10 minute read
goes behind the scenes of a period oak sale
SALEROOM SPOTLIGHT
Three single owner collections make up a Suffolk auction house’s 500-lot inaugural period oak and folk art sale this month
Above right A Charles II oak long bench, c. 1660, 184cm wide, 28.5cm deep, 55cm high, has an estimate of £4,000£6,000
Below left A rare Charles II oak coffer, West Country, dated 1661, 139.5cm wide, 58.5cm deep, 73.5cm high, it has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000
Below A gilded late 17th-century East Anglian hammer beam roof angel, 64cm high, has an estimate of £700£900 at this month’s sale
Right An early 20th-century shorebird dipper decoy, with a painted body and later base, 18cm long. Estimated at £300-£500 at this month’s sale
Below far right Unusual 18th/19th-century slipware pottery dish depicting a mermaid, 34cm diameter, estimated at £400-£600
Above A James I shoe horn by Robert Mindum, 20cm long, dated 1613. Made from a cow’s horn and carved finely with flowers and a geometric design, the text reads Robert Mindum Made this Shooing Horne for Willyam Wheatlee Gentleman. It has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 in this month’s sale
Suffolk auction house Bishop & Miller launches a series of designated period oak and works of art sales this month, with the expertise of former Bonhams specialist David Houlston.
The Stowmarket auctioneer’s inaugural sale is on October 14, with three sales planned annually.
Houlston spent 15 years heading Phillips’ and then Bonhams’ vernacular furniture sales, but earlier this year moved to a consultancy role.
The auction house’s first sale will feature period oak, vernacular furniture, textiles, metalwork, folk art and related works of art including early jewellery.
Highlights include a newly-discovered Robert Mindum shoehorn (above, estimated at £2,000-£3,000) and a small Yorkshire court cupboard, c.1630 (far right, expected to make £8,000-£12,000).
CHARLES II FURNITURE
Also on offer is a rare Charles II oak coffer, from the West Country, dated 1661 (below left). Its front features three panels each depicting large, stylised male faces. The central face, with a distinctive pointed-beard, may even portray Charles I as the chest was made within a year, or possibly just months, after the Restoration of the Stuart Monarchy.
As many Royalists returned from exile they were keen to demonstrate their support for Charles II and his father, the executed king. The coffer has a pre-sale estimate of £2,000-£3,000.
After the years of Puritan austerity in the 1600s, the Restoration brought the English furniture tradition back in line with European design movements but, in provincial areas, craftsmen continued making furniture in the semi-gothic Jacobean and plain and simple Cromwellian styles.
Consigned from a Grade I-listed Tudor manor house in Worcestershire, a Charles II bench, c. 1660 (above) has the initials ‘RT’ stamped twice to a leg.
Another Carolean piece in the sale, dated to 1670, is a Charles II joined oak, open armchair from southwest Yorkshire, which has an estimate of £1,500£2,000. With distinctive linear carving of a pair of exotic birds and stylised flora beneath an arch, the piece is attributed to Burnley in Lancashire.
FOLK ART
As well as period oak, the sale offers a number of folk art pieces, including a large collection of decoy birds.
Intended for use by water fowlers, hand-carved and painted decoys capture the nature of real birds in a stylised, impressionistic manner.
Usually made from indigenous local materials,
the shapes were whittled and refined before being decorated, often with household or boat paint.
Groups of decoys were usually carried to shore in sacks, causing surface wear and damage particularly to beaks, alongside the natural weathering when in use. Over the years, repair and redecoration give them character, while rare examples remain in “untouched” condition, retaining original features and their paintwork.
Another equally evocative piece in the sale, and a further example of a bygone working tool with a sculptural quality, is a 19th-century optician’s trade sign, featuring a pair of spectacles. In an age of non literacy, pre-20th century trade signs needed to display the meaning of the sign itself, with no words required. At close to a metre in length, the sign features large orange lenses.
Works of art
As well as oak and folk art, the sale includes a number of works of art, including this 18th-century English school painting of Charing Cross Road. At the time the London street (identifiable by by the statue of Charles I and two pubs) was a central staging post for coaches. But the congested road became a scene of frequent accidents.
In the painting a bonfire has caused the Salisbury Flying Coach to overturn. On one side of the scene a barber surgeon armed with a cut throat razor haphazardly shaves a customer.
In the foreground, a drunken freemason, identified by his apron and set square medallion staggers home, while the contents of a chamber pot are thrown from the window of a house above.
