This First and Second World War Distinguished Service Medal group shown above was awarded to Petty Officer Arthur Frederick Fisher of the Royal Navy.
Fisher served in HMS Marlborough during the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916. He was later part of the crew sent in 1919 by King George V to the Crimea to evacuate the remaining members of the Romanov family, after the tsar and his family were assassinated during the Russian Revolution in 1917. A silver cigarette case included in the group was personally presented by the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna to Fisher and is engraved with details of the voyage.
Fisher later served in HMS Alcantara during the Second World War and won his DSM for taking part in a fight against the German auxiliary cruiser Thor on July 27, 1940.
The lot is estimated at £3000-5000 in the Dominic Winter Arms, Medals & Militaria auction on May 18 in South Cerney. It will be sold with original photographs and paperwork, including a photograph of Fisher wearing his gallantry medal.
dominicwinter.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
An abstract work by Modern British sculptor Geoffrey Clarke (1924-2014) is a stand-out lot in Andrew Smith & Son’s sale on May 22-23 in Itchen Stoke, Hampshire.
Forged from iron and aluminium, the 6½in (17cm) high piece has been consigned from the estate of a private English collector and is monogrammed GC and NFS 51’52 to the base. A similar sculpture, Head, resides in the Tate collection, and is one of a number of small iron sculptures made by Clarke in the early 1950s.
Estimate £2000-3000.
andrewsmithandson.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Irish sculptor Claire Curneen (b.1968) is among the contemporary potters whose work is going under the hammer at Maak, the specialist studio ceramics auction house in London.
This 2ft 1in (65cm) high figure of St Sebastian, c.2006, has been consigned from a private collection in London. Made from porcelain and decorated with gold lustre, blue pigment and a transparent glaze, it is estimated at £2500-3000 and will be offered in London on May 17.
Curneen is known for her application of hand-building and running drips of glaze and gold lacquer. Her works range from small-scale porcelain pieces to large terracotta figures.
maaklondon.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Hitherto unseen photographs depicting the return to New Zealand of the explorer Ernest Shackleton and his men shortly after the final rescue from the Endurance Expedition in 1917 will go under the hammer for the first time at East Bristol Auctions on May 18.
The archive forms part of a large collection of photographs originally owned by an Edwardian politician in NZ and passed by descent through his family.
The politician, who was NZ minister for trade and customs at the time, had direct access to Shackleton and his men, says the auction house. The set of images shows Shackleton and his crew arriving aboard the Aurora (which had been sent to rescue the Ross Sea Party, trapped on the ice for 199 days), and later at a private reception held to welcome them back. Estimate £2000-3000.
eastbristol.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
