1. Snuff box from 1802
Table snuff box by Alexander Gardner and Co, Edinburgh 1802 – estimate £2000-3000 at Woolley & Wallis on July 13-14.
The silver sale at Woolley & Wallis on July 13-14 includes a selection of 24 snuff boxes from the Lion Collection as published in British Silver Boxes 1640-1840, The Lion Collection (2015).
This particular table snuff box, bought at Christie’s South Kensington in 2006, is by Alexander Gardner and Co, Edinburgh 1802. Alongside an armorial is a presentation inscription reading Presented by the Western Abernethy Company of Volunteers to James Grant Esq. of Birchfield their Captain.
The unit was among those raised during the Napoleonic Wars. Grant, who in 1793 had created a regiment of Fencibles almost exclusively from his own tenantry, raised the Strathspey Battalion of Volunteers in 1798. In Abernethy there were two Companies, the Eastern and the Western, the latter with 80 men.
Estimate £2000-3000. View and bid for this snuff box via thesaleroom.com.
2. Cockatoo still life
'Still Life with Cockatoo' by William Crosbie, c.1955 – estimate £2000-3000 at Lyon & Turnbull on July 14.
Lyon & Turnbull’s sale in Edinburgh on July 14 includes a studio collection of works by William Crosbie (1915-99).
A student at the Glasgow School of Art from 1932-35 who later studied at the Sorbonne under Fernand Léger and Aristide Maillol, in the post-war era he made a name as a mural painter creating works for the Britain Can Make It show (1946) and the Festival of Britain (1951).
One of 44 lots in the L&T sale is Still Life with Cockatoo, c.1955, 23in x 3ft 6in (59cm x 1.07m), estimated at £2000-3000. View and bid for this cockatoo still life.
3. Tortoiseshell and silver mounted casket
18th or early 19th century Dutch colonial tortoiseshell and silver mounted casket, estimated at £1500-2000 at Chiswick Auctions.
The Islamic & Indian art sale at Chiswick Auctions in London on July 16 includes, estimated at £1500-2000, an 18th or early 19th century Dutch colonial tortoiseshell and silver mounted casket.
Boxes such as this, fashioned by craftsmen in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), are traditionally associated with the storage of betel nuts and vine leaves.
The centuries-old Indonesian habit of chewing betel nut, the fruit of the reach palm, was quickly adopted by settlers from the Dutch East India Company who appreciated both its psychoactive properties and its importance as a local social ritual.
View and bid for this casket.
4. French 19th century marble candelabra
French 19th century ormolu-mounted white marble candelabra, estimated at £30,000-40,000 at Tennants.
A pair of French 19th century ormolu-mounted white marble candelabra after the model by Jean-François Lorta are to be offered in Tennants Summer Fine Sale on July 16-17 with an estimate of £30,000-40,000.
Classical, robe-clad female figures representing summer and autumn bear aloft incense burners and candle arms lavishly garlanded with fruit and flowers, and the pair stand on 19th century octagonal marble pedestals.
The figures are inspired by the famed Four Seasons candelabra made by sculptor Lorta in 1788 for two of Louis XV’s daughters, Adelaïde and Victoire, to decorate the grand salon of the Château de Bellevue on the outskirts of Paris. The set was removed following the Revolution, and firstly resided in Empress Josephine’s salon in the Tuileries before being split up and housed in Fontainebleau and Versailles.
The set was later reunited at the Louvre in the late 20th century, where it remains today.
View and bid for this white marble candelabra via thesaleroom.com.
5. Celtic coin
This Eppillus gold quarter stater struck c.15BC has an opening bid of £2000 at a timed online sale ending on July 18 held by Celtic coin specialist Chris Rudd.
This inscription Commi F Eppillv on this gold quarter stater is one of the most finely engraved of any British Iron Age coin. Eppillus is only known from the numismatic record but his coins document a Roman client king of the Atrebates tribe reigning c.20BC-1AD.
This one was struck c.15BC when he had charge, at Calleva (Silchester), of the inland Atrebatic district of his brother Tincomaros’ southern kingdom, before he moved to Kent to found a dynasty of his own.
One of just three known, it has an opening bid of £2000 at a timed online sale ending on July 18 held by Celtic coin specialist Chris Rudd in Norwich.
View and bid for this Celtic coin via thesaleroom.com.
