Richard Winterton (15% buyer’s premium)Trained by Tom Coulthwaite, who schooled a number of high-class jumpers in the first decades of the 20th century, Irish-bred Eremon was one of the top chasers of his era. And 1907 was very much his year.
During the Grand National, the third of four races he was to
win in a row within 24 days, his jockey Alf Newey broke a stirrup
leather on the second fence but he won by six lengths in what was a
very fast time. A few days later, this time with no broken leather,
they won the Lancashire Chase at Manchester with equal ease.
Memories of the Monty's Pass or Amberleigh House of its day were
revived at Richard Winterton (15% buyer's premium) in
Burton-on-Trent on November 17. The 73/4in (19cm) high silver
(Birmingham 1907) easel frame celebrating Eremon's win, entered
privately by a local vendor, had originally been presented to Tom
Coulthwaite who was based in Cannock, Staffordshire. In addition to
a profile of the horse and owner and a shoe of the victor, it
included the light blue jockey cap in the colours of owner Stanley
Howard flanked by the arms of Liverpool (presumably signifying
Aintree) and Newcastle-under-Lyme. Such an esoteric object is
difficult to value but £1500-2000 proved about right. It went to a
UK private buyer at £2600.
Twentieth century objects dominated the upper echelons of the sale
sheet. In Meadow Green, a 13in (32cm) high version of Geoffrey
Baxter's classic Banjo vase for Whitefriars, sold at a punchy £1650
while there was predictable interest in a set of three marriage
figures by Shelley, designed by Mabel Lucie Attwell. Estimated at
£200-300 each, The Curate, The Bride and The Groom sold to three
different buyers at £680, £1000 and £650 respectively.
At the top end of a £4000-6000 estimate was an Art Deco ivory and
bronze figure signed for Ferdinand Preiss and titled Con Brio.
Discovered by valuers in a Staffordshire property, this version of
a well-known group had a full-length crack to the left leg and sold
to a collector.
There had been a sporting and canine angle to the sale conducted
by the auctioneers on October 28. In addition to the series of
kennel books belonging to the pointer breeder William Arkwright of
Sutton Scarsdale Hall, Chesterfield sold at £3800 and reported in
Antiquarian Books, ATG no. 1665, November 20, there was a pair of
desirable 19th century chimney ornaments modelled as Afghan hounds.
They sold for £420 in a ceramics section that also included the
scarce Royal Doulton figure, Harlequinade HN585 that took £650,
despite being re-glued at the head and waist.
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