GEORGE WITHERS (1946–2023) must have been one of the world’s greatest hoarders. Every now and again, we hear of someone who has made their house impenetrable with a lifetime of accumulations, but usually the trove turns out to consist of rotting newspapers, moth-eaten clothes, holed shoes, broken furniture, damaged crockery, cereal packets, advertising fliers and the like.
Withers was different. He was, in his own fashion, an antique dealer and he had a good eye for traditional quality. Although he had a stall in the Portobello Road market for a while, his life was largely lived out in Gloucestershire and Avon. Born just south
