Posts Tagged ‘irish’

Auction Prices for Various Antique Items

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Dishes
Pair of George III oval meat dishes by Frederick Kandler, London, 1765, 73 oz 2 dwt Pair of Victorian octagonal entree dishes and covers with
vegetable dividers for each and ball finials, Sheffield, 1880,
120 oz 14 dwt 450 0
George III circular vegetable dish with ivory grips, pierced sides and four scroll and foliate feet, by W.S., London, 1809, 80 oz 2 dwt 360 0
William IV shaped oblong entree dish and cover with engraved armorials and foliate ring handle, by J. C. Eddington, London, 1835, 61 oz 5 dwt 260 0
George III muffin dish and cover, the domed cover with urn
shaped finial, by Henry Chawner, London, 1791, 15 oz 1 dwt        210 0
Jugs—Cream and Milk
George III helmet-shaped cream jug with ‘bright-cut’ engraving, loop handle and square pedestal foot, by George Smith, London, 1790, 3 oz 7 dwt 80 0
George II cream jug of conch shell type with serpent handle and
three coral-like supports. Circa 1755, 3 oz 5 dwt 80 0
George III oblong milk jug engraved with crests and with gadroon lip and scroll handle, by R. and S. Hennell, London, 1808, 6 oz 2 dwt 70 0
Victorian baluster milk jug chased with flowers and scrolls and on three feet. Possibly by William Brawn, London, 1845, 5 oz 7 dwt 52 0
Jugs—Water
George III pear-shaped hot-water jug, stand and lamp, the jug with rams’ masks and laurel festoons, the stand on three claw feet with female bust terminals, by Andrew Fogelberg. The jug 1776, the stand 1775, 40 oz

780 0
George III vase-shaped hot-water jug, plain with wood handle and on circular foot, by William Fountain, London, 1801, 25 oz 11 dwt 460 0
George II baluster hot-water jug chased with scrolls, leaves and flowers, raffia-covered handle and rim foot, by Gurney and Cook, London, 1755, 19 oz 15 dwt 270 0
Jugs—Wine and Ale
Queen Anne ale jug, die ground embossed with foliage and flowers and a satyr spout, by John Wisdom, London, 1712, 35 oz 280 0
Victorian wine ewer with baluster body and engraved with Grecian figures and leaves, entwined snake handle and butterfly finial, by E. and J. Barnard, London, 1862, 27 oz 11 dwt        170 0
Marrow Scoops
Queen Anne scoop of typical form by Charles Jackson, 1713,
1 oz 10 dwt 68 0
Early George III scoop, the larger bowl engraved with initials,
probably by William Tuite, London, 1767, 1 oz 12 dwt 20 0
Mustard Pots
George III drum mustard with moulded borders, flat hinged lid and simple scroll handle, with spoon of earlier date. Pot by Ernes and Barnard, London, 1813, 5 oz 10 dwt 165 0
some auction room prices : 1968-69
William IV mustard with ribbed baluster body and hinged domed lid with floral finial, scroll handle and shell thumbpiece and spoon of same date but different maker. Pot by C.G., London, 1830, 6 oz 17 dwt
George III oblong mustard with domed cover, urn finial and angular handle on four bun feet, London, 1813, 3 oz 11 dwt
Salts
Four George I plain oval trencher salts with incurved sides, by
Mary Rood, 1723, 6 oz 15 dwt Pair of George III boat-shaped salts, reeded at the lips and
pedestal feet, gilt interiors, by Peter and Ann Bateman, 1792,
4 oz 6 dwt
Pair of George II compressed circular salts, with plain engraved bodies below gadroon lips each on three shell-headed hoof supports, possibly by Isaac Cookson, Newcastle, 1747, 8 oz 1 dwt
Salvers
George II large circular salver on four lions’ mask and shell bracket feet, the shaped border pierced and chased, by George Wickes, 1744, 137 oz
George I plain circular salver on central foot with moulded border, by W.P., 1720, 13 oz 12 dwt
George III circular salver, engraved with initials, chased wave border and gadroon rim, on three claw and ball feet, by Robert Rcw or Rugg, 1766, 24 oz 3 dwt
Victorian salver engraved in the centre with an initial and also with scrolls and foliage, moulded border, by J. and J. Angell, London, 1845, 25 oz 14 dwt
Sauceboats
Pair of George II plain sauceboats each on three shell and scroll feet with gadrooned rims and double scroll handles, by Peter Archambo and Peter Meure, 1754, 29 oz
George II two-handled plain double-lipped sauceboat on collet foot, with double scroll handles and waved rim, with a moulded drop beneath the spout, by Peter Archambo, 1732, 17 oz 5 dwt
Pair of George III sauceboats, each on fluted shaped lozenge foot, with gadrooned borders and double scroll handles, by William Sampcl, 1766, 25 oz
Snuff Boxes—See Small Decorative Antiques Sugar Basins—See Baskets—Sugar Tapersticks—See Candlesticks Tankards
William and Mary tankard on three lion couchant feet, scroll handle, cylindrical body and moulded base, by Robert Cooper, 1692, 31 oz
George II baluster tankard with domed cover, openwork thumb-piece and double-scroll handle, on moulded spreading foot, by William Grundy, 1755, 34 oz 5 dwt 650 0
George III baluster tankard, with domed moulded cover and heart-shaped lower terminal to the scrolling handle, by William Caldecott or Gripps, 1765, 27 oz 15 dwt 570 0
Tea Caddies
George III oval caddy, the body with two bands of bright-cut engraving in beaded borders and the plain hinged lid with urn finial, by Hester Bateman, 1781, 14 oz 10 dwt 900 0
George III shaped oval caddy, the body fluted at intervals, decorated with bright-cut engraving, hinged domed cover with wood finial, by Robert Hennell, 1787, 14 oz 17 dwt 480 0
Teapots and Stands
George II bullet teapot with engraved shoulder decoration of satyr masks, leaves and flowers, straight spout, loose lid, ivory handle and finial, by Isaac Liger, 1729, 15 oz 1 dwt 2,100 0
George III teapot stand on four fluted panel supports, by Hester
Bateman, 1789, 4 oz 15 dwt 280 0
George III oval teapot with moulded girdles and a matching stand, supported on four feet, by Crespin Fuller, London, 1800, 16 oz 15 dwt 270 0
George III oval, semi-lobed teapot, with swan-neck spout, ivory handle and finial, by P. A. and W. Bateman, 1799, 17 oz 3 dwt 170 0
George IV teapot, compressed circular body, ivory handle and
finial, curved spout, by Eley and Fearn, 1823, 25 oz 16 dwt        150 0
William IV compressed circular teapot with moulded girdle, wood finial and similar wood handle, by E. E. J. and W. Barnard, 1830, 14 oz 2 dwt 135 0
Early Victorian bullet-shaped teapot with engraved body, Edinburgh, 1840, 24 oz 82 0
George III oval teapot stand, gadroon border on four panel
supports, but George Fenwick, Edinburgh, 1806, 5 oz 14 dwt 80 0
William IV small melon-shaped teapot, with slightly domed cover and ivory finial, scroll handle and curved spout, London, 1833, 13 oz 18 dwt 60 0
Tea and Coffee Services
Victorian tea and coffee service of compressed circular form, decorated with embossed flowers and foliate handles and on scrolled feet with shell motifs, by Rawlins and Sumner, London, 1838, 72 oz 600 0
George IV three-piece melon-shaped tea service with scroll handles and shell decorated panel supports, by E. E. J. and W. Barnard, London, 1829, 44 oz 7 dwt 500 0
George III circular three-piece tea service with curved lobes, gadroon rims and leaf decorated handles, on paw supports, the pot with rose finial, by John Angell, 1819, 41 oz 6 dwt 380 0
Victorian three-piece tea service of compressed circular form,
the plain ground richly chased, by I. J. Keith, London, 1840, 48 oz
Vinaigrettes—See Small Decorative Antiques Waiters
Pair of George III plain oval waiters each on four shell and beaded bracket feet, beaded rims, by John Scofield, London, 1777, 27 oz
George II plain shaped square waiter on four hoof feet, moulded border, by Thomas Farren, London, 1734, 6 oz 17 dwt
Early George II square waiter with raised border incurved at the angles, 1727, 3 oz 18 dwt
SHEFFIELD PLATE Candelabra and Candlesticks
Pair of candelabra, each for three lights, with reeded scrolling arms, gadroon bordered knops, detachable nozzles and circular bases, 17i in high to centres
Pair of three-light candelabra, the tapering vase stems, circular bases and campana-shaped sconces decorated with chased borders, each fitted with two detachable scrolling branches, one converting to form a

