In the world of angling, the early 20th century marked a golden age for the Hardy Angler’s Guide, the comprehensive fishing tackle catalogues that became superior to anything else on the market at the time.
The weighty mail-order catalogues were produced by Hardy of Alnwick, Northumberland, and portrayed a wide range of its most up-to-date tackle in great detail. A new item frequently got a six-page spread (as opposed to a single page in rival catalogues) and it included unusual items such as the ‘Third Arm’ – a device Hardy invented for disabled anglers.
A Hardy Angler’s Guide produced for the 1917 season will be offered in a country sporting sale at Cockermouth saleroom Mitchells on April 13 estimated at £200-300.
The Georgian house depicted on this child’s needlework sampler above is believed to be Holly Cottage, a Grade II-listed property on the Wargrave estate in Berkshire.
The 18 x 12½in (45 x 32cm) sampler, embroidered to the bottom Ann Castle finished this in the year of our Lord 1811, is estimated at £200-300 at Plymouth Auction Rooms on April 17 in Devon.
According to the Plymouth family who have consigned it for sale, it was gifted to their grandparents who worked at Wargrave Manor and on their retirement lived nearby at Holly Cottage. The sampler shows the middle top window of the house intact before it was bricked up during the Georgian period to avoid paying window tax.
At the height of their popularity during the 1920s-30s, cigarette cards were being produced in thousands of different designs as rival tobacco firms, competing for market share, looked to offer their customers something extra with their packet of smokes.
The vast majority was based on paintings or artwork produced by commercial artists. A dozen 3 x 6in (8 x 15cm) canine portraits painted in oil on card for Gallaher cigarettes will be included in a Sporting Art sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, on April 30.
The diminutive English School illustrations, framed together in groups of three, were created for a series of cards depicting dog breeds issued in 1936. The groups, estimated at £300-500 each, were owned by the vendor’s father, a marketing director for Belfast-based Gallaher in the 1930s.
The second instalment of Design at Home, a collaborative sale between Maidenhead auction house Dawson’s and 20th century design expert Mark Hill, will take place in London at the Pure Evil Gallery on April 7.
A 1930s Art Deco satinwood bookcase side table, 22in (56cm) high, of geometric form with four satinwood veneered shelves and rectangular supports, is estimated at £80-120.
dawsonsauctions.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
