Sale Reports
Here are some pre-sale and post-sale reports for some star lots that have appeared in our sales
Pre Sale Reports
Rare George Washington portrait comes up for auction in Cirencester
Directors Lindsey Braune and Elizabeth Poole of The Cotswold Auction Company are delighted to bring a highly desirable small portrait of the first American president to auction in their 19th October Pictures sale at the Cirencester, Bankside saleroom. “This will be extremely interesting for both British and US buyers” said Lindsey, “Because we believe it was executed by James Sharples, a well-known eighteenth century British pastellist, who worked in the UK and then in 1794 travelled to the United States with his family. It is thought that Sharples secured a sitting from America’s first president, George Washington, not long after his arrival in the USA, c. 1795-7.” Once the sitting had been obtained both James Sharples and his wife Ellen produced multiple versions for a ready local market in Philadelphia, then the American Capitol. A few of these have survived and come to the market at rare intervals, always met with a great deal of interest by collectors of eighteenth century American pictures and history. This picture comes from a local house and was formerly at Bowden Hall in Upton St Leonards near Gloucester. From this same family collection, and also with an American theme, earlier this year The Cotswold Auction Company sold the first African-American published book of poetry by a slave girl, Phyllis Wheatley, 1773 for £16,500. It is believed that the portrait was once part of the collection of nineteenth century British collector Jeffery Whitehead and was exhibited in London twice – in 1899, incorrectly attributed to Russell, and in 1891 as ‘Sharpless’ (as James Sharples was known at the time). It then sold at Christie’s in 1915, when Whitehead’s whole collection was consigned for auction. It was bought by a picture dealer by the name of Schroeder and found its way to this local Cotswold collection near Gloucester. This rare portrait bears an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000 and the auctioneers welcome enquiries at ciren@cotswoldauction.co.uk or 01285 642420.
Small is beautiful – mosaic pictures in Cirencester auction!
The Cotswold Auction Company are extremely excited to offer a rare pair of micro-mosaic pictures on copper by Luigi Moglia (1813-1878) “Cumaean Sibyl” after Zampieri Domenico and “The Persian Sibyl” after Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (Domenico’s Sibyl can be found in the Galleria Borghese and Guercino’s Persian Sibyl is listed in the Musei Capitolini, Rome). Luigi Moglia was active in Rome circa 1850-1870 and worked in the Studio Vaticano del Mosaico (Mosaic Studio of the Vatican). His expertise was copying in micro-mosaic the famous artworks of Rome. He was one of the most highly sought after mosaic artists of all time and in 1851 won a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of London for his micro-mosaic “The Ruins of Paestum”. His work features in the V&A including a mosaic of the Pantheon, Rome from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert collection, one of the world’s greatest decorative art collections. The V&A also house a Moglia micro-mosaic “Lavinia as Flora” which measures 37cm x 30cm, the same size as the pair of plaques coming up for sale in Cirencester on the 19th October. Lavinia as Flora is also a copy of an important painting, this being Titian’s Girl with a Bowl of Fruit. Micro-mosaics are made of small glass tesserae and at first glance these works can easily be confused with paintings, as was the case with Arthur Gilbert himself. The British Museum has a small micro-mosaic plaque by Luigi Moglia of a spaniel and very few works come up for auction. Other pieces by the artist can be seen in the Royal Collection, Cincinnati Museum of Art and several Italian museums. The most recent Moglia works to have appeared at auction include a small oval plaque, 3.8cm x 9.6cm of a spaniel, which sold on 5th December 2019 at Christies for £5,000. In October 2017 another small micro-mosaic plaque by Moglia measuring 6.5cm x 4.3cm, also of a spaniel, realised £6,200. This spectacular pair of panels is expected to realise £10,000-£15,000 at The Cotswold Auction Company’s Pictures sale in October. They have come from a local deceased estate and were hanging by the side of the fireplace for many years, having been passed down to the last lady owner by her great-uncle. Also offered for sale in this auction is an oil by Jacques Emile Blanche (1861-1942), head and shoulders portrait of gentleman smoking. Blanche was a French artist, largely self-taught, and became a successful portrait painter working in London and Paris. He exhibited in Paris at The Salon and The Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. One of his closest friends was Marcel Proust and he is also mentioned in Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas. Blanche was influenced by contemporaries such as James Tissot and John Singer Sargent. His style of colouring and loose brushwork is also reminiscent of Manet. He visited London for a year from 1884 and had many British patrons including the Duchess of Rutland. This oil on board showing a gentleman smoking and with slightly rosy cheeks – he may well be a fellow artist. It carries an estimate of £1,000-£2,000. Auction preview photos can be seen on www.www.cotswoldauction.co.uk and the sale will take place at the Bankside Cirencester saleroom on 19 October.
