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AUCTION Round up AROUND the HOUSES Our review of recent sales, from flat-packed ‘royal’ furniture to art deco ski posters Walter Sickert was a member of the influential Camden Town Group LAWRENCES, CREWKERNE An oil on paper by Frederick Cayley Robinson (1822-1927) was one of the top sellers at the Somerset auctioneer’s auction of paintings. A Summer Evening, c. 1910, fetched £10,000, while a late-period oil by Walter Sickert (1860-1942) entitled Second Course, c. 1935 (copying a Victorian work by Adelaide Claxton), made £10,600. The chest was spotted by Lawrence’s Neil Grenyer at a routine valuation Sickert was a member of the Camden The haunting A Summer Evening fetched £10,000 Town Group of post-impressionist artists in early 20th-century London and an important influence on British avant-garde art in the mid and late 20th century. At a previous sale a pine chest from the indigenous people of the north west coast of America, known as the Tlingit, was bought by a bidder in Canada for a saletopping £23,750. The unusual drawstring purse made £17,000 at the recent sale CHORLEY’S, PRINKNASH ABBEY A rare first edition of a forgotten story by Mary Shelley, the celebrated author of Frankenstein, unearthed from the attic of a Worcestershire stately home, was one of the stars of the Gloucestershire auctioneer’s recent sale. The threevolume copy of The Last Man sold for £6,500 – more than six times its low estimate. The 1826 book, found in the stores and attics of Spetchley Park in Worcestershire, predicts a future where the world has been ravaged by a deadly plague. Although poorly received by critics, Shelley later said it was one of her favourite works. The little-known book depicts a world transformed by a deadly plague An early 17th-century drawstring purse, possibly by the Limoges artist Jacques II Laudin (1663-1729), with a portrait of a gentleman made £17,000 – against an estimate of £1,500-£2,000. The 19th-century miniature in the English School sold for £5,200 TENNANTS AUCTIONEERS, LEYBURN One of the surprise lots at the North Yorkshire auctioneer’s country house sale was a 19th-century English School miniature of a naval officer which sold for £5,200. Offered with a modest estimate, the sitter was subsequently identified during the sale viewing as Admiral Sir Henry d’Esteterre Darby KCB, who was depicted wearing a Nile Medal. The auctioneer’s jewellery sale also drew strong interest with the top lot being an art deco-style diamond ring, which almost doubled the top estimate to sell for £2,200. An art deco-style diamond ring sold for £2,200 10 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
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The brown kid leather boots sold for £4,000 HANSONS, ETWALL Queen Victoria’s clothes, ranging from bloomers to boots sold for more than £17,000 at the Derbyshire auction house. While international buyers snapped up two pairs of the Queen’s leather boots, her black taffeta skirt and two bodices went to the charity Historic Royal Palaces for £14,000. The charity’s collections curator, Claudia Williams, said: “These acquisitions are an exciting addition to our collection of more than 10,000 items of royal and court dress.” The silk bloomers, modelled by Hansons’ Emma Carberry, made £650 Did you know? Victoria was 4ft 11in and petite when she became Queen at 18, but her waist expanded to some 50in over the decades of her reign. CANTERBURY AUCTION CANTERBURY AUCTION GALLERIES A 27-lot single owner collection of Cumnock pottery made £3,720 at the Kent auctioneer’s sale in February. The identical teapots were both inscribed and sold for £120 The pottery, named after the town in East Ayrshire where it was founded, started life in 1792 with the purpose of making crucibles for a blast furnace proposed by the 6th Earl of Dumfries. It was managed by engineer James Taylor. The jar, inscribed Mrs Robt Baird Watston. Ochiltree. 1846, made £500 MOORE ALLEN & INNOCENT A tiny painting by John Constable (1776-1837), with an estimate of £800£1,200, sold for £300 at the Cotswolds’ auctioneers. The oil by Jack Butler Yeats carried a pre-sale estimate of £50,000 £80,000 Smaller than a postcard at just over 10cm wide by 8cm, the diminutive oil sketch on paper of a landscape with a church at sunset was formerly of the LG Duke collection, before passing into private hands. An oil study of a horse and rider by the renowned Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) sold for £50,000 at the same sale. The Return had been consigned by a descendent of the Irish painter Edward McGuire, who was a friend of Yeats (brother of the poet WB Yeats) and fellow academician at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. The small oil on paper was by The Haywain artist John Constable EWBANK’S, WOKING Artwork that inspired Masquerade and the UK’s obsession with the riddle of the golden hare sold for 20 times its estimate when it fetched £17,000 at the Surrey auction house. The Orrery by Kit Wiliams inspired the artist to create the clues for Masquerade It was in 1979 that artist Kit Williams published the picture book that sparked a nationwide treasure hunt for a hidden jewelled 18-carat golden hare, whose whereabouts was concealed in a set of cryptic clues featured in pictures and text throughout the book. The nation became enthralled by the story and it took two Manchester teachers three years to solve the mystery, by which time the hare had been dug up from its hiding place in Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire, by someone who had inside knowledge of its whereabouts. The Gallé cameo blow-out cherry vase fetched £2,730 in the sale A signed Gallé cameo blow-out cherry vase made £2,730 at the sale, and a glass plafonnier, (ceiling light) made £1,820. Both pieces were signed by the French maker and came from the same vendor ANTIQUE COLLECTING 11

