Gazette - Spring 2014 - issue 37

GAZETTE DISS

A UCTION

ROOMS

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GAZETTE

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SPRING

2014

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ISSUE

Modern Design page 3 The Gallery Sale pages 6-7 Gold Bars page 8

37

Beswick Diss Auction Rooms - Saleroom 3 Friday 2 May 2014 Contact Lesley Smith

Wines & Spirits Diss Auction Rooms - Saleroom 2 Friday 2 May 2014 Contact Lisa West

Rural & Domestic Bygones Saturday 22 March 2014 Contact Carl Willows & Robert Kinsella Friday 14 March 2014 ÂŁ2500-3000 Contact Andre Ling

Automobilia Diss Auction Rooms - Saleroom 3 Friday 14 March 2014 Contact Andre Ling

Modern Design Saturday 8 March 10am

by James Bassam Followers of the Modern Design sale will have noticed that over the past few years the furniture has taken on a much more Danish flavour (no not bacon), I’m talking teak, whether dining, lounge or bedroom pieces. This

mirrors the popular trend at the moment for that ‘MidCentury Modern’ look which the Scandinavian countries do so well, in particular the Danes.

Many people will have heard the names Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl as these pioneers of mid 20th Century design command high prices and you know you are buying quality. But many lesser known names are coming through with equally strong designs and build quality to rival the ‘big boys’.

The next Modern Design sale on Saturday 8 March continues with the Danish theme, the pick of the group has been sourced from a local property, a much loved dining suite. The dining table and chairs are a marriage, the chairs were designed in 1951 by Arne Hovmand Olsen for the Danish firm JL Moller, a company founded by the well known designer and cabinet maker Niels Moller. Our set is in solid teak with paper cord seating but they were also available at the time in rosewood and oak. The six chairs are generally known as ‘Model 71’ and they come with two carvers

‘model 55’ which have unusual protruding short arm rests complementing the smooth organic styling.

The extending table by CJ Rosengaarden is again in solid teak and was also available in rosewood, probably designed by John Mortensen and later retailed by Heltborg Mobler. The final piece from this private residence, a solid teak sidecabinet, was designed by Kurt Ostervig for KP Mobler.

Ostervig actually started his career as a ship building engineer which led to his employment at E. Knudsen furniture manufacturing business designing furniture for the home, ship interiors and hotels.

So go Danish this spring and with this sale you can furnish an entire home, with a choice of lounge, dining, bedroom furniture and lighting available.

Transmission Date Monday 19 March 12:15pm, BBC 1

£600 30/8/13

Haddiscoe Annual Marsh Lettings Auction at The Bell, St Olaves Monday 24 March

Approx. 800 acres of grazing marshes to let by auction.

£360 16/8/13

For more information please contact Edward Baskerville 01379 651 931 or Rachael Hipperson 01953 423 188.

Land & Property Auction at The Diss Auction Rooms Thursday 3 April

£520 5/4/13 Examples of Clarice Cliff sold at Diss Auction Rooms

Clarice Cliff b.20 Jan 1899 - d. 20 Oct 1972 English ceramic artist, active from 1922 to 1963 At the age of 13 Clarice started working in the pottery industry as an apprentice gilder, adding gold lines on ware of traditional design. Once this was mastered she changed jobs to learn freehand painting, at the same time studying art and sculpture at the Burslead School of Art in the evenings.

In 1916 Clarice made the unusual decision to move to the factory of A.J. Wilkinson at Newpor t, Burslem, to improve her career opportunities.

Clarice was ambitious and acquired skills in modelling figurines, vases and gilding, keeping pattern books and hand painting wares, outbuilding and enamelling.

Her efforts were noticed by management and Clarice was given a second apprenticeship in 1924, aged 25, primarily as a ‘modeller’ but she also

worked with factory designers John Butler and Fred Ridgway.

Eventually, Clarice’s wide range of skills was recognised and in 1927 she was given her own studio at the adjoining Newport potter y.

Here Clarice was allowed to decorate some of the old defective ‘Glost’ (white) ware in her own freehand pattern; for these she used brightly coloured on-glaze enamels. She covered the imperfections in simple patterns of triangles in a style she called ‘Bizarre’.

To the surprise of the company’s senior salesman Ewart Oakes when he filled his car with these pieces and took them to major stockist they were immediately popular, the rest is history.

A private collection of Clarice Cliff is to be offered in our next ‘Special sale’ 4 April.

Sharon Bambridge

The Gallery Sale We are delighted to report that “The Gallery Sale” at Diss Auction Rooms on Saturday 1 February was every bit a success, a stroke of genius you might say.

Launched at the beginning of the year the new Gallery Sale is the inspiration of James Bassam, a senior valuer at the auction rooms. A new way of seeing art from a different angle, a change from the more traditional Winter and Summer Fine Arts sale that had gone before.

The Gallery Sale had a changed format, a complete new layout and re-design to host up to approximately 180 lots ranging from selected works of 17th to 21st Centuries including fine oils, watercolours, artists’

proof prints as well as sculpture and art volumes.

This new layout allowed visitors to circulate around the saleroom with ease.

