An exceptionally large Ruby Lustre Charger by Maw & Co. is set to come up for sale in Tennants Auctioneers’ 20th Century Design Sale on 25th June (estimate: £3,000-5,000 plus buyer’s premium). “The Stag Hunt”, depicting a leaping stag against a plant filled landscape encircled with running hounds, is well fired and beautifully decorated. Maw & Co. was founded in 1850 and by 1883 had become the largest tile producer in the world. They had introduced lusterware in 1878 inspired by the great William De Morgan. Indeed, De Morgan would go on to design for Maw & Co. alongside other great names such as Walter Crane, Henry Holliday, Owen Jones and C.F.A. Voysey. The reverse is marked with the Maw & Co. camel couchant mark, and the decorator’s initials ‘MJ’. The identity of the decorator has been lost to time; however, an ‘MJ’ is listed as an artist working for De Morgan from 1880 but it is not known if this is one and the same.
A fine offering of Art Deco glass by the likes of René Lalique and Etling is led by a group of lots from the Estate of a London Collector. Highlights of which include René Lalique’s ‘Statuette Côte d’Azur’, designed for La Compagnie des Wagon-Lits for the inauguration of the Pullman Express Côte d’Azur in 1929 (estimate: £2,000-3,000). Two 1925 René Lalique illuminated glass statuettes on bronze bases, ‘Suzanne’ and ‘Thais’, are both offered with an estimate of £700-1,000, and two opalescent car mascots by Lucille Sevin for Etling of Paris, circa 1932, comprise ‘Isadora’ (estimate: £1,000-1,500), and ‘Nu Longs Cheveux’ (estimate: £700-1,000).
From the same estate comes a Jack-in-the-Pulpit Art Nouveau Iridescent Favrile Glass Vase by Louis Comfort Tiffany (estimate: £2,000-3,000). The shape of this distinctive vase is inspired by the American woodland flower of the same name, also known as Arisaema Triphyllum. Amongst lots from other vendors are a good selection of Art Deco lamps and figures, which include a large Art Deco Cold Painted Bronze Figure of a female dance by Josef Lorenzl (estimate: £1,500-2,000).
A large offering of furniture and furnishings by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson and the Yorkshire Critter Craftsmen are led by an English Oak Newel Post Cap in the form of a carved owl with a mouse in its talon by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson. Once installed in a property in Scalby, Scarborough, the carved owl is offered with an estimate of £3,000-5,000. A Mouseman carved oak Fox by Stan Dodds is offered with an estimate of £3,000-4,000, and an 8cm high carved oak mouse, sitting on its haunches on a round of cheese is being sold from the Estate of Malcolm Cornforth formerly of The Old Hall, Kilburn, with an estimate of £700-1,000.
Also on offer is a Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson Oak Pen Tray, dated 1933 and made for Yvonne Houghton (neé Ince) on the occasion of her birth (estimate: £700-1,000), and a Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson Oak Panel Back Chair, carved with a galleon and ‘FR 1932’, which was made for York accountant Frank Roberts who is thought to have worked for Thompson (estimate: £1,500-2,500). A carved Oak Elephant by Stan ‘Woodpecker’ Dodds, being sold from the craftsman’s estates, is also up for sale with an estimate of £2,000-3,000.
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