five-light and bearing flame finial, 20 in high
Pair of table candlesticks with V-shaped stems, gadroon shoulders, circular bases and detachable nozzles, llj in high
Pair of table candlesticks with circular bases, vase-shaped stems and gadroon borders, detachable nozzles, 11 in high
Coffee Pots
Vase-shaped coffee pot on pedestal foot with reeded borders, ball finial and wood handle, 13 in high
An oval coffee pot on pedestal base, with reeded shoulder, gadroon borders and angular wood handle, 9] in high
Urn-shaped coffee pot, body semi-lobed between ribbed panels, on pedestal base, ball finial and wood handle, 27 in high
Coasters—Wine
Four circular wine coasters with lobed sides below gadroon lips, the wood bases centred by crested bosses, 5J in diameter
Pair of circular coasters with beaded and ovolo rims, wood bases, 6 in diameter
Caddies—Tea
Two caddies of bombd form embossed with shell motifs Serpentined caddy with hinged lid and beaded borders
Dishes
Set of four entree dishes and covers on heater bases, oblong with scrolling foliate borders, 14 in wide over handles
Pair of entree dishes and covers with gadroon borders and
detachable foliate handles, 11 in wide 22 0
A rectangular entree dish and cover complete with liner, gadroon and leaf borders, wood end handles, on four supports, 141 in wide 20 0
Teapots
An oblong teapot, body semi-Iobed between gadrooned borders, short spout, ivory finial and angular wooden handles, 5J in high 25 0
A compressed circular teapot engraved with swirling leafage,
fruit finial and scroll handle, 5J in high 18 0
Tea and Coffee Services
Oval three-piece coffee service with vase-shaped pot, oval jug and basin decorated with bands of sprays and foliage, 10 in high the pot 160 0
Three-piece tea set with compressed circular bodies, fluted,
foliate collars, scroll handles and foliate panel supports 38 0
Tea Trays
Oblong two-handled tray, engraved with armorials within a chased surround of scrolls and floral sprays, gadroon border, 30 in wide 220 0
An oblong tray, gadroon bordered and reeded end handles
springing from chased foliage, 28 in wide 95 0
Tea Urns
An inverted compressed pear-shaped urn, the body engraved
with a crest, foliate handles and flower finial, 16 in high 75 0
An oviform urn with an applied plain shield, the cover with vase finial, reeded loop handles, on square base with ball feet, 221 in high 45 0
Tureens
Large shaped oval sauce tureen on four feet below heavily
chased floral motifs, detachable liner, 16J in wide 230 0
Pair of oval sauce tureens and domed covers with gadrooned rims, decorated with acorns and oak leaves at the handles, 8Ј in wide (end handles missing from one tureen) 120 0
Wine Coolers
Set of four coolers, the campana-shaped bodies engraved with contemporary armorials above lobing reeded handles and gadroon borders, on pedestal bases, 9i in high 520 0
Pair of coolers with campana-shaped bodies, reeded handles and
on pedestal bases, 9J in high 200 0
NON-PRECIOUS METALS
Brass
Pair of eighteenth-century andirons, with spherical finials, and
masks, 29 in high 100 0
SOME AUCTION ROOM PRICES ! 1968-69
A club fender
A Corinthian column floor standard
An embossed fire kerb
A two-handled log tub on paw feet
An alms dish with lobed centre and inscription border, the rim
with punched rosettes, 15} in diameter Pair of spirally-turned candlesticks on domed feet, 20J in high A hanging oil lamp Pair of chambersticks, with snuffers A heavy log tub with lion mask handles on paw feet Brass

and steel semi-circular fender
An oval fire insurance plate with a crest of a stag, dated 1774 Pair of carriage lamps A helmet coal-scuttle
A warming-pan with turned wood handle Pair of baluster candlesticks, 9 in high
Bronze
Figure of a racehorse and jockey after Isadore Bonhcur, I0j in
high
The Capture of Alexander by G. Halse. Two warriors hold a
struggling youth. Signed and dated 1860, 24 in high Eighteenth-century Italian figure The Dying Gladiator signed
Canova
Figure of a dancing fawn, holding up a bunch of grapes and
balanced on his left foot, 14 in high Figure of an infant satyr playing a set of pipes, 9j in high Pair of busts of Henry IV and Sully, three-quarter length, both
wearing ruffs and decorations, on rouge marble socles, 20} in
high
Pair of Art Nouveau winged figures stamped A. Moreau, 9J in
high
Pair of five-light candelabra on bulbous stems Italian figure of Venus, 7 in high
Copper
Early nineteenth-century tea urn on a square base
A street lamp
Three large saucepans (one with lid) Two coal scuttles A large kettle
Coal helmet with swing handle
Large two-handled urn and cover
A copper and brass tea urn with tap
A long turned wooden-handled warming-pan
Iron and Steel
Steel and brass basket grate with pierced frieze and baluster
uprights, 20 in wide Seventeenth-century Sussex wrought-iron fireback, 2 ft 10 in
by 1 ft 8 in and a log fork Wrought-iron shaped fire-back Regency iron and brass stick stand on paw feet
Victorian cast-iron corner stick stand 5 10
Victorian cast-iron oil heater 3 10
Pewter
A charger with secondary touch of Thomas Lanyon, circa 1730,
20 in diameter 36 0
Five quart tankards 35 0
A four-branch candelabrum, 24 in high 22 0
Eighteenth-century circular charger, 20 in diameter 22 0 Pair of altar candlesticks, baluster-shaped stems on triangular
bases, 20 in high 16 0
Pair of baluster and cup candlesticks, 18 in high 15 0
A hot-water meat dish with two handles and a grill, 22 in wide 15 0
A travelling chamber-pot, stamped Jas. Dixon 14 0
Two tankards and a mug 6 0