Above A Welsh late 18th/early 19th-century seven-spindle stick back, elm armchair, with traces of the original green paint, 58cm wide, 37cm deep, 97cm high, has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000
Left Early 20th-century optician’s trade sign, in the form of a pair of spectacles with orange lenses, 83cm wide 52cm high, it has an estimate of £1,500-£2,500
Below left 18th-century painting, English school, in the manner of William Radcliffe, after William Hogarth, The Four Times of Day: Night, 29cm x 35cm, has an estimate of £1,500-£2,500
AUCTION fact file
WHAT: The Collector, to include period oak and folk art When: October 14 Where: Bishop & Miller, Unit 19, Charles Industrial Estate, Stowmarket, Suffolk, Viewing: October 9 (9-11am) 11-13, 9.304.30pm and on the day of the sale from 9am, www.bishopandmiller auctions.co.uk
IN MY OPINION...
We asked Bishop & Miller’s managing director and auctioneer Oliver Miller for his sale highlights Do you have a highlight piece?
It would have to be the James I shoe horn. Before discovering this example, there were only 26 known in the world. As soon as I spotted it on a routine house call I knew it was something special.
The other piece is a delightfully small Charles I inlaid court cupboard from the Yorkshire region (below). It has everything an oak collector would want: great colour, inlay and the size is perfect for the style of cupboard. We also know the region it came from which adds character.
Where are you expecting the interest to come?
This auction will be very much about the British market and we are expecting the majority of pieces to stay within the UK. However, we know the American market is strong for oak furniture, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to have American collectors vying for some of the lots.
Why did you decide to launch specialist sales?
The period oak market is really strong. We are excited to have David Houlston on board with his wealth of knowledge and experience. There is also a selfish reason for adding the sales to our calendar – I absolutely love period oak furniture.
Are there any entry-level pieces?
You can’t go wrong with a 17th-century oak coffer. They are great pieces and would suit any home. The more modest types can be picked up at reasonable prices and are a great way to get into oak furniture.
Below A small Charles I oak and inlaid canted court cupboard, Yorkshire Leeds – Halifax, c. 1630-1640, 127cm wide, 48cm deep, 127cm high, has an estimate of £8,000-£12,000
CHRISTINA TREVANION Lots of Love
Christina pays homage to one of the great designer architects of the arts and crafts movement
Left The Gimson table with its wishbone strut that caught Christina’s attention
Below right A Gimson sideboard from the collection of Midlands brewer Arthur Mitchell sold for £17,000 in 2019, image courtesy of Mallams
As you may have gathered by now, the arts and crafts movement is one of my favourite periods, it was responsible for some of the most unique and beautiful pieces we see in the market today. One of its central beliefs was that the 19th-century domination of mechanisation and industrialisation negatively affected not just the quality of manufactured goods, but also the social conditions of the people who produced it.
I recently spotted what I suspected was a table by one of the movement’s key figures during a routine house call. The table in question had sat quietly in the dining room of my clients’ house for decades, until they decided they wanted to downsize.
It was instantly recognisable as a turn-of-the-century oak dining table – not something that would normally pique my interest. But it wasn’t until we pulled away the six George III dining chairs tucked underneath it, that my nose started twitching.
Beneath the tabletop was the most incredible wishbone-shaped strut – not something you would expect to see as a table base. When it was revealed, in all its architectural loveliness, it was reminiscent of an ancient church roof. I quickly added ‘Arts and crafts?... Gimson?’ to my notes and began my research. Society, and it was here that the 19-year-old Ernest met William Morris after he spoke at one of its meetings.
Morris championed handmade production that didn’t chime with the Victorian era’s focus on industrial ‘progress’. Ernest greatly impressed Morris who steered him towards his subsequent career.
Having moved to London with letters of recommendation from William Morris, he continued his training under the influential architect John Dando Sedding, becoming directly involved in the details of buildings. Moreover, Sedding’s practice sat next to that of Morris & Co., giving Gimson a first-hand insight into early developments of the arts and crafts movement.
CREATIVE GENIUS
Although probably better known now as a furniture designer, over the course of his career Gimson was responsible for numerous buildings as well as the furniture within it. He also remained true to Morris’s ideal that “Nothing should be made by man’s labour which is not worth making, or must be made by labour degrading to the makers.”
There is just something so beautifully pure about Gimson’s work. Not only do I love the pieces themselves, I also admire the ethos behind how they were created.
It has been an absolute joy for me to learn more about Gimson and his life and works. The celebrated etcher and collaborator FL Griggs said: “There can be no doubt, I think, that Ernest Gimson was a great creative genius, in temperament and in all he did a very English genius.” From all I have learnt about him so far, I couldn’t agree more.
Christina Trevanion is managing director and founder of Shropshire’s Trevanion Auctioneers & Valuers as well as a regular face on a number of antiques programmes.
WILLIAM MORRIS
Ernest Gimson (1864-1919) was credited by the great art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as “The greatest of the English architect-designers”, and it is clear to see why he is considered one of the most influential designers of the British arts and crafts movement.
Born in Leicester to a large family, Ernest’s father Josiah Gimson founded and ran the engineering firm at the Vulcan Works adjoining the Midland Railway. The Gimson family was prominent in the Leicester Secular
