The 1957 launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial spacecraft, named after the Russian word for satellite, by the Soviet Union was a major world event inaugurating the ‘Space Age’.
Such was the cultural impact of the launch that Lloyd Loom, the London maker of wicker furniture that became hugely popular in the 1920s, commemorated the event by creating a linen basket in the shape of the spacecraft in a limited edition. Only 100 are thought to have been produced.
Designed by Geoffrey Lusty, grandson of the company’s founder William Lusty, the wicker body has an ebonised wood cover with manufacturer’s plaque. Standing at 20½in (52cm) high x 16in (40cm) wide, the globular-form basket sits on a metal tripod stand and is priced at £900 from Below Stairs in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A set of six silver lattice work salts and spoons carries the marks of Charles Fox, London 1838.
The group forms part of a private collection of silver going under the hammer at Holloway’s of Banbury on December 11.
Estimate £1500-£2000.
A 17th century Stuart memorial portrait ring depicts the face of Charles I protected beneath a piece of rock crystal. It is estimated at £1200-1800 in a sale of antique and modern jewellery at Fellows in Birmingham on December 6.
“Royalist mementos such as this are few and far between,” said Alex Duffy, jewellery specialist at Fellows. “The somewhat naively painted portrait of the fallen king, within its arcaded enamel bezel, is a fine example of Stuart crystal jewellery.”
A simple grey fireplace was designed and made by the Russian-born sculptor Naum Gabo (1890-1977) in 1946, during his influential time in St Ives.
Made from Delabole slate sourced near Tintagel, the 3ft 4in x 4ft 6in (1.02 x 1.37m) piece is guided at £500-1000 in a sale at David Lay in Penzance on December 6-7.
It was one of two identical fireplaces commissioned for a house in Redruth owned by Mr Ince, Cornwall’s chief obstetrician. The other, in brown slate, was later destroyed.
The fireplace is among the last of Gabo’s works created in Cornwall before he emigrated to the US later that year.
davidlay.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