Auction Prices. CLOCKS, WATCHES AND BAROMETERS. SILVER

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

CLOCKS, WATCHES AND BAROMETERS Bracket Clocks
Repeater clock by Edwardus East with signed and engraved
backplatc in cboniscd case 600 0
A three-train musical clock by Moore of Ipswich with eight tunes in ebony case with gilt metal mounts in mid-eightccnth-century style, 2 ft 2 in high 440 0
George III fruitwood clock by Recordon, late Emery, London, with painted dial and frets at side and front of case, 1 ft 2 in high 290 0
George III walnut clock, the dial signed Joseph Smith, Chester,
and of pronounced Continental character, 1 ft 6 in high 210 0
George III ebonised clock, the 7-in dial signed William Smith, with calendar and strike/silent dial. The movement is contained in an inverted bell-topped case, 1 ft 4 in high 190 0
Louis XV contra-boullc clock with enamel dial signed Darmezin, Paris, and movement signed Crepaux, Paris, in cartouche-shaped case, 3 ft 1 in high 190 0
Louis XV Boulle clock by Pcrrache, Paris, with an enamelled dial, the case surmounted by a youthful figure of Jove, richly mounted in ormolu, 2 ft 6 in high 170 0
George III mahogany clock by Massey, Bridge Road, Lambeth, the circular white-painted dial with a central calendar hand, 1 ft 4 in high 140 0
George III mahogany clock, the 7-in circular dial signed Lamb and Webb, London, with calendar and engraved backplate in bell-top case, 1 ft 4 in high 120 0
Mid-eighteenth-century veneered ebony clock signed John Small-wood, Lichfield, with pull quarter repeat, 1 ft 4 in high (later dial) 85 0
George III mahogany clock, the 8-in arched silvered dial signed Gravell and Tolkien, London, with engraved backplate and tic-tac escapement in broken arch-topped case, 1 ft 6 in high 60 0
Regency rosewood clock signed on dial John P. Smith, 1 ft 3 in
high 20 0
Carriage Clocks
Clock in gilt case by James McCabe, London 675 0
Repeating French brass clock with white dial signed Gibson
and Co Ltd, Belfast, 6J in high 68 0
French brass clock with white dial signed Rowel, Oxford, 4Ј in high
Repeating brass clock with white dial and glazed brass case, 5 in high
Gilt metal timepiece, the glazed case with pierced floral frets at the sides and front, 5 in high and with travelling case
Miniature silver-cased repeating clock with white dial. The case stamped J. Keller, 3J in high
Lantern Clocks
Brass clock with engraved copper dial and an alarm disk, 1 ft 1 in high
Late seventeenth-century brass clock, the dial engraved with flowers and with pierced dolphin cresting, 1 ft 3 in high
Longcase Clocks
Late seventeenth-century marquetry clock, the 11-in dial signed Robt. Williamson, London, with calendar aperture in a walnut case inlaid with shaped panels of birds and flowers, with a bullseye in the waist door and with spirally turned columns at the corners, 6 ft 7 in high (frieze of a later date)
Tall mahogany cased clock with chimes. The elaborately foliated brass dial with a silvered chaptered ring. The case inlaid with classic urns in coloured woods, the arched hood has brass spires and the waist has a bevelled glass door
A carved mahogany cased clock with a grotesque satyr mask to the hood over a brass floral scrolled dial. Westminster, Whittington and St Michael chimes, 7 ft 7 in
Mahogany clock made by Manley of Chatham
Eighteenth-century walnut clock with domed canopy and brass face, the movement by William Stapleton, London, 7 ft 4 in high
Walnut clock, the early eighteenth-century movement signed
Andr. Dunlop, London, the 12-in dial with chestnut and
flower spandrels, 7 ft 4 in high Georgian lacquer clock with brass face and striking movement.
The case, with ‘bullseye’ door, decorated with gilt chinoiseries
on a simulated tortoiseshell ground Eighteenth-century small clock by John Lee, Gookham; with
brass dial and foliated spandrels, in a black lacquer case
decorated with chinoiseries in red and gill
Mantel Clocks
An ormolu clock, the painted dial signed F. Linke, Paris, the movement in a glazed case in well chiselled ormolu with drapery, acanthus leaves and groups of fruit and ending in double cloven-hoof feet, 2 ft 11 in high
Bronze and ormolu mounted clock, the movement contained in a drum upon which is seated a Chinaman holding a parasol, the whole on the back of an elephant, 1 ft 4 in high
A French clock, inscribed Bonniere a Clermont, in a rococo porcelain case. The blue and gilt ground painted with musicians, lovers and flowers. On a similar stand
Louis XVI marble and ormolu clock, the striking movement with enamel dial signed Hessen. The arched architectural case with drapery festoon, pineapple finials, an urn and fluted columns, 1 ft 5 in high 110 0
Regency rosewood clock, the movement by Dwerrihouse &
Carter, Davies Street, 2 ft high 70 0
Philippe clock with glass panels in gilt metal case with corinthian columns and surmounted by an urn. Decorated with coloured enamels, 18 in 68 0
An Empire marble clock mounted in ormolu, the movement with outside count-wheel, the dial surmounted by a white marble urn and suspended between fluted columns capped by ormolu pineapples, 1 ft 4 in high 55 0
Watches
Gentleman’s 18-carat gold half-hunter watch 20 0
Early nineteenth-century verge watch by D. Nevern, in a tor-
toiseshell case, the dial enamelled with a wharf-side scene 13 0
Gentlemen’s 18-carat gold pocket watch by George Harvey,
Wellington 13 0
George III verge watch by William Fowler, London, in a silver
case, London 1783 9 0
Nineteenth-century verge watch by Nicoll, Great Portland
Street, in a tortoiscshcll case 7 10
Barometers
Early   Victorian   mahogany  stick   barometer  by  E. Davis,
Shrewsbury, 3 ft 3 in high 70 0
Regency rosewood inlaid with mother-o’-pearl banjo barometer
and thermometer 46 0
George III mahogany banjo barometer and thermometer with engraved scales by A. M. Ortelli, Godalming, the case outlined with fruitwood lines, 3 ft 2 in high 38 0
Georgian mahogany stick barometer and thermometer by Rout-ledge, Carlisle 38 0
Mahogany stick barometer and thermometer by Salmon, Bath 38 0
A Regency rosewood banjo barometer and thermometer by
Aprile Sudbury 34 0
Early nineteenth-century mahogany banjo barometer by Lione and Tarone, London, with a thermometer and the case inlaid with Prince of Wales plumes and a whorl pattern, 3 ft 2 in high 30 0
Early nineteenth-century mahogany banjo barometer by A.
Celti, Reading, the case inlaid with shells, 3 ft 2 in high 22 0
SILVER
(Troy weight: 20 pennyweights [dwt] = 1 ounce [oz])
Baskets for Bread, Cakes, Fruit, Sugar or Sweetmeats George II oval-shaped cake basket on four cherub mask and scroll feet. The sides pierced and engraved with flowers and
