Planished silver chalice by Omar Ramsden and Alwyn Carr – £1600 at Gorringe’s.
As well as the legend to the base Ramsden et Carr Me Fecerunt it is engraved to the rim I was wrought for Henry S Tuke in the year 1905.
This connection with one of the greats of the Newlyn School and English Impressionism broadened its appeal when offered for sale at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Lewes on August 1. Estimated at £600-800, it took £1600.
Henry Scott Tuke’s extensively penned diary from March 1899 to December 1905 survives in the Tate and is available to search online. It might just be possible that somewhere among its 196 pages this chalice is mentioned.
Exhibited several times
Another expression of cutting-edge taste from the first decade of the 20th century was offered by Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) as part of a Silver & Vertu sale on July 12-13.
This Austrian silver and ivory covered box also had a famous former owner: it was once part of the estate of one Gustav Klimt.
Austrian silver and ivory covered box once owned by Gustav Klimt – £16,000 at Woolley & Wallis.
Standing just under 6in (15cm) high from ivory finial to ball feet (it was sold with a non-transferable de minimis exemption), it was designed by Otto Prutscher and made at the Wiener Werkstätte by Alfred Mayer in 1908.
Exhibited on several occasions since the turn of the 21st century, it had previously sold at Sotheby’s as part of the Torsten Brohan collection in March 2005 and came for sale from a private collection.
Guided at £10,000-15,000, it took £16,000 at W&W.
