Heal’s set of garden furniture using materials from Churchill's yacht, £3200 at Great Western Auctions.
The c.1936 set, which had been retailed by the London company, had a small plaque recording that it was Made by the Hughes Bolckow Shipbreaking Company, Blyth, Northumberland from teak taken from the Admiralty Yacht ‘HMS Enchantress’.
The elegant armed yacht was broken up in 1935 after 32 years’ service including being Winston Churchill’s seaborne office and private yacht during his first stint as First Lord of the Admiralty 1911-15.
Featuring a slatted 2ft 9in (84cm) square roundedcornered top and slatted seats to the four corner-back chairs, the set had some minor damage but was basically in good condition for its age and tripled its mid estimate, going to an English private buyer at £3200 in this June 23-24 auction.
Tripling estimates at a different level were the sale’s two major stars: an early 17th century set of Chapman’s Translations of Homer at £13,500 and an 1801 Neapolitan violin by Gagliano at £29,000.
Broken up in London
Another of these Heal’s garden furniture sets emerged at East Sussex saleroom Burstow & Hewett (20% buyer’s premium) on August 10. Bearing a label for Castle’s Shipbreaking Co. Ld., Baltic Wharf, London, the set was sold for £1600, double the top estimate.
