Period oak shines in North Yorkshire

Period oak and pieces of vernacular furniture was much in demand at a recent sale in North Yorkshire. Tennants Auctioneers’ Country House Sale offered a range of well-patinated examples, reporting many achieved well above pre-sale estimates.

Notable prices were secured for the likes of a primitive oak stick-back armchair with three legs, most likely made in the West Country in the late 18th or early 19th century, which sold for a hammer of £2,700.  A further West Country chair from the same era, which had an ash comb back, sold well, too, at £1,800. 

On offer in the sale, too, was the David and Hilary Hide Collection of Treen and Metalware, which achieved a total hammer price of £8,610 for the 49 lots. Highlights of the collection included a group of sail and ropemaking Tools, which sold for £200, and a pair of George III carved and turned mahogany candlesticks and a pair of olive wood ‘Brighton Bun’ travelling candlesticks, which sold for £380. 

Good decorative furnishing pieces attracted good levels of bidding, with highlights such as a Northern European polychromed bureau from the late 19th or early 20th century, which sold for £1,400; a brass-mounted coopered oak naval rum tub, which fetched £1,900; a ship-type bulk head striking wall clock, made circa 1890 by J Dimmick of West Cowes, which sold for £1,700; and a pair of Victorian glass pharmacy shop display jars and covers, which commanded £1,100. 

Among the Asian ceramics in the sale, strong prices were achieved for a Chinese porcelain vase from the late Qing Dynasty, which sold for £3,000; a Chinese porcelain dish from the Kangxi Dynasty fetched £1,700, and a pair of Chinese porcelain bowls, with Qianlong reign marks but not of the period sold for £1,300.

Good European ceramics included a Spode pearlware comport made circa 1820 and decorated with the “Hunting a Buffalo” pattern, which sold for £650; a Worcester spoon tray made circa 1770, selling for £400; and a Dutch Delft lobed dish or ‘Buckelplatte’ from the early 18th century, which achieved a hammer of £400. 

Pictures sold well throughout, with top prices achieved for the likes of a mythological work on paper by Mauritius Lowe (1746-1793), which sold for £4,200; Sunday Afternoon by William Henry Hunt (1790-1864), which sold for £2,000, and a 19th-century Allegory of Poetry by M Cordazzi after Carlo Dolci, which sold for £1,700.