Tennants’ sale of Jewellery, Watches & Silver in Leyburn on May 22 includes, estimated at £7000-9000, a rare Omega aviator’s watch.
It is sold with information from the Omega Museum that confirms the watch was manufactured in July 1915 and is thus one of earliest Omega first-generation model chronographs ever made. It uses a pocket watch-size movement and an outsize case with a button at 6 o’clock that made for ease of use during flying. An almost identical watch was owned by Lawrence of Arabia.
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Early 20th century butterfly brooch by Ernst Paltscho (1858-1929) – estimated at £2000-3000 at Elstob & Elstob in Ripon on May 22.
A sale of Jewellery, Watches & Silver at Elstob & Elstob in Ripon on May 22 includes this early 20th century butterfly brooch by Ernst Paltscho (1858-1929).
The thorax and abdomen are set with diamonds and cabochon rubies with the wings formed with blue butterfly wings behind rock crystal. Ernst Platscho (1858-1929) founded the firm Platscho, in 1899 in Vienna patenting these jewels using natural butterfly wings.
Estimate £2000-3000.
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Late 15th/early 16th century Limoges panel, estimated at £4000-6000 at Matthew Barton.
Matthew Barton’s European and Asian Works of Art Auction on May 26 includes this late 15th/early 16th century Limoges panel, estimated at £4000-6000.
The panel is set in a later silver frame, 4in (10.5cm) long, inscribed to the base Venite Adoremus Dominum, the reverse engraved with a coat of arms, also with two Thos F. Flannary Coll. Chicago labels, one numbered 14, the other 999. It was with Stora and Co, New York, before 1963; then the Thomas F Flannery collection and his sale at Sotheby’s in London in December 1983; then with Trinity Fine Art, London.
The Arms may be those of the van den Ende family of Holland.
According to the New York Times, Flannery (1926-80), a Chicago neon-sign producer, “was a born collector. He began by acquiring guns and clocks – mechanical things – in his teens. Then, at the age of 21, he made his first purchase in the field of medieval and Renaissance art, a collecting interest that absorbed him until his death.”
The NYT added that his taste was “shaped, probably, by his Irish roots and his education under the Jesuits at Loyola University”. This enamel plaque was exhibited in Enamels: the XII to the XVI Century at the Martin D’Arcy Gallery of Art, Loyola University of Chicago, in 1970.
His collection of medieval and Renaissance art, numbering more than 430 objects, was auctioned over two days at Sotheby’s in London, totalling around £2m.
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Ernest Race ‘Cormorant’ folding plywood chair, estimated at £500-700 at W&H Peacock.
Ernest Race’s Cormorant folding plywood chair, designed in 1959 for use on P&O Liners, won various gold medal awards in design exhibitions in the early 1960s.
This example, with a Race Furniture Ltd label to the underside, has a guide of £500-700 at W&H Peacock’s Mid Century Design sale in Bedford on May 21.
peacockauction.co.uk or see this item at thesaleroom.com
A mid-19th century Continental carved wood pipe bowl modelled as a pulpit and carved with knights standing, estimated at £150-250 at Bellmans.
Bellmans is selling a collection of smoking pipes on May 25, amassed by the managing director of one of the leading tobacco companies.
Charles Finch acquired around 600 pipes over almost 40 years at the beginning of he 20th century. He started his career in 1912 at the age of 13 when he worked as a clerk for cigar and cigarette importer EE Johnson in Hart Street, London, near Tower Hill. His career took him all the way up to be the MD of its subsidiary The Ring Cigarette Company.
While Finch’s son Alan was still a child he accompanied him on weekend trips to junk shops and markets, always trying to find unusual pipes of all shapes and forms to add to the collection. On January 1, 1947, Charles handed the entire collection over to Alan and on his death the collection was passed on to his surviving brothers Dennis and Kenneth. Their descendants are now selling the entire group.
Among the highlights is a mid-19th century Continental carved wood pipe bowl, shown here, which is modelled as a pulpit and carved with knights standing between spiral. Estimate £150-250.
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Victorian mahogany apothecary cabinet, estimated at £400-600 at Bushey Auctions.
On May 20, Bushey Auctions in Hertfordshire will sell this Victorian mahogany apothecary cabinet including scales, measures and glass bottles, some with sealed labels for R Wood Chemist to Her Majesty The Queen. Previously owned by a doctor working at Windsor Castle, it is guided at £400-600.
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Examples from the collection of money tokens estimated at £15,000-20,000 overall at Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire.
Money tokens possibly lost during the chaos of The Great Fire of London in 1666 are among hundreds of 17th century trade tokens from Kent collected over the course of 35 years.
The single-owner collection is expected to fetch £15,000-20,000 overall at Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire, on May 20-21 (examples pictured above). They are being sold as individual pieces for the rarest and highest grade examples and in groups of 4-6 for other pieces.
Around a quarter of the 360 tokens up for auction display the year 1666. Of these, most were found buried in mud on the banks of the Thames. Several were dug up by lifelong collector Roger Green, who is selling the Kent tokens, or by fellow members of the Society of Thames Mudlarks and Antiquarians.
At the time of The Great Fire, tokens were used as currency in London as no smallvalue coins were being minted by the government. Alan Smith, head of Hansons’ Historica department, said: “To enable them to do business, traders pressed their own farthing or half-penny tokens to give as change. They could be spent locally and were widely used between 1648-73.”
hansonsauctioneers.co.uk or see this item at thesaleroom.com
‘Beach Huts at Walberswick’ by Leon Underwood, guided at £500-800 at Mallams.
