Best-seller and biggest surprise was a c.1890 Amritsar carpet.
The 20ft x 14ft 10in (6.07 x 4.53m) carpet, with an all-over design of vines and palmettes enclosed by flowerhead charcoal borders, was estimated at £500-800.
Lots of interest came from decorators, owners of large country houses and dealers in the run-up to the sale in Salisbury and on the day it went to a London dealer at £17,000.
Exuberant style
An 18th century Spanish colonial cabinet on stand, £12,000 at Woolley & Wallis.
By contrast the 18th century Spanish colonial cabinet on stand was a projected star.
Typical of the exuberant and expensive furniture commissioned by Spanish rulers, the 6ft (1.82m) wide cabinet was an example of Mueble Enconchado, a technique of inlaying complex mother-of-pearl designs on a rich tortoiseshell ground. Originating in the Spanish Philippines, it was developed in the New World particularly by craftsmen in Lima.
The example at W&W, catalogued as from Mexico or Peru, was a sumptuous signal of a hidalgo’s status.
It featured ebonised ripple mouldings inlaid with brass and bone stringing and floral motifs, and seven drawers around a cupboard door inset with a portrait of St Anthony enclosing a plush-lined fitted interior.
On a later ebonised stand, the cabinet went to the Continental trade within estimate at £12,000.
From closer to home was an early 19th century gilt-bronze model of the Antonine Column. A typical if deluxe Grand Tour piece, it was attributed to Rome-based German artists Wilhelm Hopfgarten (1789- 1860) and Benjamin Ludwig Jollage (1781-1837). The 2ft 10in (87cm) tall column on an alabaster base doubled the lower estimate, going to a Europeam buyer at £8000.
British c.1720-25 giltwood and gesso candlestand in the manner of James Moore, £6500 at Woolley & Wallis.
Best of British at the 800-lot sale was a c.1720-25 giltwood and gesso candlestand in the manner of James Moore.
Standing 3ft 6½in (1.08m) tall with a hexagonal top, faceted stem and three cabriole legs it featured typical all-over relief decoration with leaves flowers and lambrequins and sold to a UK private buyer at £6500 against an estimate of £1000-1500.
