Contents of country house in Yorkshire sale

An eclectic and decorative mixture of country house antiques and contemporary art will be coming under the hammer this autumn, when the selected contents of Bell Hall, Naburn, York, will appear in a single-owner sale at Tennants Auctioneers on November 15.  

The collection was put together over several decades, and draws together good period oak furniture, folk art, 19th-century samplers, and Asian art alongside modern and contemporary paintings, ceramics and works of art, many pieces with an animal theme.  

 A late 17th-century joined oak refectory dining table, estimated at £1,000-1,500 is one of a number of good period oak pieces in the sale, a genre of furniture that has been much in the demand at auction recently. Other notable pieces on offer include a late 17th-century geometric-moulded straight-front oak chest of drawers, estimated at £500-700; a late 18th-century joined oak wainscot armchair, estimated at £300-500; and a joined oak wainscot armchair, late 17th/early 18th century, estimated at £300-500. Interesting pieces of vernacular furniture include a late 18th/early 19th century ash and elm-seated stick-back Windsor armchair, probably made in the West Country, with an estimate of £300-500.  

Highlights of the English pottery in the sale include a pair of Staffordshire pottery Disraeli greyhounds made circa 1850, estimated at £200-300; a Spode pearlware Indian sporting series meat dish made circa 1810, estimate of  £300-400; and a selection of interesting 18th-century flower bricks, including an English Delft flower brick made circa 1750, estimated at £300-500.  

Perhaps some of the most charming pictures in the sale are pieces of English folk art, which include Portrait of a Prize Winning White Bullock in the Manner of John Boultbee, and a 20th-century painting by ‘GPJ’ of “Prize Pig Old Tom, Royal Sussex Show, 1865”, estimated at £50-80. From further afield are numerous decorative Chinese School pith paintings of beautifully rendered insects, flowers and spiders, including a set of twenty-two offered with an estimate of £1,500-2,500.  

Alongside a good offering of 19th-century samplers is a Mid-17th century stumpwork picture, depicting a female figure in a cream dress, estimated at £2,000-3,000; and further highlights include a Continental school portrait of G.Vallotier in the late 16th-century style, estimated at £400-600; a 19th-century British school portrait of two young children, with an estimate of £500-800, and a Black Forest carved linden wood bull, cow and calf group made by Johann Huggler in 1910, estimate of £400-600.

Amongst the modern and contemporary pictures in the sale are Christ in the Wilderness, a pencil sketch by Sir Stanley Spencer, estimated at £250-400, Back View by Martin Leman, with an estimate of £150-250 and Donkey Rides on a Shore by William Norman Gaunt, estimated at £100-150. Contemporary ceramics are also on offer, including a tin-glazed earthenware Gypsy Bowl by Alan Caiger-Smith, estimate of £200-300, and raku ceramics by Jennie Hale and Nick Mackman.   

Three good examples of the avian creations of Guy Taplin are also on offer. Created from carved and painted driftwood, Taplin’s shorebirds on offer include a Life-Size Painted Wood Figure of a Heron with an estimate of £1,500-2,000, and Dunlin, estimated at £300-400.