Furniture

A walnut secretaire cabinet by Peter Waals (1870-1937) has sold for £34,000 at Bearne Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter.

In May actor Michael Sheen starred in a BBC Wales TV adaptation of ‘Under Milk Wood’ and has taken part in several Dylan Thomas tributes in this centenary year of the poet’s birth.

This George III neoclassical style mahogany serving table was entered for sale at Nesbits in Southsea from a church in Portsea to raise funds for repairs. It is thought the table was given to them to replace the altar table destroyed by bomb damage.

This Egyptian revival medal cabinet, considered one of the finest pieces of French Empire furniture in Britain, has been ‘saved for the nation’ after a campaign by the Victoria & Albert Museum was successful in raising £534,000.

Britain may not have the same high-profile post-War design tradition as countries like Italy or Denmark (and its products do not command such high prices in the marketplace) but the period was a fertile and creative one which saw a number of talented designers and manufacturers produce a distinctive look.

Chichester firm Stride & Sons included two fine Georgian miniatures in their latest sale.

A recent sale at Bamfords of Derby included two outstanding pieces of Chippendale period rococo furniture, both consigned by a local lady who had inherited them from her father.

Born near Loughborough into a family of tenant farmers, Robert Bakewell (1725-95) is recognised as an important figure in the Agricultural Revolution – a pioneer of the grassland irrigation he saw while travelling in Europe and an innovator in the selective breeding of livestock.

An Arts & Crafts dining room suite made by the prominent Manchester designer Edgar Wood has sold for £42,000 at Gardiner Houlgate of Corsham near Bath.

For a cast-iron sign that spring has brought a resurgence in the garden look to the results of the recent biannual sale of garden design at Summers Place Auctions where Coalbrookdale seats were back in the limelight.

Mossgreen will be offering one of the most talked about items of the year at their forthcoming sale in Melbourne. The auction will feature this elaborately carved and inlaid cradle made for Princess Helena, Queen Victoria’s fifth child.

Mystery surrounds the origin of a maple cabinet designed by Edward William Godwin and painted by James Abbott McNeill Whistler which has been bought by National Museums Scotland (NMS).

This 21in (54cm) wide ‘Indo-Portuguese’ ivory inlaid hardwood fall front cabinet sold for an extraordinary £43,000 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

Located in the village of Kimacolm, close to the Firth of Clyde and 20 miles west of Glasgow, is Windyhill, one of only three houses built by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The uncompromising Danish furniture designer/carpenter Peder Moos (1906-91) carefully hand-crafted virtually all his distinctive furniture.

Eighty lots from a local estate ensured a flying start to Mallams’ recent sale in Oxford and provided an insight into the taste and interests of a collector buying 60 years ago.

A packed saleroom and a continuous barrage of phone bids combined to ensure a near sell-out, multi-estimate result at Sotheby’s in Paris for their three-session auction (in association with Artcurial) of the collection of Félix Marcilhac.

First seen by auctioneers Capes Dunn in 1987 during an insurance valuation, this pietra-dura table has now been consigned to their next sale.

This 19th century French ormolu-mounted boulle side cabinet is attributed to the Paris-based ébéniste-marqueteur Mathieu Befort (1813-80).

There are very few positives to take from the latest findings of The Antique Collectors’ Club’s Annual Furniture Index (AFI). For reasons of fashion and function, the English antique furniture market remains in a parlous state and no category from early oak to Georgian mahogany held firm.