Glasses

UK auctioneer hails successful sale offering attractive investments to buyers worldwide

For reasons of both supply and economics not every collector of English 18th century drinking glasses gets to own a piece from the great Beilby enamelling workshop that operated at Amen Corner in Newcastle in the 1760s-70s.

A set of remarkable wine glasses that had remained in the same family since the 18th century was one of the highlights among quality items in two sales.

Although catalogued simply as ‘a 19th century Art Nouveau glass’ and estimated at just £30-50, a letter that accompanied this rare wine glass gave a clue to its origins.

British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorabilia in the form of slippers, brandy balloon and cigar box.

Jeffrey S Evans’ spring sale of 18th and 19th century glassware and lighting takes place in Mount Crawford, Virginia. It includes a collection of more than 100 18th and 19th century English drinking glasses, to be offered unreserved on May 20.

A rare contrast to the Jacobite glass which has served Edinburgh auction house Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) so well was a large mid-18th century goblet with a wheel engraved portrait of the victor of Culloden. It was inscribed 'His Royal Highness William Duke Of Cumberland'.

More reliable today than they ever were in their lifetime, the male line of the Stuarts attracted the familiar devoted following at the annual Scottish Silver & Applied Arts sale at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium).

Jackson’s of Cedar Falls, Iowa, has a reputation for selling Russian works of art. Its sale on July 30 will include 19 lots from the collection of William Garner Welbon (1866-1960) that have remained with his family.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

A valuation day find for Kingham & Orme (20% buyer’s premium), this Dutch-engraved East India Company baluster goblet c.1760, took a multi-estimate £7500 in Evesham.

Dealers Delomosne & Son are opening an exhibition of English baluster glasses this month.

The highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s sale of Scottish Silver & Applied Arts on August 16 was a Jacobite drinking glass with a difference.