Gorringes

Estimated at £2000-3000 in the printed catalogue, this Italian casket drew such pre-sale interest that it was quickly upgraded in the online catalogue to £5000-7000.

Six paintings consigned to Gorringes of Lewes, East Sussex, have been returned to the Amsterdam Museum after being identified as those stolen from the Dutch institution over 40 years ago.

One hestitates to contradict the great metaphysical poetic and theologian John Donne who believed that ‘death comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal when it comes’.

Gorringes have set what is thought to be a record price for a coin in the UK provinces, taking £240,000 for a gold Queen Anne Vigo Five Guineas of 1703 at their sale in Lewes last month.

A RUGBY-tackling mystery hero and a life-size pottery Great Dane helped scupper a daylight smash-and-grab raid targeting a rhino horn libation cup.

THIS late 18th century Chinese export porcelain bowl drew eight bidders at Gorringes' latest sale.

GORRINGES are to offer for sale paintings and works of art belonging to Grace Higgens, the former housekeeper at Charleston Farmhouse, the Bloomsbury Group's Sussex retreat.

SUSSEX police want to speak to the man, pictured here, in connection with two thefts at Gorringes auction house in Lewes.

WHEN Aaron Dean was asked to catalogue a local collection of Modern Firsts at Gorringes' Lewes saleroom, he knew he was dealing with something special.

A SUBSTANTIAL, and previously unpublished, collection of letters written by various members of the Bloomsbury Group to Helen Anrep (1885-1965) is to be sold by the East Sussex auctioneers Gorringes in Lewes on September 3, along with a collection of artworks by members of the group consigned from the same estate.

After five years of trading in Worthing, Gorringes have closed their saleroom on 44-46 High Street. In its place, one of their senior valuers will be opening up in his own name.

SMALL in size but large in shock value, this portrait miniature stunned the Gorringes’ saleroom when it sold at £90,000 plus 17.5 per cent buyer’s premium on December 6.

One of the highlights of the September 11-13 sale at Gorringes (17.5% buyer’s premium) was this marquetry panel by A.J. Rowley after a design by Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956).

GORRINGES were celebrating a house record last Thursday following the sale of a rediscovered late work by John William Godward (1858-1922) for £440,000.

The main talking point of Gorringes’ (15% buyer’s premium) December 7-8 sale in Bexhill-on-Sea was the remarkable £260,000 bid on the second day for the early 17th century pietra dura table top featured on the front page of Antiques Trade Gazette no. 1670 (25th December/1st January).

The two best-selling pieces of furniture offered outside London in 2004 were sold during one of the very first and one of the last sales of the year.

LABELLED the Worthing Sale, the event held by Gorringes (15% buyer’s premium) in association with Michael Jones & Co in the West Sussex town on August 26 had a number of items from the estate of the late collector/dealer Gary Maple.

AT Gorringes’ (15% buyer's premium) April 27-29 sale, specialist Aaron Dean was satisfied with the reaction to some 200 lots of silver but, with the market for routine tea services and so on remaining fairly moribund, it is the smaller collectables which catch the eye.

IN the centennial year of his birth in 1904, a provenance to George Formby came with the sale of a ukelele which sold for £1750 (estimate £100-150) at Gorringes Lewes sale on April 27. The C.F. Martin & Co. 3K lte ukelele was bought by Bernard Dyke, a past president of the George Formby Society. The uke came to sale via the vendor’s father, an Arthur Rank chairman in the late 30s/early 40s to whom George presented it at a film preview at a Rank cinema in Essex.

Since the time of Edward II, an ingot of gold weighing one pound has been part of the oblation at a coronation – presented by the monarch to the Archbishop of Canterbury and placed on the altar as instructed in the Liber Regalis and thus “fulfilling the commandment of Him who said ‘Thou shalt not appear empty in the sight of the Lord thy God’”.