Bath

A Rolex watch that was bought in 1966 for £69.10 has sold at auction for £140,000. The rare Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner stainless steel model is highly desired by collectors due to its 3-6-9 Explorer dial.

A rare Rolex Submariner took a record £160,000 plus buyer’s premium at a Gardiner Houlgate sale in Wiltshire on May 25.

John Wood the Elder’s (1704-54) set of drawing instruments were offered at Clevedon Auction Rooms earlier this month and were bought by the Bath Preservation Trust for £21,000.

Bath auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium) set a new house record on March 12 with the sale of a guitar by the celebrated French luthier Jean-Baptiste Voboam (1658-after 1731) for £120,000.

It turns out that a pair of three-foot pricket candlesticks, an advertising sign and a heavy convex mirror are not the easiest things to transport with only two hands on the London Underground at rush hour. In fact, the kindness of strangers becomes crucial.

There was a great deal of international interest, particularly from institutions, when this five-course baroque guitar by Matteo Sellas of Venice, from the second quarter of the 17th century, was offered at Gardiner Houlgate’s September 19-20 sale in Bath.

Last month, we reported on Sue Ede’s purchase of The Bath Decorative Antiques Fair from Robin Coleman, the Bath-based dealer who has organised the event for the past 23 years.

Sue Ede has acquired ‘The Bath Decorative Antiques Fair’ from Robin Coleman, the Bath-based dealer who has organised the event for the past 23 years.

AT the end of March, the Bath and Bradford on Avon Antique Dealers’ Association will cease operations. Members will join in the launch of the new West of England Antique Dealers’ Association.

A Stradivari violin, which has been played in concert halls all over the world, is being offered for sale by Corsham-based auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate in London on November 6.

The highlight of the two-day sale of clocks and watches conducted by Gardiner Houlgate of Corsham, near Bath on October 19-20 was this rare 17th century coach or clockwatch consigned by a Bristol family who had owned it for at least a century. Measuring 31/2in (9cm) across, it is shown here a little over life-size.

JOHN Haslam’s Illustrations of Madness of 1810, the first book-length account of a single psychiatric case and a classic of the early literature in this field, was inspired by the case of James Tilly Matthews, a London tea merchant who undertook a self-styled peace mission between France and England in 1793.

HAVING sold her four-storey town house on The Circus, one of Bath’s most prestigious Georgian streets, Dr Teri McGovern announced: “I’m on the move. I came with two suitcases and I’m moving out with two.”

SMALL, original and honest – these classic qualities took a 2ft 5in x 2ft 6 1/2in (74x 77cm) George I walnut chest to the top of the sales chart at Aldridges’ (15% buyer's premium) 344-lot May 25 sale where it took £3100.

FOLLOWING relegation, the on-running saga of Leeds United’s finances no doubt will mean that the club will end up selling more of their players over the summer. However, spare a thought for Crouch End Vampires F.C., one of the longest established amateur football clubs, that literally ended up selling the family silver at Bonhams Bath (17.5% buyer premium) back on March 15.

THE opening map and atlas section of the Bonhams Bath sale of April 26 included a copy in rebacked contemporary calf of the first and only published volume of the 1675 first edition of John Ogilby’s Britannia with its general map and 100 engraved strip road maps, at £7000.

ALDRIDGE’S (15% buyer's premium) are yet to be convinced of the marketing powers of the Internet (they have no website and no e-mail) but specialist Ivan Street’s belief that “on-line sale catalogues do not improve prices” was given weight when a collector tendered a punchy £7100 for a large Victorian doll’s house with pre-sale hopes of £2000-3000 at their March 30 outing.

ONE of the hottest Modern British names in the last few years, has been Winifrid Nicholson (1893-1981), whose half-length portrait of her husband Ben Nicholson made a record £100,000 at Lawrence’s, Crewkerne in January 2002.

MARCH is bursting with smart, large and prestigious fairs. But, while neither massive nor flashy, the favourite of many in the trade is the Bath Decorative and Antiques Fair, the 15th of which will be staged in the Pavilion, North Parade, Bath from March 3 to 6.

TALISMAN Fairs would like to point out that they are pressing ahead with all their dates in both Bristol and Bath.