NEWS

EWBANK EMBARKS ON AUCTION MARATHON

Saleroom’s first three-day event will raise more than £½ million.

Surrey fine art auctioneer Chris Ewbank is about to embark on the biggest quarterly antique sale in his firm’s 18-year history – a marathon three-day event in which around 2,000 lots will change hands for a total expected to be around £500,000.

“This is easily our biggest quarterly antique sale to date” Chris Ewbank said. “It is the first time we have overflowed into a third day and the anticipated sale total is double our previous highest. The entire sale can be seen on our website – www.ewbankauctions.co.uk – and every lot is illustrated, some with multiple views. We have taken around 4,000 images of the lots on offer.” The catalogue will be on line from about the 20th June.

The sale starts on Thursday and Friday June 26-27, followed by the third day’s auction on Monday June 30 of the Thetis Blacker Collection of property removed from the artist’s studio, Pasturewood Cottage, Shamley Green, Guildford, and her London apartment in South Kensington. See separate press release.

In a sale the magnitude of the Summer auction, the highlights are many and varied, ranging from a rare Chinese Ming vase, estimated to sell for £8000-12,000 to a personalised car registration number “CFC 11” – a must-have for any Chelsea Football Club supporter – which is estimated at £20,000-25,000.

The vase was discovered by a Ewbank specialist, having been overlooked by a firm of London valuers called in to inventory the contents a Surrey home. It dates from the second half of the 16th century and has been in the same family ownership for generations. Pick of the English ceramics is a William de Morgan vase decorated with mythical beasts, which is estimated at £1,000-1,500.

Another imposing addition to the sale is a group of contemporary stylish and elegant furniture by “royal” furniture-maker David Linley, all of which will be sold with the original pen and ink room plans, watercolour designs and blueprints. The group comprises a dining room suite in walnut, burr walnut and ebony, consisting of a dining table and eight chairs including two carvers and a sideboard (estimate £8,000-12,000); a complete office in walnut, burr walnut and amboyna woods with ebony stringing, consisting of pedestal desk, sideboard and a bookcase-cabinet (estimate £6.000-10,000) and bedroom furniture in walnut and satinwood consisting of double bed, a pair or bedside cabinets and lamps (£4,000-6,000).

Individual pieces include a walnut, burr walnut and amboyna wood CD cabinet (£1,000-1,500); a walnut and glass wall mirror (£500-800) and an Alfred Dunhill walnut, burr walnut and satinwood humidor (£500-1,000). The furniture was commissioned for a Surrey home in the late 1990s.

Pick of the extensive selection of antique furniture on offer is an elegant Regency mahogany day bed, with scrolled and reeded ends, which is estimated at £3,000-4,000.

An 18th century central European walnut bombé commode of three drawers on hoof feet is estimated at £3,000-5,000, while an early 19th century mahogany sofa table with lion paw feet is estimated at £2,000-3,000, as is a 19th century Tunbridgeware inlaid rosewood square occasional table,

Following the success of an imposing Stuart Devlin silver candelabra in the last sale, Ewbank have been instructed to sell a number of other pieces by the same maker. They include a silver and silver gilt 92-piece carved pattern canteen of cutlery for 12 place settings (210 ozs) (£10,000-15,000); a set of 12 crocus pattern wine goblets (72 ozs) (estimate £2,500-3,500); a silver gilt cased music box (£1,500-2,500) and a set of four candlesticks (London 1976, 24 ozs) (£800-1,200). Stuart Devlin, who is the foremost silversmith of his time, was born in Australia in 1931 and came to London to study at the Royal College of Art in 1958. He moved to London to work and live in 1965. He has specialised in developing textures which is illustrated in this work. He was granted a Royal Warrant in 1982 and was Prime Warden of the Goldsmith's Company in 1996-7.

Rod Kelly is a contemporary silversmith set to make as big a mark on the industry. Born in Reading, he is also known for one of his latest commissions to the design to the obverse of the £2 coin commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A Hawk bowl, decorated with stylised wings is estimated at £2,000-3,000.

Among good antique silver is a group of six George II candlesticks on shell bases engraved with crests by well known London maker John Cafe, (four hallmarked in 1753 and two in 1754 (99 ozs) which are estimated at £8,000-10,000.

More contemporary metalware comes in the somewhat bizarre shaped of a gold patinated bronze sculpture of a violin, the “instrument” sliced and dissected vertically and encased in a Perspex box, a work of art by Arman - Armand Pierre Fernandez (1928-2005).

