Laidlaw

There were many massive English country house sales in the 20th century but the largest by volume was the contents sale at Lowther Castle during April, May and June 1947.

The best-selling lot in a recent Carlisle auction was a 1919, Collins first of Heritage, the debut novel of Vita Sackville-West, who at that time was better known for her poetry.

This pair of English Regency bronze candlesticks in Egyptian revival taste sold for £1800 at Laidlaw (20% buyer’s premium).

The only known blueprint of a Great War British Mark I tank has been sold by Carlisle auction house Laidlaw (18.5% buyer’s premium) to The Tank Museum in Bovington.

During the Victorian era the Rev Henry Moule (1801-80) of Fordington in Dorset was doubtless considered something of a zealot.

Laidlaw Auctioneers and Valuers has invested in a new premises in Carlisle with a café and a museum on site and the auction house is confident that room bidding is not a thing of the past.

On April 14, 1746, two days before the battle that would seal his fate, Charles Edward Stuart held a lavish meal at Culloden House, the highland estate owned by Hanoverian loyalist Duncan Forbes (1685-1747) that had recently been commandeered by Jacobite forces.

Good art at a great price in regional sales.

Did a watch offered for sale in Carlisle at the end of July once belong to Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)? Two centuries of provenance suggest it did.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at £1700 or under, including abstract-style embroidery by Frances Richards, the wife of Ceri Richards.

Sapphires have been mined in Burma (now Myanmar) for over a millennium, the stones admired for their colour saturation and dark hues.

If the Battle of Britain is your collecting field, then the sale of a Kent collection held in late 2018 would have been a major draw.

Appearing to be as vividly coloured as when it was made in the 18th century, a brocaded silk robe à l’Anglaise breathed the style and quality associated with its Spitalfields makers.