Most of the jewellery was entered from the deceased estate of a Gloucester owner who had had the pieces made up to her own specifications during the ’50s and ’60s and which included the sale’s best seller – a ring comprising a single brilliant 7.35ct diamond of P1/2 clarity mounted in claws in a rex collet with split raised shoulders.
The ring, stamped Plat, brought both private and trade bidding before selling right on mid estimate at £15,000 to a UK dealer.
The point made by Bearne’s specialist Martin Travis after the Exeter sale reported on these pages about ‘wearability’ being seen as of prime importance seemed to be underlined at Oxford.
But Mr Lloyd also saw the interest in an Art Deco piece as less of a style statement and more of a pragmatic purchase.
“Lots of diamonds for your money” he said of the brooch-cum-clips with two centre gems flanked by six others and a total weight of around 8ct., which took a mid-estimate £5200 from the trade.
Back on more familiar territory for the trade, although still something of a specialist area, was the early-ish oak on offer.
Mr Lloyd believes Oxford and the surrounding areas to be one of the best locations in the country for selling such pieces and it was no real surprise when a couple of dresser bases went considerably above his estimates.
He described the smaller of the two at 5ft 1in (1.55m) wide, which came from a private house near Wallingford, as “one of the nicest dresser bases we have ever sold”.
With a rectangular moulded top and three fitted long drawers, the dresser with crossbanded decoration, brass handles and escutcheon and shaped apron with flowerhead decoration with cabriole legs and fluted pad feet, was in “prime saleroom condition” and brought £9400 from the trade.
The finale to the sale was 15 lots of architectural stonework from the estate of the eminent photographer J.W. Thomas.
Renowned for his classic views of the ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford, Mr Thomas, who also undertook saleroom photography for Mallams, died three years ago and left as a legacy these broken pieces of masonry which he rescued from various demolished buildings in the city in order to photograph them.
All went above estimate and the top seller from the collection was a 17th century carved limestone gargoyle, 19in (48cm) high, in the form of a grotesque creature with its hand in its mouth, which took £580.
The bulk of the collection fell to a local private buyer who intended to place the pieces in his garden.
Mallams, Oxford, February 28
Number of lots: 475
Number of lots sold: N/A
Sale total: £156,000
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent
Oxford success is underpinned by fine rocks and solid oak
UK: IN THE second of the Oxford auctioneers’ regular monthly sales the focus was largely on jewellery reflecting auctioneer Benjamin Lloyd’s belief in the increasing numbers of private clients or ‘impulse buyers’ who may come to the saleroom looking for a mahogany sideboard and leave with a diamond ring.
