. Timou L.

LOT 5

LOT 6

COPY OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT’S
LETTERS WRITTEN DURING A SHORT RESIDENCE IN SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK

(Penguin Classics, London, 1987, not pictured)

Some wear and tear to corners; written on flyleaf are the words, ‘Claudette W’. Marking page 156 is the stub of a boarding pass for a flight, London Heathrow to Gothenburg, on 02 March 1990, in the name of
CLAUDETTE FRANCINE WELLS
. In the back is a note from Lindstrom, dated February 1990:

Dear Claudette,

What you said on the phone last night is true: it is a big step. But it’s the RIGHT
one, you know it is. Astrid and I were talking it over after I hung up. You love your job of course but think about this: is it better to facilitate films or to MAKE them?

You know the answer.

Astrid has found you a place to stay, with a friend of ours. We thought you would prefer a room in an apartment with a cool painter girl than a hotel room, yes?

See you then. We are going to have
THE TIMES OF OUR LIVES
. Everything is coming together for the film. Will tell you more when we see you.

Timou

LOT 6

LOT 7

MARIMEKKO SHOULDER BAG

Jokeri pattern in lime green, 100% cotton, made in Finland. Some sun damage, small hole to stitching on one strap. Included in lot is a photograph of Wells, with the bag over her shoulder, on the island of Käringön, south-west Sweden. Also shown in photograph, from left to right: Astrid Bengtsson, Timou Lindstrom, Pia Eklund and unidentified man with Border Terrier dog.

LOT 7

LOT 8

THREE STRIPS OF 8MM CINÉ FILM

Shot by Timou Lindstrom in a Gothenburg park, in 1990, showing Claudette Wells moving from left to right across the frame, wearing a light blue dress. Cut from a longer reel and kept by Wells; the finished and edited film is presumed lost. This is considered to be the first-ever footage by Lindstrom of Wells in existence.

LOT 8

LOT 9

WELLS’S SHOOTING SCRIPT FOR
OUT TO THE ISLAND

(original name:
Ut Till ön
). Numerous signs of wear, some damage to front and back pages. Front page bears the initials ‘
CW
’ in graphite pencil. Notations, corrections and doodles throughout in Wells’s handwriting: fountain-pen ink, ballpoint, red pencil. On the back page is the following exchange, written at some point in the shooting, between Wells [
CW
] and Lindstrom [
TL
]:

[
TL
] –
Is she for real?

[
CW
] –
It would appear so.

[
TL
] –
The pot plant is better actor than she is.

[
CW
] –
Harsh. Pot plant particularly splendid. Hard act to follow.

[
TL
] –
Want to slip away?

[
CW
] –
Won’t we be missed?

[
TL
] –
I’m the director. I can do whatever I want.

[
CW
] –
Is your ego coming with us or are you leaving him here?

[
TL
] –
Why would I leave him?

[
CW
] –
On account of his unusually large size.

[
TL
] –
I will agree to leave him only if you leave behind your sarcasm.

[
CW
] –
To keep him company?

[
TL
] –
Somebody has to.

[
CW
] –
Deal. See you round the back in ten.