Measuring 2ft 6in by 19in (75 x 48cm), the table was attractively decorated with geometric mosaics of birds and and foliage, but by trade accounts it was warped, shrunk and had lost several chunks of inlay and veneer. So the eventual price of £6400 came as a shock to
everyone except the underbidder and buyer, who considered it an important piece of Tunbridgeware.
Elsewhere in an auction that had 94 out of 230 lots unsold and a total of £116,000, the principal successes were a Victorian rosewood circular table radially inlaid with 212 marble segments, 3ft 9in (1.14m) diameter, which made £12,500 and a pair of 19th century Ceylonese ebony and ebonised throne chairs reputedly used by the Queen and Prince Phillip at the opening of the Sri Lankan Parliament on their first Commonwealth tour in 1954, which made £8800.
Sewing table makes £6400 in Tunbridgeware surprise
While Lyon & Turnbull enjoyed the lion’s share of the audience for the two sales in Edinburgh at the end of June, Phillips (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) at least had the most surprising result in the form of this Tunbridgeware sewing/writing table by Fenner and Co., estimated at £300-500.