scrolls and the base engraved with a coat-of-arms, by Paul
Crespin, 1753, 62 oz 3,600 0
George III oval pedestal cake basket by John Ernes, London,
1804, 24 oz 10 dwt 400 0
George III boat-shaped pedestal sugar basket with engraved border, reeded edge and swivel handle by Peter, Ann and William Bateman, London, 1793, 5 oz 10 dwt 320 0
Victorian oval basket, the pierced panels embossed with beading
and garlands, London, 1895, 19 oz 62 0
Candelabra and Candlesticks
Pair of George I dwarf table candlesticks, the baluster shafts upon square terraced bases by William Darkeratt, 4J in high, London, 1726, 20 oz 1,500 0
Victorian tabic candelabra with two tiers of six scrolled branches issuing from a bold Corinthian column supported on a square terraced foot, with neo-classic rams’ mask and husk swags by R.H. over R.H., London, 1877, 30 in high 355 0
Pair of George III table candlesticks, the tapering baluster shafts upon half-fluted circular bases by John Green & Co, Sheffield, 1800 195 0
George III chamber candlestick and snuffer, the gadrooned edge
witli shell motif by William Cafe, London, 1761, 12 oz 130 0
Casters
Garniture of three George II vase-shaped sugar casters of plain
design by John Delmester, London, 1758, 15 oz 10 dwt 930 0
William IV Scottish baluster caster engraved with a crest above floral decoration on a granulated ground, by Elder & Co, Edinburgh, 1832, 4 oz 7 dwt 90 0
George III baluster caster with pierced cover and wrythen
finial, by Thomas Satchwell, 1780, 2 oz 4 dwt 85 0
George III vase-shaped caster the otherwise plain body engraved with contemporary crest. The mark of George Giles struck over another, 1783, 2 oz 8 dwt 65 0
Coasters—Wine
Set of four partly fluted circular coasters with gadrooned rims and engraved with crests by John & Thomas Settle, Sheffield, 1818 410 0
Pair of George III coasters with pierced waved galleries, London, 1794 270 0
Pair of William IV circular-shaped wine coasters with foliate borders and crested silver bosses to the wood base, by Henry Wilkinson & Co, Sheffield, 1831 150 0
Pair of George III coasters with beaded rims, the pierced sides stamped with arcading, urns and laurel festoons, maker’s mark missing, 1794 100 0
Coffee Pots
George I small plain cylindrical coffee pot with octagonal spout and low domed cover with baluster finial, by Paul De Lamcrie, London, 1725, 11 oz 3 dwt 1,900 0
George II baluster coffee pot, plain with foliate decorated spout, wood handle and hinged domed lid, probable maker Fuller White, London, 1759, 21 oz 1,350 0
Late George III tapering cylindrical coffee pot, the plain body engraved with contemporary armorials and a crest, by Peter, Ann and William Bateman, London, 1802, 35 ox 2 dwt 1,200 0
George IV coffee pot, vase-shaped, with moulded bands at the neck and waist, leaf-capped scroll handle and foliate finial on lid, by Pearce & Burrowes, London, 1826, 22 oz 5 dwt 210 0
Victorian vase-shaped coffee pot engraved with key pattern
decoration, London, 1872, 24 oz 135 0
Cruets
George II five-bottle cruet frame on four shell feet with detachable baluster handle. Five cut-glass silver-mounted bottles. By Jabez Daniel, 1750, 28 oz 7 dwt 105 0
George III cruet frame for six bottles with reeded loop end handles, ring holders, on four feet. Five glass bottles all chipped, one broken. By Henry Chawner, London, 1792 16 0
Cups and Goblets
Elizabeth I secular wine goblet, the bowl decorated with tulips and strapwork motifs, on a slender baluster stem and circular fluted foot, London, 1593, 5 oz 10 dwt 2,000 0
Pair of George III goblets of plain design, probably by William
Sumner, London, 1800, 20 oz 520 0
Pair of George III two-handled pedestal challenge cups and covers with reeded decoration and urn knops, by Samuel Hcnnell, London, 1806, 32 oz 5 dwt 400 0
George III tumbler cup engraved with armorials, gilt interior and the base with contemporary initials. Possibly by John Garter, London, 1766, 2 oz 1 dwt 150 0
Victorian wine cup, the beaker-shaped bowl and pedestal base cast and chased in low relief with grape-laden vine tendrils, by Hunt and Roskell, London, 1875, 10 oz 1 dwt 52 0
Cutlery—Canteens
George III fiddle thread pattern table silver: 24 tablespoons, 36 table forks, 12 dessert spoons, 12 dessert forks, 12 teaspoons, 6 sauce ladles, 2 soup ladles, 1 marrow scoop, majority by Richard Crossley, 1798/1800/1804, 146 oz 9 dwt 750 0
Victorian fiddle pattern table silver: 12 tablespoons, 12 table forks, 12 dessert spoons, 12 dessert forks, 6 teaspoons, 2 salt spoons, by George Angell, London, 1863, 116 oz 14 dwt 260 0
Cutlery—Forks Dessert
Twelve George I  three-pronged  forks with crest, different
makers, 1718, 14 oz 1 dwt 1,500 0
Twelve George IV fiddle pattern forks by James Scott, Dublin,
1822, 15 oz 75 0
Six George III fiddle pattern forks by G.D., London, 1794,
8 oz 14 dwt 65 0
SOME AUCTION ROOM PRICES ! 1968-69
Cutlery—Forks Table
Twelve Queen Anne three-pronged forks engraved with a crest,
by David King, Dublin, 1708/10, 28 oz Four George II three-pronged forks engraved with two crests,
1755, 7 oz 18 dwt Eleven Victorian fiddle shell pattern forks by George Angell,
1857/61, 36 oz 16 dwt
Cutlery—Forks Toasting
George III fork with knopped shaft and scrolled handle, probably by R. Preston, London, circa 1767, 7 oz 10 dwt. 17f in long
George III fork with knopped shaft and scrolled handle by John Deacon, London, circa 1775, 8 oz. 19i in long
Cutlery—Knives
Forty-eight Victorian table knives and twenty-four dessert knives, kings pattern, steel blades by J.A. or T.S., 1884
Twelve eighteenth-century dessert knives, the multi-faceted bloodstone handles with knopped urn finials and mounts engraved, the scimitar blades of steel. Circa 1700, (Some handles cracked)
Cutlery—Ladles
Four George III sauce ladles, crested Old English pattern by
Hester Bateman, 1783, 5 oz 19 dwt Pair of George III sauce ladles with ribbed and punched beaded
bowls, by Michael Keating, Dublin, circa 1780, 2 oz 16 dwt
Cutlery—Spoons Dessert
Nine engraved spoons, seven by William Soame, 1741, two 1748, 12 oz
Ten Hanoverian spoons engraved with crest, 1760, 11 oz 5 dwt Cutlery—Spoons Serving
Pair of George III Old English pattern spoons by Steven Adams,
London, 1772, 5 oz 15 dwt Pair of Victorian spoons by George Angell, 1854, 10 oz 14 dwt
Cutlery—Spoons Table
Six George I Hanoverian pattern spoons with rat-tail bowls
by Charles Jackson, 1723, 11 oz 2 dwt Six George III Old English pattern spoons with contemporary
initials J.G. by Hester Bateman, 1780, 11 oz 17 dwt
Cutlery—Spoons Tea and Coffee
Six William IV ‘bright-cut’ spoons, 1836, 3 oz 7 dwt Eight George IV fiddle shell pattern spoons by J. McKay, Edinburgh, 1827, 4 oz 8 dwt

