King James’ Bible beats estimate

Diversity was the theme of a recent Spring Sale at Shrewsbury auctioneers Halls Fine Art.

Books are usually sold in one of the three annual book sales at Halls, but a rare second folio edition of the popular King James’ Bible (1613/1611) was offered in this sale as part of the Thomas Henry Kendall collection. Re-bound, restored and with some damage, it exceeded the upper estimate to sell for £17,000.

A 130cm carved oak figure of a maiden by Kendall himself made £3,600, against an estimate of £3,000-5,000. 

Jewellery performed particularly well with an 86% selling rate. The highest value lot was a vivid blue cluster ring, which sold for £16,000 to a continental buyer. Elsewhere an Art Deco sapphire and diamond bracelet sold for £4,000 to a private English buyer, and a diamond hinged bangle sold online to a buyer from the south of England for £3,800.

Silver outdid the jewellery with only one lot unsold, the highlight being an impressive Edwardian sugar castor in the ever-popular form of an owl. Estimated at £4,000-6,000 it sold for £5,500 to a buyer from outside London. 

Watches performed even better with a 100% selling rate, with an 18ct gold mid-size Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust chronometer wristwatch taking the top spot with a winning bid of £6,500. 

The biggest surprise of the day was provided by a large collection of Commonwealth and foreign coins that trounced the estimate of £200-300 to take a winning bid of £10,000 from a mainland Chinese buyer.