A Ruskin Pottery vase, c.1920s, is estimated at £1200-1800 in Hartleys’ sale in Ilkley on March 21.
The 13¾in (35cm) high piece, impressed twice with the maker’s mark, is decorated in mottled lavender over a sang de boeuf glaze with green copper spotting.
Ewbank’s of Surrey will offer a collection of around 50 pictures, mostly depicting views of the village of Shere and the Surrey Hills, in an auction on March 22.
The single-owner collection, which comprises mainly oils and watercolours, was put together by Stephen Furniss between 1982-2000, when he traded from an antiques centre in Shere. The top-valued lot is this 12 x 9in (31 x 23cm) oil on canvas above by British painter Benjamin Williams Leader (1831-1923).
Titled Surrey Pines, it depicts the surrounding trees of the artist’s studio at his home, Burrow’s Cross in Gomshall, and was a study for his Royal Academy exhibit the following year. The painting is signed and dates to 1915. Estimate £400-600.
The fashion for memento mori jewellery, such as the example pictured above, is said to have begun after the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Supporters of the Stuart cause wore a token of remembrance to their martyred monarch, discreetly concealed on their person.
After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, such Stuart ‘death jewels’ were openly worn and acted as a catalyst for the popularity of wearing memento mori jewellery to commemorate a deceased loved one or as a reminder of the fragility of life.
The cypher or monogram within this pendant possibly reads RAAR, a reference perhaps to the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, who died in 1714.
Painted with various devices or symbols of mortality and erstwhile earthly power, it is estimated at £1500-2000 in Lyon & Turnbull’s jewellery, watches, coins and silver sale in Edinburgh on March 13.
lyonandturnbull.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Created by the English artist Mary Tourtel (1874-1948), the children’s character Rupert Bear first appeared as a cartoon strip in the Daily Express newspaper in 1920, in an attempt to win sales from rival Daily Mail.
It became a popular addition to and in 1936, under new artist and storyteller Alfred Bestall, the paper released the first Rupert annual titled The New Adventures of Rupert.
A copy of the inaugural annual in its original dust jacket will go under the hammer at Bamfords in Derby in a two-day sale on March 14-15.
Estimated at £1500-2000, the book comes with an ink inscription to the endpaper of the book’s original owner, a Pamela M Davie of Grangetown, Cardiff, and is accompanied by a photograph of the young Pamela as a girl before her father’s shop.
bamfords-auctions.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
