Fieldings

A successful sale tempts further consignments. The recent string of excellent results for Zulu War medals has certainly encouraged fresh batches of honours to auctioneers.

This lead copy of Louis Weingartner’s 19th century bronze ‘Dryad and Boar’ was found hidden away in an overgrown garden before it was recently consigned to auction.

Originally cast in bronze by Swiss sculptor Louis Weingartner in 1892, this 20th century lead statue by the Bromsgrove Guild entitled ‘Dryad and Boar’ will be offered at Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge on March 9.

This classic red two-seater 1954 MG TF 1500 Roadster will be auctioned at Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge on January 12.

A highlight at Fieldings Auctioneers’ July 7 sale in Stourbridge is a box containing personal effects reputed to have belonged to Captain William Kidd, the well-known Scottish sailor who was convicted of piracy and hanged in London on May 23, 1701.

THE small factory at Limehouse, operating on the banks of the Thames just to the east of the Tower of London from 1745-1748, was one of the pioneers of English porcelain manufacture.

WHEN a market softens, it is often best to return to first principles – the core values of condition, market freshness and pricing that can be overlooked when an area of collecting really ‘takes off’.

Born and bred in the environs of Birmingham, Sheila Hughes (1937-2006) first began collecting tiles in the early 1970s.

PICTURED here are two pieces of Liberty & Co metalwork sold by Fieldings (12.5% buyers premium) of Hagley on July 17. The 8in (20cm) high pewter timepiece, top right, with a central copper and enamel dial with two enamel cabochons to the base, is a recorded design by Archibald Knox. The case, still with original patina, is fitted with a Lenzkirch brass bodied movement (the original key fitted to the door) and the base stamped 0370 Tudric.

AN undated medical volume offered as part of a May 8 antiques sale held by Fieldings of Stourbridge brought a bid of £430.

THE West Midlands auctioneers Fieldings (12.5% buyer’s premium) are making something of a habit of getting impressive prices for market-fresh watercolours by the Newlyn School painter Walter Langley (1852-1922).

RIGHT: the faience wares decorated by Louis Kramer for Burmantofts between 1887 and 1890 are among the most coveted productions of the Yorkshire factory. So there was lots of interest among academics, collectors and dealers prior to the May 8 sale at Fieldings of Stourbridge in this fully signed 18in (46cm) diameter charger.

OSCAR Pierre Erard is one of the many shadowy figures who occupy the record books of the 19th century glass industry in Stourbridge.

OF the 830 lots offered in Fieldings (12.5% buyer's premium) February 28 sale, a painting provided the highest price but a chair the biggest surprise.

WITH collectors’ taste in Modern British art shifting in recent years from pre-war to post-war, the once all-conquering Newlyn School has not generated as many headline-stealing results as it did in the late 1980s.

There were several toy sales in the Midlands in late October, including on October 25 a 500-lot sale conducted by Fieldings (12.5% buyer’s premium) in the oak-panelled Great Hall of Old Swinford Hospital School in Stourbridge.

Apparently consigned for sale by a local lady who had no idea of its commercial potential – it had been acquired as holiday reading when she was a young girl – a 1937 first edition of The Hobbit was sold at £10,300 in a general antiques sale held by Fieldings in Hagley, Worcester-shire, on April 26.

After trading for only six months, Fieldings Auctioneers, based in Stourbridge, West Midlands have won a regional business award. They were nominated by the Black Country Chamber of Commerce for the Best New Business, Service Sector in their first annual New Business Awards (2001-2002).