This latter was a specialist offering but well catalogued – four albums of Japanese woodblock prints, including 19th century examples such as 41 Oban prints by Ukiyoye artists and 53 Yokoye prints by Hiroshige. The estimate of £200-300 was quickly passed and the prints sold at £4000.
Ceramics, as usual, included a number of locally produced Troika items, the best being a 7 3/4in (19.5cm) St Ives blue and black offset chimney vase which doubled hopes at £520.
Top seller among the ceramics was an older favourite – a 15 x 13 1/2in (38 x 34cm) Clarice Cliff Flora wall mask. Unmarked but pure Cliff, the mask of a mischievous girl with hair made of flowers and leaves, took £1050 against a £400-600 estimate.
Best of the furniture was a George III mahogany slope-front bureau with fitted interior and an associated top with glazed lattice doors, which went within estimate at £1500.
Japanese prints are unexpected Penzance stars
David Lay, Penzance. January 20 & 21. Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent THERE were rather fewer lots than usual at Cornwall but the 720 on offer were true to tradition; a high take up (around 90 per cent), plenty of two- and three-figure bids on collectables and ceramics, standard furniture creeping into four figures, and one lot taking off.