19 Century British Exoticism Style Furniture.

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

EARLY 19TH CENTURY
BRITISH EXOTICISM
A RICH MIX OF BOTH FOREIGN AND HOME-GROWN INFLUENCES AFFECTED THE DESIGN OF BRITISH FURNITURE DURING THE REGENCY PERIOD.
FROM MOGUL DOMES to Islamic arches, Regency designers drew on a wide variety of exotic sources. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in July 1798, his invasion force included not only soldiers, but artists and poets, botanists, zoologists, and cartographers. The ensuing publication of Descriptions de I’Egypt established a vogue in France for all things Egyptian.
ANCIENT EGYPT
The Egyptian craze surfaced in Britain following Nelson’s subsequent defeat of Napoleon in 1798 at the Battle of the Nile. Sphinx heads appeared on the pilasters of bookcases and side cabinets and lotus leaves were carved on chair splats and printed on textiles and wallpaper designs.
Thomas Hope designed furniture based on the engravings of the French Egyptologist, Baron Denon, and Thomas Chippendale the Younger, who had inherited his father’s famous workshop, created a suite of furniture for Stourhead in 1805, resplendent with sphinx masks. These pieces were made in mahogany, but the foreign motifs of the period were often complemented by the use of highly polished, unusual, imported timbers: streaky salamander, dark ebony, or flecked amboyna.
CHINOISERIE REVIVAL
An integral part of the Rococo repertoire in Britain during the mid 18th century, Chinoiserie enjoyed a revival in the early 19th century. The Royal architect,
A DWARF GOTHIC CABINET
This lacquered cabinet has a crenellated
Lipper section with octagonal corner
towers. A deeper base with a pierced
quatrefoil gallery sits above a pair of
tracery panelled doors flanked by
clasping buttresses. The cabinet
stands on a plinth base. Early 19th
century.
REGENCY TORCHERE STAND This stand is made, of bronzed and gilded wood. Below the top is a guilloche moulded frieze and three gilt supports, with lion masks, joined by Cross supports with applied rosettes. The concave base rests on gilt paw feet.
A CHINESE EXPORT BUREAU This bureau has u fall front above three drawers, a shaped apron, and is raised on cabriole legs. All the surfaces are black and gilt lacquered with lake scenery and flowers.
19th century.
Henry Holland. was profoundly influenced by Sir
George Stauntons An Authentic Account of an Embassy
“M the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China n 1797: and interest in the Far East increased after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, when further British envoys ere sent to the new emperor of China, Chia-Ch’ing.
Furniture was japanned black with gilt to simulate lacquer – as in the late 17th century – while lacquer cabinets (or lacquer panels reused from early screens) were incorporated into British cabinet work. Oriental bamboo was also echoed in the ring turnings on late Regency chairs. Many pieces of furniture were made out of genuine bamboo, while others were turned
and painted to simulate it.
The Prince Regent gave the royal seal of approval to this trend when he furnished several rooms at the Brighton Pavilion with bamboo furniture imported from China. Indeed, this architectural folly became the most famous mixing pot of all the exotic styles of the Regency period.
Western styles of lacquer and bamboo furniture were also imported from Canton. The trade in goods from China to Britain had been established since the early 17th century, but the scale of Chinese imports in the 19th century was unprecedented. As well as imported, Chinoiserie-style furniture, Oriental motifs such as dragons appeared on the crestings of convex mirrors, while latticework and Chinese panelling were applied to chair backs, commode friezes, or brass grills on side cabinets or chiffoniers.
STYLES FROM THE SUBCONTINENT
India, as well as China, influenced the decoration of the Brighton Pavilion. Nash was inspired by William and Thomas Daniell’s book, Oriental Scenery, and included pierced screens, copied from Indian jails (perforated stone screens from Madhya Pradesh), in his designs. The interest in India manifested itself more in the importation of Western-style furniture, than in the application of Indian motifs to British furniture. Exotic ivory-inlaid rosewood furniture and boxes came from Vizagapatam, and ebony chairs of Regency form were shipped from Ceylon.
HISTORICISM
Towards the end of the Regency period, designers and furniture-makers turned away from exoticism and towards their own traditions for inspiration. The Napoleonic wars and their subsequent victories spawned a surge in nationalist feeling. This, along with the historic novels of Walter Scott, inspired designers such as George Bullock and Richard Bridgens to include Elizabethan and Jacobean motifs in furniture for Abbotsford and Aston Hall in the late 1810s and early 1820s. Gothic motifs were always prevalent, particularly as tracery in glazing bars and in panels for cabinet doors. Pointed arches appeared as early as 1807 in the backs of hall chairs published by George Smith. This furniture, often commissioned by a new breed of antiquarian collectors such as William Beckford, was usually made in oak or other native timbers.

Antique Mould Blown Glass

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Mould-blown glass
Mould blowing, a technique that dates back to Roman times, became fashionable when it was used to make Irish and Anglo-Irish glass in the late 18th century. However, its popularity in the USA, where it is known as “blown-three-mould” glass after the three-part mould in which it was produced, declined with the growth of pressed glass in the 1820s.
EARLY GLASS
Mould blowing was first introduced by the Romans C.AD 25 and was one of the most important developments in the production of glass. The simple technique involves blowing a molten, sometimes partly formed, gather of glass (paraison) into a mould. Once shaped by the mould, the piece can be removed and finished, perhaps by reheating and further blowing to enlarge it. The mould, which gives the object both shape and decoration in one operation, was typically made of a non-combustible material such as pearwood, clay, or metal. It was usually made in two or more parts to enable the glass, which does not shrink as it cools, to be removed without damage. Wares made include plain unguentaria, bottles, beakers, and drinking cups, as well as more decorative wares such as inverted bell-shaped “lotus-bud” beakers, hexagonal flasks with decoration showing scenes from the Roman circus, and “mythological” beakers, decorated with events and characters from Roman mythology.
EUROPEAN GLASS
Glassmakers in northern Europe continued to produce mould-blown glass after the Romans left the region. The type of unsophisticated glassware, which included cone and claw beakers, was made of green-tinted soda-lime glass in the forested regions in the Rhineland, France, and Belgium between C.AD 400 and C.AD 700. The most common wares were simple drinking vessels decorated with trailing.
In the 18th century mould blowing was popularly used in Ireland to mass-produce wares such as glasses and decanters, with decoration in imitation of cut-glass designs. Most wares were part rather than fully mould blown; this involved blowing a gather of glass into a shallow patterned mould to form the base of the ware – the bowl of a glass or the base of a decanter. The mould enabled the glassblower to produce a range of wares with a uniform shape and the moulded pattern (typically fluted on Irish decanters) helped to hide flaws in the surface of the glass or unsightly sediment from wine settled at the bottom. By the late 18th century Irish glassmakers were also working their factory marks into the base of the mould.
NORTH AMERICAN GLASS
Large quantities and many varieties of blown-threemould glass, often imitating Anglo-Irish cut glass, were manufactured in Western Pennsylvania,
Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana from c.1815. The full-size hinged moulds had two, three, or more parts – the name is slightly misleading – and were used to produce pieces with patterns imitating cut glass;
wares, which were usually clear, included punch-bowls, decanters, tumblers, and even toy wine glasses decorated with a range of motifs from sunbursts and vertical and horizontal ribs to plumes and scrolls. Very popular at the time were flasks decorated with presidential portraits, the American eagle, or other political symbols, and portraits of celebrities. They were produced from c.1815 in a variety of sizes and colours – most common are clear or bottle-green examples, but wares in amethyst, blue, and various shades of green are also known.
Vast quantities of mould-blown glass were manufactured in North America during the 19th century for wine and spirit bottles, patent medicine bottles, and home preserving jars. However, in
the 1820s with the development of mould-pressing machinery they were able to mass-produce imitation cut glass.
General
• DECORATION unlike that on cut or mould-pressed glass, the design may be felt on the inside of the piece; as the glass stretches when blown, patterns are often contorted; mould-seams may be visible down the piece’s side
Early glass
• WARES flasks, beakers, cups, bottles, and bowls
• COLLECTING many domestic wares can be commonly found; unusual, coloured, or highly decorated items are very collectable and command high prices
European glass
• COLLECTING part-mould-blown Irish decanters (always of clear glass) are particularly sought after
American glass
• TECHNIQUE mould blowing mostly used in North America between c.1820 and 1870
• WARES much used for the production of inexpensive bottles, although other wares, including vases, punchbowls, and drinking glasses, were also produced

Art Deco French Furniture

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Some of the finest Art Deco furniture was produced in France, where designers reacted against the Art Nouveau style, and were inspired instead by the lines of 18th- and early 19th-century French furniture.
Cabinet-makers such as Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann
1879-1933) created one-off pieces in exotic woods; others were influenced by African and Oriental art,
while from 1925 the machine aesthetic of Modernism gained prominence, with such materials as tubular steel.

