The largest number of pre-sale enquiries within the silver section was aimed at a 14oz porringer with handles cast and chased as female nudes by Omar Ramsden.
Although engraved to the base Omar Ramsden me fecit, it dated from 1936 at a time when Ramsden, whose partnership with Alwyn Carr was dissolved in 1919, employed more than 20 assistants. He died three years later, aged 66. Despite this relatively late date, the porringer took £2100 from the trade.
The same sum was bid by another dealer for an unusual piece by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson of Kilburn: an adzed oak sewing box with hinged lid, single drawer and faceted turned supports.
Exhibiting the patination of a piece probably made in the 1930s (the model was repeated in the ‘70s), it was carved with a geometric design to the fascia panel and with the trademark mouse to the front upright.
