An Excellent Spring Result

22nd March 2017

A very successful Spring Fine Sale was staged by auctioneers Hartleys in Ilkley on March 22^nd when nearly £260,000 was paid in total for a catalogue of 678 lots with just 20% bought in.

Private buyers and dealers attended in force, particularly for the jewellery and picture sections, and purchasers via the live internet were restricted to just 32% of the total of lots bought.

The best prices occurred in the Yorkshire picture section with two oils by Brian Shields (Braaq) performing well above expectations.  A cricket match reached £13,000, and a football match in Liverpool rose to £21,000.  Another more standard Braaq of many figures within an industrial landscape sold for £5,800.

Also painted in Yorkshire were a typical snowbound scene by Peter Brook selling for £3600, while a coastal scene with fishing boats by Henry Moore found £2300.  Elsewhere, an extensive Scottish highland landscape, only attributed to Alexander Nasmyth was obviously regarded as the real thing  as it rose to nearly seven times bottom estimate to sell for £4000.  A stormy haymaking scene by William Kay Blacklock, sold for £1900, a pair of outdoor genre watercolours by Filippo Indoni £1400, and a typical print by L.S. Lowry entitled “Mrs Swindell’s Picture” reached £1200.

The morning session started with ceramics and glass and included an extensive Meissen dinner service of fifty four pieces which found £1100, a Wedgwood Fairyland lustre bowl designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones, selling for £2300, and a series of ten 1950’s Royal Copenhagen figures of children which sold for £1800.  The biggest surprise was a collection of four Georgian opaque twist wine glasses, estimated at £100 - £150 which shot up to £950.

Silver was a little more prosaic, and two contrasting lots were a 1970’s service of forty four items of cutlery including stainless knives selling for £1100, or a gross figure of £15 per ounce, while a Queen Anne Britannia Standard mug dated 1710 reached £1000 or £113 per ounce.  Other prices included a George I footed salver £1950, a pair of George II mugs £1550 and a tortoiseshell and applied silver mounted correspondence box which quadrupled its lower estimate at £1450.

Gold coin lots included a six sovereign gold bracelet at £1700, two Elizabeth II Jersey Silver Wedding coins sets with five gold and six silver coins found £1000 and £980, and two U.S.A. 20 dollar gold pieces each sold for £840.

Amongst the jewellery, a traditional three stone diamond ring of nearly 4 carats in total sold for £6000, while a solitaire diamond ring with brilliant cut cushion stone of 2.5 carats rose to £7,500.  An emerald pendant in diamond set surround reached £1300 whilst a very pretty Victorian pearl and diamond pendant/brooch sold for £1200.

The final section for the morning was devoted to weapons, militaria and field sports, 120 lots accumulated in the last six months.  The collection was led by a double barrelled pinfire pistol by Horsley in excellent condition which reached £2000.  Just behind it was a Volunteers Brown Bess flintlock carbine by Watkin dated c.1770, selling for £1950, an American flintlock Kentucky rifle found £1650 and a late 18^th century flintlock holster pistol sold for £1100.  One unusual part of this section was an extensive collection of bayonets amassed by the late Roger Evans, 87 in all offered in 35 lots which collected a total of £7,440.

Small works of art and clock sections in the afternoon included a bronzed terracotta figure of Oceanus c.1900 on a marble plinth which defied its pre-sale estimate of £150-£250 to reach £1850, a Chinese cloisonné bowl, selling for £1000, a Josef Lorenzl art deco silvered and cold painted bronze dancing figure 5” high £1000, and a lovely Old English brass hook and spike lantern clock c.1700 which rose to £2100.

The first part of the furniture, devoted to the 20^th century was totally dominated by eleven lots of Robert Thompson “Mouseman” adzed oak pieces.  These all went to excellent prices and included a fallfront bureau at £5000, a high backed smoking chair £1200, a set of eight lattice back chairs £2300, two standing corner display cupboards £2100 each, a 54” refectory table £1450, a small open bookcase £1350, and a panelled bedside locker £1950.

Of the remaining furniture it was the Georgian prices which took all the interest and determined bidding.  An exception to this was a most unusual and beautifully carved Georgian style partners desk.  It was made around 1900 and what set it apart was its overall oval shape.  The high price of £1600 seemed reasonable in retrospect.

A Regency painted pine “waterfall” open bookcase reached £1050, and the sale was topped by several excellent Georgian pieces from a Harrogate consignment.  The stars of this were an oyster veneered chest of drawers c.1700 which reached £2500, an inlaid walnut escritoire or bureau a abbatant, again early 18^th century which was knocked down at £3000, and an early Georgian walnut chest on stand which closed the sale at a final price of £5000.

It was almost like the old days!