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Around the Houses: Our round-up
The art deco bracelet owned by Princess Margaret sold for £396,800
A female nude in pastel sold for £2,600 against the same pre-sale guide
AROUND the HOUSES
We review the latest sales, including a record-breaking printed book by a woman and an in-demand Howard & Sons sofa
DIX NOONAN WEBB, MAYFAIR
An art deco pearl and diamond bracelet owned and worn by Princess Margaret on her 19th-birthday photograph by Cecil Beaton in 1949, sold for £396,800 more than 10 times its low estimate of £30,000 at the London auctioneers.
Comprised of a double row of cultured pearls and pearl openwork geometric clasp, it dates to c. 1925. Dix Noonan Webb’s, Frances Noble, said: “Princess Margaret was photographed wearing this bracelet on numerous occasions.”
The half nude by Evelyn de Morgan sold for £1,250 – over double its £500 low estimate
HANSONS, LONDON
Two signed, pencil and pastel sketches of a woman by Evelyn de Morgan (1855-1919), an important second generation PreRaphaelite, sold for £3,850 at the London saleroom’s recent sale.
A half-length study of a female nude in pastel made £1,250, against an estimate of £500-£800; while a female nude in pastel sold for £2,600 against the same pre-sale guide.
Having graduated from the Slade School of Art, de Morgan produced hundreds of figure studies on grey wove paper in pencil and pastel. She was particularly praised for her superb depiction of hands and arms.
Beaton’s image of the princess was published on her birthday on August 21, 1949
BRUUN RASMUSSEN AUCTIONEERS, COPENHAGEN
A never-before released 33-minute recording of an interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono sold for £55,500 (DKK 481,000) at the Swedish auction house’s recent sale.
The tape, made during the couple’s winter visit to Thy in north Jutland in 1970, records an interview between the pair and four 16-year-old Danish schoolboys for the local school magazine.
One of schoolboys, Karsten Højen, now 68, said: “The meeting with John Lennon and Yoko Ono had a great impact on our personal lives because we considered them as sort of political prophets and symbols of peace.”
The tape was accompanied by several photographs from the auspicious encounter. At one point on the tape Lennon picks up a guitar and sings Give Peace a Chance and the unreleased song Radio Peace.
The tape included Lennon’s rendition of the never-released song Radio Peace
SOTHEBY’S PARIS
20 to 30 of Napoleon’s bicorne hats are thought to exist
One of Napoleon Bonaparte’s bicorne hats sold for £1m (€1.2m) at the French saleroom.
Believed to have been worn by the first French emperor on July 7, 1807, during a meeting with Russia’s Alexander I to sign the Treaty of Tilsit, it far exceeded its presale estimate of £425,000-£600,000. Napoleon owned an estimated 120 bicorne hats during his emperorship, according A 10-pointed, to Sotheby’s, making it star-shaped medallion encasing a lock of Napoleon’s hair sold for something of a trademark. Each was made of silk and felt by the same hatter.
£16,000
CATHERINE SOUTHON, CHISLEHURST
A Bond Street sign from Westminster City Council topped the Kent auctioneer’s recent sale, selling for £3,472 against an estimate of £700£900. Elsewhere, an Oxford Circus sign fetched £2,976 against an upper estimate of £1,000, while one for Holborn beat its pre-sale estimate of £700-£900 by attracting 22 bids before selling to a private buyer for £2,480.
The Bond Street sign was the sale’s top seller when it sold for £3,472 A rare 1910 enamel London Underground map sold for £2,728 to a railwayana buff
A seated nude, 71 x 57cm oil on canvas estimated at £150-£250, sold for £2,375
EWBANK’S, WOKING
A half-length oil on canvas of a seated nude sold for £2,375 against an estimate of £150-£250 in Surrey. The work was one of 98 unseen works by the Plymouth-born artist Lionel Ellis (1903-1988) who studied at Plymouth School of Art and then Royal College of Art from 1922–1924, later exhibiting at the Royal Academy.
