Arts & Crafts Chest of Drawers Sells for £16,000

Fine Arts and Crafts furniture was in high demand in the 20^th Century Design Sale at Tennants Auctioneers on 28^th February, when a bedroom suite by renowned Lake District furniture maker Stanley Webb Davies sold for a total hammer price of £26,100 (all figures exclude buyer’s premium). Sold in eight lots, the bedroom suite had been commissioned in 1949 by Benjamin Rowe of Windermere and was crafted from chestnut. Topping the suite was a Chest of Drawers, which sold after a heated bidding battle for £16,000. Stanley Webb Davies (1894-1978) strove to uphold the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement with his fine handmade furniture whilst constantly working to better society for all. Davies created simple, eminently practical furniture without unnecessary adornment, borrowing construction techniques and stylistic elements from traditional rural objects.

Arts and Crafts woodwork from the opposite side of the Pennines, represented by the much-loved Yorkshire oak furniture maker Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson and his workshop, sold very confidently too. Indeed, every one of the 79 lots sold, for a total hammer price of £85,000. Leading the section was a very good selection of fine oak carvings, which the Mouseman workshop began producing in the 1960s and are now highly coveted. Exceptional prices were seen for the carvings, with notable results being seen for a Carved English Oak Pheasant (sold for £13,000), an English Oak Anthropomorphic Mouse (sold for £8,000), an English Oak Fox (sold for £6,500), and an English Oak Owl (sold for £4,200).

 Strong prices were seen throughout the sale, and amongst the ceramics were three quirky and charming ‘Lucky Mascots’, little ceramic cats designed by Louis Wain (1860-1939), who created an extraordinary and vivid world populated by anthropomorphic cats in Edwardian England. In 1914 Wain created a series of highly collectable ceramic Lucky Mascots, inspired by avant-garde art movements such as Cubism, Fauvism and Futurism. On offer in the sale were Lucky Futurist Cat with his Meow Meow Notes (sold for £2,000), The Lucky Black Cat (sold for £2,200), and The Lucky Haw Haw Cat (sold for £1,300).

 Another outstanding lot in the sale was an Abstract Glass Sculpture, made in 2002 by Czech designer and maker of glassware Pavel Hlava (1924-2003), which sold for £4,000. Hlava experimented in numerous techniques over his career, from engraved pieces to cut glass objects, and was a pioneer in glass sculpting in his home country.

 The 20^th Century Design Sale realised a total hammer price of £245,190 for 336 lots, and a 96% sold rate.

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