Aphrodite was a favoured subject for Woodall and featured in variations across a number of other plaques and vases.
In the Thomas Webb & Sons inventory there are references to two other Aphrodite plaques. Woodall was paid £120 for an 11in (28cm) plaque charger (later sold by Webb at £400) and £30 for another sold for £95.
Fieldings’ fully signed and well documented example, measuring just over 8in (21cm) across and worked in opal, blue and red glass, is understood to have been completed c.1920.
It was previously owned by Woodall’s daughter Alice and came by descent to his great-grandsons who were in the room to watch it sell.
Will Farmer of Fieldings said the plaque, previously on display at Broadfield House and more recently at Himley Hall, Dudley, had been within two miles of Stourbridge all of its life. He described its sale as “the pinnacle of 16 years of specialist glass sales and an absolute career highlight”.
The winning UK bidder, on commission, tendered a robust price in the middle of Fieldings’ estimate at the auction on January 6.
By way of comparison, two versions of a 9½in (24cm) vase, decorated in white on claret with a scene titled The Origin of Painting, have appeared on the market in recent years.
The example signed and dated 1887, from the Ernest and Karin Rieger collection, took $260,000 (£161,000) at Woody Auction’s sale in Wichita, Kansas in May 2015. Another undated version of the same vase sold for £100,000 at Bonhams in May 2016.
Fieldings set a new house record last September when Emanuele Caroni’s (1826- 1876) marble sculpture of cupid taming the lion sold at £91,000.
The buyer's premium at Fieldings was 24% premium.
