The Bristol firm has been run by Colin Scull since the retirement of his predecessor Rob Mills in 2003.
Scull has been in the business since 1987 when he joined the Bristol firm as a restorer of stained glass windows.
But now it is Scull's turn to retire and the remaining stock from the firm was offered at auction at Wellers (18% buyer’s premium) of Guildford.
Due to the coronavirus alert the event moved from a planned live auction to an online-only sale on April 15-16. The 1200 lots were to remain stored in Mills’ warehouse in Eastville, Bristol, and delivery or collection then safely arranged.
Commanding one of the day’s top prices was a large sandstone reredos – an ornamental screen complete with saints that had stood behind the altar of a Victorian gothic revival church.
Measuring a massive 14ft (4.2m) high and 23ft (7.25m) wide, it had been only part-assembled by Mills with the other sections held in packing cases.
A difficult object to ‘place’ but potentially worth a significant amount to the right buyer, it was hammered down at £6100 to a buyer on thesaleroom.com.
Wellers said the auction was well-anticipated and even several days before the sale there were 140 bidders registered online with requests for more than 450 condition reports.
On the day of the sale 1110 bidders were registered and the unreserved sale raised in excess of £200,000 hammer price. This was twice the amount expected - a boost to Scull's retirement plans.
