The pale ivory ground coupled with patterns of green, blue and pale brick red is among the most favoured of all colour combinations and those interior-decorator friendly tones worked their magic again on May 8 when Wotton Auction Rooms (15% buyer's premium) decamped to Wiltshire to sell the residual contents of Shaw Court of Shaw, near Melksham.
The ace in this pack of generally good, but not exceptional, Georgian and Victorian furnishings was the carpet that had furnished the dining room of this former stable block and coach house property. At 14ft by 10ft 7in (4.26 x 3.20m), it was around half the size of the aforementioned giants but (in good condition) it merited the top price of this May 8 sale with £8200 (estimate £4000-6000).
With its colour catalogue, two viewing days, marquee and cream teas, this sale provided a stark contrast with a sale conducted the previous week on the instructions of Mrs Cullimore of Wall Gaston Farm, Berkeley.
The eleventh-hour sale comprised 50 or so uncatalogued lots removed from the house into a milking parlour that lacked electric light. The highest price was £3100 taken for a locally-made late 18th century mahogany eight-day longcase clock by Thomas Milson with both lunar dial and high water at Bristol Quay.
This busy schedule of 'on-the-premises' sales was punctuated by two regular monthly sales at The Tabernacle.
Although the April event included a noteworthy £760 bid for a late Royal Doulton figure of Harlequin HN2737 marked to the base Exhibition Only, more memorable prices were tendered in the May sale that boasted two fine Oriental lots.
Thought to be 17th century, an unusual Chinese blue and white vase decorated with figures in a garden landscape was competed by the trade to £3400 (estimate £1000-1200).
Its 16in (41cm) high, bottle form was unusual, applied to the drawn neck with six tubes that corresponded to lion masks applied to the lower section with a deep foot. The neck had been joined at the centre, suggesting that the vase had been potted in two sections.
From Japan was an 8in (20cm) Meiji vase, the ivory body overlaid with a typical shibayama display of birds in flowering trees, the neck, foot and handles in silver with enamel highlights. With an unidentified gold seal mark to the base and in very nice condition, it trebled hopes at £1500.
Also performing well was the front cover illustration, a Pedersen-Lister bicycle built sometime around 1905-10 only four miles from the saleroom in Dursley. This barn discovery, virtually complete although ready for a complete restoration, caused excitement among vintage cycle enthusiasts, selling to a collector from Swindon at £860.
