Tennants Auctioneers achieved their highest sale total ever – taking over £2 ¼ million pounds (£2.59 million including commission) for their three day art and antiques auction 19-21 November 2009.
An array of over 1,800 privately sourced lots proved particularly tempting for those with spare savings, looking for something tangible and beautiful to own, rather than sitting on a low interest earning bank account.
Lot 39
An earth found treasure in the form of a 350 year old wine bottle dug up in Booksellers Row, Strand, in May 1894 (lot 39), with a characterful “degraded” and iridescent surface was something of a holy grail for bottle collectors – it was no throw away at £4,200.
Lot 214
One private vendor was jubilant after their pair of Chinese carved ivory wrist rests (which a scholar would use to avoid smudging wet calligraphy) dating to circa 1850-80 (lot 214) which had failed to sell in the firm’s last auction sold at twice the price this time for £17,500, after a bidding struggle between eight telephone lines to China.
Lot 323
In the strong watches section a Luftwaffe pilot’s watch of circa 1940 (lot 323) that may well have seen action in the Battle of Britain, was itself party to a saleroom “dog-fight” as bidding soared to £2,500.
Lot 676
There was massive private and trade interest in the extensive collection of jewellery on offer. Arrows have long been associated with Cupid, the god of love, so a diamond set arrowhead shape jabot pin (lot 556) by top French jewellers Cartier was bound to attract numerous “suitors”. In its original pink Cartier case, the piece hit the mark at £10,500. The highest jewellery price was reserved for a 1.95 carat solitaire ring (lot 674) which crucially had a British Gemmological Institute certificate stating the stone as colour D, with clarity VVS1. This allowed bidding in confidence and took it to £15,000. A charming pair of ladybird motif cufflinks (lot 676) by another top French name Boucheron fired off many bids and “ ladybird ladybird flew away to a new home” at £8,000.
Lot 1140
In the taxidermy and natural history section a colossal £427,000 was realised for just 18 of the 120 lots. Those 18 lots were all pre-1947 rhinoceros horns, the unfortunate but valuable trophies of a bygone colonial age. Hong Kong Chinese, South Koreans and Taiwanese are the main buyers, as their cultures attribute curative medicinal powers to rhino horns. Top lot was a White Rhinoceros horn circa 1920 (lot 1140) which took £40,000. A superbly observed full mount Cheetah, Kenya 1934, by Rowland Ward (lot 1148) with provenance to the Laurence Cadbury Collection of Birmingham reached £7,000.
Lot 969
A sensitive pencil drawing by Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones Bt, A.R.A. (1833-1898) of a beautiful young girl (lot 751) shattered its estimate of £10000 - £15000 to sell for £36000. Sandhall – a country house near Goole provided the day’s highest price, for a delightful and sunny oil painting of a Venetian canal (lot 970) by Belgian artist Frans Vervloet (1795–1872). Although slightly smaller than another Sandhall painting of “Prise De La Salute” (lot 969) by the same artist, it took £47000, against the £32000 paid for the larger work.
Lot 1193
In the Works of Art section a bronze life size nude study of Josephine Harpley reading a book in a hammock (lot 1193) by her husband sculptor Sydney Harpley (1927-1992), from the Harrogate estate of the late Sarah and Ian Douglass, sold to a London telephone bidder for £21,000
Lot 1284
The clocks section held a few surprises, not least for a novelty aluminium mantel timepiece (lot 1284) modelled as a locomotive emerging from a tunnel – it steamed to £2,600. A very rare yet austere mahogany patent earth-driven electric wall clock, circa 1910, one of only 70 thought to have been made, (lot 1310) trebled its lower estimate at £8,000. The longcase clock market shows signs of recovery - take the fine mahogany eight day longcase clock signed W M Bickerstaff, Liverpool, of circa 1800 (lot 1327) which was purchased privately for £5,500.
Lot 1340
The auctioneers offered one of the largest selection of rugs and carpets for many years under the guidance of expert Andrew Middleton, who was delighted with the outcome of the sale. A large Tabriz carpet from Persian Azerbaijan (lot 1354) measuring a healthy 570cm by 352cm took £2,500, while a private German vendor from Osnabruck, saw her Central Persian Isfahan carpet (lot 1340), realise a double estimate £3,000.
Lot 1579
Head of furniture Jeremy Pattison remarked on the strong overall response to all areas of furniture – including the much maligned “brown furniture” (only 9% of the whole furniture section remained unsold!). For example a Victorian mahogany secretaire Wellington chest (lot 1571) offered with an estimate of £1000-1500, sold for £3,000. A very useful William IV mahogany secretaire breakfront bookcase (lot 1576) with upper open shelves (which would swallow hundreds of books) did well at £7,500, while a George IV mahogany dining table (lot 1579) extending to 6 metres in length (seating at least twenty-four guests!) with a provenance to Firby Hall in North Yorkshire sold for £16,000 to a buyer who lives less than 15 miles from its former residence!
Lot 1634
The sale finished with a currently very fashionable selection of Decorative Arts, and was a near sell-out! The large contribution of Robert “Mouseman” Thompson oak furniture included a panelled wardrobe dated 1935 (lot 1634), part of a bedroom suite (but which individually had cost just £18 back then) saw a very decent return at £4,800. Another bedroom suite, divided into individual lots in the sale, was commissioned by G Scarfe Esq of Houghton Villa, Houghton le Skerne, Darlington in May 1938. This superb suite, with “projecting mice” signatures was entered for sale by a lucky property developer, who had been left the entire suite as part of the purchase price of the property – overall it made £9,230.
For further enquiries please contact Adam Schoon or Gussie Wood.