A 17th century Norwich provincial silver beaker by Elizabeth Haselwood, £5800 at Elstob.
Elizabeth Haselwood, (1644-1715), the only female silversmith registered in Norwich in the 17th century, was the maker of a small piece of early provincial silver offered here.
She came from a prominent family of smiths in the city and took over the business after the death of her husband Arthur Haselwoood II, registering her own mark.
A detail of the underside showing the mark to the 17th century Norwich provincial silver beaker by Elizabeth Haselwood, £5800 at Elstob.
The item offered in this Ripon, North Yorkshire, auction on February 14 was a plain cylindrical beaker with reeded foot marked for 1688, just under 4in (10cm) high, weighing 3.2oz and additionally engraved with initials and dated 1705. This realised £5800 against a £6000-8000 guide.
Set of four Britannia standard candlesticks by James Seabrook, 1716, sold for £6500 at Elstob.
A set of four Britannia standard candlesticks of knopped hexagonal form, 7in (18cm) high with good clear marks for James Seabrook, London 1716, came in at £6500. Each was engraved with the initials B/HM on the underside and they weighed 40 troy oz gross.
A smaller 4¾in (12cm) high pair of Britannia standard tapersticks of the same form and date but with an indistinct maker’s mark weighing 7.8 troy oz gross made £2000.
Bruguier bird
Swiss singing bird box by Charles Bruguier, £19,000 at Elstob.
The second most expensive lot of the sale (after a rare pearl and diamond set ring watch of c.1800 at £19,500) was a mid-19th century Swiss singing bird box that sold at £19,000. This was by Charles Bruguier of Geneva, one of the most highly regarded makers of this type of musical box and was signed to the movement.
As well as the mechanism and automaton feathered bird, like many of Bruguier’s examples it was decorated with enamelling, in this instance an Alpine lake landscape to the lift-up cover from which the bird emerges through a pierced grille with a flowerspray to the underside.
