A c.1730 dresser base of compact proportions, 4ft 8in (1.42m) wide, was a case in point. With good patination, the dresser, with a two-plank top, three frieze drawers and a pair of panelled cupboards, more than doubled expectations when it sold at £5600.
Unlike many areas of the Victorian mahogany furniture market, demand is still relatively healthy for good dining room furniture, and a table extending to 10ft 8in (3.25m) on eight turned and tulip-carved legs, topped its upper estimate selling at £6600.
Combining the attractions of both woods, a George III oak and mahogany crossbanded housekeeper's cupboard, although a fairly large piece of furniture at 6ft 3in (1.9m) wide, brought £3100.
Catching the eye in other sections were an elegant Regency mahogany longcase clock, which took £4500, and a silver combined nutmeg grater and corkscrew, by SM (probably Samuel Massey) London, 1792 which eclipsed its £120-180 estimate to sell at £2300.
There was also a good-quality Japanese Meiji period ivory okimono of a hunter with a bow and arrows, with a four-character mark to the base, which fetched £2700.
Pleasures of the dining room – notforgetting the corkscrew
GOOD-quality mahogany and oak furniture took most of the better prices in Mitchells' (15% buyer's premium) 1566-lot May 13-14 auction which totalled £325,000.