A 1960s example in smoky brown, right, led the sale list at £720 and a 1950s vase in smoky pewter grey came in third at £630.
Splitting the bricklayers in price terms was an example of increasingly collectable Poole pottery. A large comport raised on a pedestal foot with printed marks to the base and decorated in aqua and brown glazes, it was estimated at up to £200 but sold at £660.
Best of the glass was, unsurprisingly, an 11 3/4in(30cm) diameter Lalique Peruches dish with raised fish in a swirling pattern which sold a little below hopes at £530.
Elsewhere, two idiosyncratic pieces of furniture caught the eye. One was an early 20th century Arts and Crafts oak settee with shaped back rail and supports which trebled the mid-estimate at £365.
The other was a French Art Nouveau double bed after Louis Majorelle, With a mahogany frame and the headboard and footboard inlaid with foliage on a bird’s eye maple ground, the bed went at £325.
A toast to two Drunken Bricklayers
BIRMINGHAM auctioneers Biddle & Webb (15% buyer’s premium) have been holding regular decorative arts sales for some years now. Generally 20th century ceramics top the sales list and this was again the case at the April 16 sale when two 13in (33cm) examples of Drunken Bricklayer vases designed by Geoffrey Baxter for the Whitefriars pottery were major stars.
