News

Tennants Auctioneers saw the sale of a toy which broke all their toy sale records on Friday, 25th May 2007.  Making £14,000 at the auction was lot 526, an American Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Toy Set No. 20/84 entitled ‘Teddy Roosevelt on Safari’.  The toy was made of painted wooden elasticated figures and comprised Teddy Roosevelt, two other eastern figures, two natives and seen wild animals plus accessories.  Sold in its original wooden box, the set dated from 1910 and was made by Albert Schoenhut, the Philadelphia toymaker.

With two under-bidders on the telephones from the USA, this toy set was keenly contested and eventually sold to an English toy dealer who plans to return it to the USA.

A very rare find indeed – a first edition of Arthur Ransome’s children’s book ‘Swallows and Amazons’ is to come onto the open market in July at Tennants Auctioneers Summer Book Sale on Wednesday, 25th July 2007 and is expected to sell for several thousands of pounds. In excellent condition, with its original dust jacket well preserved, this rare copy is being sold by a private vendor from Yorkshire.

Another copy of this book (with a stained dust jacket) was sold several years ago by a London Auction House for £5,000.

In Tennants Summer Stamp Sale on Wednesday, 13th June there will be a superb used specialized Great Britain Stamp Collection of Queen Victoria engraved issues covering 1840.  To include 1d blacks, 2d blues and 1d reds, with all the plate numbers and a range of varieties and flaws.  The collection comes from a private collector in Leeds and has some postal history, embossed issues and surface printed issues.  Lot 184, this is a highly specialized collection that rarely comes onto the market and is estimated to sell for £6,000-£8,000.

….well at least at Tennants Auction Centre, where as part of a Rock‘n’Roll musical-themed sale on Saturday 12th May, Tennants offered a large collection of guitars and jukeboxes.

In the Guitar Section, the star of the show was a rare National Tri-cone steel guitar from 1928.  These unusual looking guitars were introduced in the 1920’s before the introduction of electric guitars in order to increase the volume of the instrument.  Originally used by Hawaiian players, Tri-cones made of “German silver” an alloy of copper and nickel, used three spun aluminium cones to amplify the resonance of the strings.  Later from the 1930’s onwards these unusual guitars were adopted by blues players such as Son House, Bukka White and Blind Boy Fuller and are still highly sought after by blues players of today.  This example was in remarkable condition and sold for £4,800.

Tennants Auctioneers Spring ‘House Treasures’ Sale on 29-30 March was their biggest ever with 1,874 lots making a record £2.3 million.  They also broke a world record for the sale of a painting by Sean Keating P.R.H.A. which sold for £400,000, three times the former highest auction price achieved by this artist.

Dust off those blue suede shoes, rock‘n’roll is back! – well at least at Tennants Auction Centre on Saturday 12th May, where as part of a Rock‘n’Roll musical-themed sale Tennants will be offering a collection of both interesting and collectable guitars and jukeboxes.

Hundreds of vintage telephones were sold at Tennants on Saturday, 3rd March 2007 in their Spring Collectors Sale.  With a wide selection from many different eras, buyers were spoilt for choice by the elegant designs from the 1920’s, Art Deco inspired phones from the 1930’s through to Trim Phones from the 1980’s.  The rarest item in the collection was lot 392, an Ericsson Skeleton Telephone from the early 1900’s which sold for £500 (estimate £300-£500).  Lot 393 comprised of three novelty telephones including two Mickey Mouse phones and one Snoopy phone which sold for £150 (estimate £100-£150). Some of the many G.P.O. phones from the 1950’s proved popular with bidders and lot 411, a Red Bakelite telephone realized £300 (estimate £120-£180). The collection came from a private collector in Cumbria who had been collecting telephones for many years and was sold in 50 lots.

Tennants will be selling the residual contents of three important estates from Yorkshire, namely Ravenswick Hall, Kirkbymoorside, the Thornton Collection from York and the selected residual contents of Cayton Hall, South Stainley, near Harrogate.

The wonderful thing about the Decorative Arts Sale at Tennants is that it appeals to all generations – from children, who love the Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson beds with a little carved mouse to be found on every one, their parents who appreciate the simplicity and clean design of the studio pottery of Lucie Rie and Bernard Leach, and the older generations who were attracted to the Linthorpe Art Pottery.  This was evident on Saturday when Tennants saleroom was packed to the doors with interested bidders for their first Decorative Arts & Modern Design sale of the year.

Tennants’ Decorative Arts & Modern Design Sale on 27th January 2007 brings an exceptional collection of Studio and Art Pottery to the market, some for the first time since it was purchased as new. As such, this is an opportunity not to be missed by collectors, investors and interior design aficionados alike.