The jacket was estimated at £1000-2000, a conservative estimate for the piece which was eventually hammered down for £3800. The same was true of the auction as a whole which took a hammer total of £122,000 over the estimated £64,000.
“We were blown away by the interest in this auction, and the time it took to complete as the bidding was so competitive,” Chris Ewbank said of the sale, which lasted a house-record 11 hours to finish.
He listed the jacket as one of the “incredible lots” on offer.
The jacket was made of pink watered silk, embroidered with solid silver thread. It was one of several lots in the sale originally donated by Queen Victoria’s grand daughter-in-law, Queen Mary, to the same anonymous single owner collection. It was offered with a matching silk skirt panel and included a provenance label.
High sellers
The leading result at the Surrey auction house was for a Moroccan Azzemour embroidered curtain or hanging which took £5600 over a £600-800 estimate. The 19th century piece was stitched in silk with a stylised design of birds and insects.
Birds and insects served as the decorative theme for another top-seller, also a hanging but this one from the Japanese Meiji period. It featured a garden scene in silk and knot stitch and was knocked down for £4700.
The sale, Stitches in Time, took place on November 10 and was the second sale of historic textiles at Ewbank’s. Its next textile sale is planned for spring 2017.
