Golden Summer Delights

The late summer sale at Wotton brought out both buyers and sellers; some two thousand lots went under the hammer over two days, with some twenty hours spent on the rostrum and excellent results achieved throughout.

Ceramics set the sale off to a good start with a pair of 19^th century Cantonese vases, some 41 cm in height selling for £3,100. 

The jewellery section continues to succeed with virtually every lot selling, the majority in excess of pre-sale estimates and in many cases considerably so.  This included a substantial 18ct fancy link collar necklace selling for £1,800, a Greek 18ct novelty bangle in the form of a coiled snake achieved £1,550, a gold chain with 18ct white gold clasp £1,550 and an elaborate white metal paste set passion flower, 8cm in diameter, sold for £1,550.  A most unusual 18ct rams head statement ring probably representing Aries, sold at £1,800, a diamond and ruby cocktail ring £1,200, a 21ct link bracelet at £1,150 and an aquamarine and trillion-cut diamond cluster cocktail ring sold for £1,050.

Paintings also found favour with an oil on canvas by David Young Cameron (Scottish 1865-1845) of a Dutch harbour scene selling for £2,800, an oil by John Hassall (1868-1948) of a lady in a red cloak achieving £1,600, a further example by Lady Guillemard, Penang from The Hill sold for £1,500 and an oil by Lawrence Isherwood, ‘Snow Covered Telegraph Pole’ made £1,250.

Further interesting lots on day one of the sale included an early 19^th century naval bi-corn hat, worn by Sir Henry Digby who was commander of HMS Africa during the battle of Trafalgar £1,750, an 18^th century blunderbuss by King of London sold for £1,250 and a collection of eleven sovereigns totalled £4,200 which were found in a tiny purse during a house clearance, whilst a collection of twelve propelling pencils sold for £740.

Elsewhere, the best of the stamps included a lot of GB loose stamps and booklets which sold at £820 and for those interested in philately the catalogue for a remarkable private collection can be viewed on our website now and this will be auctioned here at Wotton on Tuesday November 29^th.  Viewing is strictly by appointment only and we are taking bookings now.

Day two of the sale started well with a Lomax 224 two-seater sports car with a 602cc Citroen engine selling at £2,000. Amongst the furniture lots a small Georgian burr elm chest of drawers sold for £1,800 and a Coalbrookdale iron bench achieved £680.

The next sale is a three-day event 31^st October 1^st & 2^nd November and promises to be a very good auction based almost entirely on private entries and late summer probate instructions including a large and important collection of early English oak furniture and once again an extensive collection of jewellery. This sale is likely to be approaching 2,000 lots and there will be the usual large variety of items on offer for which these rooms have become so well known.

If you are a regular visitor to our salerooms, you will be pleased to know we now have an additional viewing space, just around the corner on Bank Yard Trading Estate we have taken on a large unit which will help us accommodate the larger three-day sales we are now regularly seeing.