Silver sales in Somerset

Items of silver and vertu were in demand in Somerset recently when Lawrences of Crewkerne held their spring sales.

Objects that attracted interest included a small and rare wine taster from 1665 dated from the reign of Charles II (above), which doubled expectations to make £1460; a finely chased stirrup cup in the form of a fox mask from 1845 also outran its £2500-3000 estimate to make £5000. Two other ‘drinkers’ lots” also proved popular when an 18th-century beer jug, possibly Colonial, was bought for just over £2000 and a Victorian ewer or claret jug made £1220. An impressive suite of four graduated meat dishes from 1831, sold with four plated dish covers to match, soared to £9760.

Elsewhere in the sale, a finely decorated French ivory fan made £1830, while miniature portrait of Captain Robert Woolf Junior, finely painted by John Smart Junior (the sitter’s own cousin) combined a dashing subject with the link between artist and sitter to make £2190.