8


21st January 2012


london selection Hubbard nearly leaves the


■ Glass collection enjoys 85 per cent selling rate despite fears of oversupply


Anne Crane reports


NOVEMBER or December are traditionally the months when Bonhams (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) offer one of their bi-annual opportunities to sample the current market for antique glass, courtesy of their specialist sales.


Often the auctioneers augment their


mixed-owner offerings with a single- owner instalment and this was the case on November 30, 2011. A 268-lot auction that was heavily slanted towards paperweights was preceded by a very similar-sized, single-owner sale of English and Dutch drinking glasses collected by A C Hubbard. It added up to over 500 lots to tempt glass enthusiasts to their Bond Street saleroom. The Hubbard sale got away a very


healthy 85 per cent of the material by volume. The mixed-owner auction immediately afterwards proved harder to shift or, more accurately, one sizeable American paperweight collection did, holding the selling rate down to 53 per cent. Of course, there is always an


attraction to a named provenanced collection, whether it was formed decades ago, or, like the Hubbard ensemble, relatively recently. American A C Hubbard Jr, a retired international investments manager from Baltimore, first started collecting drinking glasses in the late 1980s after a trip to the collections at Mompesson House in Salisbury alerted him to their attractions. Already an enthusiastic wine collector, wine-related antiques complemented that interest. With leading dealers as advisers


and agents (notably Ward Lloyd, who subsequently published Hubbard’s collection), he built up an impressive assemblage through auctions and the trade. It was particularly strong in the fields of Beilby, colour twist and Dutch engraved glasses as well as featuring examples from the other specialist classes that interest glass enthusiasts: early balusters, wines with special shapes or engraving and Jacobite decoration. Mr Hubbard continues to collect early


Left: the highlight of the Beilby glasses in the A C Hubbard collection offered by Bonhams on November 30 was this exceptionally large and rare,12in (30cm) high Royal Armorial goblet of c.1766 decorated with the arms of Prince William V of Orange. It sold after the auction for £90,000.


wine bottles. These are all well-trodden fields and,


in the case of the Beilbys and colour twists, ones where prices were driven up dramatically at the turn of the 21st century thanks in no small part to interest from collectors like Mr Hubbard and Chris Crabtree. When collectors turn vendors


things can change. The dispersal of the Hubbard Beilbys and colour twists comes hot on the heels of those sold by Bonhams from the Crabtree collection from 2009-11. So, two big players out of the running


and substantial quantities back on the market over a relatively short space of time. Would there be enough buyers left to absorb it all? Fortunately these are still areas with a


body of collectors, mainly in the UK but also the US and countries like Australia. However, prices are not necessarily as high as a decade or so ago, especially for the colour twists, partly for the reasons outlined above. And while demand is still there for Beilbys, many established collectors are well supplied with material and are only looking to fill gaps with sought-after rarities. These market factors have to be


taken into account alongside more standard considerations like rarity or condition when it comes to dispersing a collection. But there was also another consideration. As the Hubbard glasses


Above: one of the most sought-after glasses in the Hubbard Collection sold by Bonhams on November 30 was this very rare and small 4in (10cm) engraved baluster inscribed round the rim God Save the Queen. It fetched £20,000.


Above right: a Beilby colour twist privateer glass dated 1767 from the Hubbard Collection, sold for £24,000 at Bonhams.


Right: the most expensive of the Dutch engraved glasses in the Hubbard Collection sale at £17,000 was this 6in (15.5cm) high example of c.1780-90 stipple engraved by David Wolff.


“The dispersal of the Hubbard Beilbys and colour twists comes hot on the heels of those sold by Bonhams from the Crabtree collection from 2009-11”


had been imported from America for sale, all the lots attracted an additional five per cent premium on the hammer price, something that customers would be bound to factor in when bidding. Given all this, estimate setting


was key. One can compare estimates for some of Hubbard’s glasses with


prices made at their previous auction appearance. For example, a Beilby opaque twist wine enamelled in white with a typical Beilby scene of rustic buildings in an Italianate landscape, which had sold for £6200 at Sotheby’s in 1993, was offered here with a £4000- 6000 guide, while a colour twist firing glass sold for £2500 in Sotheby’s 1998 auction of the Royal Brierley Collection appeared here with a £2000-3000 guide. They sold this time, incidentally, for £6500 and £1800. The 85 per cent take-up rate suggests that Bonhams had mostly pitched the


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