At Cheffins’ September sale a 1930s Pomegranate pattern vase, a 12in (30cm) tall cylindrical bowl with flared rim, had suffered from the foot having been ground flat eliminating the mark and leaving only a trace of the signature. Given Moorcroft’s popularity, it still carried a £500-800 estimate but even this was an under-estimate and the vase sold at £1500 to the trade.
Much more obvious damage was evident on a c.1760 Worcester creamboat – the 41/4in (11cm) piece on a lozenge foot was cracked in half and had been reglued – hence the £200-300 estimate.
Nevertheless it was a pretty piece with an angular handle and sides painted in blue with a fisherman on rockwork and a figure on a bridge.
More than one bidder plainly thought it could be properly repaired and it went to a Worcester specialist dealer at £1900.
As is so often the case, Oriental ceramics saw some bids way over expectations, in this case two small Satsuma pieces. First up was a Yabu Meizan dish, 4in (10.5cm) diameter with a painted procession of daimyo. In pristine condition it quadrupled the top estimate taking a trade bid of £2000.
There followed a Kizan bowl, 41/2in (11.5cm) diameter, painted with minute butterflies to the interior and wisteria to the exterior. This tea ceremony piece was of interest to a London specialist but he was beaten by a newcomer to the rooms who took it at a double-estimate £1200.
Lalique glass has been making a comeback in recent months and although it had a chip to the foot there was keen interest in a 91/2in (24cm) Perruches, moulded and frosted vase decorated with budgies and engraved to the base R.Lalique France No. 905. One might think Lalique is an obvious target for French buyers but, with the exchange rate as it is, this seldom seems to be. It was here though and – against a £600 top estimate the vase went to a French dealer at £2000.
More overseas interest, this time from an American on the phone, was aroused by the familiar Copeland Crystal Palace Art Union Parian bust of The Bride after Raphael Monti. The 3ft (92cm) figure was very modestly estimated at up to £250. Some thought the socle was not a match but there were no such doubts on the day and the bride took £1700.
Sculpture proper came in the form of a 19th century Italian white marble group of a seated boy and a girl reaching towards a dead bird among strewn flowers. Entered by a local family downsizing, the 5ft tall group on mahogany plinth carried no signature but, despite the presence of death – not the attraction it is today as back in Victorian times – it was, said the auctioneers, a “pretty piece” and it went to a local private buyer at a triple-estimate £3000.
Rather unusually, there were no major furniture lots at Cambridge but there were enough stock pieces to keep the trade happy and a number of pieces from a local deceased estate, two of which appeared to go to friends of the late owner.
One was a late Victorian mahogany and satinwood banded bureau bookcase in the Sheraton Revival style with glazed doors above a fall inlaid with ribbon swags, enclosing a fitted interior, all above four long graduated drawers. It went within estimate at £2300.The other was a 4ft 51/2in 1.36m) wide William IV rosewood library table which went below estimate at £1200.
One of the more interesting pieces among the silver was a Storr corkscrew, but there was also some enthusiasm among trade buyers for more familiar material which has been so slow in the last few year as to go for prices little above those in silver’s Seventies heyday.
A cake basket by Robert Hemmell, London 1806, was, at 141/4in (56cm) diameter and 311/2oz a particularly large example. Of navette form, it was also particularly attractive with an engraved and slot-pierced border within beaded edge, a reeded bail handle and a beaded and slot-pierced oval foot. Estimated at up to £1000 it went at £1500.
Coffee pots, even attractive pieces like the London 1773 example offered here have been hard to sell for some time. It was therefore a cause for satisfaction that this 10in (25cm) baluster form example, probably by John Schofield, with foliate based spout and wrythen finial to its cover, got away within estimate at £1550.
Cheffins, Cambridge,
September 13
Number of lots: 1500
Number of lots sold: n/a
Sale total: £240,000
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent
Damage limitations are vanishing as Moorcroft rises
THE degree of demand for any type of ceramics can be gauged by the amount of damage buyers will tolerate – once it was only the rarest of early pieces where condition was not paramount, then this began to be true of 19th century majolica and now, apparently it is beginning to be the case when it comes to Moorcroft.
