Tennants Auctioneers posted a total of just over £2 million for 1750 lots in their recent Spring Sale held at Leyburn, North Yorkshire 2-4 April 2009. The weaker pound drew many buyers from abroad, noticeably America, Canada, China, and France, who bought strongly across the huge range of art and antiques on offer.

Ceramics: You could buy a lifetime supply of coffee for the price paid for a superb Sevres porcelain cup and saucer (lot 91) luxuriously decorated with musicians, against a dark blue and gold background. Painted by leading artist Charles-Nicolas Dodin around 1778, and similar to an example in The Royal Collection, this ceramic gem (from a private Yorkshire collection) sold for £8500.

Oriental: Having flown in from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong many oriental collectors and dealers were keen to acquire rare and market fresh pieces of blue and white porcelain from a Leeds deceased estate, many originally bought in the 1950s. Top lot proved to be a finely painted “Gu” vase dating from circa 1700 (lot 124) painted with Confucian scholars, which was pursued to £15,000.

A collection of 68 snuff bottles from a Harrogate estate (lots 148-178 inclusive) sold for a total of £25,690 with a top individual lot price £4500 bid for two jade examples (lot 162).

Chinese connoisseurship of rhinoceros horn cups is well known over many centuries, and an example of this art (lot 183), probably carved in Zhangzhou circa 1650-1700, fetched £14,000. Despite being referred to as ‘libation cups”, inferring some kind of ritual use, it is probable that they were used for secular wine drinking, or perhaps for herbal medicines. A Ming Dynasty poem of circa 1560-1600 opens:

Jewellery: “Better than money in the bank” was the self-convincing phrase on the lips of many jewellery buyers looking for that very special piece. A stunning Victorian diamond brooch (lot 238) with a total diamond weight of approximately 4.50 carats fulfilled all requirements as to quality and size of stones, and, aided by a crisply detailed mount, and Carrington & Co case, took £6000.

The beauty of old cut diamonds of the Edwardian period was manifest in a three stone ring with a total weight of 6.00 carat (lot 405). Satisfying all criteria of the “Four C” rule (colour, cut, clarity and carat) this sparkler took £14,000.

Watches: A very masculine 18 carat gold Rolex Automatic wrist watch (lot 412) from as recently as 1997 took £6400, aided by the inclusion of the original box and guarantee papers. 

Silver: A London telephone bidder ensured a rare pair of silver candlesticks made in Paris in 1747 (lot 449) were not repatriated at £11,500. An impressive Victorian silver ewer and basin in Baroque style by Robert Garrard 1879 (lot 468) inscribed ‘DONCASTER CUP 1879 WON BY ISONOMY” sold strongly at £26,000.

At £250 per square centimetre Regency micro-mosaic work does not come cheap. An example by Gioacchino Barberi, Rome, circa 1820-40 (lot 593) depicting a turbaned lady doubled its estimate to take £4500.

Clocks: Bracket clocks are currently popular, and a striking example with pull repeat by Isaac Fox, London, in an attractively figured mahogany case circa 1775 (lot 1354), was in working order and ready to grace any mantelpiece at £6000. Bow fronted stick barometers are leagues ahead of their wheel shape brethren in terms of desirability, as witnessed by a Dolland mahogany example of circa 1840 (lot 1369) which took £5500.

Pictures: The sale’s highest price was taken for a richly provenanced oil painting of dog keeper Thomas Cardwell with greyhounds Smoker and Farmer (lot 891) painted by Charles Towne (1763-1840) from the estate of John Kenneth Ambler KCRVO. Of photographic realism it was bought by a determined buyer in the room against a phone bidder from London.

£38,000 secured a humorous work by Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A (1887-1976) depicting an obese gentleman in a bowler hat accompanied by a slim black dog. As an unsigned work it importantly came with a letter of authentification. The picture (lot 960) was purchased by the vendor’s father directly from the artist for £350 in 1969.

A sun-drenched oil painting depicting sail repairs on board deck (lot 979) by Sir Frank Brangwyn R.A (1867-1956) sold considerably over estimate for £17,000, and the following lot, “A Cook Shop in Naples” sold for the same strong price.

Natural History: Tennants Game Trophy section of the sale realised £250,000 for just 133 lots. A vendor from Oxford was amazed to see his black rhinoceros horn (lot 1109) of circa 1920 sell for £22,000, while a delighted German vendor from Frankfurt saw his grandfather’s African elephant tusks (lot 1142), with specimen specific CITES licence sell for £28,000 to a gentleman in the rooms. A full mount large male lion circa 1985 (lot 1141), originally a zoo animal which had died of natural cause, and which had latterly graced a local clothes shop as a decorative feature, has now gone into a private taxidermy collection at £7200.

Furniture: Furniture sold encouragingly to a packed room, and it was the useful simplicity of a George III mahogany partners desk, similar to those supplied by Thomas Chippendale in the late 18^th century (lot 1600) that took the section’s highest price of £15,000. Bucking the trend was the success of a Georgian “plum pudding” mahogany sideboard (lot 1567) which, despite its large size, took a double estimate £5200.

The Decorative Arts section included a sensuously designed pate-de-verre glass “Vase a la Chevelure” by master glass designer Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (lot 1673) caused great competition to realise £7200.

A Midlands brewery purchased an extensive run of oak boardroom panelling originally made by Robert Mouseman Thompson for the Grattan Warehouse Ltd building 1934 (lot 1688). Re-erected in the saleroom it incorporated elements including a huge fireplace and two settles, animated not just by carved heads, but by a unique nodding mouse positioned humbly at skirting board level. It sold for £16,000.

For more information please contact Adam Schoon or Gussie Wood on 01969 623780 or email enquiry@tennants-ltd.co.uk