Spode pineapple stand c.1815-20, estimate £400-600 at Woolley & Wallis.
A Spode pineapple stand is a rarity. This example pictured above, painted with large sprays of pink rose on an apple green ground, dates to c.1815-20.
The decoration to the underside would probably have been reflected in a mirror placed beneath to show off both the porcelain and the fruit to great effect. While slices of another pineapple would have been placed around the edge of the plate, such was the expense of the exotic fruit at that time that the uncut pineapple was often saved for use at a second event.
Similar to another pictured in Spode A History of the Family, Factory and Wares from 1733 to 1833 (1978) by Leonard Whiter, this example has a guide of £400-600 at the Woolley & Wallis sale of Ceramics & Glass in Salisbury on April 30.
A single-owner collection of 37 pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage, even including a bespoke trunk made for a large rubber duck, is estimated at £18,000-22,000 at Sworders.
An extraordinary single-owner collection of 37 pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage - even including a bespoke trunk made for a large rubber duck - comes to auction this month.
The array of luxury travel accessories, all covered in the iconic LV monogram canvas, form part of Sworders’ April 30 Design sale.
The duck trunk, measuring 13½ x 9½ x 10½in (34 x 24 x 27cm), is the only one in existence. The design and manufacture was a collaboration between its owner (a British gentleman who chooses to remain anonymous) and the senior design team at Louis Vuitton in Paris.
It was made to house ‘Canard Willy’, a favourite 10in (26cm) yellow rubber duck, to ensure it travelled in the style to which it had become accustomed. Wearing his sou’wester hat, Willy was a frequent flyer on Concorde between London and New York and has visited an estimated 35 countries.
The trunk, ‘Canard Willy’ and a miniature version gifted to the owner by Louis Vuitton following its production will be travelling to a new home with bids invited between £18,000-22,000.
Painted slate tea caddy, c.1850, estimate £200-300 at Rogers Jones.
The Welsh Sale at Rogers Jones in Cardiff on April 27 includes, guided at £200-300, this painted slate tea caddy, c.1850.
The four hand-painted views to the sides show a series of north Wales landmarks: the Eagle Tower at Caernarfon Castle, Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), Conwy Castle and Cader Idris.
Fantasy, oil on canvas by Ernest Wallcousins, estimate £1500-2500 at Reeman Dansie.
Featuring in Reeman Dansie’s biannual sale of East Anglian art on April 30-May 2 is this oil on canvas by Essex painter and designer Ernest Wallcousins (1883-1976).
Wallcousins was particularly prominent during the Second World War period, when commissions included a 1945 portrait from life of Winston Churchill.
He is, however, best known as the designer of the Keep calm and carry on poster.
This painting titled Fantasy is one of two in Reeman’s sale to be staged in Colchester and is estimated at £1500-2500.
Mamot design tile by William De Morgan consigned by descendants of Arthur James Balfour, estimate £2000-4000 at Duke’s.
The Art & Design post 1880 sale at Duke’s in Dorchester on April 25 includes 44 lots of William De Morgan consigned by descendants of Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930), Earl of Balfour and prime minister from 1902-05. He is understood to have bought them directly from De Morgan.
Particularly remarkable are a group of more than 30 different 6in (15cm) triple lustre animal tiles that, requiring multiple firings, were particularly expensive to produce. Made in the late Fulham period, they are stamped DM and dated 1898.
Bird of Prey and Creature in Combat design tile by William De Morgan consigned by descendants of Arthur James Balfour, estimate £2000-4000 at Duke’s.
The selection includes some rare designs such as the Mamot and Bird of Prey and Creature in Combat, pictured here, which are estimated at £2000-4000 each.
The Norwich Staghounds’ Point-to-Point by Alfred Munnings, estimate £70,000-100,000 at Chiswick Auctions.
A trio of British sporting paintings offered by Chiswick Auctions from a UK private collection on May 1 includes this 1902 work by Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) titled The Norwich Staghounds’ Point-to-Point.
Most of Munnings’ pictures from the first decade of the 20th century depict life in East Anglia, usually incorporating horses.
He regularly rode out with the Staghounds that, he believed, represented a key part of rural life, one that was threatened by the modern world. Its members, he later wrote in his memoir An Artist’s Life (1950), comprised “a cavalcade of farmers, a doctor or two, a squire or two, a butcher, perhaps, a veterinary, and some hard riding ladies”.
As Munnings enjoyed an unofficial status as artist to the hunt he was allowed to dress-down, riding out with “a black velvet cap on my head, a dark grey melton coat, white cord breeches and boots with brown tops”.
Estimate £70,000-100,000.
Military General Service medal awarded to Pte William Wilkinson of the 94th Regiment of Foot, estimate £1500-2000 at Fellows.
This Military General Service nedal was awarded to Pte William Wilkinson of the 94th Regiment of Foot, with clasps for action of Toulouse, Orthes, Salamanca, Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo and Fuentes D’Onor.
Last sold at Baldwins in 1955, it comes for sale in Birmingham on April 25 as part of Fellows’ Monies, Metals and Militaria auction.
Estimate £1500-2000.
One of the doors by Gaetano Pesce from the headquarters of the Chiat-Day advertising agency, estimate £2000-3000 at Lyon & Turnbull.
