The first major sale of the year for Tennants Auctioneers got 2025 off to a strong start, despite the freezing temperatures, with the sale achieving a buoyant 86% selling rate and strong prices throughout. The sale was aided by a number of good private collections, which are always tempting to buyers.
One of the most notable collections in the sale was the Selected Contents of Eden Lacy, Lazonby, from the Estate of Victor Gubbins, which offered interesting lots throughout the sale. Highlights of the collection included a Qajar Fritware Dish dating from the 19th century (sold for £1,200 all figures exclude buyers’ premium), a large Qajar Fritware Tile from the same period (sold for £1,100), and a Regency Rosewood, Brass-Inlaid and Gilt-Metal-Mounted Circular Breakfast Table (sold for £950). Portraits with family provenance sold well, too, with a charming set of watercolour family portraits by the Circle of Sir George Hayter (1792-1871) selling well above estimate at £450.
Good levels of interest were seen across all sections of the sale, particularly in Ceramics and Works of Art. From the Mobbs Collection of English and Continental Delft, more of which will be offered in sales throughout 2025, was a set of Eighteen Delft Tiles dating from the 18th century, which sold for £750. From a further private collection came a 19th Century Turkish Chanakkale Pottery Ewer in the form of a stylised lion, which sold for £1,500 – ten times the bottom estimate. Decorate 19th century and early 20th century china continue to sell well, with good results seen for a Set of Ten Chamberlains Worcester Porcelain Dinner Plates circa 1810 in the highly commercial ‘Dragon in Compartments’ pattern (sold for £1,700), a lot of three pieces of Spode Porcelain in pattern 1166 comprising a teapot, taper stick and pot and cover (sold for £800), and a Pair of Royal Worcester Porcelain Plaques, painted in 1909 by John Stinton (sold for £2,500). Amongst the Work of Art were a dashing Miniature Portrait of a Cavalry Officer by J or T Wheeler (sold for £800), and from a Private Collection of Treen was a desirable group lot including snuff boxes modelled as a pig, a toad and a dog (sold for £850).
The Furniture section of the sale offered a good mix of antique furniture and decorative and unusual furnish pieces, with two of the top lots of the section being a Queen Anne Walnut, Oyster-Veneered and Tracery-Strung Straight-Front Chest on Stand, which with charmingly small proportions sold for £1,800, and a Pair of Victorian Mahogany and Stained Pine Pharmacy Display Cabinets from the 19th century with their original advertising stencilled glass, which sold for £800. Vernacular furniture continues to appeal to buyers, with an Ash and Oak Joined Farmhouse Table dating from the 19th century selling for £1,600, and a Set of Six Ash and Yewwood Wheel-Back Windsor Chairs from the middle of the 19th century selling for £650. With provenance by repute from Mullion Church, Cornwall, was a 16th Century Carved Pew End, with decorative carving, which sold for £850.
Amongst the pictures in the sale, animal portraits and studies sold well, with a naïve late 19th century Portrait of a Prize Bull by an R* Harrington, which sold for £1,900 and “Horseplay” by Rosemary Sarah Welch (b.1946) selling for £1,200. Ornithological studies dating from the 20th century were in demand, too, with works by Terence James Bond (b.1946) and Basil Ede (b.1931) all selling well. One of the top lots of the section, however, was a set of three Lake District Views – always a popular subject - by Edward Horace Thompson (1879-1949) selling well at £1,600.
Clocks was another section that performed very well, with a 100% selling rate. Leading the way were a French Ormolu Striking Mantel Clock, Early 19th Century, which sold for £2,000, an Oak Thirty Hour Alarm Hooded Wall Clock signed Whitehurst, Derby circa 1800, which sold for £650, and a French Ormolu Striking Mantel Clock, signed Roche a Marseille from the early 19th century, which sold for £1,750.
The sale achieved a total hammer price of £249,835 with an 86% sold rate for 705 lots.
