Topping the day was a platinum claw-set three-stone diamond ring offered together with a platinum D-shaped wedding ring and another similar. Unsurprisingly, the three rings took £2000.
Of much more interest to most of the buyers was the success found by an early 19th century painted wooden toy ark, which had come from a local West Midlands house, Cradly Heath, where it had been stored on top of a wardrobe for many years.
It was decorated with a floral frieze, windows and a sliding compartment containing four naive figures wearing painted blue and red robes and hats and 73 carved and painted wooden animals including 28 pairs. Despite some wear to the ark and minor losses to some of the animals, the ark exceeded hopes of up to £600 to take £1850 from one of three private telephone bidders.
Among the works of art, tea caddies were popular with buyers. The best price of the four offered was taken by a Regency sarcophagus-shaped example with clipped corners and a shaped lid at £1400.
Best of the ceramics and glass was a large floor-standing Vaseline fluted vase. The 2ft 11in (89cm) high vessel got away at £1350.
Moorcroft is a perennial strong seller and at Hagley a Cornflower pattern shallow gourd vase, 8in (20cm) high, with a green painted signature to the base, made £620.
There were no major successes in the furniture which consisted largely of three-figure standard stock pieces. Best of the section was a Georgian mahogany chest of drawers of small proportions which was knocked down to a telephone bidder at £1200.
The surprise success of the day was the interest in a red leather-bound postcard album containing 21 motorsport related postcards including 19 various Isle of Man TT motorcyclists and race studies from the 1913 TT – the first year the race was held on that course.
From a private source in Birmingham, the postcards were estimated at £40-60 but were contested to £500 by a determined collector who specialised in TT memorabilia.
Fieldings, Stourbridge, January 12. Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per cent
Painted Ark floats to triple estimate
This was a busy sale at the Hagley community hall for Fieldings on 12 January with a good crosssection of material on offer attracting a good mixture of trade and private buyers.
