Those eager to visit fairs down south will find the Faversham Antiques & Collectors' Market and the Kent Antique Fair in Folkestone (both Sunday, December 2) are among those on offer. Destinations for lower-value items as well as collectors' pieces, the fairs are a great way to round out a week of buying around Surrey and beyond.
Slesdon, Surrey: Catherine Southon
A Victorian gilt brass Renaissance-style clock is offered at Catherine Southon’s Antiques & Collectables sale on November 28. Made c.1840, it has a two-train movement signed Emanuel Brothers. Though in need of a clean and missing a hand, it features a striking, highly decorated case with columns in the form of palm trees surmounted by sphinxes. There are also malachite and garnet cabochons and agate to the reverse. It has an estimate of £3000-5000.
Woking: Ewbank’s
Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was the 22nd and 24th US president (the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms), known for being a pro-business Democrat who opposed high tariffs, inflation and imperialism. Now his collection and that of his descendants is going under the hammer at Surrey saleroom Ewbank’s on November 28. A 19th century serpent necklace, the head with old cut diamonds on a ground of blue guilloche, is expected to be one of the leading lots. Offered in a fitted box the piece, by Howell James of Regent Street, has an estimate of £5000-8000. The sale includes jewellery once owned by Cleveland’s wife, Frances Folsom, and other items acquired from two of the president’s granddaughters.
Haslemere, Surrey: John Nicholson
John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-93) was not always popular, but these days he is renowned, particularly for his nocturnal urban scenes. A Lane by Moonlight with a Covered Wagon and a Lady Walking in the Distance, which goes under the hammer at John Nicholson’s on November 28, has many of the hallmarks of a classic Grimshaw painting: a drizzly night, an almost-empty road and a moon partly hidden by clouds. Signed and dated 1883, it has an estimate of £80,000-120,000.
Canterbury: Canterbury Auction Galleries
A George III rosewood, marquetry and gilt brass-mounted, serpentine-fronted commode, attributed to the workshops of Pierre Langlois (fl. 1754-81), features at Canterbury Auction Galleries’ two-day sale of art and antiques, from November 27-28. Of Louis XV design, the top quarter is veneered with rosewood banding and the wide outer border is inlaid with trailing floral ornament. With a provenance to Lord and Lady Bateman of Shobdon Court and then by family descent, it has an estimate of £20,000-30,000.
Washington, West Sussex: Toovey’s
One of the highlights at Toovey’s sale of a single-owner collection on November 29 is this Chinese Qianlong period export reverse mirror glass painting. It depicts a lady seated on a rock beside a lotus pond with conjugal pairs of pheasants, mandarin ducks and chickens and, in the distance, a pleasure barge before an opulent residence. Asian ceramics and works of art are one of the features of the West Sussex sale. The picture has an estimate of £30,000-50,000.