Designers Galore
20th Century Design, Textiles and Costume are two great areas of collecting at the moment and The Cotswold Auction Company’s specialist sale on 24th March in Cheltenham is sure to attract huge interest. The catalogue online is already attracting huge interest for an Arts & Crafts Norman Bucknell, after Norman Jewson, brass Fritillary candle sconce with an estimate of £200-£300. This item was made for the current owners in the 1980’s by Norman Bucknell who lived in Bisley, Gloucestershire. One of the other most watched furniture items is a very stylish Martin Hall for Gordon Russell ‘Marlow’ Brazilian rosewood sideboard, circa 1970 which has a wonderful maple interior and would surely fit into any modern home and has an estimate of £600-£900. This sideboard has a matching extending dining table which has wonderful Brazilian rosewood figuring and would surely be great for a party.
The costume is dominated by designer items from Prada, Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga and others. A Chanel black and diamante cuff with original box has an estimate of £200-£300 and a vintage Chanel quilted bag with dust bag will come in at £600-£800. Also in the costume Biba, Issy Miyaki, Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood and other desirable names feature. A strong selection of antique embroideries include a 19th century woolwork embroidered picture ‘Freedom’ with two sailors, a 19th century woolwork embroidered picture of 12 masted sailing vessels and a 17th century needlework picture with an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 all coming from one private collection. Other textiles include Chinese silk embroidered skirt panels which have beautiful vibrant colours, butterfly, dragonfly and exotic bird decoration. Handbags and shoes include Coach, Dior, Vivienne Westwood and Philip Treacy. Other stylish top-end items which would fit into any contemporary home are Robert Welch stainless steel cutlery, Bang & Olufsen Beocentre and speakers, stylish lights and screens. Further designer names include Celine, Chloe, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Dries van Noten and Orla Kiely. Stylish and modern furniture included on the day will feature Robin Day, Schonbuch, Eero Saarinen and Herman Miller.
ANGLO-IRISH AUTHOR MARIA EDGEWORTH – STUNNING COLLECTION UNEARTHED
It is a rare event when a significant author’s original source material surfaces after two centuries. But this is just what The Cotswold Auction Company books cataloguer, Jenny Low, found on a visit to a client in a Cotswold village. In February 2018 the Auctioneers were delighted to offer a small collection of works by Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), the prolific late 18th/early 19th century Anglo-Irish writer. The vendor of these works was a member of the family of Frances Anne Beaufort, who became the stepmother of Maria Edgeworth upon marriage to Richard Lovell Edgeworth as his fourth wife. She was actually a year younger than Maria (1769-1865), one of his twenty-two children, and they became firm friends.
The books offered in 2018 realised a total of just over £4000, many signed and inscribed by Maria, her father, Frances, and other family members. The vendor is still sorting through family belongings and invited Jenny Low to view further works by this author, together with an exciting wealth of source material, including letters to and from her publishers, and a quantity of notebooks with preliminary sketches of Maria Edgeworth’s novels such as “Orlandino”, “Harry and Lucy”, “Popular Tales” and “Parent’s Assistance”.
