The multi-estimate sum was all the more fortuitous given that the rowing club was a victim of the Herefordshire floods and under water on the day of the sale.
The table, however, had escaped this fate having been consigned to the recently-opened Easters Court auction rooms before disaster struck.
The oak dining or boardroom table was in Aesthetic style with five turned and fluted columns and a rosette-carved cruciform base.
Rather than a Robert Jupe-type mechanism, this table expanded to 9ft 3in (2.82m) across with the addition of four crescent-shaped leaves supported by pull-out lugs.
Apart from commission bids, there were 11 contesting telephone bidders attracted by the £3000-5000 estimate. It sold to the London trade at £66,000.
“For years we have been sitting around that table talking about how to raise £100,000 to upgrade the building,” a club spokesperson told the local press after the sale.
Much of what remained fell into the category of ‘period standards’, but there was a bid of £1320 for a Victorian duet stool (always a popular form) with four turned supports and a rise and fall mechanism stamped for H. Brooks and Co.
Also a predictable favourite was a pair of 19th century painted pine dummy boards sold at £2800. They were commercially sized at 3ft 6in (1.07m), attractively painted with a young girl in 17th century costume holding a fan and a young boy holding a cat in his wide brimmed hat and attractively estimated at £1500-2000.
The unexpected highlight among the ceramics was a damaged Beswick figure group of a dappled grey mare ridden by a huntsman in a red jacket together with a fox and foxhounds that sold at £680 (estimate £90-120).
Leading the silver and plate was a Victorian oak and EPNS mounted spirit stand of three barrels for whisky, gin and brandy each with an engraved label, a tap and a hanging bucket.
Measuring 15in (38cm) across, this is just the sort of unusual and decorative novelty to buck against an otherwise pedestrian market for electroplate. Estimated at £300-500, it sold to one of several telephone bidders at £1320.
Brightwells, Leominster, February 5
Buyer’s Premium: 15% premium
Saved from the deluge, a £66,000 expanding table
Proving once again that radially-expanding tables are among the most practical and the most coveted pieces of Victorian furniture, the Hereford Rowing Club received an unexpected cash windfall when their often misused clubroom table sold at Brightwells in early February.
