Salvage & Architectural Antiques

ALTAR surrounds and other architectural elements from a 19th century Belgian church proved one of the bigger attractions at a February 8 sale held by in Los Angeles by Bonhams & Butterfields – a sale titled ‘Revival of the Centuries’.

PEWS, screens, panelling, fonts, lecterns and even a church spire make up just some of the myriad lots on offer at a clearance sale at Pew Corner in Surrey on February 28. Somewhere in the region of 1000 lots will be put up for sale on site from 10am by auctioneers Wellers of Chertsey.

Whether your penchant is for Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco or later 20th century design, and whether you are looking for examples in ceramic, glass, metallic, furnishing or sculptural form, Sotheby’s Olympia’s first Decorative Arts sale of 2004 promises its usual broad mix.

Stained glass, such a pre-occupation of the Victorians from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Aesthetics and the Arts and Crafts movement, has been something of a Cinderella among collectors for the best part of a century. Now, while the lovely and neglected Cinders may not exactly be the belle of the ball, interest in, and prices for, the medium are creeping up.

The extraordinary walnut and burr walnut veneered hexagonal display table, right, combining the talents of three well-known names of the Scottish design movement will carry an estimate of £7000-10,000 when Shapes sell the contents of Glencruitten House, near Oban from their Edinburgh saleroom on September 6.

Originally belonging to the Dean family of Fareham House, Hampshire, this pair of Sheraton period mahogany folding card tables, right, was offered at the Cotswold Auction Company (15% buyer’s premium) on June 10.

Coming up in SYDNEY: THIS table once graced the office of swashbuckling multi-millionaire Australian businessman Alan Bond, but its Australian connections go far deeper. English, and c.1810 it is a library table in the Greek Revival taste inlaid with English oak from HMS Resolution, Captain Cook’s final ship, and with ivory panels inscribed – Part of HMS Resolution – Sacred to the Memory of Captn. Cook – Deriving worth from Cook’s illustrious name – This ship shall live in rolls of endless fame.

The importance of clear due diligence in dealings has been highlighted by an Irish court overruling the country’s statute of limitations on stolen goods in a civil case.

WHEN Tom Crowther founded Crowther of Syon Lodge dealing in antique chimneypieces in 1876, the prevailing design trends were moving from Gothic Revival to Aesthetic, and over the next 125 years the Middlesex firm have serviced every subsequent design trend.

WITH the furniture trade in a selective mood after a patchy round of June fairs, Bonhams relied upon local private buyers and international shippers to purchase the top pieces of furniture at their three-day Chester sale from 26-28 June.

DEALERS and salvage experts are being reminded that they must adhere to strict new rules over the installation of antique fireplaces. The Guild of Fireplace Installers have sent out reminders that, under new legislation introduced on April 1, all fireplace installations, antique or reproduction, whether intended for solid fuel, oil or gas, must be fitted by a “competent person under the Buildings Regulation Act 2000”.

TOP people’s favourite antiques event The Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair has been running since 1934, the age of Deco, and as an established part of the London Season is not the place that comes to mind when thinking of something for the decorators.

Although all the other sales that used to be held at Sotheby’s Billingshurst have now moved to their Olympia rooms*, the one notable exception is their twice-yearly auctions of garden statuary and architectural items. These continue to be held in West Sussex where they can benefit from Billingshurst’s location for a stylish viewing in their country house grounds.

POLICE are casting their net farther afield in the hope of recapturing a missing mermaid, and the thieves who stole her.

FRANCE: Pictured right is a restored 18th century two-part fountain basin, with a veined red marble shell topped by a white stone lion head, which sold over expectations for €25,000 (£15,500) at Tajan on January 30

UK: Thornhill Galleries are a 120-year-old British company that specialise in architectural antique interior design. They make panelled rooms on commission in antique pine and seasoned hardwood and carry a wide stock of period fireplaces and accessories, garden statuary and other architectural features.

WHILE it was worrying that Phillips’ main Midlands saleroom could find only 100 furniture lots worthy of their main autumn sale, and that only five of those took more than £3000, such is the drought of quality goods in the provinces at the moment that the trade were determined to make the best of any opportunity.

The demand for the best of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studio glass continued apace at Christie’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) 86-lot Important 20th century Decorative Arts including Works by Tiffany Studios, June 7.

UK: STANDING out from all the three-figure bids at this 412-lot dispersal at D.M Nesbit & Company on June 13, the £1000-plus results again underlined the trade’s willingness to fork out only on what dealers believe will sell quickly.

UK: Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) have been making something of a habit recently of successfully selling highly elaborate inlaid marble Italian table tops.