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AUCTION Sales round up AROUND the HOUSES From a Banksy screenprint, to the late Queen’s provisional driving licence, the UK’s salerooms surpassed themselves in recent sales The rare 16th or 17th-century ‘toadstone’ ring was found in a box of mixed jewellery Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet A ‘toadstone’ ring, dated to the 16th or 17th century, sold for £12,500, against an estimate of £3,000-£4,000 at the Essex auctioneer’s sale on November 23. From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, ‘toadstones’ were thought to come from the heads of live toads and were highly prized for their supposed magical properties, in particular as an antidote to poison. In reality they are the teeth of lepidotes, an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Shakespeare references them in As You Like It, writing: “Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” The Qianlong reign censer sparked a nine-way bidding war Tennants, Leyburn A Chinese porcelain censer, expected to make £1,000-£1,500, sparked a bidding war between an online bidder and eight telephone lines at the North Yorkshire saleroom’s November 12 sale before selling for £130,000. The censer, which bears the Qianlong reign mark (1644-1911) and was decorated with a fish, endless knot, heel of law and conch shell, was consigned by a local vendor, and by repute had been in the same family for three generations. Once part of an altar garniture, the censer is decorated in the doucai style, where the design is painted in blue underglaze before glazing and firing, with coloured overglaze enamels used for the rest of the decoration. At the same sale an unusually large 19th-century, stained wood artist’s lay figure doubled its pre-sale estimate when it sold for £6,500. Artists’ lay figures are highly sought after by collectors Three bottles labelled Gildings Auctioneers, Market Harborough A collection of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey collected over a decade sold for £6,250 at the Leicestershire auction house’s recent wine and whisky sale. Scenes from Lynchburg sold for £1,488 The standout lot was a set of three Scenes from Lynchburg bottlings, which sold for £1,488 against an estimate of £500-£800, while three identical Master Distiller collection bottles in individual presentation tins also exceeded expectations by selling for £806 against an estimate of £150-£200. Gildings’ director, Will Gilding, said: “The prices are striking considering the contents of most limitededition bottles are the standard Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7, which you can pick up for under £30 in any UK supermarket.” Jack Daniel’s is popular among collectors and the oldest distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Three identical Master Distiller collection bottles sold for £806 12 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
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Silver made in Limerick is highly sought after by collectors Chiswick Auctions, London An early George III Irish provincial silver ‘hook end’ soup ladle sold within estimate when it fetched £3,125 at the auction house’s recent silver sale. It was made in Limerick, c. 1760, by the silversmith Samuel Johns who used a maker’s mark of his initials SJ flanked by a lion rampant, an idiosyncratic feature of Limerick’s silversmiths. Chiswick Auctions’ silver specialist, John Roger, said: “Irish provincial silver is a well sought-after field. Dublin is the usual, Cork is scarce with a jump in rarity for Limerick items.” The maker’s mark SJ is flanked by a lion rampant Dawsons, Maidenhead Two watches owned by the late Hollywood actor Peter O’Toole (1932-2013) sold for a collective £20,300 at the Berkshire auctioneer’s sale on The 18ct gold watch was a gift from the Sheik of Saudi Arabia November 17. The first, an Audemars Piguet 18ct yellow gold reference 5548, which sold for £18,000, was given O’Toole wore the Baume & Mercier at the 75th Academy Awards to the actor by the Sheik of Saudi Arabia for his performance in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia The second, which sold for £2,300, was a Baume & Mercier Riviera quartz watch. Mallams, Oxford An atmospheric watercolour of the Cumbrian mountain range the Langdale Pikes scaled its pre-sale guide price of £400-£600 to take £8,200 at the Oxford saleroom’s recent sale. Hunt is known for his atmospheric portrayal of landscapes Painted by the Liverpool-born artist Alfred William Hunt (1830-1896), it was the sale’s topselling lot and signed and dated 1857. Encouraged by John Ruskin, Hunt exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854, and afterwards contributed landscapes in oil and watercolour to London and other provincial exhibitions. He is especially known for his poetic rendering of atmosphere and extraordinary landscape detail. Reeman Dansie, Colchester Two 18th-century nun dolls sold at the Essex auctioneers for a total of £55,000 hammer, exceeding their combined estimate of £4,000. At the same sale Queen Elizabeth II’s military provisional driving licence, issued to Princess Elizabeth when she was serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), sold for six times its lower pre-sale guide price of £1,000 when it fetched £6,800. Hansons, London The typewriter used to create British sitcom Steptoe and Son sold for eight times its low estimate of £100, fetching £800 at the Derby-based auction house’s London saleroom. It was owned by scriptwriter and Bafta winner Ray Galton (1930-2018) – a former union worker who succeeded as a writer despite being struck down with tuberculosis aged 18. The 1945 War Department driving permit no.B1232 stated the future monarch had blue eyes, was 5ft 4in tall with light brown hair. Nun dolls acted as instructional tools to teach novices about the order’s specific rules and dress code. They were also sent by nuns to their families as keepsakes to show the style of The late Queen’s driving licence was issued when she was aged 18 in the ATS habit, and as first communion gifts. One of the pair of nun dolls which together notched up £55,000 Such was the impact of the ground-breaking comedy, featuring a mean and grasping father, and his long-suffering son, Harold, it was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert, in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon and in South Africa as Snetherswaite and Son. The typewriter was used to create the iconic comedy series Her Majesty served in the No. 1 Mechanical Transport Training Centre in Camberley ANTIQUE COLLECTING 13

