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AUCTION Sales round-up A ROUND the HOUSES A cigarette card lights up the saleroom in Berkshire, while Victorian marbles are on a roll in Derbyshire Hansons, Etwell A set of 30 Victorian marbles, from one of the best collections in the UK, hammered at £7,000, smashing its £60-£80 guide price 90 times over, at the Derbyshire auction house’s autumn sale. Dozen of lots from the 425-piece lifetime collection of award-winning British toy designer Patrick Rylands sailed past their estimates at what the auction house described as “one of the most incredible collectors’ auctions ever witnessed”. The sale attracted 456 bidders from every corner of the globe including 29 phone bidders, with the top seller being a 1999 Paul Spooner and Matt Smith Fourteen Balls Toy Co. automaton entitled Anubis, Lord of the Mummy Wrappings. It reached £10,000 from a £600-£800 guide, setting a house record. Marbles from the collection on their own fetched an incredible £56,000. The fifth and final part of the sale is on October 2. The automaton was the top seller when it sold for £10,000 Bonhams, Sydney A linocut by the Australian artist Dorrit Black (1891-1951) almost doubled its low estimate when it sold for £56,500 (AU$73,800) in the artist’s home country. It was one of 19 works by artists from the famous Grosvenor School of Modern Art founded in Pimlico, London in 1925. Students from around the world flocked to the school including Australians Ethel Spowers (1890-1947) Eveline Syme (1888-1961) and Black herself. They were taught by Claude Flight (1881-1955) whose own work expressed simple forms showing speed and movement. The school’s best-known artists were arguably Cyril Edward Power and Sybil Andrews whose work also featured in the sale. Dorrit Black (1891-1951) The Acrobats, 1927- 1928, sold for £56,500 Chiswick Auctions A pine side-table thought to have been owned by Bloomsbury favourite Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) made £10,080 at the London auction house, more than five times its low estimate of £2,000. Beneath the table’s glass top featureda floral embroidery reputedly sewn by the author and based on a design by her sister, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) The table came with a pencil sketch of it by Trekkie Ritchie Parsons (1902-1995), the artist who became Leonard Woolf ’s lover after his wife Virginia’s suicide. The marbles rolled past their guide price of £60-£80 to score £7,000 12 ANTIQUE COLLECTING The pine table was likely on show at Virginia Woolf’s home in Tavistock Square
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Arthur Hughes (18321915) Trevose Head, Cornwall, signed and dated 1890 The Canterbury Auction Galleries The painting of a Cornish beach scene by the pre-Raphaelite artist and book illustrator Arthur Hughes (1832-1915) sold for £4,100, beating its pre-sale guide price of £600-£800 at the Kent auction house’s recent sale. A contemporary of William Holman Hunt, D.G. Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, Hughes was born in London and entered the School of Design, Somerset House, London in 1846. He spent holidays with his wife and children in Cornwall and many of his best-loved works, such as this one of Trevose Head, featured the county. His later, brightly-coloured landscapes were more loosely painted than those of his Pre-Raphaelite days. Dore & Rees, Frome A rare 16th-century Italian majolica charger sold for £9,500 – 15 times its estimate at auction in Somerset. Made in Deruta, it features the bust of a classical soldier in ornate armour, 16½in (42cm) diameter. Produced in the Umbrian towns of Deruta and Gubbio, majolica was popular among the Italian elite. This example may have been the work of Nicola Francioli who worked in the town from 1513-1565. The rare Italian charger is 42cm (16½in) diameter and depicted the bust of a soldier Toovey’s, Washington A Macintyre Moorcroft Florian ware two-handled vase, c, 1900-1902, sold for £4,600 at the West Sussex auction house, beating its estimate of £500-£700. Featuring the Peacock pattern in blue and green, the vase had William Moorcroft’s hand-painted signature in green with additional factory markings. Moorcroft (1872-1945) first worked for the commercial pottery and porcelain firm of James Macintyre & Co. in Burslem in his early twenties. The early Moorcroft vase, in the art nouveau style, stands (20cm) 8in high Fellows, Birmingham A 17th-century table clock by the English maker Joseph Knibb (1640–1711) sold for £20,000, more than four times its low estimate of £4,000, at the Midlands auctioneer’s sale on September 4. Known for his advancements in horology, Knibb’s work remains highly sought after, with his clocks often regarded as masterpieces of design and engineering. He remains an outstanding clockmaker in a generation that included such illustrious names as Fromanteel and Thomas Tompion. This model, with its intricate movement and elegant aesthetic, comes from a golden age of English timekeeping. The high price achieved proved the resilient market for fine clocks Comic Book Auctions, London A copy of the first ever issue of The Beano became the most expensive British comic ever sold after it fetched more than £26,000 at auction, beating its guide price of £18,000-£22,000. The first edition, issued with a free whoopee mask, was published on July 30, 1938. Only a handful of copies of the 28-page debut issue are thought to exist on the market today. Published by DC Thomson & Co. Ltd and priced 2d, the first issue featured Big Eggo on the cover, with Lord Snooty and his Pals, Morgyn the Mighty, Whoopee Hank and Tin-Can Tommy featuring inside. An edition of the first ever The Beano set a British record when it sold for £26,000 It was an immediate success, selling roughly 443,000 copies. The survival of free gifts on the cover can double the price of a comic in today’s condition-obsessed market. ANTIQUE COLLECTING 13