There is, for example, a fair copy of the poem “Jacob” in Maria’s hand and signed. There is an intriguing letter to “Mr Rogers” – “This is not the first time that you have been called upon by me to act as arbiter elegantorum to decide our family disputes on the rights and wrongs of the English language…” amongst many others.
In her notebooks she sketches character outlines and possible plot development with crossings out, question marks and insertions, which will fascinate the scholar of her work! For example, she muses on “Harry and Lucy”, on the “difference between emulation and envy – grief felt by Edward when he finds that he cannot write as well as Harry – briefly anger – envy and mixture of grief and anger, Harry’s father interferes – shows Edward that his envy gives him pain…”.
There is correspondence from Richard Bentley, her publisher at Bentley and Colburn, relating to “Helen”, her final novel, published in 1834, and even rent slips to Mrs Edgeworth (probably Frances, her stepmother) dated 1850.
The collection will be sold in various lots and the Auctioneers anticipate a great deal of interest on Tuesday, 11th February, in the original collection of this popular novelist. For further information please contact the Auctioneers on info@cotswoldauction.co.uk, telephone: 01242 256363. Viewing will take place at the Chapel Walk Saleroom in Cheltenham on Saturday, 8th February and Monday 10th February. Please see the website for details www.www.cotswoldauction.co.uk
Two book rarities coming up in Cheltenham auction
The Cotswold Auction Company is delighted to be able to offer for sale one of best documented early printed books – and the first to successfully combine illustration and text – The Nuremberg Chronicle published in 1493, from a private collection, formerly residing at Bowden Hall, Upton St Leonards, Gloucestershire.
The author was Hartmann Schedel (13 February 1440 – 28 November 1514), a German historian, physician, humanist and one of the first cartographers to use the printing press – and the book was produced by printer Anton Koberger (c 1440 -1513) in Nuremberg. The Chronicle depicts the Seven Stages of Biblical History and is lavishly illustrated with more than 1800 woodcuts, overseen by two Nuremberg artists Michael Wolgemut and Hans Pleydenwurff – it is possible that Albrecht Durer, who was an apprentice to Wolgemut, may even have contributed, though none of the illustrations is signed. The work also features extensive geographical information of the world as known at the time, showing many European cities never before illustrated, as well as biblical scenes. The book is a massive tome. This copy has been rebound in superb pale blind stamped pigskin by Bayntun in 1977.
It bears an estimate of £40,000- £60,000 and can be viewed online from Friday 21 May or by appointment with the auctioneers.
From the same collection comes an incredibly rare book – an 18th century volume of poetry by a young enslaved woman, the first African American woman to be published, Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) – ‘ Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral – Negro Servant to Mr John Wheatley of Boston, in New England”, published ‘according to Act of Parliament, Sept, 1st 1773 by Archibald Bell’.
This slender book has an engraved portrait of Phillis as the frontispiece. Phillis herself was a woman who has left an indelible mark on American and world slave history. She was taken as a child from the Gambia in 1761 at seven years old and bought as a companion for the ageing Mrs Wheatley – named for the ship ‘The Phillis’, which brought her, and the for family which purchased her. The Wheatley family realised her intelligence and in addition to teaching her reading and writing, she learned biblical studies, Greek, Latin, British literature, geography and astronomy. She began writing poetry in her early teens, taking inspiration from her African culture and her new-found faith. She was the first African American woman to be published.
Her most renowned poem was written at the age of 15, condemning the evils of racism from a Christian perspective ‘ On Being Brought from Africa to America’ contains the poignant line
“ Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain/ Maybe refined, and join th’ angelic train…”
She visited London in 1773 for the publication of her poems with the financial support of the Countess of Huntingdon, where she was a social and literary success, returning back to America due to the illness of Mrs Wheatley.
