It’s nearly Christmas and we have planned a sale that will solve all your gift needs. It’s timed for the 7th December, which gives you plenty of time, viewing is Wednesday 6th December 1-7pm. Charlie Ross will be with us on sale day, wearing a party hat. Talking of Charlie, he and his posh mates are doing a Christmas song for Children in Need, linked here:
This sale has two special sections. One is an important archive from Sir Norman Hartnell. You may remember we had a couple of nice lots of his a while back when we sold a watercolour design for the wedding dress of Princess Margaret for £850. It was not signed. Well we can do better this time. We have a presentation panel from the Coronation dress. How fantastic is that. It’s a spectacular piece of embroidery showing floral emblems from countries of The Commonwealth. It’s framed and glazed with the colours as bright as ever. Such a wonderful piece of history. There are designs in watercolour signed by the master, an embroidered panel of wisteria signed by him and we even have his Royal Appointments book with various entries. It’s from Smythsons of course. Signed letters from the Queen, fabric and beadwork samples and other correspondence, books with dedications and wonderful things like a floral headpiece, possibly for a bridesmaid from the Royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth. The section begins with a portrait of his secretary and PA, Mrs Edith Anne Price, known to Norman Hartnell as Annie or Mrs Priceless. She’s very beautiful, captured well by the artist Vasco Lazzolo .The remainder of the COSTUME section is small but includes a Christian Dior ‘Diorling’ label little black dress and three similar dresses in blue, ivory and brown, a Dior pink check coat, a Saint Laurent ‘Rive Gauche’ trouser suit and other vintage fashion including some good 1920s pieces. We also have more modern items including Mulberry satchel briefcases and designer shoes. From a retired dressmaker we have five professional dressmaker’s dummies by Kennett Lindsell and we also have a good collection of fashion sketch prints from couture shows in the 1970s.
This sale has a licence for alcohol. A lady from Slough asked me if I could collect a 100 bottles of wine. She rang later to say it’s nearer 200 bottles. When they arrived there were nearly 800 bottles with very little wine. Mostly it’s WHISKY and other spirits. A phenomenal display with loads of single malts ranging from 18 year old MacAllan through Glenmorangie, Cardhu, Dalwhinnie, Balvenie, Glenlivet, Glen Marnoch to good blended whisky including Irish and American , a 1936 bottle of White Horse Cellar whisky, a bottle of 1934 Comte De Ferragut Armagnac and some very weird liqueurs, vodka and rum. Over 150 lots from that client with good port, some still in original hay wrapping, and wines from a retired restauranteur including dessert wines. (It’s all photographed on our website from this Sunday and you can bid online via UKAuctioneers.com)
The JEWELLERY has over 65 lots. There’s some very pretty stuff but the prize goes to a French Art Nouveau gold circular brooch with the head of a lady with flowing hair wearing a necklace of rose diamonds and set en habille with rose diamonds. It’s stamped with the initials of Comte D’Epinay De Briot. We have a Second World War military wristwatch, marked on the dial Record Watch Co., Genf, and marked Stahlboden D432074H on the reverse.
SILVER AND PLATE has an entry of Hungarian silver. Where silver does feature is in a collection of coins. I tell the truth when I say that 2 men were needed to lift the collection of silver coins that came from one source. The majority is modern ‘Special Editions’ but it does include a great deal of traditional coins including a Krugerand and sovereigns. The COLLECTORS section includes good stamp albums, one spectacularly presented. And good postcards. We also have model vehicles, including a collection of die-cast London buses, toys, guns and swords. Two real glass petrol pump signs, one for Cleveland Discol, sadly cracked, the other Fina. One lady’s collection of New Hall, 60 pieces of Herend and a lovely Zsolnay lustre figure of a girl and geese. We have two extensive collections of Old Country Roses dinner ware.
FURNITURE includes a large number of settees, mostly in leather but we have one spectacular French three-piece. It’s very traditional and very comfortable. Need a display cabinet styled as a Chinese pagoda? We have one. Need a table for Christmas? We can help. We have a Danish 1960s extending table in rosewood and are currently waiting for a CITES certificate to sell with it. It comes with 8 chairs. Another suite is inlaid Italian and very smart. It comes with matching display cabinet. And yet another is from the 1960s in teak and extends for ever. It comes with chairs.
For Christmas you need entertainment. What better than singing round the piano and we have 6 to choose from. For those with space we have a concert grand by Steinway, the Rolls Royce of pianos, it’s 9ft long. Need one smaller then you can choose a Bechstein or a Bluthner grand, the Bentleys of pianos. OK, so you have a bedsit. Well try our Kemble upright. It’s nearly new. And after the party a good sleep is assured on a pair of single beds by Hypnos.
I’ve only covered 20% of the sale, so please check out our illustrated catalogue that will be up on our website from this Sunday evening.
Last thought…….how are you getting to the party? We have a low mileage one owner Mercedes saloon. It’s very tidy, circa 2002 with a personal number and an estimate of £1000 to £1500. Job done.
If we miss you, happy Christmas and put down the 8th February for our first sale of next year, the rest of the dates for 2018 have now been added to the News section on our website, and if you missed the Celebrity Antiques Road Trip at Bainbridges check it out here:
