Around the Houses: A round-up

AROUND the HOUSES

This month’s round up includes the war medals of Group Captain Peter Townsend and the wedding ring of doomed poet and author Sylvia Plath

TENNANTS, LEYBURN

A colourful patchwork suit worn by the largerthan-life comedian Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, with a pre-sale estimate of £400-£600, sold for £400 at the North Yorkshire auctioneer’s July 30 sale.

Middlesbrough- born Brown, was known for his bawdy and often offensive comedy and his clown-like stage costume consisting of a bright patchwork suit and slippers topped with a leather flying cap and goggles.

At a previous sale, an oil on canvas by the Croatian artist Nikola Mašic (1852-1902), with an estimate of £1,200-£1,800, sparked a bidding war before finally selling for £9,500.

Characteristic of Mašic’s work, Goat Herders at Rest Before a Rustic Cottage depicted a scene of idyllic rural life. Mašic studied painting in Vienna, Munich and Paris, and was a professor of drawing in Zagreb from 1884 until his death.

The rural idyll was typical of the Croatian artist’s work

The patchwork suit was as colourful as the comedian’s repartee

The mahogany sideboard table sold for £12,000

CHEFFINS, CAMBRIDGE

A mahogany sideboard table, in the manner of Thomas Hope (1769–1831), from c. 1810, fetched £12,000 at the East Anglian auctioneer’s recent sale, against an estimate of £7,000-£10,000.

Supported by four lion monopodia with an elaborate brass gallery, the table was, at one time, part of the furnishings of Balls Park in Hertfordshire.

Dutch-born Hope was influential as a designer and collector whose work helped define the Regency style.

His extensive Grand Tour travels in Europe, Turkey and Egypt inspired his interest in antiquities as a source of designs for Regency interiors, furniture and metalwork.

The giant chess set was created to celebrate the Millenium

EWBANK’S, WOKING

A single edition giant chess set by the English studio potter John Maltby (1936-2020) sold for £9,0000 at the Surrey auction house’s recent sale, against an estimate of £4,000-£4,500.

Created for the Millennium celebrations at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham, each figure has a distinctive, heart-shaped face and bears a shield. They are also individually impressed with a JM seal to the base. At 61 x 61cm, the board itself is of considerable size and set with ceramic tiles.

Maltby, who died in December at the age of 85, was greatly inspired by the renowned potter Bernard Leach, working as an apprentice to Leach’s son, David.

In 1964, he set up his own studio in Crediton, Devon, establishing a global reputation. His work can be found in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, among others.

DAWSON’S, MAIDENHEAD

A rare 1972 Rolex GMT Master ‘Pepsi’ more than doubled its low estimate to sell for £16,500 at the Berkshire auction house’s recent sale.

Its adventurous owner, who wore the watch on travels around the world – surviving a time in a war zone and mugging, decided it was time for a new home.

“Pepsi” became the watch’s nickname due to its bright red-and-blue bezel’s resemblance to the logo of the American soft drinks company.

Che Guevara was reportedly wearing a Rolex ‘Pepsi’ 1675 when he was captured and executed in Bolivia in 1967.

The “Pepsi” Rolex is highly sought after by watch aficianados

WILSON55, NANTWICH

An 18th-century Flemish collector’s cabinet sold for more than five times its low estimate of £5,000, when it realised £26,840 at the Cheshire auctioneer’s recent sale.

The ebonised and tortoiseshell veneered piece came from the contents of Norton Priory, Warrington – demolished in the late 1920s, – and included card labels with the name Sir Richard Brooke written in pencil. In 1920 the house contents were sold at auction and the cabinet descended down the same farming family for the last century. On four cabriole legs with animal paw feet, the piece opens to reveal an interior, veneered in floral scagliola, with 10 drawers.

The Odundo pots, with combined low pre-sale estimate of £8,000, made a total of £143,750

LAWRENCES, CREWKERNE

Two pots by one of the world’s most renowned ceramicists, the Kenyan-born potter Magdalene Odundo sold for a total of £143,750 at the Somerset auctioneer’s recent sale.

Part of a private collection from a local couple, the first was a large, coil-built terracotta vessel, with an oval-shaped neck. Inspired by an exaggerated African angular coiffeur, with a globular body and 34cms high, the pot, which had an estimate of £5,000-£7,000, sold for £117,500, while the second vessel – expected to make £3,000-£5,000 – made £16,250.

The collector’s cabinet came from Norton Priory, Warrington

BISHOP AND MILLER, STOWMARKET

A hand-printed board of the 18th-century Indian version of snakes and ladders smashed its estimate of £300-£500 to sell for £5,600 at the Suffolk auctioneer’s inaugural explorer sale.

Originating in the the western state of Maharashtra, the aim of the game gyanbazi is to achieve supreme Brahman status while avoiding being sent to hell. The Indian board game, dated to c.1800, snaked past its low estimate

ROGER JONES, CARDIFF

A oil on canvas by Sir Kyffin Williams (1918-2006) broke the Welsh auction house’s own previous world record when it sold for £62,000.

Titled Ynys Mon and depicting the village of Rhoscolyn in Anglesey with a farmer, dog and chapel, the painting had a low pre-sale estimate of £50,000.

The previous record for a painting by the Welsh artist, set by the auction house, was £60,000.

According to Welsh fine art auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones it had the ‘holy trinity’ of chapel, farmer and village. It was bought by private collector from the south of England with strong local connections to the village featured. The painting broke the auction house’s previous record for a work by Kyffin Williams

SOTHEBY’S, LONDON

Plath’s Tarot cards sold for 25 times their estimate

Recipes annotated by Sylvia Plath and her rolling pin sold for more than four times their low estimate at the auctioneer’s recent sale of personal possessions of the poet.

The 33 cards, typed by Sylvia Plath and her mother, Aurelia, included family favourites such as “Grammy’s Fish Chowder” and “Ted’s mother’s Scots Porridge Oats Biscuits,” referring to the poet Ted Hughes who Plath married, aged 25, in 1956. Expected to make £800-£1,200, they sold for £27,720.

In the same sale a deck of Plath’s Tarot cards, given to the poet by Hughes on her 24th birthday, estimated at £4,000-£6,000, made £151,200. Occult lore went on to influence Plath’s work, including her 1960 poem

The Hanging Man.

The couple’s gold wedding rings, estimated at £6,000£8,000 sold for £27,720. The collection was consigned for sale by the couple’s daughter, Freida. The rolling pin and family favourite recipes sold for £27,720

The couple’s wedding rings were one of the lots in the £780,000 sale

SWORDERS, STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET

An unassuming playbill bought in an Epping charity shop for £5 sold for £4,750 at the

Essex auctioneer’s recent sale after it was found to be a rare theatrical advertisement printed on the H.M.S Resolute during its Arctic expedition in the 1850s. The silk advert, which had pre-sale expectations of £800-£1,200, The playbill attacted signifiadvertised two performances by the ‘Royal Arctic Theatre’, cant interest from namely The Taming the the UK and Shrew and The Two America Bonnycastles.

DIX NOONAN WEBB, LONDON

A group of 11 medals awarded to Group Captain Peter Townsend (1914-1995), Princess Margaret’s great love, sold to a private collector for £260,000 at the Mayfair auction house’s recent sale,

DNW’s medal specialist, Mark Quayle, said: “This iconic group of The medals medals was a reflection of a glittering service celebrated Group career as a Battle of Britain fighter ace. Captain Peter His story, combined with a tale of royal Townsend’s military record love and heartbreak, provided the ultimate human interest.” Townsend, the first pilot to bring The dashing war hero stole Princess down an enemy aircraft on English soil, later commanded Margaret’s and took part in 300 heart operational sorties.

KINGHAMS, MORETONIN-MARSH

A car mascot by the legendary French jeweller turned glassmaker René Lalique sold for £135,000 at the Gloucestershire auctioneer’s recent sale.

Estimated at £80,000-£120,000, the car mascot in the shape of a fox attracted global interest before going to a UK-based bidder.

Lalique produced 29 mascots in the ’20s and ‘30s in shapes including fish, horses, wild boar, birds and dragonfly, with the rarer fox being the most sought after.

At a previous auction a small oil painting, which experts spotted as being a 17th-century work from the Flemish school, sold for £12,600. The overlooked work of St Gregory came from a routine valuation in a Leamington Spa home The fox car mascot by Lalique attracts most attention from collectors