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WOTTON
AUCTION ROOMS
ANNUAL
REPORT 1999
1999
ended the 20th century on a high note for Wotton Auction Rooms with
in excess of 1.5 million pounds worth of antiques passing through the Tabernacle
salesrooms in the twelve months. Each monthly two-day sale was oversubscribed
and the auctioneers were regularly in the position of having a good percentage
of the entries for the following months auction already in storage before the
previous sale was over. With sales regularly topping 1,600 lots there was literally
never a dull moment at the Tabernacle.
Late
Spring saw a particularly busy period with instructions received from the executors
of Lady Bowlby for the auctioneers to consign for sale the contents of The Old
Rectory at Ozleworth.
Sir
Anthony and Lady Bowlby had collected a number of fine and unusual items over
the years and most notable was the collection of Regency furniture which formed
the centrepiece of the May auction. The star lot was a rosewood centre table
raised on a turned column and platform tricorn shaped base, inlaid with cut
brass friezes and with scrolled ormolu mounts. At a manageable 48" diameter
the table was contested by three telephone bidders to a final price of £11,000.
A Regency mahogany window seat to a design by Thomas Hope sold for £4,600 while
a smaller window seat with simulated rosewood finish and painted figural decoration
to the upholstery reached £4,000. A pair of 9' long painted curtain poles with
gilded panels and rams horn terminals sold for £2,300 and a Regency mahogany
bergere with reeded frame realised £2,150.
Other
items from the Ozleworth estate which also stole the show included an l8th century
Creamware cistern at 23" tall. Painted and gilded with chinoiserie characters
the cistern was damaged with extensive old repairs but its decorative appeal
and rarity prompted a bid of £3,000 from a London specialist.
An
unusual l9th century naïve carved and painted model of an ox's head, probably
a butchers shop sign, stunned the room by selling for £2,900 and a pair of Blackamoor
figures supporting lamp brackets sold for £2,500.
The
success of the May auction was rapidly followed by a busy June with two auctions
in the space of five days. The June monthly sale was followed by a Saturday
auction of the contents of Tortworth Court, the remarkable Gothic mansion a
few miles outside Wotton-Under-Edge. The sale provided a rare opportunity to
see the untouched interior with its High-Gothic carved paneling and flamboyant
tiled fireplaces. Much of the furniture on offer echoed the monumental proportions
of its surroundings, such as the Victorian satinwood bedroom suite consisting
of a washstand with painted decoration of Southern Indian and Japanese scenes,
a dressing table and a 9 1/2' tall wardrobe with extensive inlaid floral marquetry
panels showing masks and musical instruments. The suite found a new owner from
London who was tempted to the tune of £13,500.
A
second fine quality Victorian bedroom suite, this time in mahogany was sold
for £6,900, a Victorian Gothic oak library bookcase sold for £1,150, a continental
walnut Gothic buffet sold for £2,000 and a pair of gilt brass and cut glass
chandeliers achieved £3,000.
Back
at the Tabernacle, both the July and August auctions broke the salesroom's records
for these months and in October the Tabernacle saw one of its best ever furniture
consignments with the usual entries supplemented by the contents of a farmhouse
near Bath which had been untouched for over 40 years.
A
departure from the usual monthly auctions occurred in April when the auctioneers
decamped for a Saturday sale at the Architectural Salvage specialists Au Temps
Perdu in Bristol. The success of this sale prompted a further auction at the
same premises in early October.
The
quality of lots coming through the Tabernacle doors in 1999 has done much to
dispel any fears that the supply of antiques may be drying up. Throughout the
year buyers from London, the North, Wales, the West Country and also from the
Continent, Australia and American have converged on Wotton-Under-Edge to bed
for unusual and fine items.
The
top selling piece of furniture in the year was an unusually large 6' wide oak
gateleg table in untouched condition which sold in the October auction amongst
38 other pieces of oak for a remarkable £14,200. Other pieces of early oak which
sold well during the year were the small and simple Georgian dresser at £2,200,
the leather bound brass studded trunk at £1,600, the substantial l8th century
livery cupboard at £2,000 and the l7th century coffer at £1,200.
Pieces
of furniture which sold on their decorative merit included November's very pretty
Victorian mahogany linen press, just 3' wide and painted in oils with trailing
floral garlands and cherubs which realised £2,700. Also in November £2,500 was
paid for a William & Mary walnut and marquetry wall mirror and a Victorian
walnut and ormolu credenza sold for £4,700. A large l8th century Zanzibar hardwood
chest with brass panels and stud work sold for £3,000 in March and a Victorian
rosewood centre stool with cabriole legs from the same property achieved £2,400.
Practical
pieces of furniture were also in constant demand during the year with a George
III mahogany bureau bookcase at £2,900, a Georgian walnut kneehole desk at £4,000,
a Regency burr walnut sliding top Davenport at £2,000 and a Victorian mahogany
Wellington chest of 7 drawers and with secretaire compartment at £2,300. A tiny
l8th century mahogany chest of drawers just 16 1/2" wide sold for £3,200 in
October, a George III 33" wide chest with brush slide realised £2,300 and an
l8th century walnut open armchair with carved and shaped arms sold for £6,400,
whilst an l8th century wing chair sold for £2,500.
