A Roman terracotta ‘Campana’ relief fragment depicting a joyful satyr, naked but for a cloak to his shoulders, is priced at £4650 from London antiquities dealership Ancient Art.
The Campana reliefs take their name from Marchese G Campana, a 19th century collector who owned a large number of similar Roman terracotta reliefs.
This piece, 9in (23cm) high on a custom-made stand, was formerly in the collection of Daniel Donohue, who together with his wife, Countess Bernadine, amassed an extensive collection of antiquities, works of art, furniture, and paintings during the 1950s-60s. The collection was housed in California across three Italian and French-styled residences including the famous Villa San Giuseppe estate in Los Angeles.
This hard tack biscuit was purportedly taken from a lifeboat during the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and is believed to be one of only two such biscuits in existence. The other is on display at the Cobh Heritage Centre in County Cork, Ireland.
The biscuit is accompanied by a handwritten letter from a sapper in the Royal Engineers written shortly after the liner was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Ireland in 1915.
He wrote: “…You will find enclosed a biscuit which I got out of one of the Lusitania’s boats at Queenstown. I suppose these biscuits are put in the lifeboats to feed the people aboard her, in case they are a great distance from land or being adrift for many days.”
It is estimated at £3000-5000 in a Titanic, White Star and Transport Memorabilia sale on April 27 at Devizes saleroom Henry Aldridge & Son in Wiltshire.
Old Master paintings, Asian works of art, Continental furniture, decorative items and medals from the collection of Eustace Gibbs, 3rd Baron Wraxall, will go under the hammer in a single-owner sale on May 1 at Dreweatts in Donnington Priory, Newbury.
The collection comes from Lord Wraxall’s final residence at Oakley House and was assembled across four generations of the wealthy Gibbs family. It includes inherited works from the family’s former Victorian Gothic home of Tyntesfield near Bristol, which was sold to the National Trust in 2002.
These coronation coronets offered together with robes were commissioned by Lord Wraxall’s father George Abraham Gibbs, who was raised to the peerage as Baron Wraxall, of Clyst St George, in the County of Devon in 1928. They come in a box made of cedar from Tyntesfield.
Estimate £1500-2500.
dreweatts.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
This small spring-themed painting by John Bratby (1928-92) will be offered for sale at Ringwood Auctions in Hampshire on May 18.
Early Springtime: Flowers Carefully Cultivated Indoors 1 was presented at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1975 and has not been offered on the secondary market since.
The 4 x 3in (10 x 8cm) acrylic on board is accompanied by letters from Bratby detailing his composition and painting methods and the original bill stating the painting cost £385.
It is estimated at £3000-4000 with proceeds from the sale going to Minstead Church in Hampshire.