After the publication of her poems in 1773, at the age of twenty, she was given her freedom and married John Peters, a free grocer, in 1778. Despite gaining her liberty life was hard, notwithstanding Phillis’s fame in literary and abolitionist circles and the couple lived in poverty, John Peters being imprisoned for debt in 1784, and Phillis died in December of the same year, aged 31, followed by her infant child, possibly the third to succumb.
Jenny Low, book cataloguer at The Cotswold Auction Company, said ‘This book just doesn’t come up at auction – this is such a rare opportunity –and we have placed a wide estimate of £5000 to £10,000 on it. Phillis made history and we anticipate interest from libraries, African American historians and many collectors’.
Pre Sale Reports
Rare George Washington portrait comes up for auction in Cirencester
Directors Lindsey Braune and Elizabeth Poole of The Cotswold Auction Company are delighted to bring a highly desirable small portrait of the first American president to auction in their 19th October Pictures sale at the Cirencester, Bankside saleroom. “This will be extremely interesting for both British and US buyers” said Lindsey, “Because we believe it was executed by James Sharples, a well-known eighteenth century British pastellist, who worked in the UK and then in 1794 travelled to the United States with his family. It is thought that Sharples secured a sitting from America’s first president, George Washington, not long after his arrival in the USA, c. 1795-7.” Once the sitting had been obtained both James Sharples and his wife Ellen produced multiple versions for a ready local market in Philadelphia, then the American Capitol.
A few of these have survived and come to the market at rare intervals, always met with a great deal of interest by collectors of eighteenth century American pictures and history.
This picture comes from a local house and was formerly at Bowden Hall in Upton St Leonards near Gloucester. From this same family collection, and also with an American theme, earlier this year The Cotswold Auction Company sold the first African-American published book of poetry by a slave girl, Phyllis Wheatley, 1773 for £16,500.
It is believed that the portrait was once part of the collection of nineteenth century British collector Jeffery Whitehead and was exhibited in London twice – in 1899, incorrectly attributed to Russell, and in 1891 as ‘Sharpless’ (as James Sharples was known at the time). It then sold at Christie’s in 1915, when Whitehead’s whole collection was consigned for auction. It was bought by a picture dealer by the name of Schroeder and found its way to this local Cotswold collection near Gloucester.
This rare portrait bears an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000 and the auctioneers welcome enquiries at ciren@cotswoldauction.co.uk or 01285 642420.
James Sharples circa 1800
est. £30,000- £50,000
Small is beautiful – mosaic pictures in Cirencester auction!
Small is beautiful – mosaic pictures in Cirencester auction!
The Cotswold Auction Company are extremely excited to offer a rare pair of micro-mosaic pictures on copper by Luigi Moglia (1813-1878) “Cumaean Sibyl” after Zampieri Domenico and “The Persian Sibyl” after Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (Domenico’s Sibyl can be found in the Galleria Borghese and Guercino’s Persian Sibyl is listed in the Musei Capitolini, Rome). Luigi Moglia was active in Rome circa 1850-1870 and worked in the Studio Vaticano del Mosaico (Mosaic Studio of the Vatican). His expertise was copying in micro-mosaic the famous artworks of Rome. He was one of the most highly sought after mosaic artists of all time and in 1851 won a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of London for his micro-mosaic “The Ruins of Paestum”. His work features in the V&A including a mosaic of the Pantheon, Rome from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert collection, one of the world’s greatest decorative art collections. The V&A also house a Moglia micro-mosaic “Lavinia as Flora” which measures 37cm x 30cm, the same size as the pair of plaques coming up for sale in Cirencester on the 19th October. Lavinia as Flora is also a copy of an important painting, this being Titian’s Girl with a Bowl of Fruit.
Micro-mosaics are made of small glass tesserae and at first glance these works can easily be confused with paintings, as was the case with Arthur Gilbert himself. The British Museum has a small micro-mosaic plaque by Luigi Moglia of a spaniel and very few works come up for auction. Other pieces by the artist can be seen in the Royal Collection, Cincinnati Museum of Art and several Italian museums. The most recent Moglia works to have appeared at auction include a small oval plaque, 3.8cm x 9.6cm of a spaniel, which sold on 5th December 2019 at Christies for £5,000. In October 2017 another small micro-mosaic plaque by Moglia measuring 6.5cm x 4.3cm, also of a spaniel, realised £6,200.
