Over the past two years items relating to witchcraft and sorcery have proved a popular element of Sworders’ Out of the Ordinary sales.
The third such offering in Stansted Mountfitchet on February 11 includes a rare 180-page book titled A Tryal of Witches at the Assizes held at Bury St Edmonds for the country of Suffolk; on the tenth day of March, 1664.
Printed in 1682 this first-hand account details the tragic case of Rose Cullendar and Amy Duny, two elderly widows living in Lowestoft, accused by neighbours of bewitching young children. They were tried by eminent judge Sir Matthew Hale, found guilty and hanged at Bury St Edmunds on the March 17, 1662.
The estimate for the book, bound together with another title A List of Infamous Impostors: or the Lives of several Notorious Counterfeits, is £500-800.
sworder.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
This traditional topographical 10½ x 13½in (27 x 34cm) watercolour of the Suffolk cloth town of Lavenham, above, is by Cyril Edward Power (1871-1951), the artist better known for his Vorticist prints made for the Grosvenor School. It was given to the previous owner c.1990 by the artist’s granddaughter.
It has a £600-800 guide at the sale of Modern & Contemporary British Art at Roseberys London in West Norwood on February 11.
roseberys.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Pictured above is an engraved plate of a ‘river god’ as shown in an original late 18th or early 19th century trade catalogue for the celebrated Coade Artificial Stone Company. Still in its original leather binding, it includes engravings, working drawings and a price list for the figures, ornaments, urns and architectural devices.
The Lambeth firm, founded in the 1770s by the remarkable Eleanor Coade (1733-1821), pioneered a new building material: the first-ever ‘artificial stone’ made from a closely guarded recipe that mixed clay, terracotta, silicates, and glass.
The catalogue will be offered together with a copy of Alison Kelly’s 1999 book Mrs Coade’s Stone as part of The Gentleman’s Library sale at Bonhams in London on February 12.
Estimate £500-600.
bonhams.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
An archive relating to a British soldier who spent time in three German prisoner-of-war camps has an estimate of £800-1200 at Chalkwell Auctions in Southend-on-Sea on February 12.
The collection, offered as a single lot, includes medals and items belonging to Private C Kempster and his uncle Frederick Charles Reed who was captured in Crete and kept prisoner for four-and-a-half years.
Ephemera includes photos of prisoners, camp money, letters back and forth as well as x-rays and hospital records documenting Reed’s operation and recovery from gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
