This brass model of a soldier riding a camel above is one of the so-called Vizagapatam Toy Soldiers – a mysterious set of late 18th century pieces named after the city on India’s eastern coast where they were believed to have been manufactured. It has not yet been established who they were made for.
The set is unusual in Indian sculpture for its humorous caricatures of the military, with soldiers given oversized heads and weapons to exaggerate their pomposity and swagger. Examples are found in collections at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the V&A in London and the Sandringham and Madras museums in India.
This piece, which has been in a private UK collection since the 1990s, is estimated at £2000-3000 in an Arts of India auction at Roseberys in West Norwood, London, on June 12.
roseberys.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
The Great Plague – the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England – was a devastating event in London, wiping out an estimated 100,000 people between 1665-66.
A first edition issue list of the deaths recorded in all the London parishes during that year is up for sale at Forum Auctions in Mayfair, London, on May 30.
Titled London’s Dreadful Visitation: Or, a Collection of all the Bills of Mortality for this Present Year, it lists a total of 97,306 deaths, 68,596 of which were as a result of the plague. It also comes with an extra folding table detailing ‘all the Christnings and… Burials from the 19 of December, 1665. To the 18 of December, 1666’ – of which only two others are recorded. Estimate £2000-3000.
forumauctions.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Among the most celebrated services commissioned by Tiffany in New York from Royal Crown Derby during the first quarter of the 20th century was the service made for Tiffany’s private client Judge Elbert Henry Gary (1846-1927), a corporate lawyer and founder of the United States Steel Corporation.
After his death in 1927, a large portion of his collection was auctioned for over $2m, an auction record at the time for a single-owner sale.
A tureen and cover from the service, painted by Albert Gregory with panels of flowers framed within elaborately moulded gilt cartouches, is estimated at £2000-3000 in Paul Beighton’s auction on May 27 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
pbauctioneers.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Edward Bawden (1903-89) produced his limited-edition print Liverpool Street Station in 1961. He knew the station well, using it regularly when travelling between London and his home in Great Bardfield, Essex.
This 21in x 4ft 9in (53cm x 1.45m) colour lithograph, signed and numbered 35 from an edition of 40, will be offered together with a letter from the artist to the vendor’s father on May 23 at Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland.
In the letter Bawden writes “…all the available printed copies have been sold, but another batch is now being printed & when this laborious operation has been completed, (each copy is printed by foot!) I will send you a copy”. Estimate £2000-3000.
andersonandgarland.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