TRADITIONALIST DESIGNS
The leading French furniture designer
from c.19 IS to the mid-1920s was
Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, whose exceptionally fine handmade furniture is an elegantly pared-down version of the Neo-classical and Empire styles, with typical 18th-century features such as tapering, fluted legs. Decorative effect     is provided by exotic wood veneers, sometimes with inlaid ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell. After 1925 Ruhlmann used Modernist materials, such as tubular steel, but continued to work in a traditional style.
Other designers inspired by historical furniture were Louis Sue (1875-1968) and Andre Mare (1887-1932), who in 1919 formed the Compagnie des Arts Francais to produce a range of pieces including chairs, commodes, and desks, typified by massive forms and veneered in exotic woods with carved or inlaid stylized flowers, fruits, and plants. Their designs are heavier in style than Ruhlmann’s, as they favoured adaptations of Louis Philippe furniture of the 1830s and 1840s.
Many leading Paris department stores
had separate studios that provided a complete interior-design service. From 1921 Maurice Dufrene
( 1876-1955) directed La Maitrise, the design studio of Galeries Lafayette, and from 1923 Paul
Follot (1877-1941) was artistic director at Pomone for Au Bon Marche. Follot designed a wide range of  furnishings; urnishings; his furniture, like Ruhlmann`s is based on 18th-century forms, but
is distinguished by giltwood frames and richly coloured, patterned upholstery. Although his designs became more geometric after 1925, Follot continued to prefer wood, gilding, lacquer, and inlay to tubular steel, plastic, or glass.
EXOTIC AND MODERN DESIGNS
The geometric motifs typical of this period were derived from Cubist painting, which itself was influenced by the stylized forms of African masks and sculpture. The
furniture designer Pierre Legrain (1887-1929) took inspiration from African furniture, fashioning traditional designs in Western materials.
The Art Deco taste for Oriental art is evident in the popularity of lacquered furniture, the leading exponents of which were the Swiss-born Jean Dunand (1877-
1942) and the Irish-born Eileen Gray (1879-1976), both active in Paris. Dunand’s early lacquered furniture featured floral designs; his work from the 1920s depicted geometric forms in red-and-black lacquer and sometimes panels of crushed eggshell (coquille d’oeuf). Gray studied lacquering in Paris with the Japanese master Sougawara, and in 1920 she designed a furnished apartment for the milliner Suzanne Talbot, featuring a collection of African-inspired spired pieces. From c.1925, influenced by Modernism, she produced furniture of tubular steel, glass, and aluminium.
The leading designer of Modernist furniture was the architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965). At the 1925 Paris Exhibition he designed the Pavilion de VEsprit Nouveau, a stark, geometric space sparsely furnished with mass-produced items such as bentwood furniture by Thonet. From 1926, with Charlotte Perriand (b.1903) and his brother Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier designed his own functionalist furniture using tubular steel and other “new” materials. These and other Modernist designs have been reproduced since the 1960s by the Italian furniture company Cassina.

Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann
•    FORMS simple, elegant forms    18th-centuryforms
based on 18th-century designs, with a very high standard of workmanshipMATERIALS
•     exotic wood veneers, such as Macassar ebony, amboyna, palisander, and amaranth; ivory inlay
•    COLLECTING all work collectable, and highly priced
Marks
Ruhlmann’s work carries this signature
Compagnie des Arts Francais
•    MATERIALS marble tops, velvet upholstery
Legrain, Dunand, and Le Corbusier
•    FORMS Legrain: African-inspired with angular, stepped features; Dunand: naturalistic floral designs, geometric designs; Le Corbusier: stark, Modernist designs TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS Dunand: lacquering, crushed eggshell; Le Corbusier: tubular steel frames
•    COLLECTING Le Corbusier: modern reproductions
mass-produced by Cassina arc more accessible

Antique Porcelain From Low Countries, Scandinavia and Switzerland

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

In the 18th century, as the fashion for porcelain reached its peak, many porcelain factories were established outside Germany and France, the main centres of production. Many new factories were founded by arcanists, modellers, and decorators who exploited their knowledge of porcelain manufacture, moving from factory to factory throughout Europe. Unsurprisingly, most of the smaller European operations imitated the styles of Meissen and Sevres, although their wares sometimes display an interesting mixture of influences.
THE LOW COUNTRIES
In 1750 Francois-Joseph Peterinck (1719-99) established a factory in Tournai and, with the help of the arcanist Robert Dubois, produced soft-paste porcelain. The influence of Meissen in the tablewares can be seen in the moulded basket-weave borders and the spiral patterns around the rims of plates, while the decoration is more English-inspired. The specialities of Tournai were exotic birds and scenes taken from Aesop’s fables in underglaze blue, both of which were used at Chelsea and Worcester. Typical of Tournai, too, are landscape vignettes in puce or purple monochrome, surrounded by small sprays of flowers. The factory also made a limited range of galanterie – small decorative objects such as snuff-boxes.
Tournai produced a large range of figures and groups following contemporary French taste in their subject-matter, in particular pastoral scenes of shepherds and children by artists who had worked at Mennecy. The thickly glazed groups are painted in a pale palette or left in the white, but lack crisp modelling. Also typical of Tournai are figures and groups in biscuit porcelain, especially those on high rockwork bases around a central tree; groups like these were made at Derby.
Peterinck retired in 1796, and ownership of Tournai passed to his daughter Amelie de Bettignics (1757–after 1805). The factory continued making simple household wares, but no more figures, until the mid-19th century. Many 18th-century wares were sold undecorated, and were later painted at a porcelain factory in The Hague set up in 1776 by a German porcelain dealer, Anton Lyncker (1718-81). The Hague factory also made its own hard-paste porcelain wares, decorated in a manner similar to Tournai’s. Confusingly, both The Hague factory’s own products and the Tournai pieces that it decorated have the same mark; any soft-paste ware bearing an overglaze mark of a stork is likely to be (but by no means definitely is) of Tournai origin.
The first successful Dutch porcelain factor was established in Weesp, near Amsterdam, in 1757 by the Irish arcanist D. MacCarthy, who had been involved in attempts to manufacture porcelain in Copenhagen. This factory has a complex history of ownership. In 1771 it changed hands and moved to Oude Loosdrecht, and in 1782 moved to Amstel, near Amsterdam, where it remained until its closure in 1820. All the Dutch factories used a good-quality white hard paste with a clear glaze. Some small figures of putti holding salts were made at Weesp. At Oude Loosdrecht and Amstel, production was focused entirely on wares – mainly tea, coffee and dinner services. In both form and decoration
the wares are similar to Meissen and
other German porcelain.
SWITZERLAND
Most porcelain factories in Europe were established by aristocratic patrons who could afford luxury products; in Switzerland, where there was no monarchy, a group of prominent citizens established the first porcelain factory in Zurich in 1763. The factory initially made a soft-paste porcelain but switched to the production of hard paste c.1765.
Reflecting the demands of Switzerland’s dominant middle-class market, the bulk of Zurich
production was tea, coffee and dinner services. These generally followed German Rococo and Neo-classical styles, but the complex scrolled handles on coffee- and teapots were unique to Zurich. In terms of ecoration, the Zurich factory is associated with small pastoral landscapes in a palette dominated by blues and greens. Sortie exquisitely painted landscapes in warmer colours arc by Salomon Gessner (1739-79), 1739-79), one of the founders; unfortunately the enamels arc often flaky because the paint was applied too thickly. The colourful, naturalistic sprays of flowers familiar on 18th-century Meissen also featured at Zurich, although the flower sprays tend to be looser. Other kinds of decoration included a version of the Oriental banded hedge pattern, Usually in purple, and vignettes of birds on branches.
Almost 400 different types of figure igure and group were made, mostly in the late Rococo style. The famous Meissen series of the street vendors of London and Paris may have inspired the set of 42 street-
sellers called the “Cries of Zurich”. The finest figures were probably modelled by Valentin Sonnenschein (1749-1828), from Ludwigsburg, and, perhaps because of his influence, many Zurich figures resemble those made there. The factory closed in 1791, owing
to financial problems caused by competition from other factories and imports of inexpensive creamware from England.
SCANDINAVIA
In the 1730s several French
and German arcanists, including Christoph Conrad Hunger of Meissen
and Vienna, produced soft-paste porcelain
on a limited scale in Copenhagen. In 1774 the first hard-paste porcelain factory was founded there. Queen Caroline Matilda was the main shareholder of this factory; after her exile it was bought in 1779 by King Christian VII and styled the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory. A fine, white hard paste with a clear glaze was used to make wares mainly in a severe Neo-classical style, much influenced by Berlin, Vienna, and Sevres.
Cylindrical teapots and coffee-cups with angular handles, and trays with angled sides, are typically embellished with oval and cylindrical medallions enclosing landscapes, topographical views, or portraits in sepia, puce, or pink monochrome, surrounded with swags and coloured borders heightened with gilding. Botanical subjects were also popular, the most famous
example being the 1,800-piece “Flora Danica” service ( 1789-1802) that was probably made for Catherine the Great of Russia.
The factory declined in the early 19th century, but under the direction (1828-57) of Gustav Friedrich Hetsch it produced biscuit figures, notably those based on the work of the Neoclassical sculptor Berthel Thorvaldsen. The factory enjoyed a renaissance when in 1885 the architect and painter Arnold Krug (1856-1931) was appointed artistic director. With new glaze technology, he introduced a revolutionary form of underglaze painting, using simple washes of blues and greys to produce an effect very similar to Japanese pottery. Johann Ludwig Eberhard Ehrenreich (1722-1803)
produced porcelain between 1766 and 178 at Marieberg, near Stockholm.
It initially used a soft paste for Rococo wares, especially spiral-fluted custard cups similar
to those made at Mennecy.
A hard-paste porcelain was
introduced from 1777.

