NEWS

RED CROSS HEROINE'S MEDALS FETCH TOP PRICE IN EWBANK AUCTION

Contemporary Art and Furniture prove to be hot commodities

A rare group of First World War medals presented to a mother and her two sons made national newspaper headlines and aroused keen patriotic bidding in a sale at Surrey fine art auctioneers Ewbank on Thursday March 13.

Mother and sons groups of military medals are scarce and unusual, but hours of research by Ewbank specialists revealed this was no ordinary mother. Nina Hollings' first son, Jack Herbert Butler Hollings, a Lieutenant in the 21st Lancers, was killed in action at Ypres aged 29, on October 30, 1914. But instead of drawing the curtains and going into mourning, she and her friend, Countess Helena Gleichen, a great niece of Queen Victoria and a cousin of King George V, joined the Red Cross and set off for the Italian Front.

There, the redoubtable Mrs Hollings risked life and limb crossing enemy lines, often under fire, driving a mobile ambulance X-ray unit which saved countless lives. Exposure to the X-rays over time also affected her health, leaving her severely debilitated when she retuned to England, but her work brought recognition from the King of Italy and George V, who awarded her the Medal of Valour and the OBE respectively. Acclaim from Italian and British military leaders and the British newspapers was documented in a collection of cuttings and photographs.

Mrs Hollings was born Nina Augusta Stracey Smyth in Kent in 1862. A capable horsewoman and intrepid car driver, she married Winchester-educated Herbert Hollings, a JP and pillar of the society. The family home was at Watchetts in Frimley, West Surrey.

The bronze Medal of Valour and the OBE, hallmarked 1918, were among the group in the Ewbank sale. It also included the St John of Jerusalem medal; the Italian Medaglia Dell Guerra 1915-1918 (War Medal 1915-1918); the Italian Medaglia Della Vittoria Interalleata (Medal of Allied Victory); the Medal for the Unification of Italy (Medaglia a Ricordo dell'Unità d'Italia) 1848-1918, each with their respective miniature medals plus further miniature medals and accompanying badges and pendants.

They were sold with the war medals of her son who was killed in France and a further medal awarded to her second son, Commander Richard Eustace Hollings R.N.

The group was estimated at £800-1,200 but sold after spirited bidding for £4,800 to a private Essex collector. The anonymous vendor said he would be making a "substantial" donation to the Red Cross.

However, it was a large and diverse selection of contemporary art which drew most buyers to the sale, prompting auctioneer Chris Ewbank to comment that he felt this was a market that had opened up in recent months and was now well established outside the capital. On offer was a collection of works formed in the last 40 years by Derek Sorrell and in many cases with purchases direct from the artists' studios.

Most sought after proved to be a group of abstract works by Patrick Dolan (1926-1980), an associate of Francis Bacon. In 1965, Dolan became a member of the Penwith Society of Arts and in 1962, he shared a show with Anthony Shields and Alan Wood at Gallery 60 in Chichester, organised by Rawlinsky Gallery. In 1965, he shared an exhibition with Wood at Queen Square Gallery in Leeds and showed with the Midland Group in Nottingham.

His oils on canvas all sold for multiples of their pre-sale estimates. One comprising contrasting blocks of colours, estimated at £600-800 sold for £2,300, while a work titled The Conversion of Paul, signed and dated 1964, sold for £1,800, The same price was paid for a swirling abstract composition on a light green ground, while another with a large green boat sold for £1,700.

The most valuable among 23 works by Peter Schmidt (1931-1980) was an abstract with a large blue circle on a multi-faceted and coloured background. It sold for an above top estimate £750. Schmidt was born in Berlin and studied art at Goldsmith's College London and at the Slade School of Fine Art. He had a number of individual shows in the 1960s and 70s including some at the Lisson Gallery, London in 1968 and a number of group shows in the 1950s and 60s. Examples of his work can be seen in the collections of the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

From another owner, an oil on canvas by the celebrated Royal portraitist Bryan Organ (b.1935) titled "R.J.B.C. Smoking" overturned an estimate of £400-600 to sell for £1,600.

