14 21st January 2012 auction reports


canterbury auctions continued from page 13


comprising 17 layers went to a London collector at a treble-estimate £3000, while an ivory rectangular box, finely fretted and carved with pavilions and figures within landscapes, went to another London collector at £2600. Best of the European ceramics also


had a distinctly Chinese flavour. This was a 2ft 2in (66cm) tall de Grieksche – a blue and white Dutch Delft baluster- shaped vase and cover with blue SVE monogram for Samuel Van Eenhoorn dating from c.1678-95. The vase was painted in the Chinese


Transitional manner with figures in stylised landscapes with trees, rocks and buildings below a border of eight trefoil blue ground lappets and reserves with scrolling foliage and flowers. Some damage kept the estimate


down to £800-1200, but it sold to a London dealer at £3900. Western works of art included a


bronze of a seated baboon with its infant by the Belgian sculptor Alberic Collin (1886-1962). The brown patinated group was


signed and bore the founder’s mark for C. Valsuanie. A London bronze sculpture specialist


dealer went to £4000 to secure it. Furniture sold well enough for


the times without raising too many eyebrows. An Edwardian mahogany Georgian-style bookcase led the way, selling to a local private buyer at £3000, while among the modern designer pieces was an Italian black-painted metal two-seat King and Queen settee from the 1985 Sixth Series designed by Mario Botta, which sold to a London telephone bidder at £1500.


Cumbria keeps line open to the world


CUMBRIAN auctioneersMitchells (17½% buyer’s premium) lost the final 90 minutes of online bidding at their December 8-9 sale when thieves cut through a fibre optic cable some eight miles away from the Cockermouth rooms and shut down half the county’s communications network. But the sale still recorded a £320,000 total – one of Mitchells’ ten best-ever results – and, added auctioneer Mark Wise, “this confirms the firm’s commitment to future live internet bidding which opens the saleroom to a global market”.


The blackout was countered by getting


mobile phone numbers posted on the website and taking bids that way. The fact that there were 363 registered online bidders from round the world, accounting for 174 of the 1230 lots which got away (and 98 underbids), explains the continued enthusiasm for the net. Apart from two paintings by


Cumbrian favourite Sheila Fell, two of the day’s top bids came from private buyers for Russian items – a silver-mounted, cut-glass and porphyry Fabergé inkwell and an Imperial gold cigarette case. Both fell short of the printed estimates but, happily, the vendors appeared to have given the auctioneers plenty of leeway in a hard-to-gauge market. The documented 7in (18cm) wide


inkwell, made in St Petersburg 1899- 1904, was marked K. Fabergé and had the workmaster’s mark for Anders Nevalainen. Set with a silver coin dated 1724, it


sold at £7200. Among the half-dozen cigarette


cases on offer, the best was an Imperial presentation piece made in St Petersburg of 56 Zolotnik gold standard. Set with a diamond-studded Romanov eagle, and with a sapphire thumb push, it carried the maker’s mark CB for court supplier


Helmet resurfaces at £3675


TWO careful owners since bought new from a top maker in 1910 – this Siebe Gorman diver’s brass and copper helmet, right, was, as expected, a major attraction at the December 21 sale held by Lincoln auctioneers Golding Young & Thos. Mawer (17½% buyer’s premium). The vendor had bought it from


the British Whaling Company in South Georgia, then part of the Falkland Islands, in 1970. It was estimated at £2000-3000


and sold at £3675. “It was unusual for such a piece


only to have been on the market once in its lifetime,” said auctioneer John Leatt. “It was bought by a local collector


who had been searching for a helmet for some time. Its provenance and completely untouched condition ensured it made a high price.”


Above: 1910 Siebe Gorman diver’s helmet – £3675 at Golding Young & Thos. Mawer.


Above: Cary’s 1806 celestial library globe – £7400 at Great Western Auctions.


Cary globe stars at Glasgow


Above: Fabergé inkwell – £7200 at Mitchells.


Carl Blank. Measuring 3½ x 2½in (8.5 x 6.5cm), the case with sunray ribbing to all sides sold at £4600. While the Russian pieces could not


match hopes, pieces from China left estimates far behind. A bronze incense burner, in the form


of a Dog of Fo, with a detachable lid, was undated in the catalogue and estimated at £75-125 but sold at £2900. Also scantily catalogued, as is common


among auctioneers who prefer to show Chinese wares and let the market decide, was a ruyi sceptre. Measuring 20in (51cm), it featured soapstone plaques to the hardwood frame and, against an estimate of £400-600, sold at £2750.


THE December 3 sale at Great Western Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) in Glasgow recorded a number of pretty impressive bids for pieces covering most of the collecting world. The star, however, was out of this


world – the 1806 Cary’s 18in (46cm) New and Improved Celestial Globe above. With a label for J&W Cary, no 18 The


Strand, the library globe proclaimed its own virtues and sources, showing the whole of the stars and Nebula contained in the astronomical catalogue of the Revd Mr Wollaston F.R.S., adding the names of every contemporary astronomer. Standing 3ft 6in (1.06m) high on


a reeded tapering leap joined by a compass cross frame stretcher, the globe, estimated at £2000-3000, sold at £7400.


Royal Doulton’s animal appeal


ADDING animal appeal to the traditional loyalty of Royal Doulton collectors at Staffordshire auctioneers Cuttlestones (16% buyer’s premium) at Penkridge on December 2 was this rare RSPCA collection box, right. Standing 9½in (23cm) high, including


the mahogany plinth, it had a hinged aperture to retrieve coins and also conceal any marks to the base of the piece. Bidders were quite happy with that and it sold at £950. Gift buying in the run-up to Christmas


boosted the jewellery and top price of the day was a pair of diamond earrings (4.29ct) at £4750. The day’s sleeper, almost inevitably,


was from the East but in an unusual form – a 19th century kimono by Tams of Hong Kong. Exquisitely embroidered on dark blue silk with a duck egg blue lining, it was estimated at £60-80 but triggered a fierce internet duel and finally sold at £3500 to a bidder in Thailand.


Above: Royal Doulton RSCPA collecting box – £950 at Cuttlestones.


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