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The 20.5cm carafe is engraved The Kit Kat Club at the Fountain Tavern on the Strand Halls, Shrewsbury An onion-shaped decanter from the KitKat Club – an early 18th-century drinking club, whose members included Sir Robert Walpole, William Congreve and John Locke, sold for £1,650, beating its guide price of £300£400 at the Shropshire auctioneers. Active roughly between 1696 and 1720, the club was closely associated with the Whig Party, which supported constitutional monarchy, Protestant succession, and a range of more progressive political ideas. The club was said to be named after Christopher (Kit) Cat, a pastry cook who ran a tavern in Shire Lane, off Fleet Street, where the club first gathered. His famous mutton pies, called “Kit-Cats,” became part of the club’s identity. Olympia Auctions, London A Victorian Vesta case which doubles as a photograph holder, estimated to sell for £80£120, sold for £550 at the London auctioneer’s recent sale. The front and side panels open to show a gilt picture frame able to house an image of the owner’s beloved. First invented by the English chemist John Walker in 1826, friction matches – known by the brand name Vesta – could ignite accidentally when carried loosely so the Vesta case quickly became an everyday essential. They soon became a must-have accessory for the well-heeled Victorian gentlemen. The inventive Victorian Vesta case, dated 1871, also includes a photo holder Roseberys, south London The cup and saucer by Ben Nicholson for Foley China sold for 10 times its estimate A cup and saucer by the British Modernist painter Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) sold for more than 10 times its low estimate of £200 at the London auction house’s recent sale, fetching £2,900. Nicholson was one of a number of progressive artists - including Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth and Graham Sutherland – to take part in the Modern Art for the Ta b l e exhibition at Harrods in 1934. The government- backed initiative hoped to boost the UK’s failing ceramics industry. A number of silver napkin holders by the well-known designer more than doubled their estimates A Cymric vase by Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co. sold for £6,000 Tennants, Leyburn A number of pieces for Liberty & Co., by the Manx designer Archibald Knox (18641933) were among the highlights of the North Yorkshire auction house’s recent sale. Seven silver napkin holders by the maker all sold for beyond their estimates with this example (above), hallmarked Birmingham, 1903, selling for £420, beating its sale guide of £250-£350. A Cymric arts and crafts silver and enamel vase, hallmarked Birmingham, 1901, with the retailer’s mark L & Co. sold for a mid-estimate £6,000. They all came from the from the Lion Collection, carefully curated by John L. Davis, all of which were researched and published by the owne r. For more on Archibald Knox turn to our feature on page 18 Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet A Chanel No 5 perfume bottle fetched £13,000 at the Essex auction house, beating its pre-sale guide of £3,000-£5,000. The iconic scent was created in 1920 by the French-Russian chemist and perfumer Ernest Beaux. The rare bottle was pre-1924 and considered the ‘holy grail’ because it was made in such small numbers before the design was modified in 1924 to a chunkier model. The bottle was a wedding gift from the vendor’s grandfather to his wife who wore it on her wedding day in 1942. Coco Chanel had an affinity with the number five. When Beaux presented her with sample scents, she chose the fifth saying “I present my dress collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year and so we will let this sample number five keep the name it has already, it will bring good luck”. The rare Chanel No 5 perfume bottle beat its estimate to sell for £13,000 ANTIQUE COLLECTING 13
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AUCTION Sales round-up Richard Winterton Auctioneers, Lichfield Four albums of rare photographs depicting life and death in Shanghai from the early 1900s sold for a total of £5,300 at the Staffordshire auction house. The collection of around 600 images were taken by Birmingham postie Albert Aiers who quit his job to join Shanghai Municipal Police aged 18 in 1902. Aiers spent close to 40 years battling opium gangs, robbers and violent civil unrest as well as witnessing the SinoJapanese Hostilities of 1937, before retiring as assistant commissioner in 1939. Subjects included captured prisoners, as well as “sing-song girls” – high class prostitutes whose musical skills and witty conversation differentiated then from lower-class sex workers who were often called “flower girls” or “tea-house girls.” W&H Peacock, Bedford Eight 18th-century eye miniatures sold for £5,600 at the Bedfordshire auctioneers, flying past the estimate of £400-£600. Each watercolour-on-ivory painting was housed in a yellow metal frame measuring just under 1in (2cm) in diameter, with the group contained in a tortoiseshell box. The set of eight miniatures caught the eye of bidders in Bedfordshire Lovers’ eyes certainly became à la mode from around 1790 - some of the first were painted by the miniaturists Richard Cosway and George Englehart. They remained fashionable until the early 1830s. Not all were love tokens; some were commissioned as gifts to be shared among families. Often worn as bracelets, brooches, pendants or rings, they acted as very personal forget-me-nots. A portrait of a group of seven Shanghai “singsong” girls also featured in one of the albums The album of 600 photographs included this prisoner with a cangue used for public shaming Swan Fine Art Auctions, Twickenham A painting of an Australian railway station sold for more than 13 times its low estimate when it hammered at £67,000 at the southwest London auctioneers. It was by London-born Tom Roberts (1856-1931) who moved to Australia in 1881, after studying at the Royal Academy Schools and Academie Julian in Paris under JeanLéon Gérôme. Influenced by the Impressionist movement, he frequently painted en plein air and became leader of the group of painters who would be known as the Heidelberg Group. Roberts returned to London in 1903 and forged a career primarily as a portrait painter, before another return to Australia in 1923. Tom Roberts (1856-1931) was a well-known artist in his adopted home of Australia Hansons, Penshurst An etching by the “father of British pop art”, Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), was the top seller at the Kent auction house’s recent sale when it sold for £12,500, more than six times its low estimate of £2,000. It came from the private collection of modern British art from a local estate, amassed over more than 40 years and featuring works by some of the most celebrated painters of the 20th century. Hamilton’s 1956 collage, Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? is an iconic collage filled with American consumer symbols, such as vacuum cleaners and canned ham, and is often considered the first work of pop art. Hamilton was also a huge Beatles fan and designed the cover for The White Album (1968), which was radically minimalist compared to the psychedelic covers of the era. Richard Hamilton (19222011) Reaper. The etching on aquatint was the top seller at Hansons’ Kent saleroom 14 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

