1. Dutch Golden Age portraits
These half-length portraits by Dutch Golden Age genre painter Jacob Frans van der Merck (c.1610-64) depict Ludwig Ziegler (1608-81) and his wife Elizabetha Margaretha Spina (1626-1702).
The paintings – although similar in composition and technique – were likely to have been produced at different times as one is completed on panel and the other (the portrait of Elizabetha dated 1647) on canvas. During this period van der Merck was a member of the painters’ guild in Dordrecht.
At the March 23 sale of Old Master, 18th and 19th century pictures at Roseberys London the pair is pitched at £6000-8000.
View and bid for these Dutch portraits via thesaleroom.com.
2. Worcester creamboat
Worcester factory creamboat c.1752-53 – estimate £12,000-15,000 at Chorley’s on March 23-24.
The Fine Art & Antiques sale at Chorley’s in Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, on March 23-24 (rescheduled from earlier in the year) includes a fine private collection of English porcelain.
Among a number of polychrome-decorated wares from the earliest years of the Worcester factory is this creamboat c.1752-53. Known as the Wigornia type (after the example with a moulded mark in the Dyson & Perrins Museum), the decoration is carefully picked out in a distinctive palette of yellow, blue, puce and green.
Sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet in New York 1973, it was acquired by the vendor from Albert Amor in 1986.
Estimate £12,000-15,000.
View and bid for this Worcester creamboat via thesaleroom.com.
3. Victorian necklace
Victorian necklace featuring 15 different gemstones – estimate £2500-3500 at Fellows on March 25.
The March 25 sale at Fellows in Birmingham includes this Victorian necklace with an estimate of £2500-3500.
It features 15 different gemstones identified as green chrysoberyl, yellow sapphire, red jargoon, zircon (brown), olivine (Russian), puce spinel, jacinth, sapphire, topaz (light medium orangey brown), emerald, ruby (Ceylon), yellow tourmaline, peacock spinel, brown tourmaline and ruby spinel.
The necklace comes with a fitted case for Bright & Sons of Scarborough who sold it in 1889 and original paperwork identifying the stones and listing their cost prices. Specialist Ben Randall says: “It is intriguing to see how different gem names have evolved and how the different gems were valued at the time, the gorgeous central sapphire costing almost 10 times as much as the other gems.”
View and bid for this Victorian necklace via thesaleroom.com.
4. Bonn watercolour
'The Lieben Geberge, from the Terrace at Bonn', inscribed verso 'The Seven Hills' seen from Bonn by Mrs Josephine Butler – one in a collection of seven topographical watercolours by her, estimate £150-200 at Ewbank’s on March 25.
This watercolour The Lieben Geberge, from the Terrace at Bonn is inscribed verso The Seven Hills seen from Bonn by Mrs Josephine Butler.
An early campaigner for women’s suffrage, Josephine Butler (1828-1906) also sought better treatment of prostitutes and fought child prostitution and the network of white slave trading across Europe.
A collection of seven accomplished topographical watercolours she painted during travels to Europe in the 1870s-80s comes to auction at Ewbank’s in Surrey on March 25 with estimates of £150-250 each. The current owner is Butler’s great-great-great-nephew.
View and bid for this Bonn landscape via thesaleroom.com.
5. Agatha Christie first edition
First-edition copy of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Mr Quin (1930) complete with dust-jacket – estimate £10,000-15,000 at Forum on March 25.
Only a handful of first-edition copies of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Mr Quin (1930) have come for sale complete with dust-jacket.
This copy of her third collection of short stories, featuring the semi-supernatural figure Mr Harley Quin, is deemed ‘an excellent example of a rare and delicate dust-jacket’ and is expected to bring £10,000-15,000 at Forum’s March 25 sale of Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper.
View and bid for this Agatha Christie book with dust-jacket via thesaleroom.com.
