Estimated at £8000-12,000, this five-piece sterling silver tea and coffee service by Harald Nielsen (1891-1977) for Georg Jensen will go under the hammer at Great Western Auctions’ Fine Art & Antique sale on March 23-24.
Nielsen created some of the most successful designs for Georg Jensen in his 50 years with the company. Beginning his career as an apprentice in 1909, his innovative designs forged his place as a master craftsman and trusted colleague to Jensen himself.
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London dealer Sarah Colegrave is selling a pair of early canvases by Mary Adshead (1904-95).
Priced at £5500, the signed 20 x 15in (51 x 40cm) tempera on canvases represent music and song. They are dated 1927, shortly before Adshead undertook an important mural commission for Lord Beaverbrook’s dining room in 1928 and the Bank Underground station in 1929.
Adshead went on to become an established painter, decorator and illustrator, designing posters for London Underground, decorations for the British Pavilion at the 1937 Paris international exhibition and stamps for the General Post Office.
The personal archive of British designer and goldsmith Louis Osman (1914-96) will be auctioned by Dix Noonan Webb in London on March 27.
The archive, which includes a 2in (6cm) wide gold model commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 and designs for the crown presented to the Prince of Wales for his investiture at Caernarvon Castle, is being sold by Osman’s daughter Marie-Louise Parker.
The 22-carat gold model of the moon, with a small calibré-cut diamond inset to indicate the Apollo landing site, was commissioned by a young stockbroker called Simon Horn to mark the moon landing in July 1969. Only a small number were produced. Four were sent to the US: three given to the astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins and the other to Rose Kennedy, mother of US President John F Kennedy.
This example, which is guided at £4000-6000, remained in Osman’s possession and is said to have taken pride of place on the mantelpiece in his dining room.
