Auction Sale Report
30th December 2011
Stride & Son Auctioneers and Valuers are one of the few auction rooms in the country who are enthusiastic enough, or perhaps daft enough, to hold a Christmas auction. Their sale of Friday 30th December was neatly squeezed between Christmas and the New Year and, as is now the norm for their monthly auctions, over 1,000 lots were on offer, with something to tempt everyone. Objects ranged from a 17th century German brass equinoctial compass to a pair of Ostrich feet table stands.
The Christmas auction is often the busiest auction of the year with many local buyers attending and keen not to leave empty handed. The highest price on the day was provided by a 19th century Russian ivory ‘Kholmogory’ pattern chess set which left its pre-sale expectations behind to sell for £6,000 to a Dutch telephone bidder against further competition on the telephones from bidders in Ireland, Portugal and the UK. The vendor had been a lady from the Isle of Man who had been recommended to Strides by a relative living nearby to Chichester. She was just one of many vendors receiving some very pleasant post- Christmas results.
As with recent auctions, the Oriental market provided more highlights, a Chinese porcelain vase, with a drilled hole though the base for conversion to a lamp, fetched a speculative £2,000 whilst a Chinese ivory fan and two hair combs sold for £1,200 to a Chinese buyer resident in London and a 17th century Chinese Woucai porcelain vase, with later hardwood cover fetched £1,600.
The market for good quality pocket watches remains strong with several interesting examples on offer here. Chief amongst them was an 18th century Irish 18ct gold pair cased pocket which sold for £4,400 and will be heading back to Ireland after a battle between two Irish telephone bidders. This lot was preceded by another 19th century 18ct gold half-hunter pocket watch, by Charles Frodsham, which fetched £3,000 and was underbid by Charles Frodsham and Co. themselves.
Silver values remain steady, if not buoyant, and there were several highlights amongst the auction. An 18th century Dutch silver table bell sold to a member of the London silver trade for £5,200 bidding on the telephone against further telephone bidders from the Netherlands and the UK. Also selling on the telephone was an early Victorian Irish silver three piece teaser, weighing 46oz at £1,100 and a William IV silver three piece teaser, also weighing 46oz at £1,050. Flatware remains popular for formal dining and a Victorian canteen of silver ‘Hanoverian’ pattern cutlery, weighing 124oz, sold for £1,800.
Novelty items of vert continue to provide good auction results and an early 20th century Swiss ebonite singing bird box, which was damaged and in need of considerable expense to rectify fetched a rather hefty £1,200, a price the auctioneers would normally have expected if perfect. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the sale was a mixed group of English coins which made £1,350 against a rather modest pre-sale estimate of £40-60.
The latter part of the sale provided some encouraging results for items which are considered to be slightly out of favour by many of today’s typical auction bidders. Longcase clocks have typically struggled to fetch the heights they once attained but here a William III month going example, by William Williamson of London, in an associated walnut case doubled its expectations and fetched a very solid £5,000, after a five-way telephone battle. This was followed by an 18th century blue lacquered eight day long case by Cornelius Herbert of London which sold to a bidder in the room for £1,800.
Top furniture lot on the day was reserved for a desirable late Victorian mahogany and marquetry inlaid kidney shaped writing desk, which sold on the telephone for £2,500. This was followed closely by a very decorative Italian walnut and inlaid escritoire which fetched £2,000.
This sale proved to be a fitting end to a record breaking year for Stride & Son, both in terms of the number of lots offered and overall turnover, this year’s results have been unprecedented, with the obvious highlight of the year being the Chinese Daoguang porcelain vase which was sold in September for £155,000.
