Liberty & Co silver bowl shines in sale

A Liberty & Co Arts & Crafts Cymric silver and plique a jour enamelled bowl was one of the lead lots in silver section on day one of a recent two-day sale in the Cotswolds, featuing curated silver, ceramics, glass, clocks, furniture and paintings. The bowl exceeded its estimate of £1,800-£2,200 to bring in £6,380 at Kinghams auction house.

Clocks followed with a good selection of 18th-century bracket clocks sourced from a Lancashire estate. The highest price achieved was for a George III Spencer & Perkins bracket clock with a double fusee musical movement, selling for £7,600.

Following on, the picture section, the largest to date at Kinghams, comprised a number of private collections of artwork sourced locally in the Cotwsolds, Lancashire and 20th-century works from a Welsh collection. A bright and fresh work titled Majorca, Orange Trees, C’an Det by Frederick Gore R.A. (British, 1913-2009), had been discovered while emptying the contents of a Cotswold farmhouse. Estimated at £3,000-5,000 it appealed to buyers with a local private client in the room battling to secure it for £12,100. In the more traditional line, a small 18th-century Venetian School oil depicting The Baptism of Christ had been brought in on a Tuesday valuation day. It sold for £4,340.

Highlights from the Welsh collection of artwork included a number of works in oil by Austin Moseley (British, 1930-2013) all of which proved very popular. Highest price was £3,570 bid from a northern private collector for a delightful work titled Looking for Sheep.

Another private collection, this time from the Cotswolds had been consigned comprising works by P.J. Crook, Michael Scott and Sir Terry Frost. Top Lot in this case was an oil by Mary Fedden R.A. (British, 1915-2012) titled Cat in a Flowerbed.  Measuring just 19 by 14cm, it had the cache of Richard Green Gallery provenance and sold for £9,200 to a UK private collector of works by Fedden.

The furniture section included British and European pieces form the 17th to 20th century, such as a Spanish vargeuno discovered in Moreton in Marsh at £1,400. A highlight from the 20th century included a design classic plywood stool by Alvar Aalto made by Finmar in circa 1940 which although destined for the tip, sold for £1,500 to a Japan based connoisseur of design.

Post-war designer furniture continued in popularity with a super stylish pair of 1960s rosewood bar stools by Erik Buch for Dyrlund, which sold to a London buyer for £830. A Cotswold 1960’s GR69 oak dining suite designed by Robert Heritage for Gordon Russell sold locally for £800.

Day two of the sale included 58 Lots from Part One of the Geoffrey and Anne Wellings collection of Georgian glassware and which totalled a hammer price of just under £10,000.

Following that, the British ceramics section yielded the highest single prices in the auction with the spotlight firmly on Royal Worcester. Rare, highly desirable and sought after, there were three examples of early 20th-century reticulated vases by master George Owen. Sourced from a North of England estate, a small vase from 1923 brought £2,800 and a covered vase and cover sold for £18,500 to differing UK private collectors.

To conclude the auction, highest price was reserved for an impressive twin handled pedestal vase and cover from 1911 realising £21,700.