Venetian Blinder | September Sale Preview
In our Autumn country house auction, a major painting by a follower of Canaletto will go under the hammer with an estimate of £30,000 to £40,000. The oil painting entitled The Bucintoro returning to the Molo on Ascension Day, Venice is perhaps attributable to the British painter William James (active 1730-1780). On Canaletto's 1754 trip to England, James was one of the legendary painter’s studio assistants, after which James continued to work in the Canaletto style selling to wealthy clients as mementos of their Grand Tour, Lot 1010.
Other lots come from a country house in Gloucestershire, which has been in the ownership of the current family for 90 years and the auction offers a selection of traditional country house antiques from the estate including oil paintings, furniture and decorative objects.
An album of seventy-five Indian watercolours painted in Patna in the mid-19th Century depicts tradespeople, botany, ornithology and architecture. Delicately painted in rich and vibrant colours, the collection offers a vivid window into the past and is expected to fetch £6,000-£8,000, Lot 372. Furniture from the property includes a handsome pair of Anglo-Indian carved rosewood bookcases, Lot 559, estimate £2,000-£3,000. From another Gloucestershire collection, a highly decorative needlework screen of Anglo-Indian origin has delightful naïve decoration of figures taking tea while exotic animals parade and sometimes fight to the foreground. Another one for the interior designers, Lot 685 asks £300-£500.
Back on home turf, Sir Robert Atkyn’s Ancient and Present History of Glostershire is an integral element in any country house collection in this area. Lot 823 is a first edition copy, published in 1712, and estimated to realise £800-1,200.
An exquisite small gouache study of a Gyrfalcon from renowned wildlife artist and hero Peter Scott, Lot 958, carries an estimate of £300-£500. Son of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, Peter sailed in the Olympics and served in the Royal Navy before founding a wildlife trust at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire and combining his love of nature with a passion for drawing and writing.
Among many other paintings in the sale, a fine and large view of Dinant by James Webb (1835-1895) has a lovely light to it. Webb painted several views of Dinant, a scene he loved, and this comes across in the present work, estimated at £4,000-6,000, Lot 998.
Having had the chance during lockdown to get our gardens looking lovely, a superb wooden cased croquet set by Jaques is the perfect finishing touch. For eight players, fitted neatly in a case with all its original accessories, Lot 719 is estimated to fetch £300-500. Other sporting items in the sale include an Edwinson Green & Sons, single-trigger double-barrel side by side 16 bore box lock ejector shotgun. The firm of Edwinson Green was a very important Cheltenham maker and their guns are coveted by collectors. This single trigger gun has an unusual underlock mechanism. Owned by a Gloucestershire family for the past 110 years, the shotgun carries an estimate of £300-500, Lot 482.
We are delighted to have been asked to handle the sale of the partial contents of a private Oxfordshire property. The owner’s collection of 18th Century porcelain attracted a great deal of admirers in our March auction, and we are now offering the second tranche including 18th and 19th Century pieces, ranging from Worcester and Derby to Coalport and Staffordshire factories. Highlights include Lot 109, an English rectangular pâte-sur-pâte plaque decorated with Bacchic putti in a landscape with a white reserve on a glossy black ground, monogrammed JC, probably for J Cope & Co., circa 1880, estimate £1,200-1,800. Furniture from the same property includes a very unusual Regency drum shaped rent table, with a surround of drawers and a deposit box in the top, Lot 579, estimate £1,500-2,000.
Other properties in the extensive Ceramics section of this auction include a rare Chelsea Derby garniture of five vases, probably decorated by Richard Askew and Zachariah Boreman with rural scenes and Classical figures, Lot 288. This group carries pre-sale expectations of £2,200-2,500.
Auction:
Tuesday 22 September, 10am
Lots 1-519 Silver, Jewellery, Ceramics, Asian Art, Miscellaneous, Sporting, Textiles
Wednesday 23 September, 10am
Lots 550-1018 Furniture, Clocks, Rugs, Books, Maps, Pictures
View Days:
Sunday 20 September 10am-4pm
Monday 21 September 9am-4pm
PLEASE NOTE, NO VIEWING OF LOTS WILL BE POSSIBLE ON SALEDAYS, AS THE ROOM HAS TO BE CLEARED FOR BIDDERS ATTENDING THE AUCTION