This was a well-balanced sale which had plenty of 18th century English drinking glasses; a particularly attractive selection of cut glass and, unusually for a London sale, a large selection of early wine bottles.
(Harvey’s sale excepted, glass sales in the capital more usually feature only one or two bottles. Here there were no fewer than 31 divided between 19 lots).
The high point of this auction,
however, was not produced by any of these areas but by two pieces of Victorian cameo glass of c.1885. This is a sector of the market that has been on the up recently, with demand fuelled by strong collecting from the US and Europe. Witness the very fierce competition seen at Sotheby’s in London last December for the pieces from the Hida Takayama Museum to cite just one illustration.
Christie’s two pieces were by Thomas Webb, the best-known British manufacturer, although the
workmanship could not be ascribed to their most sought-after cameo artist, George Woodall. The 123/4in (31cm) high vases, which were of an unusual smoky amber tint, both came from the same source and had
probably been intended to be
displayed together, for they had
complementary decoration of
horsedrawn classical chariots, rising above the clouds. One, however, was driven by a helmeted god, the other a classically-draped goddess and there were differences to the formal bands of decoration to the necks and bases.
Christie’s hadn’t pitched the
estimates as high as the best Takayama Museum examples. They right, at £8000-12,000 and the male charioteer vessel, below right, which had a bruise to the rim, at £5000-8000. In the event both these margins were left behind as the same buyer fought off American trade competition on the phone to secure them both paying £24,000 and £17,000 respectively.
Overall the sale saw a good
competitive turnout of trade and
private purchasers and generated £164,460, with selling rates of 76 per cent by lot and, boosted by the cameo results, 90 per cent by value.
Cameo role takes centre stage as vases leave estimates far behind
Bonhams weren’t the only London salerooms to be offering a good selection of antique glasswares. On October 9, just a week after the Harvey’s dispersal, Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% per cent buyer’s premium) had a mixed-owner 280-lot selection of British and Continental glass to offer as part of their monthly At Home series.
