It is not surprising that when Sarah Grizeal Garden Tetley-Jones (1916-2011) left Shanghai at the outbreak of The Battle of Shanghai in 1937 she salvaged a Chinese teapot.
Part of the ‘Tetley Tea’ dynasty, she had moved to China with her brother, Tetley Ironside Tetley-Jones. He inherited the company at the age of 25 from their father, William Tetley-Jones, and was later instrumental in introducing the teabag to Britain in 1953.
The 5in (12cm) high teapot with an original wire-work handle was inherited by the granddaughter of Tetley-Jones who has consigned it with other items to Plymouth Auction Rooms’ February 15 sale. Of cube form, the late 19th century porcelain teapot dates to the late Qing Dynasty and is decorated with a landscape and figurative scene. It also features a script of 29 character marks and red marks.
Estimate £500
The second instalment of the Rangeley collection of scales, weights and measures will feature in Tennants’ Scientific Instruments, Cameras and Tools auction on February 17 in Leyburn. The North Yorkshire auction house first offered the collection in 1994.
This second instalment comprises around 60 lots of mostly postal scales dating to the Victorian era and ranging in styles from the utilitarian to the decorative. Included is this set of domestic postal scales with a Sèvres-style painted porcelain panel, sold together with a matching box.
Estimate £250-350.
A top hat worn by the famous Burslem potter William Moorcroft is going under the hammer at Hansons on February 21 in Etwall, Derbyshire.
It is part of a collection consigned by Moorcroft’s grandson to include personal items, prototypes and photographic plate slides recording the design ranges and output of the Moorcroft factory and William Moorcroft’s previous factory of James MacIntyre.
Stored in a chest of drawers for many years, the black silk hat is said to have been worn by Moorcroft in the 1920s and ’30s. Estimate £100-200.
Following a buoyant inaugural sale of vintage and antique toys at Mitchells last year, the Cockermouth auction house has planned two more sales for 2017, to be held in February and July.
A notable entry to the February 18 auction is this boxed vintage Denys Fisher Dr Who Tardis model, with an estimate of £40-60. By spinning the lamp on the top and pressing the green or red buttons, a rotating device inside makes the doctor figure disappear and reappear.