Senior Partner, Chris Ewbank, said:
“Ellis’s work is found in a number of major public institutions. The multipleestimate prices of the top ten works that sold show how popular his art was across the spectrum of subject matter.”
HALLS, BATTLEFIELD
A colourful watercolour by the artist Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe OBE RA (1901-1979) tripled its low estimate to make £6,000 at the Shropshire auctioneer’s recent sale.
Lochinver Gulls had been exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in 1973, and was loaned by the vendor to Oriel Ynys Môn gallery in Anglesey for the Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe exhibition in 2019-2020.
There was a strong connection between C.F. Tunnicliffe and fellow Anglesey artist, Sir Kyffin Williams, who persuaded the highly modest Tunnicliffe to hold a later exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy in 1974, which was a great success.
Oriel Ynys Môn was built in Anglesey in 1991 to house a collection of Tunnicliffe’s works acquired by Anglesey Borough Council from Christie’s, 10 years earlier.
The signed C.F. Tunnicliffe watercolour was the sale’s top seller
CHEFFINS, CAMBRIDGE
Consigned from “an important country house in Suffolk”, a large three-seater Howard & Sons sofa sold for £16,500, double its low estimate at the East Anglian auction house’s recent sale.
As reported in this magazine, furniture by the renowned maker continues to sell for prices way beyond their estimates.
The sale also included 150 lots from a major collection consigned from the Tudorstyle Lanwades Hall near Newmarket.
The sofa by the renowned London maker Howard & Sons sold for £16,500
The location of the first ‘poohsticks’ sold for £131,625
SUMMERS PLACE AUCTIONS, BILLINGSHURST
The original wooden bridge that provided the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne, sold for £131,625 against an estimated price of £60,000.
Poohsticks Bridge, located in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, was first built in 1907 and provides the Hundred Acre Wood setting for the author’s adored children’s novels, where Pooh and friends live.
In 1999, the original bridge was taken apart after it was worn down by thousands of tourists with a replacement put in its place while the original bridge was kept in Ashdown Forest Centre.
LOCKDALES, MARTLESHAM
The purple, green and white flag of the Women’s Social and Political Union
A purple, green and white flag of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), dated 1908, sold for £851 against an estimate of £150-£160 at the Suffolk auctioneers. The ‘Suffrage’ flag was the emblem of WSPU, the more militant of the suffrage organisations, often called Suffragettes. After 60 years of peaceful campaigns, the WSPU formed in 1903 with the motto “deeds not words” and engaged in campaigns of civil disobedience.
CHRISTIE’S, NEW YORK
An original 1818 three-volume copy of Mary Shelley’s (1797-1851) Frankenstein, from the first 500 print run, set a world record when it sold for a £863,000 ($1,17m) in America. Published anonymously and titled Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus on January 1, 1818, the first edition included a preface written by Percy Shelley and a dedication to the author’s father, William Godwin. The record for a printed work by a woman was previously held by a first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma from 1816, which was sold by Bonhams in 2008 for £150,000. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein set a world record for a printed work by a woman
MALLAMS, CHELTENHAM
A Maori hei-tiki pendant from New Zealand sold for £30,000 at the Gloucestershire saleroom, way above its £600-£800 pre-sale estimate. Made of green nephrite, an old paper label on the back states that it purportedly belonged to Maori chief Makoare Te Taonui who signed the Treaty of Waitangi on February 12, 1840. An Anglo-Indian table sold for £6,800, multiple times its pre-sale The estimate hei-tiki’s owner played a pivotal role in New Zealand’s founding document
SPINK, LONDON
A rare gold Elizabeth I groat, expected to fetch £10,000, sold for £480,000 setting a world record for an Elizabethan coin at the London auction house.
It was one of 52 lots from the collection of Horace Hird, a third generation steeplejack, former Lord Mayor of Bradford, avid historian and renowned coin collector.
He paid hundreds of pounds — thousands in today’s money — for some of the coins in the 1940s and 1950s but their values have soared.
