Yorkshire produce proving fruitful

11th June 2025

After such a long warm spring the housing market woke up from its winter hibernation and the chattels from properties visited over the last quarter rumbled their way in through our saleroom doors, and although the summer started with weeks of rain, the clouds broke once more for our June Fine Sale and its garden and architectural section. A section brimming with carved stone and artisan iron work, as warm fresh air coursed through the saleroom with open doors to allow the viewing public and hopeful purchasers to flow from art and interiors into our garden setting.

There was a high sold rate through the section with buyers keen to adorn their gardens with new furniture, sculptures and planters. The best of the lots was seen with a classical Coalbrookdale bench and a pair of cast iron urns with wonderfully scrolled handles that both reached £460, three well cut matching troughs made a collective £630 and a pair of finely cast large urns that made £750. But the best piece within the 80 garden lots was seen with lot 612, a cast metal garden fountain topped by mermaids that made a strong hammer price of £1,500.

Within the auction we had a wonderful array of modern and antique silver on offer, with 96% of the 70 lots finding a new home, many of them sneaking up to and past their upper estimates. Within the lots on offer we saw a four-piece silver tea and coffee service by Fattorini & Sons make £1,000, a large Victorian silver table service with shell pattern handles make £1,900 and another service by Gorham Greenbrier from 1938 make £2,400. But the most interesting result from the section came frame an Elizabeth II silver cake stand by Ollivant & Botsford Ltd, quite a rare item to see in silver, that sold well above estimate at £1,450.

The continued strength of bullion prices drove hard into our gold and jewellery sections with our large selection of sovereigns flying off the shelf.  Prior to Covid a sovereign was typically worth between £250 and £350, but the best of the sovereigns in our June sale landed at an impressive £580. Within the gold section we saw eleven lots do over a thousand pounds, with £1,900 gained for a 9ct gold cigarette case, £2,150 for an 18ct albert chain and £2,500 for a beautiful quality Quadri mesh choker.  Within the watch section, contrary to fashion, pocket watches made the biggest waves with £1,100 for an Omega pocket watch, £1,650 for a late Victorian example by Benson and £1,700 for an 18ct gold pocket watch by Edwin Flinn. Though a Cartier ladies’ wristwatch is also worthy of a mention as it sold for £1,100, comfortably above the £600 – 800 estimate. The purist jewellery also did nicely, with an emerald and diamond cluster ring and a sapphire and diamond cluster ring each making £950, a diamond crescent brooch at £1,000 and a six stone diamond ring at £1,200.

Of the works of art section, we had a real myriad of lots, from items of high design to crooked antiquities, and from rare gems to albums of stamps.  Starting with the latter, we had a small but high-quality section of British and Chinese stamps in the auction, the best two lots made £900 with a GB collection including five Penny Blacks and £1,300 for a second album with only two Penny Blacks, but a huge array of early and rare stamps to boost excitement amongst philatelists.  Other stand out items amongst the section were seen with a Hermes Constance handbag from 1972 that made £1,000, a mid-19^th century cocuswood conical flute by Rudall & Rose that made £1,100, a collection of eight books beautifully bound by Catherine Hill (wife of artist Ernest Hill) made £1,650 and a stunningly carved pair of wood blackamoor candelabra made £1,700.

Onto the picture sections we started with the prints, and a very interesting print section it was! Of the 9 four figure sums we saw throughout the pictures, almost half were from the prints – typically a section (these days) not as valued by the market.  Of the prints we saw £1,100 each for two separate woodcuts by Monica Poole, both black and white but full of intrigue, £1,200 was gained for an unframed Mail Steamship Poster by Macdonald Gill and “The Fever Van” by Laurence Stephen Lowry sold brilliantly for £4,000. One cubist oil by renowned Welsh artist John Elwyn made £1,000, but all of the other results of note came from our home team of Yorkshire artists, with two Wharfedale views by Ilkley born Herbert Royle making £1,150 and £1,200 respectively, then £2,800 coming from a small snow scene by Brian Shields “Braaq” and finally a whopping £7,200 was gained for a larger grander piece by the same artist, with a snow laden street scene lightened by the orange glow from the windows of the a nearby tavern.

The day finished with our furniture section headed as ever with a large helping of 1960s and 70s retro furniture. This proved popular throughout the lots and saw £800 for an Axel Christensen teak sideboard and £850 for a Karuselli swivel armchair by Haimi. Of the more classical furniture a smart set of ten elm and ash Windsor chairs made £1,450 and an Art Deco dining suite with “cloud” style chairs made £1,500. But much like the picture section, the real drama came from local produce with a large collection of Robert Thomson and his “mouse man” furniture, seeing four figure sums including £1,350 for a blanket box, £1,450 and £1,550 for two almost identical bookcases, £2,900 for a pedestal desk and £4,400 for a smartly panelled and adzed wardrobe.

The sale ended with great gusto as another quarter here at Hartleys came to a close. The mid-summer months lay ahead as we start collecting for our September Fine Sale, where we will be hosting the second of our arms and militaria sections, as well as our once yearly antiquarian and specialist book section.  Pre-sale valuation is free, so dig through your attics and do not hesitate to be in touch.