Auction Reports

Harking back to when the Netherlands was a powerful player in the tea trade, a rare, early 18th century silver caddy attracted international interest at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury.

Made by William Selwood (1607-53), one of London’s finest clockmakers before the ‘Golden Age’, this 16½in (42cm) mid-17th century brass lantern clock topped Ewbank’s (22.5% buyer’s premium) spring sale in Send.

Having for decades been like one of those obscure religions in which passionate believers go about their business to the benign bemusement of everyone else, studio pottery is winning converts by the day.

Selling just short of the auction record, this 10in (26cm) tall stoneware pot, below, by John Ward (b.1938) went to an online bidder on thesaleroom.com at £17,500 at Rogers Jones (20% buyer’s premium) in Cardiff.

The 96-lot section of studio pottery offered at Woolley & Wallis’ (25% buyer’s premium) wide-ranging ceramics sale at Salisbury on March 21 included a private collection of the work of David Leach (1911-2005) and Walter Keeler (b.1942).

Peoples of Russia part II… On these pages last week (ATG No 2330) mention was made of the series of porcelain figures of ethnic Russians produced by the Imperial Factory in St Petersburg from the late 18th century up to the revolution.

There is little like a new house-record to leave an auctioneer smiling but there was considerably more for Luke Macdonald to celebrate following Cheffins’ (22.5% buyer’s premium) spring sale.

While many a hopeful vendor has to be told gently that great-great-grandpa’s pocket watch is worth little more than the melt price of the metal, a complication or major name – such as the signature Ch. Frodsham, London to the movement of this example, below – makes all the difference.

Porcelain by Jacob Petit (1797-1868) is a scarce sight at provincial rooms.

“It’s not the age or pedigree – it’s the look of the piece.” The phrase became less a heresy and more a cliché during the latter years of the furniture boom of blessed memory, when the increasingly influential decorator trade was spending substantial sums on 19th and early 20th century reproductions.

Considering retiring and selling up, the owner of a Cornish B&B owner consigned the George III, japanned chest on stand, below, to Honiton saleroom Chilcotts (19.5% buyer’s premium) to test the market.

Deep snowdrifts accompanied the March 2 sale at Chippenham Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Wiltshire.

Collecting traditional English ceramics is still a popular pursuit on both sides of the Atlantic – but one where purchases are always tailored to fit the purse strings of the core collecting audience.

The name of the late Bill Coysh is instantly recognisable to enthusiasts of transfer printed pottery.

Multi-estimate results greeted the Joyce Paretti collection of perfume bottles sold by John Nicholson’s (24% buyer’s premium) of Fernhurst in two instalments before and after the new year.

The contents of a country house near Tetbury yielded many of the better lots in a Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Prinknash Abbey which included a garniture of three Pinxton porcelain bough pots.

The ceramics and glass offering at a recent Chiswick Auctions' (25% buyer’s premium) sale included a particularly fine Raeren salt-glazed jug c.1600.

Despite their small size and often unsophisticated appearance, Lowestoft models of animals are highly collectable.

It was in keeping with a Salisbury sale dominated by the remarkable £460,000 bid for a teapot made at Cain Hoy, South Carolina by John Bartlam c.1765 (see ATG 2331), that the same Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) ceramics sale included a group of three rare enamel boxes made for the American market.

As a general rule late Victorian ceramics are at a low ebb, and teasets in particular. Bucking that trend was the extraordinary bid for this Wileman Shelley six-place tea set offered by Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium) Martlesham, near Ipswich.