This spectacular pair of panels is expected to realise £10,000-£15,000 at The Cotswold Auction Company’s Pictures sale in October. They have come from a local deceased estate and were hanging by the side of the fireplace for many years, having been passed down to the last lady owner by her great-uncle.
Also offered for sale in this auction is an oil by Jacques Emile Blanche (1861-1942), head and shoulders portrait of gentleman smoking. Blanche was a French artist, largely self-taught, and became a successful portrait painter working in London and Paris. He exhibited in Paris at The Salon and The Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. One of his closest friends was Marcel Proust and he is also mentioned in Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas. Blanche was influenced by contemporaries such as James Tissot and John Singer Sargent. His style of colouring and loose brushwork is also reminiscent of Manet. He visited London for a year from 1884 and had many British patrons including the Duchess of Rutland. This oil on board showing a gentleman smoking and with slightly rosy cheeks – he may well be a fellow artist. It carries an estimate of £1,000-£2,000.
Auction preview photos can be seen on www.www.cotswoldauction.co.uk and the sale will take place at the Bankside Cirencester saleroom on 19 October.
Luigi Cavaliere Moglia (1813-1878)
est. £10,000-£15,000
Post Sale Reports
Rare Faberge Miniature Sedan Chair Sells for £380,000 at The Cotswold Auction Company’s Bankside Saleroom
We were delighted to be instructed in the sale of a tiny Russian treasure which had been sitting peacefully in a box in the Cotswolds for the last 20 years, having been passed down to a family member who was instructed to “look after it”! This was a Fabergé nephrite jade, rock crystal, mother-of-pearl and varicolour chased gold miniature model of a sedan chair, marked with the workmaster’s initials M.N for Mikhail Perchin, one of his most illustrious workmasters, circa 1899-1903. It even boasted a hinged door with functioning handle, revealing a mother-of-pearl seat to the interior, each side mounted with a reeded gold and nephrite pole, in a fitted Wartski wooden case, just 7.8 cm. high.
It was acquired by Mr. K.W. Woollcombe-Boyce in 1929 from Wartski in London for £75 and remained in the family, passed down to the present owner. Recorded in the family inventory: ‘Objects in the Possession of Mr. K.W. Woollcombe-Boyce (and Daughter), made in the Workshop of Peter Carl Fabergé, in St. Petersburg, Moscow Or Odessa between 1841-1918’: ‘Item 1: A Sedan chair with moveable poles, made of Jadeite, mother-of-pearl (seat), crystal (windows) & gold, height 3’’…’
This little treasure achieved a house record for The Cotswold Auction Company and Liz Poole was on the rostrum at the time. Six phone bidders from Russia, America and London vied with bidders in the room – bidding started at £50,000 and rose rapidly from one phone bidder to the next and despite a strong showing from the bidders in the room, the lot was finally won by a phone bid from Russia – spontaneous applause broke out!
This was a really exciting sale for the company and our whole team has been closely involved in the cataloguing, photography, research, safeguarding and publicity which all contributed to a successful sale.
Voysey victorious in Cirencester!
A pair of Art and Crafts bedroom chairs removed for auction from a house in Cheltenham stunned bidders at The Cotswold Auction Company 4th March sale in Cirencester. Dating from the turn-of-the-century, c. 1900, and in oak with rush seats, they were slender and with simple lines. The heart shaped “cut-out” in the splatback was the giveaway that these were made to a design by Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857-1941), well-known architect and Arts and Crafts designer.
