Cloisonné enamel butterfly vase by Fred Rich, £13,000 at Kinghams.
Topping the list at this Moreton-in-Marsh auction, at £13,000, was a cloisonné enamel butterfly vase made in 2000 by the goldsmith and enameller Fred Rich and decorated with a flock of brightly coloured and anatomically correct insects.
The signed and hallmarked vase, which was previewed in ATG No 2632, was discovered in a private collection on the windowsill of a Cotswolds manor house. It weighs almost 2.3kg and is almost 10in (25cm) in height - a large example of Rich’s painstaking enamelling technique.
At the sale held on March 22, it was contested by buyers in the room, multiple internet platforms, and two phone bidders to a level that was well over the £3000-5000 guide.
German makers
German silver pair of armoured knights, £4000 at Kinghams.
Two pieces of late 19th early 20th century manufacture from the German silver-making city of Hanau were also among the top prices.
One of these was a pair of silver figures of medieval armoured knights by the firm of Ludwig Neresheimer & Co which specialised in this type of historicist subject matter. The 32oz gross weight, 9in (23cm) high figures, each with a carved ivory mask, were bid to £4000.
Casket decorated with episodes from the life of Napoleon, also German silver, £4200 at Kinghams.
The other was a large 14in (35cm) wide German silver casket, c.1900, of sarcophagus shape decorated with episodes from the life of Napoleon that sold for £4200.
He seized control of Vienna on November 13, 1805, having defeated the Austrian army in the Ulm Campaign. The front panel shows him receiving the keys to the city of Vienna, a scene derived from Anne-Louis Girodet’s painting of that subject. The reverse has a similar scene of Napoleon with courtiers and the cover is surmounted by an equestrian figure of the emperor. The underside is marked with a crowned A, N and a profile bust.
An early Georgian silver covered tankard marked for Humphrey Payne London 1734 that made £1800 featured extra 20th century political interest. It had been later engraved with the arms of of Harrogate to the body and with the arms of Baldwin to the cover and had a presentation inscription reading Presented to the Right Hon Stanley Baldwin PC DCLLLD MP Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, with the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Harrogate, 20th July 1928.
The Conservative politician Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) served three times as prime minister in the interwar period including during the abdication crisis.
