Gildings, Market Harborough A single-owner collection of coins from famous shipwrecks more than doubled its estimate of £2,000£3,000, selling for £6,440 at the Leicestershire auction house.
Coins from the collection of sunken treasure realised
£6,440
The sale featured 51 coins in four lots grouped in the wrecks they were recovered from, ranging from 1686 to 1806. The standout lot in the auction was 17 coins from the Hollandia, a Dutch East India Company ship, which was wrecked on the Isles of Scilly’s Gunner
Rock in 1743, resulting in the loss of 276 crew and company members. The lot sold for £2,700 against an estimate of £850-£1,250.
An Isles of Scilly-based diver who was part of the team that recovered some of the coins in the ‘70s was among the successful bidders.
Hansons, London Two paintings of flowers by Queen Victoria discovered in a Surrey cottage doubled their pre-sale estimate of £8,000-£10,000 when they sold for a combined total of £19,500.
Hansons’ Chris Kirkham said: “I was astounded and delighted when I discovered the paintings.” Both had been purchased decades ago by the seller’s grandfather who lived on the Isle of Wight and bought them at a sale of items relating to Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s holiday home on the island. Both paintings had letters of provenance on the reverse.
The paintings show a more colourful side to the monarch
Parker Fine Art Auctions, Farnham A 16th-century oil on board by the Italian Renaissance artist Palma Vecchio (14801528) more than doubled its low guide price when it hammered at £42,000 at the Surrey auction house.
Several phone bidders competed for The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, c. 1514, after its authenticity was confirmed by the specialist Philip Rylands (author of a book about the artist) who stated “there is no-one else it could be by.”
Working in Venice in the late 15th and early 16th century, Vecchio is widely considered to be the greatest artist after Titian.
A painting of the Virgin and Child, thought to be by the 15th-century Italian artist known as the Master of Roncajette, sold for £8,500, against a low estimate of £5,000, after being confirmed as a work by the artist by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The oil on board by was authenticated by a leading authority
The Virgin and Child by The Master of Roncajette sold for £8,500 in
Surrey
Bonhams, Knightsbridge A 1941 WWII recruitment poster banned for being too seductive, and condemned by the wartime leader Winston Churchill as “too Soviet”, almost doubled its low pre-sale estimate, selling for £3,825 at the London auction house in February.
Designed by Abram Games (1914-1996) to recruit women into the Auxiliary Territorial Service, its pouting red lips and blonde curls attracted widespread attention in the press, causing it to be dubbed the “Blonde Bombshell”.
Bonhams’ Richard Barclay, said: “While WWII posters such as ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ are instantly recognisable ‘Join the ATS’ is much rarer and has cemented its place as a desirable vintage poster.”
The poster was banned for sending the wrong message
Lawrences, Crewkerne An enamel and gem set pendant by Carlo Giuliano and a gem set and enamel bracelet by Carlo and Arthur Giuliano both doubled their their top estimate to make a combined total of £28,125 at the Somerset auction house.
Giuliano’s jewellery was inspired by the Renaissance and ancient Egypt
Carlo Giuliano (c.1831-1895) moved to London from Italy in the 1860s and set up in business with Alessandro Castellani in Frith Street in Soho. By 1874 his two sons, Carlo Joseph and Arthur Alphonse, had joined him in the business and they opened a new shop at 115 Piccadilly.
Giuliano’s jewellery was inspired by the Renaissance and ancient Egypt and usually decorated, as in this case, with polychrome enamels and coloured gemstones.
ANTIQUE COLLECTING 13
