Topping the sale at $53,000 (£39,000) was this pair of impressive Victorian silver gilt and glass centerpieces, which found a new home in London (£15/20,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET, UK — Sworders put the “fine” in its Fine Interiors auctions July 17-18, realizing $700,000 after the approximately 650-lot sale was done and dusted. Every collecting category was represented and buyers from around the world stepped up to take many of the sales’ top lots.
The firm’s offerings in Victorian furnishings were notably strong, particularly those with silver gilding. Achieving the auction’s apex of $53,000 (£39,000) was a pair of Victorian silver gilt and glass centerpieces, the silver marked “WB” and with the London date mark for 1839, that stood approximately 24½ inches tall; a buyer based in London prevailed over their competitors. A large Victorian silver-gilt figural trophy followed the centerpieces across the block a few lots later, earning a strong second-highest total of $42,000 (£31,200), which is also staying in the UK. The trophy, standing impressively tall at 28-3/8 inches, bore the mark of Robert Garrard II and depicted Sir Robert Bruce and Henry de Bohun on horseback at Bannockburn.
A pair of fragile Meissen Schneeballen covered vases, profusely encrusted with fragile mayblossom flowers and with applied birds on vines, doubled its high estimate with a $16,800 (£12,350) bid from a buyer in New York, while a buyer in the UK took to $11,500 (£8,450) a pair of 37-inch-tall Sèvres-style porcelain that dated to the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century and sold in the second day of the auction.
Nineteenth Century Meissen Schneeballen pieces are so fragile that some losses are to be expected. This pair of covered vases, 22 inches tall, had a few minor flaws but still appealed to buyers on both sides of the pond, soaring to $16,800 (£12,350) from a New York buyer (£4/6,000).
The furniture category topped off at $15,000 (£11,050), realized by a George III mahogany rent table that had provenance to Brook House, the former home of Gillian Raffles (1930-2021), an art dealer and owner of the Mercury Gallery in Cork Street, London, in 1964. It will be staying in the UK.
Despite a comparatively small selection with just a half-dozen lots, the antiquities category had two lots that were among the highest-selling on the second day. Leading the day at $35,000 (£26,000) and selling to a buyer in California was a Roman marble portrait head of the Emperor Titus, circa 80 CE, that had provenance to the Prince of Liechtenstein, Franz Joseph II (1906-1989) as well as a Sotheby’s, London, antiquities sale in May 1983. An Attic red-figured terracotta bell krater, dating to the late Fifth or early Fourth Century BCE, that related to examples at the Metropolitan Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art, topped off at $8,850 (£6,500) and is going to a new home in The Netherlands.
Sworders’ next Homes & Interiors auctions will take place July 22 and August 12.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house and have been converted into USD based on the rate of exchange on the day of the auction.
For information, www.sworder.co.uk.
