Birmingham or South Staffordshire bonbonniere – £1900 at Tennants.
That on August 6 provided the financial highlight: a Birmingham or South Staffordshire ‘figural’ snuff box or bonbonniere modelled in high relief as a leopard attacking an African hunter.
To the base was a scene of the hunter with a bow and arrow surprising the leopard, probably after Antonio Tempesta. It was not in the best condition (there were losses to the enamel and areas of cracks and repair) but it is a rarity. Estimated at £200-300, it took £1900.
Go green
South Staffordshire enamel cassolettes – £800 at Tennants.
The Summer Fine Sale at Tennants on July 16 included a pair of south Staffordshire enamel urn-shaped cassolettes with goat-head handles, c.1770.
Similar 12in (30cm) pairs with interchangeable tops reversing to form either finials or candle nozzles are known in a number of published collections, including those of Schreiber and Untermeyer.
These Tennants examples, decorated with panels of rustic figures attending to animals before distant farmhouses against an apple green ground, are similar to a pair that, estimated at £3500-5000, went unsold as part of the Mort and Moira Lesser collection at Bonhams in 2011.
Offered here with more modest hopes they took the low estimate of £800.