Antique Tiles

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

The use of tiles as an architectural element, either as roofing or as decoration for walls, floors, or ceilings, has been a feature of most cultures. In the Middle East, glazed tiles have had a long tradition
in creating cool interiors. After the death of Muhammad (AD 632), the culture of Islam expanded rapidly throughout the region, spreading Islamic philosophy and arts. In Iberia, the westernmost outpost of the Islamic world, this influence is particularly evident in such building, as the Alhambra in Granada.
EUROPE
In Italy tin-glazed earthenware reached new heights in the late-15th and 16th centuries, and Italian tiles were first used for pavements in churches. Migrating potters transmitted their skills from Italy to France
and The Netherlands, and the tin-glazed tiling tradition continued from its epicentre in Antwerp (now in Belgium). In order to escape persecution by their Spanish overlords in the 1560s, many potters fled Antwerp for Rotterdam, Middelburg, Amsterdam, and Delft in the northern Netherlands. By the 1660s and 1670s Dutch potters had adopted a sober blue-and-white palette depicting local interests and activities. In Germany, and many other northern and central European countries, decorative tiles, mostly moulded in relief and covered in either a brown or a green monochrome glaze, were used mainly for cladding the exteriors of stoves.
From the 16th century until the latter half of the
18th century, when they went out of fashion, tin-glazed riles were made in large quantities in Britain. The range and variety of British tiles is great and offers the collector a fertile hunting-ground. From the late 18th century until the latter half of the 19th, decorative tileworks formed little or no part of Western interiors, but after the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, tiles began to reappear, mainly as fire surrounds but sometimes used either as a tile picture or as a series of repeated patterns creating an exotic interior. Both Minton & Co. (est. 1798) and the designer William De Morgan (1839-1917) embraced the Aesthetic Movement and designed tiles
in Japanese, Turkish, and Persian styles. Although a few were hand-painted, the majority were transfer-printed.
NORTH AMERICA
Tiles were manufactured in North America from the second half of the 19th century. By the mid-1870s such firms as the American Encaustic Tiling Co. (est. 1875) in Zanesville, Ohio, and the Star Encaustic Tile Co. (est. 1876) in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, were making mosaic and inlaid floor-tiles. The Low Art Tile Co. (1877-93) in Chelsea, Massachusetts, produced glazed relief tiles that could compete with the best English tiles. At the Grueby Pottery (est. 1894) in Boston, Massachusetts, a variety of tiles in soft colours with matt glazes was made. Other factories making art tiles included the Trent Tile Co. (est. 1882) in Trenton, New Jersey, and the Rookwood Pottery (est.. 1880) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• early tiles tend to be much thicker than the usual 6mm (approx.) of 18th- and 19th-century tiles; sizes became more uniform in the 19th century
• REPRODUCTIONS collectors should beware of reproduction transfer-printed tiles made in the late 1980s and 1990s
• COLLECTING tiles from Victorian fireplaces arc available in large numbers; Dutch tiles can be expensive; tile panels and pictures are rare and are usually very expensive; Iznik tiles are among the most expensive tiles available and can measure about 38cm ( 15in) in width

