1. Teddy from Andy Pandy
This 1950s bear puppet by Chad Valley used for the character of Teddy in the BBC children’s TV show Andy Pandy is estimated at £3000-5000 on May 22 at C&T.
People of a certain age will be filled with nostalgia when they see this teddy bear coming to auction at C&T in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The 1950s bear puppet by Chad Valley featured in the well-loved BBC children’s TV show Andy Pandy.
Andy, a marionette, lived in a picnic basket with Teddy and Looby Loo, a rag doll. The first episode aired in 1950. A new series was made in the 1970s and again in 2001-02.
Of the three known Teddy puppets from the series, this is the only version not weighted (weights were used to help puppeteers operate them) and is therefore thought to be the earliest of the trio.
The HMS sailor hat and rucksack were probably used in the episode Boats, which aired on September 26, 1950.
It comes in an old card box inscribed in pencil ANDY PANDY TEDDY and addressed to a Miss Vida F Baxter in Aberdeen, Scotland.
It carries an estimate of £3000-5000 at the May 22 C&T sale.
View the lot on thesaleroom.com.
2. Michael Ayrton sculpture
Bather and Child by Michael Ayrton, conceived in 1956, made in an edition of nine, is estimated at £3000-5000 in the May 23-24 sale at Mallams in Oxford.
It was on a trip to Venice in 1954 when the British sculptor Michael Ayrton (1921-75) observed a group of boys and young men bathing from a jetty on Giudecca in the Venetian Lagoon. A series of studies inspired by what he saw followed and led to sculptures such as the bronze shown above.
Bather and Child, conceived in 1956, was made in an edition of nine. This example, erected on a wooden base and measuring 16in (40cm) high, was bought from the Bruton Gallery in Somerset in 1981.
It is estimated at £3000-5000 in a sale of Modern British and Post War Art at Mallams in Oxford on May 23-24.
View the lot on thesaleroom.com.
3. Indian wall hanging
A large painted cloth hanging known as picchavai produced in Nathdwara, a town in Rajasthan, western India, is estimated at £5000-7000 at Olympia Auctions on May 22-23.
The large painted cloth hangings known as picchavai were produced in Nathdwara, a town in Rajasthan, western India, and were displayed during annual Hindu festivals celebrating the cult of Krishna. These fragile hangings were frequently replaced and began to be keenly collected during the early years of western tourism in the 1960s.
A sale of European & Asian Works of Art held by Matthew Barton on May 22-23 at Olympia Auctions in west Kensington, London, will include a group consigned by a retired London couple who ran an art gallery in Hong Kong from the 1960s-80s.
This 6ft 8in x 5ft 6in (2.04 x 1.68m) example depicts the central figure of Krishna dancing with a gopi – one of his devoted followers - at a festival celebrating the end of the monsoon season. Estimate £5000-7000.
View the lot on thesaleroom.com.
4. Arts & Crafts furniture
An oak secretaire, estimated at £10,000-15,000, as part of the sale of the collection of Stanley Webb Davies (1894-1978) at Dawson’s Auctioneers on May 25.
Furniture and drawing implements from the workshop of Stanley Webb Davies (1894-1978), a premier maker of Arts & Crafts furniture, will go under the hammer at Maidenhead saleroom Dawson’s Auctioneers on May 25. The group has been consigned from a direct descendant of the family.
Billed by the auction house as the largest and most comprehensive sale of his work to appear at auction, the collection includes this oak secretaire, estimated at £1000-1500, an easy-style armchair, two bed frames and various drawing implements from his Windermere workshop in the Lake District.
An original photograph of the workshop will also feature, another copy of which is in the archives at the V&A. View the lot on thesaleroom.com.
5. A pendulum clock
A Shortt Synchronome clock estimated at £10,000-20,000 at Corsham auction house Gardiner Houlgate on May 23-24 in Wiltshire.
This Shortt Synchronome free pendulum clock - developed by London & South Western Railway engineer William Hamilton Shortt in collaboration with horologist Frank Hope Jones – were at one time the most accurate pendulum clocks produced commercially.
These complex precision electromechanical pendulum clocks became the highest standard for timekeeping between the 1920s and 1940s, after which mechanical clocks were superseded by quartz time standards.
The Shortt was the first clock to be a more accurate timekeeper than the earth itself; it was used in 1926 to detect tiny seasonal changes in the earth's rotation rate.
This example is estimated at £10,000-20,000 in a dedicated clocks sale at Corsham auction house Gardiner Houlgate on May 23-24 in Wiltshire. View the lot on thesaleroom.com.
