Earliest offering was an Elizabethan beaker at Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) Winchester rooms on February 13.
All hollowware that survived the great melt of the Civil War can be considered rare.
Bearing the maker’s mark IN in monogram, the London 1583 piece, 5in (13cm) tall and weighing 6oz, was engraved with an upper frieze of scrolling branches of oak leaves, acorns and flowers and, to the underside, with the initials KF.
Against a £5000-8000 estimate, it sold at £17,600.
Nelson dedication
Perhaps the best-known piece made by Birmingham smallworker Matthew Linwood was a vinaigrette produced in remarkably quick time in response to the death of Nelson.
Hallmarked for 1805, these have gilt pierced grilles cast with a depiction of HMS Victory and the words Victory and Trafalgar Ocr. 21, 1805.
Some, such as that offered at Bishop & Miller (20% buyer’s premium) in Stowmarket on February 9, are engraved to the cover with a portrait of the great man and inscribed with a version of his famous pre-battle signal at Trafalgar, England Expects Every Man Will Do His Duty. Guided at £2000-3000, it went to a London bidder at £4100.
Jensen selection No 3
Designed in 1919 by Johan Rohde, but made in the post-war era, a 2ft 6in (76cm) long fish dish was the top seller among 106 lots of Georg Jensen silver offered at Dreweatts (25% buyer’s premium) on February 13. It was the third of four tranches from a huge private collection of mainly late 20th century Jensen which the auctioneers have been instructed to sell quickly.
Despite the obvious perils of a flooded market – the collection includes multiples of the same form – Dreweatts specialist David Rees reported that “prices are just about keeping up”.
This time the Newbury rooms sold all bar three lots for a hammer total just shy of £305,000.
The 220oz fish dish, design No 335C and with the post-1945 stamped marks, was estimated at £20,000- 30,000 and sold at £43,000.
Two pairs of 10½in (26.5cm) tall, Grape pattern candelabra, design No 383A by Jensen himself, also went well above hopes. Each pair pitched at £10,000-15,000, they each went to private buyers at £22,000.
