A Very Welcome Start to Autumn

6th September 2023

As we creep into autumn at Hartleys Auctions, we find ourselves with the penultimate fine sale of the year. On September 6^th we held our quarterly Antiques & Interiors auction, and it was a big one, with almost 900 lots of high-quality art, ceramics, furniture, silver, clocks and books, as well as a specialist section of arms & militaria.

The sale started with our ceramics section and of course this held a Chinese surprise, as is so often the case these days. Lot 6 was a famille verte porcelain vase of typical form, sporting some old cracks and some wonderful staples holding it together. Even sporting this damage, the vase on its typical carved stand rushed past our estimate and settled with a hammer price of £3,000. Another highlight within the classical ceramics was seen in a service made a little closer to home, when lot 18 a Sevres dessert service, beautifully hand painted with couples amid landscapes after Watteau, made £2,000.

Within the sale we had gold and silver on offer, with world bullion prices still at a peak since the start of Covid and conflict in Ukraine. The highest price from the silver was lot 114, a stunning four-piece silver tea and coffee service made by Hands & Son of London in 1863, that reached a hammer total of £1,500. But my favourite lot within the silver was a Chinese Goblet, lot 129, made by Wang Hing in 1897 with a strong bamboo design, knocking the weight value for six by settling at £540, around five times the “melt price”. Within the gold, represented almost exclusively by coinage, we saw equally strong results, with lot 140 a George IV double Sovereign making £1,000, lot 142 an 1892 Krugerrand in a 9ct loose mount making £1,300, as well as the second highest price of the sale with lot 149 a George VI specimen four-coin gold set comprising a £5 coin, £2 coin, a sovereign and half sovereign that snuck past the top estimate to make a cracking £10,500.

Our watches and jewellery section sold very well this September, with 12 four-figure results as well as a five-figure result and the best price of the sale. The best prices within the watches came from lot 153 a late Victorian Russell Ltd. 18ct gold minute repeater Hunter pocket watch that made £2,200 and lot 167 a very stylish and ever popular Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date Yacht Master Chronometer that sat comfortably at the mid-estimate at £5,600. The best three prices from the jewellery came from lot 176 a classic solitaire diamond ring of 1.5cts gaining £2,400, lot 254 a stylish Italian necklace and bracelet suite by Kria Gioelli that fetched £5,400 and the best price of the sale with lot 259 a large 5.19ct cushion cut diamond solitaire ring that made £18,000.

Once a year we gather together and offer an assortment of specialist books and antiquarian maps, with everything from Roald Dahl to John Speed. The section sold very well with very few unsold lots and the following exciting highlights, with lot 308 “High Street” by Eric Ravilious that did three times the lower estimate with a result of £1,650, a wonderful Christopher Saxton hand coloured map of “EBORACENSIS” that made £1,500 and lot 292 a copy of “Peter Pan” sporting a wonderful personal inscription by the author J.M.Barrie “To Sid” that sold for £2,100.

Following the maps, we had a short but astute stamp section, brimming with Victorian examples and a healthy number of Penny Blacks. Although highlight prices were perhaps comparatively meagre compared to some other sections, every single lot sold and when you consider individual tiny squares of paper, without the element of artistry or precious metal, are selling for real folding money, it is an amazing thing. The best Penny Black made £210, a Two Penny Blue made £300 and lot 367 a superb collection of Australian stamps from the 1913 through to the 1940s made £850.

Our Works of Art section covered an amazing array of items that again saw some very interesting results. Lot 386 a fretwork carved Lachenal & Co. concertina left us singing when the estimate of £200 – 300 was left behind with a result of £1,050, lot 414 a pair of Chinese carved and pierced gilt wood panels made £1,200, and lot 375 a Chinese jade panel pendant made £2,100. But in my mind the most interesting item within the section was lot 387, an order of service from the funeral of Titanic band leader Wallace H. Hartley (no relation!), famed for leading his small band in playing as the ship sank into the icy ocean, in the hope of keeping the remaining passengers calm and the boarding of the lifeboats as safe as possible. Accounts from survivors suggest they could hear music until the very last moments. The order of service came with a dried flower and pencil inscription reading "Flowers from his coffin, His Aunt, Mrs Shackleton gave them to me" – a truly amazing piece of history that sold for £1,100.

A popular miniature section of camera equipment proved highly competitive with lot 433 a Leica M3 that made £1,200 and lot 434 a rare and highly collectable Leitz Canada Summilux lens that made a whopping £4,000.

Twice a year we offer a collection of arms & militaria items, and this September was no exception with 150 lots including armour, firearms and more swords than you can shake a stick at. Of the 150 lots only 3 were left unsold, a crisp 98% hit rate that any auctioneer would be proud of. There are always stories to be told within an evocative section such as this, bringing forward tangible representations of man’s survival in the wilds as well as against each other. The first lot had captured my attention from the moment it came into our care, lot 451 a Williams & Powell 14bore percussion shotgun. Very typical sounding, but engraved with a tiger hunting across its action proving itself to be an artifact of British colonial safari style hunting in its early stages. The market agreed with my interest as it rocketed up to £1,300 for a shotgun that without the tiger might have only made £200. Other excitement in the section was seen with lot 491, a very well weathered British naval canon that doubled the top estimate at £1,000, lot 558 a Scottish broadsword by Ferara c.1700 that made £1,050, lot 530 a wonderfully huge percussion punt gun by Palmer of Rochester that made £1,100 and lot 485 an antique gauntlet fished out of one of our weekly sales, thought to be 16^th century German, that made £1,600. 

The painting lots were as popular as ever, with offerings in oil winning the day. Local artists Herbert Royle and William Mellor did us proud, with £1,800 for lot 718 a Lakeland scene by Mellor and the same for lot 702 a snow filled view of Askham Village by Royle. But the best price amongst the pictures came with lot 670, a beautifully atmospheric snow scene at dusk attributed to Louis Apol that over tripled the top estimate to make £3,400 with competition from both the phones and internet.

The penultimate section of the sale chimed in with the clocks, which although was a relatively small offering, sold exceedingly well with four results exceeding expectation. Lot 777, a Black Forest cuckoo clock sold brilliantly at £1,100, lot 780 a smartly cased walnut longcase with exceptional month going movement made £2,200, lot 784 a very smart little mantle clock by Grant of London fetched £2,000 and lot 785 an unusual walnut cased barometer by Thomas Wright of Fleet Street did fourteen and a half times the bottom estimate to reach £2,900.

We finished the day with our furniture lots, ranging from European mid-century modern pieces through to the old English. Lot 858 which consisted of a suite of giltwood and marble topped tables fitted for a circular room, were certainly a niche lot, but still managed to make £1,250, lot 839 a handsome serpentine fronted Georgian mahogany chest made £1,400 and lot 833 a William IV specimen marble table made £1,850. But the best of the furniture, as ever, was seen from Robert “Mouseman” Thompson when an arts & crafts sideboard, classic of his work, made £3,400.

All in all, the sale was a fantastic success with an overall total of £263,500 for the day. We are already rapidly collecting lots for our Christmas sale at the end of November and will be accepting items until October 23rd. Presale valuation is free, so do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our fantastic valuation team.