Wedgwood creamware teapot and cover c.1770, estimate £1200-1500 at Hansons.
1. Wedgwood creamware teapot
Etwall, Derbyshire saleroom Hansons is selling the first tranche of the collection of Patrick Rylands on May 29. The renowned British toy designer’s collection of antiques, curios and collectables includes thousands of objects amassed over a lifetime of visits to London’s Portobello Road and Brick Lane markets.
Some good English pottery in this first sale includes this Wedgwood creamware teapot and cover c.1770 painted in bright enamels with a ‘chintz’ pattern, probably by the decorator David Rhodes.
Estimate £1200-1500.
2. Emperor Titus coin
Coin dating to and showing Emperor Titus from 79-81AD. Estimate £2000-2500 at Baldwins.
The Roman Emperor Titus ruled for only two years, 79-81AD, but his reign featured two hugely significant events.
The first was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD - an event seen as the worst possible omen - a terrible sign from the Gods. Sacrifices and atonements took place across the city of Rome the following years.
Fortunately for Titus, a great celebration was due the following year. After nearly a decade, the colossal Flavian Amphitheatre was nearing completion. The enormous construction, which we now know as the Colosseum, was funded from the spoils of Titus and his father Vespasian’s wars against the Jewish Revolt, which resulted in the sacking and destruction of Jerusalem.
The Colosseum opened to great fanfare in 80AD, with 100 days of gladiatorial games and celebrations. Included in these events were huge parades of exotic animals, including enormous elephants.
Coins were minted that year to commemorate the events, one such being a denarius (a silver coin worth around a day’s pay for a Roman soldier at the time), depicting an elephant. An example will be offered at Baldwin’s Ancient Coin Sale in London on May 29.
Baldwin’s says it is a “very rare variety, with the emperor’s head facing left rather than right. The condition is superb, the coin having seen little circulation and has developed an attractive, dark, cabinet tone.”
It is from a large collection of Roman coins which will also be going under the hammer that day.
Estimate £2000-2500.
3. Irish bottle carrier
Irish provincial mahogany bottle carrier on stand c.1780. Estimate €4000-6000 at Fonsie Mealy.
This Irish provincial mahogany bottle carrier on stand was probably made in Limerick c.1780. It was produced for William Stacpoole, the High Sheriff of Co Clare, for his home Eden Vale, Killone, Ennis.
It comes for sale by direct family descent to Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Summer Fine Art Sale on May 28-29 where it has expectations of €4000-6000.
4. Oswald Birley portrait
Portrait of Capt Ralph Kerr of HMS Hood by Oswald Birley, estimate £2000-3000 at Dawsons.
On May 30, Berkshire auction house Dawsons will be selling a collection of medals and other items reflecting the long Royal Navy career of Captain Ralph Kerr.
The commander of HMS Hood died when the vessel was sunk on May 24, 1941, causing shock waves throughout the world, given that the battlecruiser was regarded as one of the most technically advanced warships then afloat.
All the items have been consigned by his family.
Among the lots is a portrait of Kerr by artist Oswald Birley, estimated at £2000-3000 in the Maidenhead auction.
5. Suffragette memorabilia
Suffragette items awarded to and owned by Dr Margaret Ida Balfour, estimate £300-500 at Charterhouse.
A group of Suffragette and other items awarded to and owned by Dr Margaret Ida Balfour is estimated at £300-500 in the Charterhouse auction on May 30-31.
Born in Edinburgh in 1866, she pursued a career in medicine at a time when few women studied medicine. Awarded the silver medallion for Practice of Medicine Session 1889-90, she qualified as a doctor in 1891.
Although women were not permitted to formally graduate from the University of Edinburgh, she went to France and Belgium to do so before working in India where she went on to have a long and distinguished career culminating with King George awarding her the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal in 1920. Returning to England in 1924 she was made a CBE by King George V.
Items in the lots on offer in Sherborne, Dorset, being sold to benefit a charity, include the silver medallion awarded to Dr Balfour, a First World War Volunteer Worker badge, a National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies enamel pin badge, a matching enamel brooch and an oval locket.