Among 19th century pictures, a view of a square in Sienna by the German artist August Sieger, a signed oil on board sold for £1,700, while two early 19th century coloured engravings after William Daniell RA (1769-18937 sold for £1,250 and £1,200 respectively. The former, "An Elevated View of the New Docks & Warehouses now constructing on the Isle of Dogs near Limehouse for the reception & accommodation of the shipping in the West India Trade" was first published on October .15 1802, while the latter 'An Elevated View of the New Docks in Wapping' was published in January 1803.

A black and white etching after Rembrandt Van Rijn titled "The Angel departing from the family of Tobias", sold for £1,200.

Chris Ewbank also reported continuing strong sales of quality antique furniture, the market for which he believed since the beginning of the year was now better than it had been in the previous 12 months. With very few unsold lots in this section, the top price was achieved by an elegant Regency mahogany day bed with scrolled and reeded ends. It sold for an estimate-busting £3,800, while two sets of eight oak dining chairs by Robert "Mouseman" Thompson of Kilburn each sold for an above top estimate £1,600.

The chairs had unusual shaped top rails and double shaped splats and padded cowhide seats. Each set had a Thompson trademark carved mouse on a rear leg of one chair. They had been part of a special order placed with the famed Yorkshire furniture maker by Reeds School, Cobham, in the mid 1930s. They had been used by the children in the dining room until 2007and were being disposed of as being surplus to requirements.

A Regency rosewood folding card table with brass line and stylised foliate inlay, quatrefoil base and four supports with brass lion's paw feet sold for an above estimate £1,200, as did a Regency style walnut cross-banded and ebony-strung circular dining table on a trefoil base also raised on lion's paw feet.

A George III mahogany secretaire bookcase with glazed top and a drawer fitted with satinwood drawers and pigeon holes over a cupboard base sold on top estimate for £1,000.

Best clock in the sale was a good London-made George III mahogany longcase example with brass and silvered dial, strike/silent in the arch and subsidiary second hand and date dials, the eight-day movement by Peter Smitton. It sold for £2,600 against an estimate of £1,500-2,000. Close behind was a 19th century French brass striking and repeating carriage clock by Bovet Freres a Fleurier, which also exceeded top estimate to sell for £2,300 and a Victorian Scottish rosewood marine stick barometer by Gebbie & Co., sold for £1,000.

As anticipated, there was a great deal of interest in a framed panel of 16 William de Morgan tiles decorated with scrolling stylised flowers and leaves in the unmistakable so-called Iznik manner of the Ottoman potters. The tiles, which came from de Morgan's Sands End Road pottery, were estimated at £400-600 and sold for £3,000.

Also in ceramics. a Moorcroft tobacco jar decorated with the Poppy design and embellished with Tudric pewter mounts for Liberty & Co., London, sold on top estimate for £1,000.

Notable among works of art was an interesting 19th century Indian ivory oval panel painted with a central cartouche of the Taj Mahal, surrounded by eight smaller oval cartouches depicting various Indian palaces. Eight small circular cartouches depicted four emperors and their wives and the panel was contained in an ebonised hardwood frame carved with scrolling flowers and foliage. It was estimated at £800-1,200 and sold for £1,600.

A pair of 19th century Chinese embroidered silk panels decorated with birds, butterflies, flowers and foliage in ebonised frames inlaid with mother of pearl were estimated at £300-400 and sold for £1,000.

In collectors' items, a rare 46-button concertina accordion by C Jeffries still in its original leather case sold for £3,000, and no Ewbank sale would be complete without a twist in the tale: a 19th century painted truncheon with a crest for Wiltshire Constabulary surprised no one when it sold as expected for £55, but equally no one was expecting the £1,000 paid after determined bidding by two collectors for another, this one painted with the Essex Constabulary crest. With a maker's mark for Parker 233 Holborn impressed into the handle, the latter was a bobby dazzler.

The sale was 75% sold and raised a total of more than £167,000.

Entries are now being accepted for the next fine art and antiques auction which will be held on June 26, and for Ewbank's regular monthly general auctions on April 3. 17, May 1 and 15. For further information, please contact the auctioneer on 01483 223101 or antiques@ewbankauctions.co.uk.