West Midlands

The value of toy trains is rarely tied to world events, but this Märklin 00 gauge replica of a London Midland and Scottish railway locomotive was manufactured by the German toy firm for export to Britain in 1938.

FLOOD waters threatened to sink a £1m antiques emporium just weeks after its official launch. The flowing lines of antique and interior design dealers Mansers’ new showroom on the outskirts of Shrewsbury echo those of an ocean liner, but Mother Nature added the final touch when the River Severn burst its banks last Tuesday, leaving the new building seemingly afloat in the turbid waters around the historic Shropshire county town.

THIS first sale of the new year at the Staffordshire rooms Richard Winterton attracted a number of new buyers who were all in the area for the LAPADA fair at the nearby Birmingham NEC.

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.

THE Midlands branch of Bonhams is the clearing house for all sewing pieces offered to the empire’s rooms and showed its worth at this specialist sale on 13 December.

IT was apparent on the second day of the first major fair of the year, The LAPADA Antiques and Fine Art Fair which opened at Birmingham’s NEC on January 16, that there is no marked upturn in business following a despondent 2001.

THIS was the second sale for the West Midlands firm Fieldings Auctioneers who got off to a tough start by holding their first sale in October when the market was reacting to the September 11 attacks.

COUNTRYWIDE hints that there may be some lift to the general silver market got a further boost at this Staffordshire sale on 28-29 November at Wintertons where one of the main sections comprised 13 silver lots, of which 90 per cent sold to both trade and private bidders with Christmas in mind.

Jewellery is a classic Christmas seller and, combined with the current demand for Art Nouveau this hallmarked silver Charles Horner pendant, right, was always a likely seller.

The inaugural specialist sale of some 350 character jugs at the Stoke on Trent ceramics auctioneers Potteries Specialist Auction (12.5% buyer’s premium) on November 17 was, said the auctioneers, a great success with specialist UK dealers and collectors flocking to the Cobridge rooms.

George Jones majolica continues to be extraordinarily popular with buyers, both trade and private. Some damage to a George Jones cheese dish and cover offered in Birmingham at Biddle & Webb saw it estimated at £300-500 so it came as rather a surprise when it soared above this.

“In light of the current situation...” this is, understandably, now a well-worn phrase in provincial salerooms and Roger Williams was yet another auctioneer to utter them after his October sale on 10-11 October at Brightwells, Leominster.

Uncertain of just how widespread a reaction they would receive on the lot, Walker Barnett & Hill of Shropshire estimated this rare pair of 19th Century Japanese Carved Wood & Ivory Figures of two young boys, one with a hobby horse, the other playing a flute, measuring 10in (25cm) high, conservatively at £500-700.

THE trade’s fears that the events of September 11 would usher in the long expected recession with a collapse in international bidding were allayed here in Herefordshire at Brightwells on 12-13 September.

THIS week sees the announcement of two new auction houses for the West Midlands, the first based in Stourbridge, near Birmingham, the second in Newport, Shropshire.

Good stock furniture attracted bidders to the first of these Staffordshire August sales on 15 August at Richard Wintertons, the best being a George III mahogany sofa table.

FAIRLY routine furniture and modest pictures predictably took most of the higher prices at this Brightwells 850-lot sale in Herefordshire on 15-16 August but a couple of unusual items among the silver and the objets d’art were the eye-catchers.

THE two-day Staffordshire sale at Wintertons on 25-26 July was, at just under 800 lots, not perhaps quite a giant sale but it certainly covered the range of lower and middle-priced antiques.

SPECIALIST collectors and dealers don’t seem to have a closed season, certainly not in the arms and armour world and they turned up in strength at Weller & Dufty in Birmingham on 25 July.

A MIX of modest standard furniture and collectable ceramics hardly seemed a formula for success in mid-summer but the mix at Fellows (buyer’s premium 15%) attracted a full house at Birmingham on July 10.