Antique trays, knife-boxes, cutlery-urns, wine coolers, cellarets, and buckets

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Trays, knife-boxes, cutlery-urns, wine coolers, cellarets, and buckets
TRAYS
Known as “voyders” in the Middle Ages, and conceived not only for clearing away but also for the presentation of delicacies and sweetmeats, the earliest utilitarian trays were probably made of pewter and wood. During the late 17th century lacquered trays imported by the East India companies and European japanned versions revolutionized tray designs. The fashion for tea in the early 18th century was directly reflected upon all of the component parts of the tea ceremony.
Modest trays in oak and elm also survive from the early 18th century, and from the 1750s mahogany trays first appeared in pattern-hooks. Thomas Chippendale (1718-79), in the first edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754), included four designs for trays in the Chinese style with carved fret borders. However, this type is very rare, and Chippendale also supplied designs for plain rectangular trays. From the 1780s trays became increasingly decorative; they were made in mahogany, and other exotic timbers, were sometimes richly inlaid with shells, fan-parquetry, and foliate arabesques of stained fruitwood, or were painted. Late 18th- and early 19th-century trays were dominated by the fashion for japanning, particularly in papier-mache. A process long practised in Persia (now Iran), it was patented in 1772 by the firm of Henry Clay, in Birmingham, and later by Jennens &, Bettridge (active 1816-64) in London. Although papier-mache trays were often of scalloped form, rectangular trays with similar decoration were also fashionable, particularly those of tole peinte or polychrome-painted metal.
KNIFE-BOXES AND CUTLERY-URNS
Supplied in pairs as ornamental containers for silver and enamel-handled cutlery and designed to stand prominently on the serving table, knife-boxes came into fashion during the reign of George II ( 1727-60). Although the basic form, with a serpentine front, remained remarkably unchanged until the 1780s, George 11 knife-boxes were often ten covered with silk-velvet or shagreen, rather than veneered. From the 1760s knife-boxes in mahogany were made and are characterized by their bow-fronted form, hinged slope with drop-handles, and shaped bracket or claw-and-ball feet; they are unembellished apart from the cockbeaded or chequerbanded edges. The interiors, with slopes pierced with holes to display the cutlery in tiers, were also often silk lined but otherwise restrained. During the 1770s their decoration became increasingly lavish, with crossbanding and featherbanding, ebony-inlaid star parquetry to the slopes, and even stylized green-stained shell inlay – a motif particularly identified with North Country workshops – while the feet were discarded altogether in favour of Classical plinths. With the age of satinwood ( 1780-1800), elaborate Neo-classical embellishments became commonplace, and these were often complemented by richly engraved Sheffield plate Mounts. During the 1780s the vase-form knife-box, published by George Hepplewhite (d.1786) in The Cabinet-Maker and upholsterer’s Guide ( 1788-94), was designed to stand either set at each end of the sideboard or on pedestals. Made of satinwood or other light woods, the most refined examples were painted or inlaid with Neo-classical marquetry, arabesques, and simulated flutes, while the spring-loaded lids opened to reveal a chequerbanded interior with concentric tiers for the display of cutlery. During the early 19th century, knife-boxes and cutlery-urns became increasingly redundant both by sideboards with fitted drawers for storage, and by cutlery-urns being affixed to pedestals.
WINE COOLERS AND CELLARETS
As wine was an expensive luxury, receptacles for cooling and storing wine – whether of open-topped cistern (wine cooler) or lidded cellaret form, fitted with a lock, with divisions for bottles –were often lavishly decorated. Although metal and marble cellarets were first recorded in Britain in the late 17th century, it was not until the mid-18th century that lead-lined mahogany examples carved in the Rococo taste were made. Perhaps the most celebrated wine cooler is the Georgian form with a hexagonal or oval body, made of vertical sections of mahogany held together with two or three brass bands.
Neo-classical wine coolers and cellarets were usually conceived en suite with sideboards and pedestals, and were still predominantly of mahogany, although exotic timbers such as satinwood, padouk, and rosewood were also used. Although wine coolers with serpentine-channelled flutes to the body, which were directly inspired by Roman sarcophagi, and those with elaborate marquetry in a lighter style, continued to be made in the 1780s and 1790s, the most common examples were plainer mahogany- hooped with brass, with the lead-lined inside divided with partitions for the bottles. It is from this date that the majority of canted rectangular, circular, dome-lidded, and octagonal examples survive. Increasingly restrained in form and decoration, cellarets were rendered somewhat redundant by the inclusion of cellaret-drawers within designs for dining-room pedestals and sideboards.
During the early 19th century the lidded cellarets of Roman sarcophagus form, which were often of much larger size than its 18th-century predecessors, dominated Regency
pattern-books, and generally do not have stands. While firms such as Dillow (est. c.1730) of
Lancaster, Continued to supply cellarets in superbly figured
mahogany, from 1810 cabinet-makers under the
influence of George Bullock (c.1777-1818) increasingly promoted the use of indigenous English woods such as pollard oak and elm, frequently enriched with foliate marquetry arabesques in the “Buhl” style. However, from the 1830s this decoration became increasingly lavish, often combined with carving, and later Victorian cellarets arc often betrayed by their squatter, heavier proportions.
PLATE-BUCKETS AND PEAT-BUCKETS Plate-buckets are distinguished by their one-dished side that enabled servants to remove plates easily and straight-sided, or even polygonal form. Inspired by the need to ferry- plates the long distances from the kitchen to the dining-room, and usually made in pairs, plate-buckets were initially intended to be placed near the fire to keep the plates warm. The plate-bucket lent itself easily to embellishment and carving with pierced Gothick arcades, Chinese blind fretwork, and even marquetry inlay in the Neo-classical style; plain types were also made. The role of the plate-bucket was superseded in the late 18th century by the warmers enclosed within dining-room pedestals, and thus plate-buckets became increasingly plain, purely for use by servants for carrying china to the dining-room. The “peat-bucket” is an Irish term for a container traditionally thought to have been used for carrying peat to the fireplace. However, this is now thought to be unlikely as the bucket and peat together would have been very heavy indeed. It is now thought that they were used for carrying any number of items, including oysters. Although buckets are usually considered an English form, 18th- and 19th-century ones from The Netherlands arc among the most common found today, and can be distinguished from their English counterparts by their slightly smaller proportions, ribbed tapering bodies and, most characteristically, by the alternating use of light fruitwood and mahogany to give a streaked effect to the bodies.
• TRAYS 18th-century mahogany trays are rare; those that exist are often made from the leaves of old dining-tables; papier-mache trays may suffer from craquelure and
flaking; the best papier-mache examples have mother-of-pearl inlay.
• KNIFE-BOXES many have had the insides removed so that they could be converted to other uses – often as writing-cases in the 19th century; a premium is attached to those that retain their original fitments; examples with shell inlay sire usually from the North Country and Scotland; pairs of cutlery urns are very desirable.
• WINE COOLERS rare examples are those from the 18th century of carved mahogany or walnut.
• PLATE- AND PEAT-BUCKETS these are faked in huge numbers, often from old timber; look out for indications of consistent old damage, shrinkage, and seams to the brass bands, and beware of suspicious stains.

Antique High Chests-of-Drawers.

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

High chests-of-drawers
Chests-on-stands, also known as high chests-ofdrawers or highboys, were a development of the chest-of-drawers. The form comprises a series of short drawers at the top, three or four long, graduated drawers beneath, and two or three drawers in the stand. The form was made in England from the end of the 17th century in walnut veneer, with double-twist turned supports, barley-twist or cup-and-cover legs, flat stretchers, and a plain moulded cornice. This piece of furniture became a singularly American form after c.1730.
AMERICAN HIGH CHESTS-OF-DRAWERS
From the 1690s to the 1730s, following the popular London styles, cabinet-makers in New England and Pennsylvania made chests-of-drawers on tall barley-twist, scroll, and trumpet-turned legs, with matching dressing tables (lowboys) for use in the bedchamber. Their arched aprons (skirts) generally accommodated three drawers. Blind frieze drawers are found on some made in New York and New England. The finest are veneered with richly figured burr-walnut, their drawers
outlined with herringbone veneer. Others are made
of solid maple or cherry, and some are painted. Several from Boston, with four cabriole legs instead of six turned ]cgs, have their original japanned decoration.
By the 1750s high chests with broken-arch pediments had come into vogue. The Philadelphia high chest was tighter and more graceful, with a richly carved middle drawer in the lower section, the uppercase, like the lower, flanked by fluted quarter columns, and topped
by a richly carved broken-arch pediment with carved rosettes, a cartouche in the centre, and flame finials at the corners. The typanum of the arch, no longer housing a drawer, was filled with Rococo streamers, leaves, and grasses, while carving decorated the apron and knees. The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754-62) by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) influenced the design of a horizontal cornices, which in the 1760s and 1770s separated the carved scrolled pediments from the unadorned facades of the drawer fronts.
High chests made away from the coastal cities are country versions of those made in urban centres. Those made in Lancaster County inland Pennsylvania, reflect the Philadelphia style, while those from the back country of the Shenandoah Valley are largely influenced by Pennsylvania forms that the settlers of that region were familiar with; eccentric maple chests, stained to simulate mahogany, were made in New Hampshire by the Dunlap family, suggesting their Scottish/ Irish origin. In New York and the South they preferred the chest-on-chest form.
• CONSTRUCTION some flat-top high chests were fitted with pedestals for displaying ceramics.
• Alterations high chests were made in two parts, which were sometimes separated; the top was often given feet and sold as a chest-of-drawers, and the bottom given a new top and sold as an over-size dressing table or serving table; even in their altered states, they are considered of value.
• COLLECTING in the USA high chests have long been the most highly priced type of furniture; matching high chests and dressing tables will achieve a premium.

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Friday, May 1st, 2009