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AUCTION Round up

AROUND the HOUSES

Our review of recent sales, from flat-packed ‘royal’ furniture to art deco ski posters

Walter Sickert was a member of the influential Camden

Town Group

LAWRENCES, CREWKERNE An oil on paper by Frederick Cayley Robinson (1822-1927) was one of the top sellers at the Somerset auctioneer’s auction of paintings.

A Summer Evening, c. 1910, fetched £10,000, while a late-period oil by Walter Sickert (1860-1942) entitled Second Course, c. 1935 (copying a Victorian work by Adelaide Claxton), made £10,600.

The chest was spotted by Lawrence’s Neil

Grenyer at a routine valuation

Sickert was a member of the Camden

The haunting A Summer Evening fetched £10,000

Town Group of post-impressionist artists in early 20th-century London and an important influence on British avant-garde art in the mid and late 20th century.

At a previous sale a pine chest from the indigenous people of the north west coast of America, known as the Tlingit, was bought by a bidder in Canada for a saletopping £23,750.

The unusual drawstring purse made £17,000 at the recent sale

CHORLEY’S, PRINKNASH ABBEY A rare first edition of a forgotten story by Mary Shelley, the celebrated author of Frankenstein, unearthed from the attic of a Worcestershire stately home, was one of the stars of the Gloucestershire auctioneer’s recent sale. The threevolume copy of The Last Man sold for £6,500 – more than six times its low estimate. The 1826 book, found in the stores and attics of Spetchley Park in Worcestershire, predicts a future where the world has been ravaged by a deadly plague. Although poorly received by critics, Shelley later said it was one of her favourite works.

The little-known book depicts a world transformed by a deadly plague

An early 17th-century drawstring purse, possibly by the Limoges artist Jacques II Laudin (1663-1729), with a portrait of a gentleman made £17,000 – against an estimate of £1,500-£2,000.

The 19th-century miniature in the English School sold for £5,200

TENNANTS AUCTIONEERS, LEYBURN One of the surprise lots at the North Yorkshire auctioneer’s country house sale was a 19th-century English School miniature of a naval officer which sold for £5,200.

Offered with a modest estimate, the sitter was subsequently identified during the sale viewing as Admiral Sir Henry d’Esteterre Darby KCB, who was depicted wearing a Nile Medal.

The auctioneer’s jewellery sale also drew strong interest with the top lot being an art deco-style diamond ring, which almost doubled the top estimate to sell for £2,200.

An art deco-style diamond ring sold for £2,200

10 ANTIQUE COLLECTING

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