This portrait above, attributed to William Beechey (1753- 1839), depicts William Fawcett – a career soldier born into a Yorkshire gentry family.
A gifted strategist, Fawcett made a mark on military tactics, recruitment and training at a crucial time when the British army was preparing for its great struggle against revolutionary and Napoleonic France.
In 1786, Fawcett was made a Knight of the Bath, the star of which he is shown wearing in this portrait.
The 3ft 1in x 2ft 5in (94 x 74cm) oil on canvas is estimated at £1500-2500 in Woolley & Wallis’ Old Masters, British & European Paintings auction on March 6 in Salisbury.
woolleyandwallis.co.uk or see this item thesaleroom.com
A Charles II beadwork mirror is guided at £2500-3500 in The Fine Sale at Cheffins of Cambridge on March 6-7.
The border is set within a 2ft 4in x 22in (73 x 57cm) chinoiserie decorated frame and shows the king and his wife Catherine of Braganza under marital canopies, with a palace to the arch and flowering shrubs, birds and insects.
Beadwork, like needlework, was produced in the 17th century by both young girls and professionals, with coloured beads imported from Venice and Amsterdam as early as the 1630s.
cheffins.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
A single-owner sale offering the Philip Banham collection of optical toys, optical prints and stereoscopic including The Great Exhibition of 1851 takes place at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter on March 6.
The 236-lot group was assembled over a 50-year period by Banham, an authority on magic lanterns and early forms of photography.
A highlight at £2000-3000 is a scarce stereoscopic daguerreotype of the visit of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to the Crystal Palace in Sydenham on April 20, 1855. The visit came at a time when England and France were fighting together as allies in the Crimea.
bhandl.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
London firm The Pedestal is selling the contents of William H Stokes Antiques on March 4 at Bingham Hall in Cirencester – the town where the shop traded for many years from its 17th century property in Dollar Street.
Proprietor William Stokes commenced full-time professional furniture dealing in 1969 and was joined in his business by Peter Bontoft in 1974. Specialising in furniture and objects of the 16th and 17th centuries, the firm traded through almost five decades until the deaths of Stokes in 2015 and Bontoft in 2018.
The Stokes sale includes both the remaining stock and Stokes’ private collection, some of which was acquired in the 1950s and ‘60s.
A large Charles I oak chest, c.1640, carved with three angels is guided at £3000-5000.
thepedestal.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
