A strong furniture section yielded some strong results including the sale’s top seller – the William IV mahogany breakfast table illustrated on this page. The quality of the work coupled with the attractive crossbanded 4ft 6in (1.37m) diameter tilt top with radiating panelled design appealed to buyers, as, perhaps, had the £1500-2000 estimate, and three telephone rivals fought it out until a South of England dealer triumphed at £6200.
Following this success was a George III mahogany bureau bookcase with dentil cornice above a pair of solid panelled doors enclosing three adjustable shelves. With ink cupboard, interior drawers and pigeon holes to the bureau above four crossbanded drawers with oval escutcheons and loop handles, the bureau 7ft 5in by 3ft 8in (2.27 x 1.11m) piece brought a top estimate £2200.
Elsewhere in a strong section was a Victorian piano-top walnut davenport. It featured the usual rising back fitted with interior drawers and pigeonholes, and enclosing two interior drawers and pull- out writing slide with scroll supports and carved with leafage and seemed realistically estimated in today’s market at £650-850. It took what seems a currently very strong £1700.
Among the ceramics collectable Macintyre Moorcroft Florian ware, not surprisingly, led the way. A pair of trumpet design coffee cups with tubelined poppy decoration in shades of blue and with brown printed factory marks and green painted WM monograms brought £620. A Moorcroft Pomegranate pattern bowl, 8in (21cm) diameter brought £520.
T.G. Green & Co. Cornish ware, as has been recorded in Dealers’ Diary, is increasingly collectable and raised a lot of interest here.
Best price among the kitchenware came on a lot comprising labelled flour, sugar, tea, coffee and sultana jars and covers which saw off a £70-100 estimate to bring £300.
Greenslade Taylor Hunt, Taunton,
February 22
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent
Hard bargaining in front of the TV cameras
UK: THE arrival of the BBC at the Somerset auctioneers to film Bargain Hunt attracted a larger than usual crowd to this 670-lot dispersal but it appears bargain hunters had a hard time of it.
