18 9th June 2012
auction reports England’s private hearts
■ Renowned dealers’ stock presents Chester rooms with a landmark sale
Terence Ryle reports
TWO specialist events at Chester in April and May demonstrated the steadfast nature of early oak sales thanks to the private, well- heeled collectors whose enthusiasm remains as solid as the material itself. The first, on April 19, was one of the
triennial sales with which Bonhams have established their reputation in the field. The second, on May 24, which came to Chester as a result of this reputation, was a noted dealer’s stock and private collection and looks to become a reference point, if not a landmark, in the fortunes of early oak. Although overshadowed, the April sale
was a quiet success with 517 lots getting away for a total of £275,000. Then, with about half the number
of lots, the May sale enjoyed an 87% success rate and a nearly identical total of £274,000. Not every sale of dealers’ stock and
private pieces gets this sort of reception, but the dealers in question were Herbert and Norma Beedham, whose names have been bywords for excellence in the world of early oak for four decades since they set up in Derbyshire and later moved to Hungerford. For most of their working life the
Beedhams dealt almost exclusively with the trade, including the great Mary Bellis, doyenne of early oak, whose Hungerford premises they eventually bought. Along with their son, Paul, they
built up an international reputation among collectors and museum curators. Following their retirement, the business passed to Paul. Sadly, it was Paul’s personal tragedy which prompted the May sale, his wife having died 17 months ago leaving him to raise their two young children on his own. To do so, he has moved back to Derbyshire where, with a warehouse and a website, he plans to restructure the business. The Bonhams sale was the beginning of the process. “It went well above expectations,” he
said. “Some of our old clients were there and I told them they could have bought pieces more cheaply from our shop.” Given such a background it was no
surprise to see a fat 280-page catalogue which will be a useful addition to
Above: oak cupboard loves of collectors at Bonhams Chester. Left: c.1570-90 oak cupboard – £21,000. Right: c.1600-10 cupboard on stand – £25,000.
collectors’ research sources for years. Bonhams’ experts David Houlston
and Megan Wheeler had the advantage of the Beedhams’ labels but, said Paul, took them much further. Their research resulted in detailed footnotes, often 300 to 400 words long – and not just on the half-dozen five-figure lots– complete with provenances, previous prices, general histories and reference to authorities such as Chinnery, Cescinsky & Gribble, McQuoid and Jellinek. The notes on the chairs, which
featured so often among the best sellers, amounted to a brief history of early English seating furniture from a c.1520- 40 6ft 9½in (2.08m) wide oak boarded bench, which took £4500, to a c.1660-80 ash panel-back armchair. Illustrated opposite, this latter chair,
which was made in the Burnley area, was profusely carved to the back, which had a narrow panel over a larger one. At 23in wide and 4ft 7in tall (59cm x 1.40m), it was much larger than the usual Yorkshire panel backs and, against a £4000-6000 estimate, it sold at £10,000. Like virtually everything in the sale, it
was bought by a British collector. “There was some trade interest at
the views, but estimates were pitched at private buyers and they were the buyers,” said Mr Houlston. “There was also a
lot of interest from Americans but they tended to finish as underbidders to British buyers.” Best of a number of Elizabethan chairs
was a c.1570-80 armchair with a plain panelled back and a delicately gouge- carved top. Also illustrated here, the 3ft 7in (1.10m) high chair was described as “demonstrating a high degree of sophisticated, refined Elizabethan design, of apparent simplicity”, and it took £17,000 against an £8000-12,000 estimate. One of the more unusual chairs was
an child’s oak high chair made in South Yorkshire, c.1670-80. Of A-frame form, it had a marquetry-inlaid back panel with scrolling flora and birds and chevron inlay to the rails. The catalogue noted that such chairs did not have restraint bars across the arms, but were placed against the table edge to retain the child. Health and safety considerations apart, it was a fine piece of craftsmanship and it almost trebled top expectations, selling at £11,000. At more affordable levels were a
dozen lots of 17th century backstools, extensively discussed in the catalogue, concerning their Yorkshire and Derbyshire origins. The catalogue noted that Yorkshire backstools, appearing around 1650,
were the first to have carved splats or rails between the rear uprights rather than a solid panel backs. They were directly copied from Spanish and Italian designs rather than having evolved from English chairs, but from the seat down “embodied the design of a classic English chair”. More interesting than expensive, the
back stools sold at around the £500-700 mark, with one of the best prices taken for a c.1670 example with twin arched rails centred by a stylised carved tulip (this was at the height of tulip-mania). Estimated at £300-400, the chair, which had been in John Paul Getty’s Surrey home Sutton Place, sold at £950. Scotland’s contribution to the seating
furniture featured in the April sale at Chester – a c.1660-80 pine panel back open armchair which owed much to the French caqueteuse, with a tall narrow back carved with two chip-carved panels and conforming rails. It sold comfortably above estimate at £6500. Early cupboards were a major
feature of the sale and, as with early oak generally, they are not the easiest of items to display to advantage in the saleroom. However, Paul Beedham, speaking
as a winner of the BADA Best Stand at Olympia medal in 2007, was full of praise for the Chester operation. “It looked like a really good show stand only much bigger,” he said.
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