The secondary market for these pieces has been growing in the past decade. Small-scale pieces are still sold in the low hundreds at auction but larger works can now command upwards of £10,000 on the retail market.
Included in Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) late February series of sales (22-27) was a c.1970 coffee table with a base formed as a cast metal and resin giant tortoise. The shell supported a 2ft 8in (81cm) diameter banded circular glass top.
Redmile designed a number of variants of this theme, all of them now hugely popular. The estimate on the table at Bellmans was a modest £400-600. On the day it sold to a private UK buyer at £3600.
In the mix
George III card tables – £6400 at Bellmans.
A huge diversity of material was available across the 1730 lots offered across four days at the Wisborough Green rooms.
Sold at £6400 to the trade was a pair of George III semi-elliptical card tables. The £2000-3000 estimate on the 3ft 8in (1.12m) wide floral marquetry satinwood tables reflected some real quality.
Among the surprise bids taken for Chinese works of art was the £9000 for a porcelain blue and white bowl which was catalogued as being later than implied by the Wanli (1572- 1620) six-character mark.
Painted with fruit and tendrils above a ruyi head border, the 8½in (21cm) diameter bowl purchased in Hong Kong in the 1960s was pitched at £100-150. It went to a Chinese bidder.
1803 sampler – £2200 at Bellmans.
A more homespun success was a needlework sampler made by Ann Anderton Gawlworth, December 1803.
Showing a female archer and deer and featuring a moral verse, the 16 x 12in (40 x 30cm) framed and glazed sampler was estimated at £100-150 but sold to the trade via thesaleroom.com at £2200.