Because of their rarity and the fact that none have come up at auction for over 10 years the auctioneers placed a low estimate on the pair, expecting them to fetch something in the low £100’s. So no one was more surprised than auctioneer Piers Critchlow, who was on the rostrum at the time, when they started to head for stratospheric heights. A local Arts and Crafts specialist collector and dealer had rushed to the saleroom, but was the unsuccessful underbidder. Two other phone bidders did not get a look in and the hammer came down at £16,500, selling to an Internet bid.
Director Lindsey Braune said “There were only a very few items of value in this particular Cheltenham house, overrun with ivy and mice, and we’re delighted that these chairs sold so successfully. The family tell us they were acquired many years ago and had been in the house for decades.”
It is believed that the chairs may have been produced by the London cabinetmaker FC Nielsen, who worked for Voysey. They boast the tell-tale large, visible dovetails in the back splat and also another trademark of this designer – the tapering uprights to the back, which protrude above the functionally necessary height, adding a simple elegance.
The next sale at the Cirencester Bankside saleroom will take place on Tuesday 7th/Wednesday 8th April and will include a specialist section of Silver and Jewellery. For further information please contact the auctioneers on ciren@cotswoldauction.co.uk or 01285-642420.
MARIA EDGEWORTH COLLECTION FLIES ABOVE ESTIMATE
It is a rare event when a significant author’s original source material surfaces after two centuries.
But this is just what happened at The Cotswold Auction Company’s Books sale held in Cheltenham
on Tuesday 11 th February. Anglo-Irish author Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) was a prolific novelist
whose literary career started with Castle Rackrent (1800), a satire on Anglo-Irish landlords, of which
her father was one! Born in Oxfordshire Maria Edgeworth spent most of her childhood in England,
however her life in Ireland had a profound impact on both her thinking and views surrounding her
Irish culture. She was well educated and corresponded with members of the Lunar Society and also
developed strong views on politics. As she wrote in her work ‘Helen’ “Women are now so highly
cultivated and political subjects are at present of so much importance … Helen … you cannot, I
conceive, satisfy yourself with the common namby-pamby little Missy phrase “Ladies have nothing
to do with politics””.
A contemporary of Jane Austen and more famous in her time, Maria Edgeworth is now very highly
regarded and in particular attracts admirers in the UK, Ireland and America.
“It was from here that most of the seven or eight telephone lines were booked” said auctioneer
Lindsey Braune “We were absolutely inundated with interest prior to the auction, with private
viewings arranged for potential buyers, each lasting several hours at a time”.
The collection comprised much illuminating personal material including letters to and from her
publishers, letters to friends and acquaintances and, principally, a hugely important collection of
handwritten notebooks outlining plots, character sketches and notes for many of her well-known
works including Hints for Harry and Lucy – Professional Education, Absentee, 1812, The Snow
Woman, Ennui, Sketches for Popular Tales and Unfashionable Tales amongst many others.
Jenny Low, book cataloguer, was amazed and delighted to find these amongst various paperwork on
a visit to a Cotswold cottage. The owner had inherited these from her godfather, a member of the
Beaufort family and a direct descendant of Maria Edgeworth. Two years earlier Jenny had
catalogued and sold several Maria Edgeworth volumes with inscriptions for The Cotswold Auction
Company and she was delighted to be asked back to inspect more of the collection. It was divided
into several lots, all with conservative estimates. Lindsey Braune said “For such an unprecedented
sale we were expecting the estimates to be exceeded, but in the event the whole collection realised
a staggering £147,000”. The top price went to the star lot, the collection of notes and sketchbooks
for Maria’s novels, bearing various labels such as ‘Sketch of the Freeman family’, or ‘Notes on Emilie
De Coulanges’, “There is a lifetime of study in this little leather case of around 30 notebooks” said
Lindsey “and we are very pleased that it was bought on behalf of Princeton University and will
provide research material for generations of students to come”. This lot realised £70,000 after a
steady rise from the £4,000-£6,000 estimate.
