1. Virtuous board game – £1300
Newton’s New Game of Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished for the Amusement of Youth of Both Sexes was published by William Darton of London in 1818. This typical roll-and-move race game was “designed with a view to promoting progressive improvement of the juvenile mind, and to deter them from pursuing the dangerous paths of vice.”
Players begin at the house of corruption, arriving 33 spaces later at the house of virtue. Every space offers a punishment or reward.
This hand-coloured example with its eight-page rule book and original slipcase with the price of six shillings sold via thesaleroom.com for an unexpected £1300 (estimate £60-80) at Aldridges of Bath on August 27.
2. 17th century table casket – £1600
An ebonised wood and alabaster table casket – £1600 at Peter Francis.
Estimated at just £40-60, this ebonised wood and alabaster table casket sold to a bidder using thesaleroom.com for £1600 at Peter Francis of Carmarthen on August 28.
The 12in (30cm) box of architectural form with split pillars and foliate carved arcaded decoration was probably 17th century in date and typical of boxes, made in the alabaster carving workshops of Malines (Mechelen) in northern Belgium.
3. Samuel Prout view of Venice – €2200
A watercolour of The Doge's Palace in Venice by Samuel Prout – €2200 at Mehlis in Germany.
The critic John Ruskin was among the many Victorian admirers of the watercolour painter Samuel Prout (1783-1852). “Sometimes I tire of Turner, but never of Prout,” he wrote in 1844.
Street scenes and cityscapes made his reputation. This typical 10in (26 x 42cm) watercolour of The Doge's Palace in Venice, which Prout painted often, emerged for sale at Mehlis of Plauen, Germany on August 22 with an estimate of just €100-200.
With a label verso for The Fine Art Society dated April 1965, it sold to an online bidder via thesaleroom.com at €2200.
4. LS Lowry lithograph – £6600
‘The Cart’, a LS Lowry print – £6600 at Dawson’s.
This original 21 x 16in (52 cm x 40cm) Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) signed lithograph The Cart is from an edition of 850 printed in Austria by Max Jaffe and published by the Fine Art Trade Guild.
Although the painting is dated 1959, the edition was published in 1972.
Owned by a private local vendor since new and in excellent condition, it sold to an online bidder for £6600 (estimate £2000-3000) at Dawson’s Maidenhead, August 24
5. ‘Brown Bess’ flintlock – £5200
A ‘Brown Bess’ flintlock muzzle-loading musket dated 1759 – £5200 at Huntly Auctions.
Many variations of the ‘Brown Bess’ flintlock muzzle-loading musket were created over its long history. When it was found that shortening the barrel did not detract from accuracy but made handling easier, the Militia (or Marine) Pattern of 1756 with a 3ft 6in (1.01m) barrel proved popular.
This well-preserved example, with possible connections to the Aberdeen militia, is signed and dated to the lock Grice 1759 while the both the brass plate to the butt and the bayonet are marked 1/74.
At Huntly Auctions in Turriff, Aberdeenshire on August 27, it sold to an online bidder at £5200 (estimate £1200-1600).
6. Neapolitan pastoral scene – €9000
A landscape by Antonio Sminck van Pitloo – €9000 at Mehlis in Germany.
This Neapolitan pastoral scene is signed for Antonio Sminck van Pitloo (1791-1837), a prolific Dutch artist and pupil of Hendrik Jan van Ameron who from the 1820s spent much of his career teaching and working in Naples.
The 16 x 20in (39 x 50cm) oil on canvas had been relined and showed areas of retouching.
It took €9000 (estimate €2000-3000) at Mehlis of Plauen, Germany on August 22.