Dining
furniture sold strongly as usual with a number of Victorian oak and mahogany
extending dining tables finding new homes throughout the year at prices between
£1,100 and £2,700. In December two sets of chairs performed well with 8 Georgian
style chairs with carved and pierced slats and serpentine seats selling for
£2,900 and 8 shield shaped chairs with harebell and pagoda decoration achieving
£2,650.
Twentieth
century furniture produced some good results in the last year of the century,
most notably in February when an oak dining room suite by Robert Thompson of
Kilburn sold for £6,000. "Mouseman" Thompson as he is known produced finely
made furniture signed with a small carved mouse and the dining room suite, which
dated from the late 1940s exemplified his technique with its sturdy construction
and adzed panels giving a rippled effect to the oak. The suite consisted of
a refectory table with plank top, 8 chairs and a sideboard. Oak furniture retailed
by Heals also sold readily with a pair of lattice backed elbow chairs achieving
£850 in January and a circular oak cottage style dining table selling for £1,000
in May. A Cotswold School 2-divisional oak writing table sold for £550 in the
same month.
1999
was a year when time was very much of the essence with a number of fine quality
and unusual clocks entered for sale. The most memorable of the clocks was the
Regency mahogany long case regulator which achieved a gratifying £10,200 against
an estimate of £6,000-8,000 in October. The regulator by Barrand of Cornhill
had a movement with a mercury compensating pendulum. In the same sale a George
III mahogany bracket clock by James Barbet of Guernsey realised £3,400.
The
June sale included a Georgian mahogany long case with indistinct Bristol maker's
mark which contained the unusual automaton mechanism of a feeding swan and attracted
a bid of £4,000. However it was the August sale that brought together the best
selection of long case clocks seen at Wotton Auction Rooms for some years. £4,500
was paid for a substantial Victorian Gothic Revival example in an 8' tall mahogany
case and playing on 8 tubular gongs. A similar clock with painted dial and lunar
phase sold for £2,500 whilst a pretty little Georgian mahogany long case with
Adam and Eve and serpent automaton was a keenly contested lot at £3,400.
People
visiting the Tabernacle often comment on the amazing variety of lots which arrive
each month for the sales. The pictures on offer during 1999 demonstrate this
perfectly with lots spanning the centuries and the styles from an l8th century
portrait of a lady in yellow dress at £1,700 to a 20th century watercolour
by Charles Tunnicliffe of Canada Geese at £1,180.
The
picture section in the July sale contained the auction room's top selling lot
of 1999 - a folder of 42 coloured engravings of North American birds by the
highly soughtafter l9th century artist John James Audubon. From a Wotton property
the engravings were in good overall condition, although some had been removed
from the set at an earlier date and the margins had been trimmed to fit the
folder. The auctioneers estimated the folder at £14,000-16,000 and interest
came from the London and New York art markets. Bidding started at around the
£12,000 mark and the hammer fell at £20,000, setting a new record for the picture
department.
Star
picture lots in the latter half of the year included a set of 4 meticulously
painted Victorian circular oil paintings, each 5" in diameter, showing water
nymphs riding on fish, swans and waterlilies. The oils were painted by W.S.
Coleman who worked for the Minton factory in the 1870s, and the auctioneers'
research showed that the designs had been used on several pieces of Minton's
ceramics. The pictures were sold after fierce competition to a telephone bidder
from Malta for £4,500.
In
November two pairs of l8th century husband and wife portraits, one pair attributed
to J. Northcote, sold for £2,050 and £2,200 and in December a pair of large
Italian engravings of cityscapes by Guiseppe Vasi sold for £1,500.
The
ceramics department was as busy as ever in 1999 with in excess of 350 lots of
china and glassware every month. The most spectacular find was a tiny 4" long
sauce boat from a Burford property which after some research was authenticated
by the Worcester Porcelain Museum as an early and very rare product of the Worcester
factory circa 1750. Its fine condition prompted a deluge of bids from collectors
with a London specialist securing it at £9,700.
At
the opposite end of the ceramics spectrum Victorian majolica again produced
some noteworthy results in the shape of three pieces produced by the maestro
of majolica - George Jones. These lots were all damaged to some degree, a problem
which seems to be tolerated more by collectors of majolica than in other ceramic
fields. A teapot in the form of a striding cockerel sold for £3,400, a dish
modelled with fox mask handles and paws realised £580 and a turquoise dish with
stork handle achieved £1,650.
Other
ceramic pieces of note in the year included a pair of damaged Chamberlains Worcester
vases with armorial panels at £1,200, a pair of early l9th century Meissen quail
at £580, a Royal Worcester figure by E.A. Soper of "The Rescue" at £400 and
two l7th century continental drug jars, again very damaged, at £640.
July
saw an unusual lot on offer in landlocked Wotton - a bone work model of a 3-mast
man-of-war made by French prisoners of war in the early l9th century. At a length
of 16 1/2" she was a good size but unfortunately she had suffered loss and damage
to her rigging and other deck fittings. On the day the sale room saw heated
bidding with a stunning £7,000 paid for the vessel by a militaria specialist.
As
the new Millennium gets underway it will be interesting to watch the continuing
progression of the antiques market. Wotton Auction Rooms will be developing
their Web Site in 2000 and many of the larger auction rooms are already exploring
the possibility of on-line bidding for certain types of sales. Whether or not
this form of auction is suitable for Wotton-Under-Edge remains to be seen. Watch
this space!