Lot 40 comprised a wealth of material to and from Maria’s publishers Baldwin Cradock and many
signed by Rowland Hunter, with correspondence from 1814 to 1841. Again this illuminating lot flew
past its estimate and after a lengthy tussle between phone bidders found a buyer at £40,000. This
time the happy purchaser was another institution, The National Library of Ireland, who were strong
bidders throughout and obviously very keen to acquire material from this prolific Anglo-Irish author.
Letters were particularly popular and the American buyer was successful in acquiring a letter from
Edgeworth Town (where Maria eventually died) amongst others at £6,000, another lot of letters
dating from 1821 to 1835 at £6,800 and a third including a letter from the eminent early 19 th century
publisher Richard Bentley amongst others at £10,000.
In another lot of correspondence there were references to Maria Edgeworth’s last novel ‘Helen’
(1834), of which Maria wrote to her publisher that she had taken much trouble to avoid moralising
(!). This lot came under the hammer at £12,000.
“We are delighted that the Maria Edgeworth collection is destined for academic institutions and will
be in the public domain – providing invaluable source material for scholars and historians”
commented the auctioneers “This body of material is a direct line to the author’s creative process.”
The next Books and Collectables Sale to be held at Cheltenham Chapel Walk saleroom will take place
on Tuesday 2nd June and entries are now being accepted. For a pre-auction valuation please contact
the auctioneers on 01242-256363 and speak to books cataloguer Jenny Low ,
info@cotswoldauction.co.uk
NAPOLEON’S TRIUMPH TAKES TOP BID
It was a vibrant history picture which won out at The Cotswold Auction Company’s recent specialist pictures sale at the Bankside Saleroom in Cirencester. Robert Hillingford (1826-1904) is well-known for both historical subjects including The Duke of Wellington and Napoleon as well as scenes taken from Shakespearian plays. This particular oil “Triumphant Reception” showed Napoleon arriving on horseback in a fortified courtyard, greeted by a military band and soldiers. In the event it soared past its modest estimate in the mid hundreds to realise the top price in the sale at £1,750. From the same estate came a handsome half-length portrait of a Georgian gentleman in striking red jacket, who also sparked strong competition, realising £1,350 against a pre-sale estimate of £500-£800. Also amongst the oils, another very traditional picture by Charles Jones (1836-1892), a study of sheep on a hillside sold well at £900, while a pair of oils by James Meadow Senior, seascapes with sailing vessels, found a ready buyer at £750.
The top price amongst the watercolours was a typical work by John Varley, which had been given a conservative estimate because of its rather foxed condition, but which nevertheless raced past it to reach £1,150. The popular artist John Linnell (1792-1882) sold just on estimate at £550 (rural landscape with herdsmen, cattle, dog and sheep), while an oil on board, still life of a bird’s nest with honeysuckle and blossom branches by Anne Cotterill left the room at £450. Also from the 20th century was a striking oil on board by Anthony R Cooke “Houseboats at Shoreham” dated 1958 and which realised above estimate at £420.
The top price in the furniture section went to a Victorian burr walnut serpentine-fronted credenza with satinwood crossbanding, reaching a respectable £1,000, while a delightful antique Chinese two-door lacquered wood marriage chest, profusely decorated, was contested to £600. 20th century furniture continues to sail out of the saleroom and in this auction there was much competition for an early 1970’s Heals rosewood bedroom suite of four variously sized chests of drawers, which came under the hammer at £550, while a Bruno Mathsson “Jetson” chair for DUX in button upholstered black leather made £380.
One unexpected high-flyer in the ceramics section was a most attractive Grainger & Co Worcester porcelain early morning tea service for two persons, fruit and flower decorated on a turquoise ground, which raced away over its estimate to finally sell at £680. A Baccarat cut glass and gilt metal wine cooler, still bearing its paper label and with an etched mark to the base, realised £580.
For free auction valuations please contact Lindsey or Elizabeth on 01285 642420 or 01242 256363 or email info@cotswoldauction.co.uk
