SALES REVIEW
FINE PORCELAIN & POTTERY ENGLISH & EUROPEAN CERAMICS
& GLASS Our Fine Porcelain and Pottery September sale brought resolution to one keen collector who found in it a dated stoneware mug which he had been trying to locate for some years. Recorded in a book published in 1891 as being in a collection belonging to ‘HCM’, and then listed as “whereabouts unknown” in a book published some 90 years later, the mug had actually been in the same family collection for over 120 years. Previously owned by a Hereford butcher named Walter Vaughan, the delighted collector paid an impressive £7,930 for his personal Holy Grail.
The importance of an object’s social history was highlighted once again in our English and European Ceramics sale on 28th November, when a small private collection of sealed and dated wine bottles came under
the hammer. While several of them were unrecorded, this onion bottle from 1699 was made for Richard and Elizabeth Walker, landlords of the King’s Head tavern in the High Street, Oxford, between 1694 and 1704. Hotly contested by several keen private collectors, the winning bidder (local to Oxford) eventually secured it for £8,300.
20TH CENTURY DESIGN BRITISH ART POTTERY
Two sales have gone under the hammer since the last Sale News for this department; the September 20th Century Design sale showed the continuing demand for cold painted bronze and ivory figures, cast and carved from models by Ferdinand Preiss. Dancer came from the private collection of Crewkerne town councillor Roger Rousell. Despite some damage the figure sold for £6,350.
The December British Art Pottery sale brought another record price to the department in the form of a flaring bowl by Lucie Rie, which sold for £57,350. This particular example highlighted with a bronze manganese rim. The bowl was bought by agents acting on behalf of an overseas client and although bid up by five telephones, the internet and bidding in the room, it came down to two phone bidders at the end. The under bidder was a collector of Lucie Rie, keen for a fine blue glazed bowl by the artist and this perfect example is believed to be a world record auction price for a piece of Lucie Rie pottery.
22 | WOOLLEY & WALLIS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28