Arman – he changed his name after the last letter of his Christian name was omitted on an exhibition catalogue cover in 1958 – is one of the most important international object artists and a co-founder and member of the Nouveau Réalisme. Meeting Yves Klein led to the idea of organising joint happenings and events, which the two artists realised in 1953. Armand's neo-dadaist 'Cachets' (stamp prints) of 1955, and later the 'Allures' (prints made with objects dipped into paint) and the 'Coupés' (cut-up objects) followed by the 'Colères' (objects which were smashed and then mounted) were influenced by the work of Kurt Schwitters.

The artist discovered his famous 'Poubelles', Perspex cases with rubbish cast in resin, at the beginning of the 1960s. From these Arman developed the so-called 'Accumulations', a number of the same objects assembled from every-day life and displayed in show cases in which the artist ironically questions the one-sided waste of mass production. From 1975 onwards, Arman spent seven years working on a monumental sculpture made of 60 cars which he called 'Long Term Parking'.

The bronze violin is number 134 from an edition of 150 and is estimated at £5,000-10,000.

More precious metal - and diamonds – can be found in the jewellery section of the sale, notably a pair of brilliant cut solitaire stud earrings (£4,000-6,000); a double clip brooch (£2,000-3,000); a line bracelet comprising 37 stones weighing 7.5 carats (£4,500-5,500) and a matching Kutchinsky diamond and 18ct gold necklace, ring and earrings (£3,500-5,000).

Not to be left out, a trio of valuable gentleman's 18 ct gold watches includes an Ebel Beluga example with date window and gold bracelet (£2,000-3,000); another with subsidiary dials and day indicator with leather strap (£3,000-5,000) and a Jaeger Le Coultre dual dial day and night reverso watch with leather strap (£5,000-7,000).

Pictures are another strong area of the sale. Arthur Hayward (1889-1970) is represented by 'Morning, St. Ives Harbour' and an evening view of the same scene titled 'Smeatons Pier, St. Ives', together estimated at £6,000-8,000.

A similar estimate is carried by a striking full length portrait of the “Nightingale of the North”, the Bolton-born operatically trained bel canto solo artiste Mary Marshall by Sir Claude Francis Barry (1883-1970). An oil on canvas by James Peel (1811-1906) shows a figure in the foreground with a horse pulling a cart over a stone bridge and a barn and fields in the distance. It is estimated at £2,000-3,000, as is a still life featuring poppies in a vase by John Houston (b.1930). and an oil on board by Mary Pollitt of sweet peas.

Of interest to collectors of marine art, particularly Ewbank’s North American clients, is a view of a three-masted frigate by William Howard Yorke (1847-1921). The son of William Gay Yorke, Howard was born in New Brunswick but moved to Liverpool in the 1850s where he gained fame alongside Samuel Walters and Joseph Heard as a leading ship painter. Inscribed “Mariana frigate – Straits of Dover”, the oil on board is estimated at £1,000-2,000.

Kent artist Thomas Sydney Cooper’s oil on panel of figures with cattle is estimated at £1,000-2,000, while an oil on canvas titled ‘Galway Peasants’ by Paul Falconer Poole (1807-1879) is estimated at £1,500-2,500, as is a pencil drawing of a seated nude by Augustus John (1878-1961).

No Ewbank sale would be complete without its curiosities. This time, they include a rare 39 button concertina accordian by C. Jeffries which is estimated at £2,000-3,000 and two gold discs presented to Bee Gees star Robin Gibb, the first by the Recording Industry Association of America to commemorate the sale of more than 500,000 copies of the Sesame Street Records long playing album 'Sesame Street Fever', the second by the Canadian Recording Industry Association for the sale of more than 50,000 copies of the Pickwick album of the same title in October 1978. They are estimated at an affordable £60-100.

Or for the broad-minded, the original watercolour drawings for Playboy for 11 vintage bawdy cartoons by Phil Interlandi are each estimated at £300-500.

Viewing at Ewbank’s Burnt Common auction rooms is on Monday June 23 from 10am-4pm, Tuesday June 24 from 10am-4pm and Wednesday June 25 from 10am-8pm. There is an additional view for the Thetis Blacker sale on Saturday June 28 from 10am to 4pm. The sale catalogue will be available approximately six days before the sale at www.ewbankauctions.co.uk.

For further information, please contact Christopher Ewbank FRICS ASFAV on 01483 223101 or antiques@ewbankauctions.co.uk.