On March 8, Duke’s of Dorchester will conduct a sale of pieces from the private collection of the late Anthony and Judith du Boulay.
Anthony du Boulay was best known as a leading authority on Chinese porcelain, but he had a connoisseur’s ‘eye’ and a passion for many collecting disciplines. The lots on offer from Du Boulay’s Dorset home range from an early St Cloud vase to an Old Master of the Madonna.
Bonhams sold Chinese works of art from the collection in 2003 with Duke’s conducting a further sale in 2019.
This mid-18th century Maltese walnut and marquetry bureau cabinet with the armorial of the Knights of St John inlaid to the slope front was bought by a family member in Malta c.1926. Estimate £5000-10,000.
Watercolour of a young fisherwoman with a basket by Hector Edward Philippe Caffieri, estimate £500-700 at The Pedestal.
The Fine & Decorative Interiors sale at The Pedestal in Henley on Thames on March 7 includes, estimated at £500-700, this watercolour of a young fisherwoman with a basket by Hector Edward Philippe Caffieri (1847-1931).
Caffieri moved from London to Boulogne-sur-Mer around 1901 when he began painting the local fisher-folk.
Fellows’ sale of Antiques, Fine Art & Collectables is a timed online event closing on March 3.
Estimated at £25,000-35,000 is this impressive 19th century Italian gilt wood centre table with an inset 3ft 2in (96cm) micromosaic panelled top depicting a central view of St Peter’s Square enclosed by eight further panels depicting views of ancient Rome.
A sketch book filled with drawings by Queen Victoria, estimate £5000-10,000 at Charterhouse.
A sketch book filled with drawings by Queen Victoria features in the Charterhouse auction in Sherborne, Dorset, on March 2-3. Found when clearing a family property, it dates from 1885.
On the book cover is her monogram under a crown and on the inside it is inscribed On board the steamer Le Petit Parisien on the Lac de Bourget Ap[ril] 11 1885 and on pages are numerous pencil and watercolour drawings of dogs, train and continental journeys, mountains and lakes, and a view at Frogmore, Windsor, dated July 1886 (above).
A family member of the sketch book owners, Leta Smith, worked as a royal archivist in Windsor Castle from 1924-57. She was awarded various medals for her service, including an MVO (Member of the Victorian Order) presented to her by Queen Elizabeth II, which are also included in the auction and it is assumed the sketch book was given to her.
Estimate £5000-10,000.
Repairs, Arklow, County Wicklow, by Lilian Davidson, estimate €8000-12,000 at Whyte’s.
Whyte’s Important Irish Art in Dublin on March 6 features this 17½ x 23½in (44.5 x 59.5cm) oil on board, Repairs, Arklow, County Wicklow, by Lilian Davidson (1879-1954).
Davidson attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. She was closely associated with the Watercolour Society of Ireland with which she exhibited from 1912-53 and with the Royal Hibernian Gallery (RHA) which exhibited 135 works over a 40-year period from 1914.
She exhibited widely with the Dublin Painters’ exhibitions, the Oireachtas and in 1920 in a joint show with Mainie Jellett. She is also recorded as exhibiting abroad in the 1930s in London, Amsterdam, Chicago and at the Salon de la Société Nationale in Paris (1924 and 1930). A solo show in Dublin was held in 1936 which comprised 36 works.
In 1940 she was made an Associate to the RHA. Davidson set up a studio and taught in Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, where she counted among her protégés Bea Orpen and Kitty Wilmer O’Brien. She was also closely associated with theatre in Dublin and designed sets, wrote plays and painted scenery for the Torch Theatre which she helped found in the 1930s.
Signed with monogram lower left, Repairs, Arklow, County Wicklow is estimated at €8000-12,000. It was exhibited at RHA, Dublin, in 1949.
A maquette by British sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink for a 1962 commission for Manchester Airport, estimate £10,000-15,000 at Dreweatts.
A maquette by British sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-93) for a 1962 commission for Manchester Airport is to be offered at Dreweatts’ Modern and Contemporary Art sale on March 15.
The full-scale bronze is dedicated to aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown, who made the first ever non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919. The work is part of a series of bronzes inspired by photographs of French adventurer Leo Valentin.
