AUCTION Sales round-up
A ROUND the HOUSES Woolley
A ceremonial mask from the Kwele people of eastern Gabon sold for £85,000 – 70 times its estimate
A decanter from an 18th-century drinking club and a ceremonial mask from eastern Gabon are among the lots making waves
& Wallis, Salisbur y A tribal mask from central Africa sold for £85,000, 70 times its estimate of £300-£500 at the Wiltshire auction house’s recent sale.
The early to mid 20th-century ‘sleeper’, which went to a French dealer, was catalogued as being from the Lega people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but was more likely a ceremonial mask from the Kwele tribal group of nearby eastern Gabon.
The Kwele is a relatively small ethnic group living in the dense forests, with a strong tradition of mask-making, with designs renowned for their smooth, serene expressions.
Their masks are considered some of the most elegant and minimalistic examples of African mask art, and they have long captivated collectors, with older Kwele masks (pre-1940s) achieving huge sums at auction.
Cheffi ns, Cambridge A painting of flowers in a landscape by Cedric Morris (1889-1982), expected to sell for £30,000-£50,000 fetched £125,000 at the Cambridge auction house.
The doublesided painting sold for £125,000 demonstrating the ongoing boom in
Morris’ work
It was given by Morris to Bettina ShawLawrence (1921-2018), one of his students at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing and had been kept in her family ever since. On the reverse is another picture: a view of a keeper’s cottage, possibly in Wales. Shaw-Lawrence was a well-known artist in her own right and in an on-off relationship with Lucian Freud, a fellow student at the painting school at Benton End in Hadleigh, Suffolk. Interest in Morris’ work has soared since the sale of three of his paintings as part of David Bowie’s estate in 2016. This was backed up by exhibitions at Philip Mould Gallery, the Firstsite Gallery, and Benton End House and Gardens.
The Canterbury Auction Galleries A pair of 19th-century stoneware bottles shattered its estimate of £150-£250 to fetch £2,700 at the Kent auctioneer’s recent sale. The reason could be their provenance, one shoe polish bottle, stamped “T Warren’s Liquid Blacking”, was well known as being the workplace of Charles Dickens, who famously worked there as a child after his father was sent to a debtors’ prison at the Marshalsea.
The traumatic time the author spent in the rat-infested factory is described in fictional form in David Copperfield where the young hero is sent to work in Murdstone and Grinby’s warehouse, which was closely based on Warren’s.
hero is sent to work in Murdstone and Grinby’s warehouse, was closely based on Warren’s.
The earthenware bottles came from the factory Charles Dickens worked at as a
Th earthe bottles from the Charles worked child chi
The painting’s reverse depicts a keeper’s cottage,
possibly in
Wales
12 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