A group of works by Italian architect, artist and designer Gaetano Pesce (1939- 2024) comes for sale at Lyon & Turnbull as part of the firm’s 10th iteration of the Modern Made format on April 25-26.
The collection, perhaps the most significant of its type in the UK, was formed by the Cardiff-based photographer and graphic designer Steve Allison (b.1948). Pesce was a champion of new materials such as injection-moulded resin and polyurethanes but - breaking with the modernist philosophy of standardisation - created unique art design pieces.
Estimated at £2000-3000 is one of the doors from the headquarters of the Chiat-Day advertising agency, the seminal 1994 project which helped shape the playful communal office spaces of today’s culture industries. Pesce’s light-hearted door is modelled as a tennis racket head with a ‘melting’ handle.
The selection of around 70 pieces offered in 58 lots represents approximately half of Allison’s Pesce collection - with a further selection to be sold in the October 2024 edition of Modern Made.
Abbasid lustre pottery bowl decorated with dancing figures, probably made in Central Asia in the 8th or 9th century, estimate £5000-7000 at Roseberys.
Roseberys’ Islamic art sale on April 26 includes this Abbasid lustre pottery bowl decorated with dancing figures probably made in Central Asia in the 8th or 9th century.
Acquired on the Swiss art market in 2006, it was subject at the time to a TL test from Oxford Authentication that confirmed its manufacture to between 800-1400 years ago. Although estimated at £5000-7000, it is sold without reserve.
The design is one that is part of the cycle of the ‘pleasure of the court’ of the early Islamic period. A fragment in the Victoria and Albert Museum shows a similar a seated figure playing a four- stringed instrument, the oud.
‘Made to order’ magic lantern slide showing the journey of a steamship crossing the English Channel, estimate £1500-2500 at Flints.
Of all magic lantern slides available in the days before film, the most desirable were the ‘mechanicals’. Turning the handle caused hand-painted layers of glass to glide seamlessly over one another and created the impression of movement.
They were remarkably costly at the time - at least 30 times the cost of a single painted slip slide - and typically only sold in small numbers to late 19th century showmen.
The sale at scientific instruments specialist auction house Flints on April 30 includes a particularly rare ‘made to order’ slide that follows the journey of a steamship crossing the English Channel from the castle at Dover to the French port of Calais.
Various mechanisms bring the entire scene to life causing the ship to pitch and toss amidst the rough seas. Made a decade before cinema, it astounded contemporary audiences.
It is estimated at £1500-2500 by the Berkshire saleroom.
One of two lover’s eye miniatures, estimate £300-500 at Charterhouse.
Two lover’s eye miniatures are included in the Charterhouse auction on May 2 in Sherborne, Dorset. Lover’s eye brooches first appeared in the late 18th century. The notion was that the eye would be recognisable only to the recipient and could, therefore, be worn publicly keeping the lover’s identity a secret.
The eye miniatures come from a large collection of jewellery from a client near Bridgwater.
Estimate £300-500.
Fragment of a Union Jack with a period note stating it was part of the flag unfurled by Sir John Franklin on reaching the mouth of the Coppermine River on July 20, 1821, estimate £1500-2500 at Henry Aldridge & Son.
This frayed 10 x 7in (25.5 x 18cm) fragment of a Union Jack comes with a period note stating it was part of the flag unfurled by the British Royal Navy officer and explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) upon reaching the mouth of the Coppermine River on July 20, 1821.
Offered by direct descent from the family of Franklin’s niece, Mary Wright, it has a guide of £1500-2500 at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on April 27.
Some 28 years prior to the ‘Lost Expedition’, Franklin had led his first Arctic expedition overland to survey and chart the area from Hudson Bay to the north coast of Canada. Eventually, the party reached the Arctic coast but explored only roughly 500 miles (800km) before turning back because of the onset of winter and the exhaustion of their supplies. Eleven of the 22 members of the party died.
Palitoy The Empire Strikes Back Luke Skywalker action figure (Bespin Fatigues), estimate £10,000-12,000 at Vectis.
Vectis is holding a Star Wars Extravaganza sale on April 25. The highest estimated lot at the Stockton-on-Tess auction house is this Palitoy The Empire Strikes Back Luke Skywalker action figure (Bespin Fatigues), 3¾in (9.5cm) high.
Getting technical (a crucial aspect in this collecting market), the figure is catalogued as ‘B back Alternate picture, UKG Graded 80% Card 80, Bubble 85 Figure 75, on un-punched 30B back card’.
Estimate £10,000-12,000.
David Hockney drawing of his lover Peter Schlesinger, estimate £30,000-40,000 at Parker Fine Art Auctions.
On May 9, Parker Fine Art Auctions in Farnham, Surrey, will offer a David Hockney (b.1937) drawing of the artist’s lover Peter Schlesinger.
The sitter famously features in Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), a large painting which sold for $80m (£61.5m) at Christie’s New York in 2018, setting an auction record for a painting by a living artist.
The 19½ x 12¼in (50 x 31cm) signed ink sketch in Farnham is dated Sept 1967 and inscribed on a label on the back Peter, Powis Terrace. It was given by Hockney to the vendor’s husband and has been in their collection ever since. The estimate is £30,000-40,000.
The same vendor has also consigned a small book called Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm’, a miniature set of etchings signed by Hockney. It is estimated at 500-800.
