20 19th June 2010 auction reports How stands England’s
■ Solid rather than strong demand for vernacular furniture
■ Pewter buyers prove selective in a shrinking market
Terence Ryle reports
BURNISHED pewter tankards on glowing oak dressers – it’s the traditional image of the antiques world but, for now at least, not the most fashionable one.
That said, the market among the
faithful remains strong enough for Bonhams to collate oak furniture and pewter from their various branches and offer them together at three specialist sales a year at their Chester rooms. After the 775-lot May 12-13 event, specialist in charge David Houlston said: “The furniture market generally isn’t what it was, but oak is standing up quite well. As well as traditional British interest there’s a market among American and Australian buyers and also from the Continent, particularly Germany. “Pewter’s quieter than it was and now selling almost entirely to collectors.”
While, overall, buying was rather sporadic, as the 70 per cent selling rate suggests, the selective mood of bidders was reflected in a by-value success rate topping 80 per cent. As expected, the best-selling oak lot, by some way, was a rare 15th/16th century table board which had been in Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, since before the Dissolution. It remained there thorugh the building’s various incarnations as a private home, a Benedictine retreat and a conference centre, unti it was entered into the Chester sale.
The single-plank top, 7ft 5in long by 2ft 2in wide (2.25m x 67cm), stood on 19th century A-frame supports. Estimated at £10,0000-15,000, it sold to a private buyer at £11,500. Tables, generally, sold well enough. Examples included two late 17th century and later twin-plank refectory tables at £2000 and £2600; a rare mid-17th century twin-flap gateleg table just below estimate at £2300 and a late 17th century, ebony-inlaid Dutch drawleaf table at a mid-estimate £3700. While all these had real age to commend them, they were outsold by a
Above: 15th/16th century table board on 19th century A-frame supports – £11,500 at Bonhams Chester.
Right: late 17th century English oak and upholstered stool – £2000 at the Chester oak sale.
Below: pewter pieces at Bonhams Chester shown in descending order by height and price. From left to right: a York pewter flagon, 1712, 121
/2 /4 in (7cm) high – £2800.
in (31.5cm) high – £6000;
a c.1670, wrigglework tankard, 6in (15.5cm) high – £4700; a c.1665, child’s toy tankard, 23
– but the £5000-8000 estimate proved accurate enough when it went to a private buyer bang on the lower figure. One of the vernacular furniture lots to generate genuine competition was a piece undated in the catalogue but described as an oak and floral marquetry-inlaid, enclosed type chest. Measuring 2ft 91
/2
in
19th century refectory-type table – evidence that private buyers come to these sales looking for specific pieces of furniture for their homes or boardrooms. Measuring 14ft (4.27m) wide, the table was estimated at £1000-1500 but sold at £4400.
Size and form are not the only criteria. Condition, colour and timber are equally important. A pretty little mid 18th century burr elm and fruitwood side table, 2ft 5in wide by 183
/4 in deep (73 x 47cm) with a
frieze drawer took £3700, against an estimate of £700-1000, from an overseas buyer. Dressers and dresser bases, which were once the backbone of such sales, are now going well short of heyday prices everywhere. Mr Houlston finds that it is currently easier to sell bases than dressers with racks. They do work better in the smaller contemporary interior. Best of the 20 dressers offered at
Chester, five of which failed to get away,
was a late 18th century low dresser with three twin mitre-moulded drawers which went just over the lower estimate at £2900. It’s a similar low-key story among seating furniture, particularly stools which, 20 years ago, were such hot sellers. Only the very best examples appealing to the collectors’ market generate more than modest sums. At Chester, a late 17th century, 23in (59cm) wide English oak stool with a turkeywork upholstered seat and spiral turned legs and stretchers, went on the lower £2000 estimate. Quirkier offerings included a rare late 17th century oak segmental cupboard in three stacking sections, each with a pair of mitre-moulded panel doors and iron carrying handles. Measuring 3ft 21 (98cm) wide and standing 4ft 81/2
/2 in
(1.45m) high on its plinth base, it was difficult to value – “I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” said Mr Houlstone
in
wide by 2ft 11in high (86 x 90cm) it featured a twin, floral-inlaid long drawer above a pair of floral marquetry inlaid cupboard doors. It incorporated 17th century timbers and triggered private interest and, against a £1000- 1500 estimate, sold at £3200. Also going well above hopes was one of the samplers which dot these oak sales. Described as a rare Irish Quaker sampler, it is typically plain, embellished only with a 12-line religious verse by Sarah Goodbody, Clonmel School 1799. Quaker samplers are highly collectable and this 10in x 111
/2 in (25 x 29cm) needlework
sold to a collector at £2000 (estimate £500-800).
The 225 lots of pewter offered on the
Wednesday also reflected the muted state of the market, once taken to impressive heights by a group of wealthy collectors such as David Little, no longer an active player, and the late Sandy Law. Only around 60 per cent of the lots sold, all to collectors, and among the casualties was a 7in (18.5cm) ‘exceptionally rare and important’ mid- 14th century French or Swiss octagonal flagon.
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