The final 51 lots of Woolley & Wallis’s sale on October 19 comprised the Fauconberg & Conyers Heirlooms.
Fauconberg and Conyers were two baronies resurrected in 1903 and
the contents were inventoried at that time.
The collection was last examined in the late 1920s and the
provenance and fresh-to-market status brought keen competition. The
lots yielded a total of £187,430, of which £90,000 came for The
Richmond Cup, diva of the show, which featured on page 3 of
last week's ATG. In addition, two other pieces deserve a
mention.
A George III knife tray of rounded oblong form, 15.75in (40cm)
long, 51oz, marked for London 1799, with gadrooned rim border and
engraved with the coat of arms of the 6th Duke of Leeds, was the
epitome of restrained elegance. "Knife trays were usually made in
Old Sheffield plate and when silver ones appear they are pretty
sought after," said the Salisbury auction house silver expert
Alexis Butcher.
This example proved irresistible to dealers and it took a bid of
£4300 to secure it, well over the enticing estimate of
£500-700.
Soup Tureen
A dealer fought off competition to secure a George III soup
tureen and cover, marked for J. Parker and Edward Wakelin, London,
dated by the auctioneers to 1760-1770, the scratchweight
116-19, for £19,500.
It was modelled naturalistically in the manner of the French
Rococo maker Thomas Germain (1673-1748) with a turnip finial and
engraved with the coat of arms of Robert D'Arcy, 8th Baron Conyers
and 4th Earl of Holdernesse (1718-1778).
This tureen was one of a pair, or perhaps a set of four, the
other of which sold in 1984 for £12,000 at Spencers in Retford,
Nottinghamshire.
While £19,500 does not seem a great increase in the space of
20-odd years, the tureen had obviously been well used and polished
whereas the Spencers' example was in immaculate condition and
rarely, if ever, used. Better investment, probably less
enjoyment.
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