It was assumed that these were costume pieces but Wenzel, who had collected (on a fairly meagre budget) wherever she travelled in the world, had acquired more than general sale material. Upon closer inspection, the auctioneers discovered a charming pair of Victorian diamond and emerald drop earrings which sold to a local private buyer at £650 plus a small group of Roman pieces.
According to Stephen Clarke, very few of these were pure survivors from antiquity, sometimes incorporating old into new, and were not in the best of condition, but the four mixed lots attracted bidding from two London dealers and a South East collector.
Raising around £2000 as a group, the best-selling lot at £400 included a gold earring set with a cameo head of Medusa, a filigree earring and a necklace.
A Waterman’s Ideal fountain pen in a green marbled or ‘ripple’ case with a patent date for October 9 1906, sold together with an en-suite propelling pencil was a surprise at £500 (estimate £50-80). In the first decade of the 20th century Waterman registered a number of patents for pens with a pump filling mechanism.
Two early spoons consigned by a collector in Woking performed above estimate.
A Charles II West Country seal-top spoon pricked with initials, dated 1666 and struck four times with the makers mark WL, probably for William Lewis of Wincanton, sold at £650, the same price as a Charles I spoon of a similar form pricked with initials, the date 1638 and the maker’s mark WG only.
A William and Mary oval tobacco box, engraved with a coat-of-arms and to the base with a cipher by Nathaniel Lock c.1690, 33/4in (9.5cm), had been unsold in the sale of the Bauer collection in Guildford late last year. It got away this time at £580 as did a late collector’s French gold circular snuffbox with floral borders, Paris 1809/ 1817, 11/2in (4cm) diameter, sold at £340. From a deceased estate in the town, a George II silver-mounted shagreen case with pierced escutcheons, 71/2in high, made £480.
Clarke Gammon, Guildford, April 15
Buyer’s Premium: 15%
More than academic, a scholar’s jewellery
THE provincial scene is nothing if not surprising. The Guildford Auction Rooms received a call from a firm of London solicitors earlier this year to sell a large cardboard box of jewellery from the estate of Marian Wenzel an academic who taught the history of jewellery design.
