The highlight was an 18th century oak dresser base that sold to the local trade at £2900 while a Somerset dealer in the room outbid two telephone buyers for an Arts and Crafts oak armchair, based on a design attributed to E.G. Punnet for William Birch.
With an ebonised Art Nouveau motif to the rush-woven back panels, it had a rush work seat. Although the rush work needed some attention and there was an old repair to the front seat rail, it brought £2000.
A £1300 commission bid from specialist dealers in Kent secured a Charles Eames leather swivel chair (with worn upholstery and one detached arm) and matching stool. Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture also sold easily.
A Cotswolds dealer on the telephone secured a refectory table at £1050 and a pair of X-frame chairs (one with damage) at £1150 – a decent return on capital for the vendor who bought the suite at a Devon auction 40 years ago for £50. The Arts and Crafts-loving Somerset dealer was the winner on a set of four oak ‘Mouseman’ stools which went at £1500.
A miscatalogued chest caused a bit of a stir when an 18th century Italian chest turned out to be a possible 17/18th century Portuguese example. It brought £920 from a Portuguese bidder. Three multiple lots of Portuguese Palissy-style plaques also generated international interest – this time from America. An American bidder vied with a Cotswolds buyer on the telephone before both were outbid by a local specialist dealer in the room who secured all 14 pieces in three lots at a total £3950.
Michael J. Bowman, Newton Abbot, Devon, October 13
Buyer’s premium: 10 per cent
The Arts and Crafts of Christmas-stocking
Although there has been talk of the furniture trade holding back at auction, dealers may now be looking to buy stock in the run-up to Christmas and the trade secured almost all of the top furniture entries in Michael J. Bowman’s 489-lot sale on 13 October.
