Illustrated here, the 5ft 9in high by 5ft 5in wide (1.75 x 1.65m) cupboard was consigned to the sale from a local deceased estate.
The cupboard comprised an overhanging frieze with turned knob pendants carved with scrolling foliage centred by an ownership triad WCA and dated 1685. Attached to the inside door was the identifying ownership triad initials of William Charnock and his wife Alice, married at Broughton Parish Church, Kirkham, on 21st November 1685.
Fresh-to-market appeal together with the fine patination and original condition of the chest encouraged interest from the trade. Commission bids were left and several telephone were booked, but it was a dealer in the room who took it to £10,500.
Earlier in the section came a Charles II one-piece oak court cupboard standing 5ft 1in tall by 6ft 1in wide (1.55m x 1.85m). With an overhanging carved frieze with turned knob pendants above a central panel carved with ownership initials IN and dated 1678, the cupboard was discovered by the cataloguer of the sale, Michael Finlay, in a chicken shed where it had been for the past 40 years.
Although the cupboard appeared to be rather distressed, the original wood and pegs were apparent, ready to be restored by the southern dealer who went way beyond the £1000-1500 estimate to win the cupboard at £5200.
Entered into the sale from a local farmhouse was an 18th century oak press cupboard in two stages.
It comprised an upper section with a moulded cornice above double doors each with two fielded panels enclosing (modern) pine shelves, and a lower stage with two short and one long drawer with later brass handles and engraved brass escutcheons. This piece brought £1800 from the trade.
Other pieces in the 99-lot furniture section provided the rest of the top selling entries.
A later piece of oak also did well. This was a 3ft 9in (1.14m) high dresser with a three-planked moulded-edge top, three central drawers with swan-necked bale handles and two cupboards with fielded panelled doors with brass drop handles. Standing on bracket feet it attracted £2400.
Two George III mahogany offerings took the other leading furniture prices. One was a bureau with a sloping front enclosing a fitted interior of drawers and pigeonholes flanking a central cupboard, with turned columns concealing drawers above four long drawers with later brass handles took £1700. The other, a bureau bookcase, standing 7ft high by 1ft 10in wide (2.13m x 56cm) went above estimate at £1550.
Pick of the silver was George III egg cruet for six eggs which comprised a frame with shell acanthus borders on tapering pilaster supports and four scroll feet, together with a handle of acanthus scroll form with a flowerhead finial engraved with a crest engraved a falcon belled. Assayed to London 1808 and carrying the makers’ marks for Rebecca Emes and Edward Barnard, the 37oz cruet took £1100 from the trade.
A collection of netsukes brought back from Japan in the late 19th century were entered in to the sale by a local vendor. Top selling entry was a signed 19th century ivory example depicting a spider on fungi at £200.
Penrith Farmer’s & Kidd’s PLC, Penrith, March 31
Buyer’s premium: 11.75 per cent
Early oak fresh on the market attracts trade’s strongest bidding
Carolean court cupboard emerges from Cumbrian chicken shed UK: EARLY oak furniture attracted the higher prices at the quarterly sale ‘Antiques and Collectors’ sale at the Skirsgill Salerooms in Cumbria where the most valuable lot was a James II one-piece oak court cupboard.