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The 20.5cm carafe is engraved The Kit Kat Club at the Fountain Tavern on the Strand

Halls, Shrewsbury An onion-shaped decanter from the KitKat Club – an early 18th-century drinking club, whose members included Sir Robert Walpole, William Congreve and John Locke, sold for £1,650, beating its guide price of £300£400 at the Shropshire auctioneers.

Active roughly between 1696 and 1720, the club was closely associated with the Whig Party, which supported constitutional monarchy, Protestant succession, and a range of more progressive political ideas.

The club was said to be named after Christopher (Kit) Cat, a pastry cook who ran a tavern in Shire Lane, off Fleet Street, where the club first gathered. His famous mutton pies, called “Kit-Cats,” became part of the club’s identity.

Olympia Auctions, London A Victorian Vesta case which doubles as a photograph holder, estimated to sell for £80£120, sold for £550 at the London auctioneer’s recent sale. The front and side panels open to show a gilt picture frame able to house an image of the owner’s beloved.

First invented by the English chemist John Walker in 1826, friction matches – known by the brand name Vesta – could ignite accidentally when carried loosely so the Vesta case quickly became an everyday essential. They soon became a must-have accessory for the well-heeled Victorian gentlemen.

The inventive Victorian Vesta case, dated 1871, also includes a photo holder

Roseberys, south London

The cup and saucer by Ben Nicholson for Foley China sold for 10 times its estimate

A cup and saucer by the British Modernist painter Ben Nicholson

(1894-1982) sold for more than 10 times its low estimate of £200 at the London auction house’s recent sale, fetching £2,900. Nicholson was one of a number of progressive artists - including

Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Paul

Nash, Barbara Hepworth and

Graham Sutherland – to take part in the Modern Art for the Ta b l e exhibition at Harrods in 1934. The government-

backed initiative hoped to boost the UK’s failing ceramics industry.

A number of silver napkin holders by the well-known designer more than doubled their estimates

A Cymric vase by Archibald Knox for Liberty

& Co. sold for

£6,000

Tennants, Leyburn A number of pieces for Liberty & Co., by the Manx designer Archibald Knox (18641933) were among the highlights of the North Yorkshire auction house’s recent sale. Seven silver napkin holders by the maker all sold for beyond their estimates with this example (above), hallmarked Birmingham, 1903, selling for £420, beating its sale guide of £250-£350.

A Cymric arts and crafts silver and enamel vase, hallmarked Birmingham, 1901, with the retailer’s mark L & Co. sold for a mid-estimate £6,000. They all came from the from the Lion Collection, carefully curated by John L. Davis, all of which were researched and published by the owne r. For more on Archibald Knox turn to our feature on page 18

Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet A Chanel No 5 perfume bottle fetched £13,000 at the Essex auction house, beating its pre-sale guide of £3,000-£5,000. The iconic scent was created in 1920 by the French-Russian chemist and perfumer Ernest Beaux. The rare bottle was pre-1924 and considered the ‘holy grail’ because it was made in such small numbers before the design was modified in 1924 to a chunkier model. The bottle was a wedding gift from the vendor’s grandfather to his wife who wore it on her wedding day in 1942. Coco Chanel had an affinity with the number five. When Beaux presented her with sample scents, she chose the fifth saying “I present my dress collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year and so we will let this sample number five keep the name it has already, it will bring good luck”.

The rare Chanel No 5 perfume bottle beat its estimate to sell for £13,000

ANTIQUE COLLECTING 13

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