Delftware tiles achieve thousands in Oxfordshire
A selection of 18th and 19th-century Delftware tiles went under the hammer at Oxfordshire auctioneers Mallams’ recent House & Garden Sale and proved popular with bidders.
Various lots included a number of blue and white tiles featuring a selection of religious, oriental and other courtly figures, alongside a a collection of 25 blue and white tiles depicting various animals (including a lion, rhino, deer and squirrel).
The final Delftware lot was a collection of 34 tiles made in Liverpool and featuring manganese decoration. This collection included 20 border tiles with foliate decoration, each measuring 12.5 x 6.5cm, and an additional 14 tiles, each measuring 12.5 x 12.5cm, featuring various figures and landscape scenes. Overall these three lots of tiles made a total hammer price of £10,000.
Furniture also performed strongly and of particular note was a George III Sheraton satinwood demi-lune side table with tulipwood, hare and kingwood inlay, standing 82cm high and 122cm wide. This table had a label underneath detailing its provenance – ‘Formerly the property of The Very Revd. John Merewether, Dean of Hereford, deputy clerk of the Closet to William IV and Chaplain to Queen Adelaide. The Revd. J. Merewether, FSA who was a well-known and enthusiastic antiquary was presented with this table by Queen Adelaide and purchased at his sale held at Madely Hereford by The Revd. T. J. Moore from whose widow the present owner bought it. Exhibited at the Bradford Exhibition.’
The table attracted much interest and it eventually sold to a commission bidder for £4000, four times its low estimate.
Elsewhere in the sale, a cream Howard & Sons armchair and stool with wooden, tapered legs and brass castors, estimated at £2,500-£3,500, sold to an online bidder for a hammer price of £3,800.
A small, late 18th-century Welsh oak cabinet initialled and dated ‘M R 1781’ drew keen interest. The cabinet comprised twin doors above two short and one long drawer, with the doors featuring deeply-fielded ogee arched panels, usually associated with the Llanrwst district of Denbighshire, North Wales. This was previously lot 291 in ‘The Parry Collection’ auction at Christie’s on 24 April 1997. Guided at £1,500-£3,000, an online buyer sealed the deal with a bid of £2,600.
A surprising hit among bidders was a fruitwood farmhouse table with two fitted drawers which sold on commission for £2,600, more than six times its top estimate.
A Verdure tapestry depicting a hunting scene and measuring 238cm tall, sold for considerably higher than its £500-£800 guide, going to an online bidder for £3,200.
Also included in the House & Garden Sale was a collection of miniature flower models by the British sculptor, Beatrice Elizabeth Hindley (1882-1973), whose works are included in the garden of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House in Windsor Castle. A set of three signed Beatrice Hindley miniature model plants – an amaryllis, iris and lily – made from painted tin and turned and painted wooden pots were highly contested and sold online for £1,600 against a guide of £600-£900.