Japanese kodansu is star of sale
A finely made 19th-century Japanese ivory-inlaid, painted and gilt lacquer kodansu or table cabinet was the star lot of a North Yorkshire auction house’s recent sale, selling for a hammer of £21,000. The cabinet was in the manner of Ogawa Haritsu and was decorated in relief with Sagemono (decorative containers worn on a belt) including netsuke.
Also of note amongst the ceramics and works of art in the Tennants’ sale was a white marble bas-relief plaque depicting in relief Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Punjab and a favourite of Queen Victoria, which sold for £5,800. The portrait likeness was taken from a famous bust of Singh, sculpted in Rome by John Gibson while the Maharajah was visiting the city with the Prince of Wales in 1857, during the happiest part of his troubled life.
Selling well above estimate were a 19th-century pair of wrought iron and cast-iron gates stamped Walter Macfarlane and Co, Glasgow, which sold for £6,000, and a Chinese porcelain dish from the Kangxi Period, which sold for £3,200.
The auction house also reported good prices for Georgian furniture, with a George II carved mahogany tripod table selling for £8,000, a George I walnut and crossbanded kneehole dmsk selling for £6,000, and a George III mahogany bookcase, which was sold on behalf of The Trustees of the late 3rd Marquess of Zetland Will Trust, sold for £4,500. From the same estate came a set of seventeen Victorian mahogany dining chairs from the mid-19th century that sold for £4,000.
Also of note amongst a strong selection of furniture were an early 18th-century joined oak dining table, sold for £3,000; and a Louis XV style kingwood and parquetry-decorated bombe-shape commode, which sold for £3,200. The latter had a paper label noting that it had been purchased by Ernest Thomas at Colonel J. J. Harrison’s Sale at Brandesburton Hall, Yorkshire in 1923.
Two rare clocks attracted strong bidding; a brass striking and repeating giant carriage clock, signed Arnold & Dent, London, circa 1835 sold for £8,500, and a fine Jaeger LeCoultre 1000 year calendar and moon phases display atmos clock, model Atmos du Millenaire Atlantis made circa 1999 sold for £8,000.