The inaugural sale was also noteable for the calibre of works, arguably higher than we had seen before.

Visitors flocked to the salesroom to see some impressive works from artists such as Thomas Smythe (1825-1900), Samuel David Colkett and Frank. H. Partridge all from the traditional Norwich School of the 19th Century to contemporary artists such as David Hockney, Tessa Newcombe and Dame Laura Knight; oils watercolours, pencil studies, acrylics, artists’

prints, sculptures (even Pablo Picasso print of abstract figures) and many more.

Many works of art attracted lots of interest from buyers and made well over their estimates, works such as pencil studies

by Dame Laura Knights

£850

Paintings that attempt to capture the sublime

By Debra Brown estimated at £300 £400 made over £1000 and two charcoal studies on paper of circus clowns did extremely well: estimated between £450 - £675 it made £850.

horse drawn London cabs in a wet evening street with Big Ben in the distance, signed and dated1899, making well over its estimate at £2,600.

An oil painting by Samuel David Colkett depicting a figure on lane with cottages behind estimated between £800 - £1,200, made £1,800.

One painting headlining the sale was a watercolour by one of The Norwich School’s most famous artists; a watercolour

by John Sell Cotman entitled “View of Raven”.

This work demanded an estimate worthy of between £9,000 to £12,000, which looked very achievable based on the buzz around it at viewing. However bids were not forthcoming and the vendor has since returned it to his wall for his continued enjoyment.

A 19 th Century onyx and brass torchere surmounted by a

£2600 bronze figural electric lamp as a nymph holding branches signed H. Allouard made a dazzling £1,600, estimated between £680 - £880.

The love of a local artist too, it was good to see an outstanding collection of works by Stephen Walker, a group of miniatures in oils depicting horses and rural scenes.

However the star of the show and stealing the limelight was a watercolour by Rose Maynard Barton R.W.S (1856-1926) depicting

The trend from buyers was a move towards oils than watercolour, but more over it was fantastic to see high quality art generally making strong prices in Diss. So anyone out there who has anything extraordinary to sell from a Turner to a Bridget Riley, pick up the phone.

If you require any further information about our forthcoming Gallery Sale please contact the Auction Rooms to speak to either Edward Smith MA or James Bassam.

Meanwhile don’t forget our Art with Antiques sale Friday 7 March.

£1600

Golden Days

by Elizabeth Talbot facebook.com/likeelizabethtalbot

@talktalbot

When I began my career in 1985 it seemed sovereigns always sold at auction for £60 - 65 and half sovereigns for £32 – 38; the gold market was stable for an extended period and valuations were easily predictable using a very static formula.

In early 2014, whilst particular features such as date and condition impose marginal differences on values and gold prices fluctuate to reflect the more erratic financial climate, a sovereign sells at auction for a current average of £220.

Meanwhile, I began my 30th year in the profession with a career first: I was instructed to value a gold bar. Until last month my concept of bullion had been influenced by “heist movies” such as “Ocean’s 11" and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” or even coloured by clichéd cartoon images.

Upon my arrival in the high security location I was expecting to see a legendary foil-wrapped chocolate-chunk; instead, I was presented with a shape that resembled a sad-looking chocolate slab that has been compressed on a hot day and put in the fridge to “revive”! My initial reaction? I have to admit to being disappointingly underwhelmed.

The “kilobar” (1000g) is the world’s most widely traded small gold bar. It transpires that most have a flat “international” shape such as the one I inspected, but traditional kilobars in the shape of a “brick” are still available, notably in Europe. The gold purity for these is normally 99.5%, 99.9% or 99.99%.

However, having had my interest in the subject whetted I have been intrigued to learn subsequently that standard, innovative and unusual gold bars manufactured around the world can be grouped into a total of 55 categories!

They vary in terms of shape and weight and their design often reflects the culture of the country manufacturing the gold; for example “twin-coin” bars from Thailand, “Yin-yang” bars from Japan, “bone” bars from Brazil and “boat” bars that are made in Thailand, Hong Kong and China.The traditional boat shape has been used for silver and other Chinese coinage as far back as the Han dynasty (206BC – 220AD), but many shapes of gold bars are relatively “modern” releases such as “model” bars. For example, in 1991 LG Metals (South Korea) issued a traditional range of gold model bars in the form of pigs (a symbol of wealth), toads (good fortune) and turtles (longevity).

“Minted” bars (no, not the herbal after-dinner variety) including “commemorative” bars and “pendant” bars have also been issued by various manufacturers over the years and Mitsubishi (Japan) have experimented with multi-coloured printed designs to decorate the bars’ surface and“rainbow” gold bars in which different carat gold colour tones are combined in one.

I now begin to understand the allure of accruing one’s wealth in easily storable, transportable (and relatively modest-looking) pocket-sized packages; and whilst I note that a 1kg bar of chocolate contained in a distinctive purple wrapper is currently being marketed at £9, the value of that one kilobar I was privileged to handle? £25,430!

GAZETTE Issue 37/spring ‘14

TW Gaze LLP, Diss Auction Rooms, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4LN 01379 650 306 auctions@twgaze.co.uk www.twgaze.co.uk