Dear Friends,
Where to start? So much to tell you. Once again we bring you an 800+ lot sale with something for everybody. This sale is on the 31st October, an auspicious day. We share it with Brexit – or do we!
What we certainly share it with is the Asian Art week in London and our contribution is a fat lady! We are thrilled to have been asked to offer an important exceptionally large Tang Dynasty sancai glazed pottery figure of a Court Fat Lady holding a dog, 87.5 cm high. It comes with provenance and a TL test report dated July 2019. The estimate is £80,000 to £100,000. Let’s hope she sings!
We have other Chinese entries including a late Ming Wanli mark and period blue and white bowl.
Our PICTURE section is larger than usual and will possibly extend to 130 lots. Perhaps the most important aspect is a vast quantity of original drawings by the late BARBARA FIRTH, the illustrator of ‘Can’t You Sleep Little Bear’. It has such charm and is now ready to mount and market. We are clearing the Harrow home of her late sister and this is where it was stored. The picture section also includes some very large modern canvases, great for large empty walls and modern interiors. Lotting is already well on and I can mention a selection of artists to include James Tann, Jonathan Lane, Sir William Nicholson, Francisco de Goya, Dennis Higgins, Nicholas Berchen, Gaetano Gandolf, Sir Frank Brangwyn, Gustave Clarence Rodolphie Boulanger, Johannes Koekkoek, Natasha Lane, Johannes Advianus Van der Drift, Archibald Thorburn, Julia Bembarton, Billie Waters, John Riley, Henry B Wimbush, Octavious T Clark, A. Virbicky, H. Fabre, Dagmar-Rucker, E. Corbier. As the week of cataloguing goes on we will have a more up-to- date list on the on-line blog on our website.
JEWELLERY includes a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust ‘Superlative Chronometer’ in a steel and gold case and bracelet, with baton markers, sweeping second hand and date in its original green leather box with extra links and papers, currently working.
SILVER AND PLATE is currently being catalogued. Nothing exciting to mention at the moment but who knows what we might find.
COLLECTOR lots includes a great autograph album with over 60 entries, mainly from the theatre, including a rare 1946 signature of Leonard Bernstein when he was conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and before he became famous. The Leicester Mercury reported that he conducts without a baton using both hands, both feet and a vertebral undulation. Other entries include Sybil Thorndike, Peter Brough, the original Just William cast, Vic Oliver, Margaret Lockwood, Arthur Askey, the 1947 Middlesex cricket team including Dennis Compton. GOOD STAMPS, postcards and cigarette cards. Early tinplate advertising shelf signs for Cadbury and Fry’s chocolate and two Pepsi Cola signs, as new, delivered to our client’s Irish pub in the 1950s. CIGARS, a few by Montecristo and Belinda Habanas. Old deactivated shotguns. A fabulous Art Deco table radio, the case in blue glass with chrome ‘stripes’ . It has no name but Made in England on one of the components. A GIBSON LES PAUL electric guitar in black with carry case, violins and other instruments. We also have TOYS, RECORDS and BOOKS.
COSTUME includes vintage clothing, furs, handbags and several pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes, a pre 1950s Metropolitan Police dress uniform with swallowtail back.
The shelves are laden and include CLOCKS including a large Victorian ebony and gilt metal table clock playing on bells and gongs, 28 ins., large slate clocks, Vienna regulator wall clocks, a boulle mantel clock. Old BOXES including a fantastic Swiss box carved with a spectacular flower. Two Greek ICONS. Good CAMERAS including Nikons and a Canon ERS RT with two lenses, one 75-300, the other 35-70. 18th century Dutch chocolate moulds carved with figures, a Mouseman gavel. PORCELAIN, POTTERY AND GLASS including a Royal Albert Old Country Roses tea set, a large Herend ice pail and studio pottery including a group of Aldermaston pottery. Old decanters, enamelled wares, Fishing equipment. A 1906 edition of Omar Khayyam with photogravures by Gilbert James.
FURNITURE is a great section this sale. It includes a 7ft long boulle breakfront sideboard with bold gilt metal embellishments, a great quality Aesthetic Movement walnut and exotic wood glazed cabinet and a large Art Nouveau display cabinet with mother of pearl inlay. Reproduction furniture is to a high standard and includes a group of furniture from The Hickory Chair Company of America including a mahogany dining suite and a pair of block-fronted chests. A reproduction Regency style circular centre table, the top inlaid with specimen woods above drawers on scrolling ironwork support and metal paw feet. Good French inlaid furniture including a pair of tables and a three-drawer commode with thick marble top. We have a three-seater and a two-seater settee with matching armchair in corn coloured fabric by Collins a & Hayes, and a settee and chairs by Pearson of USA. A yew dining suite, a Regency settee and three matching Empire style chairs with heavy brass mounts that Christies wanted. We have a three-piece bergere suite with a carved frame and another large dining table with a separate and matching fold-over table that can be used to extend it.
Good RUGS and many of them.
GENERAL EFFECTS includes a group of large and unused terracotta pots, two mobility scooters, a stainless steel free-standing cooker, good white goods, great mirrors one with a blue glass frame, a wet suit, a big choice of televisions and A TOYOTA MOTOR CAR with only 17000 miles on the clock.
It’s all to be sold on THURSDAY THE 31ST OCTOBER STARTING AT 11AM WITH VIEWING ON THE 30TH FROM 1-7PM AND SALEDAY FROM 9.30AM.
All lots are photographed and can be found on our website from Sunday evening or with UKAuctioneers who handle our online bidding.
And finally, if I may be permitted to indulge myself, my brother wrote his own homily which was read at his recent funeral. You may like to share it. He wrote:
There was nothing remarkable about my life.
No special achievements.
You are therefore spared a eulogy.
I had but one ambition.
To be school cricket captain.
That I achieved when I was 18.
Beyond that,
more than that,
more than anything else that mattered,
I married the girl,
with whom I fell in love when I was 16.
Together we built things.
These were personal.
I see no reason why this should change now.
So you see, I lived a happily contented life.
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