AUCTION Sales round up

The chocolate cup with cover more than tripled its low estimate

Kinghams, Moretonin-Marsh It might look like a work by the Scottish Colourist Samuel Peploe (1871-1935) but this still life, which sold for £1,600 at the Gloucestershire auction house’s recent sale, is by the lesser-known Scottish artist William Walker Telfer (1907-1993). Expected to make £150, Still Life, Tulips & Fruit was by the ‘fringe’ Colourist, Telfer who also exhibited at the Society of Eight whose members included F.C.B. Cadell and Peploe himself.

The still life has definite echoes of the Scottish

Colourist Peploe

AROUND the HOUSES

This month’s round up from the UK’s leading salerooms includes an ingenious Victorian choker and a pair of armchairs by Howard & Sons

Bellmans, Wisborough Green A pair of Copeland ‘jewelled’ bone china dessert plates from the 1890s, featuring fashionable young women of the day and painted by Samuel Alcock doubled its estimate when it sold for £650 at the West Sussex auction house.

The painter Samuel Alcock (not to be confused with the porcelain manufacturer of that name) was one of the Stoke-on-Trent manufactory’s finest artists, specialising in figures and, on occasions, using his wife and daughters as models.

At the same sale a late 19th-century Meissen yellow-ground chocolate cup with cover and ‘trembleuse’ saucer – with a raised holding area allowing the cup to sit more securely – sold for £1,400 against an estimate of £400-£600.

The plates were painted by Copeland’s leading artist

Samuel Alcock

Denhams, Horsham Two 17th-century tavern jugs, estimated at £400-£600 each sold for a combined total of £34,000 (£19,000 and £15,000) at the Sussex auctioneer’s recent sale.

Both were the same shape and size (20cm high) and featured wreathed medallions with the initials MRS. They were likely produced in the 1670s by the Fulham Pottery, which manufactured

100 similar types with the tavern or tavern keepers’ name.

Many have the sign of The Cock tavern (a favourite haunt of Samuel Pepys) and the name of the landlord Henry Crosse or his deputy William Morrison.

The bottles are similar

One of the two tavern jugs which sold for a total of £34,000

to 17th-century

German Bellarmine or Bartmann jugs which were supplied across Europe in their millions.

Fellows Auctioneers, Birmingham An early 20th-century Burmese ruby and oldcut diamond ring sold for £19,140 against a low guide price of £2,000 at the Midlands auction house’s recent sale.

Interest in the ring sparked close to 100 bids, reflecting Burmese rubies’ status as one of the most precious gems in the world (most of them have already been mined making them incredibly sought-after at auctions around the world). The ruby was unheated and had a calculated ruby weight of 2.20 carats, with an estimated diamond weight of 0.65 carats. While the band had been resized, its diamonds appeared bright and well matched.

Burmese rubies are some of the rarest gemstones in the world

12 ANTIQUE COLLECTING