The sale boasted several unusual items, which included a Victorian sailor’s octagonal Valentine decorated with numerous different coloured and shaped shells, which took £1400, and a Victorian ivory Anglo-Indian sewing box of sarcophagus shape with black ground borders, fluted feet and fitted interior with ivory bound compartments saw £2200.
Jewellery traditionally sells well in the run-up to Christmas but bidders at the Cotswold rooms clearly weren’t suffering from post-festive season empty wallets, as an 18ct white gold ring set with a central rectangular emerald surrounded by 18 diamonds, with a further four diamonds to each shoulder, saw the hammer fall at £3400.
Furniture buyers turned out in force with two 18th century pieces, a mid-century mahogany snap-top table and a walnut chest, emerging as the successes of the day. After fierce competition, a specialist dealer walked away with the chest which was a neat size at 2ft 91/2in (85cm) wide and constructed of four long graduated drawers with banded inlay and the top quarter veneered together with a brushing slide and set on high bracket feet. It took £5900. The table, with its one piece top at 2ft 8in (81cm) diameter, raised on a turned column and bird cage with tripod base set on claw and ball supports, saw £2300.
No post-festive blues here
UK: BIDDERS trudged through the post-Christmas snowfall to the two-day 1623-lot sale at the Gloucestershire rooms of Wotton Auction Rooms Ltd (11.75 per cent buyer’s premium) on December 28-29 which yielded a number of successes across the board.