Valentin attempted to achieve flight by strapping bird-like wings to his arms, but ultimately fell to a dramatic death at an air show in Liverpool in 1956 in front of 100,000 people.
Study for Alcock and Brown Memorial is 14 x 15½in (36 x 40cm) and estimated at £10,000-15,000. It is part of a private Frink collection being sold by Dreweatts in Newbury.
Early Victorian silver rectangular snuff box commemorating Grace Darling, estimate £1200-1500 at Gorringe’s.
This early Victorian silver rectangular snuff box, commemorating Grace Darling, is on offer in Gorringe’s Spring Sale on March 14.
It is engraved with a panel depicting the heroine in a lifeboat rescuing sailors from a sinking ship, within deeply chased scrolling foliate borders, the base with engine turned decoration. The snuff box measures 2½in (6.5cm) and weighs 85gms. The maker was Nathaniel Mills, Birmingham, 1838.
The box is offered with a copy of Grace Darling; or, The Heroine of The Fern Islands by GWM Reynolds, London 1839.
The estimate in this East Sussex auction is £1200-1500.
Gillow & Co exhibition quality Victorian specimen wood, marquetry, parquetry and gilt metal-mounted side cabinet, estimate £5000-7000 at Tennants.
Furniture in Tennants’ Spring Fine Sale on March 18 is led by a Gillow & Co exhibition quality Victorian specimen wood, marquetry, parquetry and gilt metal-mounted side cabinet, dating from the third quarter of the 19th century. Featuring rich inlaid marquetry panels of birds, it is stamped Gillow & Co, R and HP.
Estimate £5000-7000.
This 12in (30cm) high gilt-copper electrotype tankard by Elkington of Birmingham copies an 17th-century ivory tankard with silver mounts.
The underside is inscribed From the original ivory in the possession of Henry Bedford Esqr, executed by Elkington Mason & Co. It is estimated at £800-1200 at the Silver, Coins & Objets de Vertu sale at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on March 7.
Financed by the steel pen magnate Josiah Mason, cousins George Richards Elkington and Henry Elkington, formed a relationship with the South Kensington Museum in the 1860s to produce these facsimile copies of artefacts for educational purposes using the new technology of electricity.
The Bedford tankard was the third project between the South Kensington Museum and Elkington & Co and the only example where the name of the owner was credited on the piece. Versions made in copper cost £7 7s with those in gilt or parcel gilt priced at £10 10s.
Letter written by John Constable to John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, estimate £2000-3000 at Woolley & Wallis.
The Old Masters, British and European paintings sale at Woolley & Wallis on March 8 includes this letter written by John Constable to John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury.
Dated August 13, 1819, the content concerns a possible commission to paint the portraits of General and Mrs Rebow at Wivenhoe Park and mentions a picture by Cozens he has sent to Fisher. He also discusses his new-born daughter (Maria Louisa) and asks Fisher to be godfather.
Constable became friends with Fisher in the 1790s when he was the rector at Langham, Suffolk. Fisher officiated at Constable’s wedding. Described as the painter’s closest friend in the 1820s, the bishop was also one of the artist’s most important patrons, purchasing The White Horse, the first of the famous ‘six-footers’.
Estimate £2000-3000.
A sleeping baby porcelain figure from the Chelsea factory, estimate £20,000-30,000 at Hanson Holloway’s Ross.
A sleeping baby porcelain figure from the Chelsea factory is estimated at £20,000-30,000 when it goes under the hammer at Hanson Holloway’s Ross in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on March 4.
The Chelsea Porcelain Factory began production in 1743-45 and this figure was made during its early production period in 1746. At that time the factory was led by Nicholas Sprimont, a silversmith and entrepreneur who became its first director.
The auction house says a similar example is in the British Museum incised with the date June 26, 1746. It adds: “The design may have been influenced by John Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770), a key sculptor and designer in England in the 18th century. In addition, the French factory of Vincennes, which later became the Sèvres factory, produced similar examples in the early 1740s. It is possible the Chelsea sleeping child was the result of a model sent from France.”