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AUCTION Sales round up

AROUND the HOUSES

From a Banksy screenprint, to the late Queen’s provisional driving licence, the UK’s salerooms surpassed themselves in recent sales

The rare 16th or 17th-century ‘toadstone’ ring was found in a box of mixed jewellery

Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet A ‘toadstone’ ring, dated to the 16th or 17th century, sold for £12,500, against an estimate of £3,000-£4,000 at the Essex auctioneer’s sale on November 23.

From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, ‘toadstones’ were thought to come from the heads of live toads and were highly prized for their supposed magical properties, in particular as an antidote to poison.

In reality they are the teeth of lepidotes, an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Shakespeare references them in As You Like It, writing: “Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”

The Qianlong reign censer sparked a nine-way bidding war

Tennants, Leyburn A Chinese porcelain censer, expected to make £1,000-£1,500, sparked a bidding war between an online bidder and eight telephone lines at the North Yorkshire saleroom’s November 12 sale before selling for £130,000.

The censer, which bears the Qianlong reign mark (1644-1911) and was decorated with a fish, endless knot, heel of law and conch shell, was consigned by a local vendor, and by repute had been in the same family for three generations.

Once part of an altar garniture, the censer is decorated in the doucai style, where the design is painted in blue underglaze before glazing and firing, with coloured overglaze enamels used for the rest of the decoration.

At the same sale an unusually large 19th-century, stained wood artist’s lay figure doubled its pre-sale estimate when it sold for £6,500.

Artists’ lay figures are highly sought after by collectors

Three bottles labelled

Gildings Auctioneers, Market Harborough A collection of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey collected over a decade sold for £6,250 at the Leicestershire auction house’s recent wine and whisky sale.

Scenes from Lynchburg sold for £1,488

The standout lot was a set of three Scenes from Lynchburg bottlings, which sold for £1,488 against an estimate of £500-£800, while three identical Master Distiller collection bottles in individual presentation tins also exceeded expectations by selling for £806 against an estimate of £150-£200.

Gildings’ director, Will Gilding, said: “The prices are striking considering the contents of most limitededition bottles are the standard Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7, which you can pick up for under £30 in any UK supermarket.”

Jack Daniel’s is popular among collectors and the oldest distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Three identical Master Distiller collection bottles sold for

£806

12 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

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