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AUCTION Sales round-up

A ROUND the HOUSES

A cigarette card lights up the saleroom in Berkshire, while Victorian marbles are on a roll in Derbyshire

Hansons, Etwell A set of 30 Victorian marbles, from one of the best collections in the UK, hammered at £7,000, smashing its £60-£80 guide price 90 times over, at the Derbyshire auction house’s autumn sale.

Dozen of lots from the 425-piece lifetime collection of award-winning British toy designer Patrick Rylands sailed past their estimates at what the auction house described as “one of the most incredible collectors’ auctions ever witnessed”.

The sale attracted 456 bidders from every corner of the globe including 29 phone bidders, with the top seller being a 1999 Paul Spooner and Matt Smith Fourteen Balls Toy Co. automaton entitled Anubis, Lord of the Mummy Wrappings. It reached £10,000 from a £600-£800 guide, setting a house record. Marbles from the collection on their own fetched an incredible £56,000. The fifth and final part of the sale is on October 2.

The automaton was the top seller when it sold for

£10,000

Bonhams, Sydney A linocut by the Australian artist Dorrit Black (1891-1951) almost doubled its low estimate when it sold for £56,500 (AU$73,800) in the artist’s home country. It was one of 19 works by artists from the famous Grosvenor School of Modern Art founded in Pimlico, London in 1925. Students from around the world flocked to the school including Australians Ethel Spowers (1890-1947) Eveline Syme (1888-1961) and Black herself. They were taught by Claude Flight (1881-1955) whose own work expressed simple forms showing speed and movement. The school’s best-known artists were arguably Cyril Edward Power and Sybil Andrews whose work also featured in the sale.

Dorrit Black (1891-1951) The Acrobats, 1927-

1928, sold for

£56,500

Chiswick Auctions A pine side-table thought to have been owned by Bloomsbury favourite Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) made £10,080 at the London auction house, more than five times its low estimate of £2,000. Beneath the table’s glass top featureda floral embroidery reputedly sewn by the author and based on a design by her sister, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961)

The table came with a pencil sketch of it by Trekkie Ritchie Parsons (1902-1995), the artist who became Leonard Woolf ’s lover after his wife Virginia’s suicide.

The marbles rolled past their guide price of £60-£80 to score

£7,000

12 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

The pine table was likely on show at Virginia Woolf’s home in Tavistock

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