Auction Report - Silver & Plated Ware, Monday 16th September
Featuring just under 900 lots, Fellows’ auction of Silver & Plated Ware turned out to be an exciting one. A Christopher Dresser tea set stunned all by selling for 15 times its estimate, while an early 20th century German Hanau casket sold for three times its low estimate at £1,100.
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On Monday 16th September Fellows held their quarterly auction of Silver & Plated Ware. Featuring just under 900 lots, this sale included everything from curious novelties to collectible items from celebrated silversmiths, with the auction achieving a final hammer price of just under £140,000.
Undoubtedly the day’s star lot was a late nineteenth century Elkington & Co. electroplated three piece tea service designed by Christopher Dresser. Considered a pivotal figure in the aesthetic movement, the Victoria & Albert Museum named Dresser as ‘one of the most talented British designers of the 19th century’. The piece was estimated at £500 - £700 but fetched an impressive £8,800 as bidders faced fierce competition from those in the room, online and over the telephones.
Other highlights from the Victorian period included lot 349 – an electrotype model of the Milton shield which depicted various scenes from John Milton’s poem ‘Paradise Lost’ (£1,600) and lot 362 – a cased silver plated dessert canteen with maker’s mark of Joseph Ridge & Co. (£600).
Lots featuring in the continental section of the sale were also highly sought after. In particular German and Dutch silverware attracted a great deal of attention with lot 451, an early twentieth century German Hanau casket, selling for almost three times its lowest estimate at £1,100.
Lots 528 and 529, both featured as a pair of silver spoons, were great examples of items that sold well above their scrap value. Collectively, if scrapped, the pieces would fetch less than £100, however on the day they had a combined hammer total of £1,540.
Finally, lots 775 and 776 surpassed their estimates after bidders frantically fought to take home the fascinating pieces. Lot 775, a George II silver tobacco box with central engraved armorial realised £1,200, whilst lot 776, a William IV silver table snuff box intricately designed as a hunting scene, sold for £2,700.
Fellows’ next auction of Silver & Plated Ware will take place on Monday 9th December. If you would like to consign any items into this auction please contact Naomi Wilson on 0121 212 6302 or email naomi@fellows.co.uk.
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