Fifteen works by Leon Underwood (1890-1975) feature in Mallams’ Modern Art & Design sale in Oxford on May 26-27. This 11 x 15in (27 x 37cm) watercolour Beach Huts at Walberswick, signed and dated 1932, is guided at £500-800.
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Minton’s Pottery wall charger by Willam S Coleman, estimated at £5000-8000 at Woolley & Wallis.
The sale of British Art Pottery at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on May 25-26 includes this fine Minton’s Pottery wall charger by Willam S Coleman.
Mounted in its original ebonies and gilded frame, The Butterfly Collector depicts a young girl kneeling before a collection of exotic butterflies, in an Aesthetic room setting with goldfish in a bowl. The charger measures 19in (48cm) with an overall diameter of 23in (57cm).
Estimate £5000-8000.
woolleyandwallis.co.uk or see this item at thesaleroom.com
19th century necklace of old-cut and rose-cut diamonds and five cabochon emeralds, estimated at €5000-6000 at Adam’s in Dublin.
The Fine Jewellery & Watches sale at Adam’s in Dublin on May 25 includes this 19th century necklace of old-cut and rose-cut diamonds and five cabochon emeralds of bluish-green hue. It is expected to bring €5000-6000.
Ebonised bentwood music stand designed by Josef Hoffmann and manufactured by J & J Kohn c.1906, estimate £600-800 at Wilson55.
The 20th Century Art & Design sale at Wilson55 in Nantwich on May 20 includes this ebonised bentwood music stand designed by Josef Hoffmann and manufactured by J & J Kohn c.1906. Estimate £600-800.
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‘Luxembourg Gardens’ by Jessica Dismorr, estimated at £1200-1800 at Roseberys.
Estimated at £1200-1800 as part of Roseberys’ sale of Modern & Contemporary British Art on May 25 is this watercolour c.1910 titled Luxembourg Gardens by Jessica Dismorr (1885-1939). Verso is a pencil life drawing of a nude by the same hand.
Dismorr was an important figure in early British Modernism, exhibiting with the Vorticist group alongside William Roberts and Wyndham Lewis. These early works by the artist made in France demonstrate the influence of Fauvism and Post-Impressionist art on her work, at a time when the artist was involved with the innovative ‘Rhythm’ group.
roseberys.co.uk or see this item at thesaleroom.com
East India Company 6-bore flintlock wall piece by Henshaw of London, estimated at £4000-5000 at Bonhams.
The Antique Arms & Armour sale at Bonhams on May 26 includes, estimated at £4000- 5000, this massive East India Company 6-bore flintlock wall piece by Henshaw of London.
Dated 1793, it was one of 3000 delivered the following year to the Ordnance by William Henshaw, a contractor to the East India Company between 1772 and the year of his death in 1822.
bonhams.com or see this item at thesaleroom.com
Air Ministry bronze ‘scramble’ station bell, estimated at £1800-2200 at Dominic Winter.
The Dominic Winter sale titled Military & Aviation History, Medals & Militaria in South Carney on May 20 includes this Air Ministry bronze ‘scramble’ station bell. By repute, the bell was formerly used at RAF Dishforth when the camp opened in 1936 and then transferred to RAF Topcliffe in 1940 where it remained until 1988.
Sometime after the war, the bell was moved to the station’s church in a Nissen hut, where it was used to call the congregation to service until 1988 when the bell was sold. Both Dishforth and Topcliffe camps were part of 4 Group, RAF Bomber Command.
Estimate £1800-2200.
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A human skull carved ivory netsuke, estimated at £800-1200 at Fieldings.
Fieldings is selling the contents of Astley Towne House, a Grade II-listed manor house in the Worcestershire countryside, as part of its May 20-21 auction.
This diverse collection owned by Tim and Lesley Smith include a ‘Fiji mermaid’ (an object composed of the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish), a 19th century cattle vertebrae which has been cleverly painted to depict an image of the preacher John Wesley, a taxidermy zebra which once sat at the dining table wearing a top hat, a 10ft long alligator, a two-headed duckling, an elephant bird egg, a replica shrunken head and a human skull carved ivory netsuke.
Tim said: “We moved to Astley Towne House 30 years ago and the collection has grown in number and eccentricity. I have relished collecting the more ‘weird and wonderful’ creating a House of Curiosities and within that a Cabinet Room of Curiosities which includes the The Fiji Mermaid’.”
The netsuke, shown here, is estimated at £800-1200.
fieldingsauctioneers.co.uk or see this item at thesaleroom.com
Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson oak settle, guided at £2000-4000 in Ryedale Auctioneers’ Country House Sale.
This Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson oak settle is guided at £2000-4000 in Ryedale Auctioneers’ Country House Sale on May 20.
It features a waved carved top rail and Haunton convent crest on the back, with a one-piece naturalistic adzed seat on solid adzed end supports.
The 8ft 4in long x 16½in wide x 3ft 2in high (2.53m x 42cm x 97cm) settle was sold at Winterton in Lichfield in 1983 as part of the original consignment of furniture commissioned for the Haunton convent (offered here with sale catalogue marked with prices realised). Haunton Hall in Staffordshire became a convent in 1904.
ryedaleauctioneers.com or see this item at thesaleroom.com
An oil sketch of Lindisfarne Castle by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, guided at £5000-8000 at Dreweatts.
Dreweatts’ Old Master, British and European Art sale on May 27 includes a group of works directly from the family of the artist Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1844-1921).
The works, on the market for the first time since leaving the artist’s studio, include several works by Cockerell himself plus those by other Victorian painters and sculptors. One of the most influential figures in Cockerell’s life and career was Frederic, Lord Leighton PRA (1830-96) whose 14 x 18cm (4¼ x 7 in) oil sketch of Lindisfarne Castle is guided at £5000-8000.
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